Dec. 17, 2012 MasterCard Worldwide is targeting upscale consumers based in the Middle East who travel frequently to different global regions with its new MasterCard Platinum Prepaid Travel Card launched this week in Bahrain. The card, issued by Al Baraka Islamic Bank and Nonoo Exchange Company, both based in Bahrain, enables customers to load up […]
Dec. 17, 2012 Prepaid distribution and technology provider InComm has inked a deal with Dollar General to enable the retailer’s customers to more easily purchase points and memberships for Xbox LIVE in stores via InComm’s recently launched Digital Delivery Application (DDA). The new system eliminates the need for customers to purchase and redeem physical prepaid […]
Dec. 17, 2012 Colorado-based card producer CPI Card Group was selected by Portuguese retail firm Sonae to design and manufacture gift cards available at Sonae’s Continente supermarket locations throughout the country. The cards will be sold at special free-standing displays rather than at points of sale—one of the first gift card lines in Portugal to […]
Dec. 17, 2012 QSecure Inc., a Los Altos, Calif.-based developer of dynamic payment card technology, has announced its digital wallet, Imago, which consists of a smartphone app to manage payment, gift and loyalty cards, and the powered ImagoCard that holds the data of those cards and can be swiped at the point of sale like […]
December 2012 Smart Packaging Solutions, a smart card technology provider based in France, has appointed Alex Chung chief representative, greater China and South East Asia. Chung, who has experience within the smart card industry, will be in charge of expanding SPS business in the Chinese market and ensuring SPS local presence in Southeast Asia. Most […]
December 2012 Shawn Creedon, a corporate finance lawyer with nearly 20 years of experience in principal investing, bankruptcy and restructuring, has joined Washington, D.C.-based law firm Patton Boggs LLP as a partner in the firm’s corporate finance practice group in its New York City office. He joins Patton Boggs from Silver Point Capital L.P., where […]
December 2012 Mercator Advisory Group has hired Jeffrey Green to lead the company’s emerging technologies service. Green, who has 16 years of payments industry editorial experience, most recently served as editorial director of the payments group at SourceMedia, where he managed the payments group and coordinated coverage with multiple publications and departments. Send Us […]
December 2012 GlobalPlatform, a nonprofit organization that standardizes managing applications on secure chip technology, has announced its board of directors for fiscal year 2013, following elections for six of its 11 seats: Marc Kekicheff, senior business leader of chip innovation, Visa Inc.; Uwe Wittig, group vice president, head of business line payment, transit and authentication, […]
December 2012 Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based financial system and service provider, has appointed Chris Flink to its board of directors. He is a partner at IDEO, an innovation and design firm, and a consulting associate professor at Stanford University. At IDEO, Flink has held a variety of roles, from heading the firm’s consumer experience […]
Dec. 13, 2012 The latest blow in the continuing court battle over interchange fees charged to merchants for accepting Visa and MasterCard credit cards was struck this week, when an appeals court declined a request by Home Depot to expedite the retailer’s appeal of a $7.25 billion settlement proposed in July. The agreement—which received preliminary […]
Dec. 13, 2012 Merchants that accept Discover cards online soon will have a secure, streamlined approach to selling goods to billions of Chinese shoppers through a new agreement between Discover Financial Services, the giant Shanghai-based card network China UnionPay (CUP) and CardinalCommerce Corp., a Cleveland-based card authorization platform provider. Beginning early next year, CUP’s 3.2 […]
Dec. 13, 2012 MasterCard Worldwide’s new stake in mobile wallet back-end technology expert C-SAM Inc. is the latest in a series of moves aimed to make it easy for consumers to pay with a minimum of steps through any channel. MasterCard did not disclose the terms of its deal with C-SAM, but calls it a […]
Dec. 13, 2012 PayPal Inc. has been pushing hard into brick-and-mortar retail this year—and now the online payment giant is giving users yet another reason to get into stores. The company—in partnership with third-party distributor and technology provider InComm—has unveiled its new PayPal My Cash Card, which enables users to fund their PayPal accounts via […]
Dec. 13, 2012 U.S. Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) this week announced his support of the Gift Card Consumer Protection Act, which would prohibit expiration dates and dormancy, inactivity and service fees on gift certificates, store gift cards and general-use prepaid cards. The bill (US S 3636) also aims to prevent companies filing for bankruptcy from […]
Cross-border payments service provider Earthport has opened a low value payments service into Turkey, which will allow Earthport’s clients to reach an estimated 42 million bank accounts.
Dec. 11, 2012 HSBC’s record $1.9 billion payout to settle allegations that it violated U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) rules suggests that the government is getting better at spotting and punishing organizations that try to skirt regulations, legal experts say. U.K.-based HSBC Holdings plc today said it reached a deferred-prosecution agreement with the U.S. government following […]
Dec. 11, 2012 Prepaid services provider InComm has reached a deal to acquire a majority stake in Adility Inc., a platform for “online-to-offline” commerce, which InComm will integrate into its existing in-store POS infrastructure in a bid to help retailers generate retail sales using virtual prepaid cards and coupons. Adility enables retailers and brands to […]
Dec. 11, 2012 Dollar volume growth for November was solid but came in lower than last month and the year-ago period, according to the latest SpendTrend data released by First Data Corp., an Atlanta-based payments processor. November dollar volume growth was 5.8 percent, down from 6.7 percent in October and down from 7.3 percent in […]
Dec. 11, 2012 Mobile payments specialist Bango Inc. is expanding its reach again, this time to Australia where local mobile network operator Telstra has added the capability for its subscribers to make one-click purchases of digital goods through Google Play. U.K.-based Bango, which began providing payment services to Facebook earlier this year, recently integrated a […]
Dec. 11, 2012 A new startup aims to combine shopping, loyalty and gifting to provide what it calls “the most relevant offers to consumers and the most targeted customers to merchants.” Philadelphia-based Clutch last week launched its free iOS app, which enables users to manage gift and loyalty cards, daily deals, coupons, social gifting and […]
Dec. 10, 2012 Apple Inc.’s Passbook mobile wallet app gradually is gaining momentum with merchants and card issuers integrating with the mobile wallet app. And while Apple continues to remain mum about plans to add NFC to its handsets, where Apple is going with its proliferating number of other payments-related patents is anyone’s guess. Apple […]
Dec. 10, 2012 Banking and payments technology provider FIS has unveiled a new program the company says will save ATM users from high convenience fees, while increasing traffic and earnings for ATM owners. FIS’s new DOLLAR$TOP limited surcharge program enables consumers to access ATMs across the U.S. with a guaranteed $1 convenience fee limit. Available […]
Dec. 10, 2012 Just months after becoming an issuer of prepaid cards, global online payments provider Optimal Payments has taken another step into the prepaid arena, inking a deal with MasterCard International Inc. in a bid to expand the company’s presence in the European prepaid market. The collaboration will be based around Optimal’s Net+ MasterCard […]
Dec. 10, 2012 Small merchants that accept Square Wallet are hoping to get a holiday sales boost from Square Inc.’s introduction this week of digital gift cards. San Mateo-based Square’s latest offering enables smartphone users to purchase a gift card from 250,000 merchants participating in Square Wallet, and pay using any card. Consumers buying Square […]
Dec. 10, 2012 Asperity Employee Benefits, a U.K.-based employee benefits provider, has chosen Giftango Corp. to manage and fulfill e-gift cards for Asperity’s recently launched rewards program in the United States. The partnership enables Asperity and its Web-based benefits platform to provide customers with a wider selection and instant delivery of e-gift cards through the […]
Dec. 10, 2012 San Francisco-based startup Cardfree has launched a white-label mobile platform providing merchants with the ability to implement personalized offers and promotions, mobile payments, loyalty programs, social media engagement and data analytics, among other capabilities designed to drive incremental visits, larger ticket size and greater consumer engagement. The goal of Cardfree is to […]
Europe’s businesses are unprepared for the arrival of the Single Euro Payments Area in February 2014, with many completely unaware of its consequences, according to new research by IT business services provider Steria.
Dec. 6, 2012 Fresh off her election to the U.S. Senate, Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is set to join the Senate Banking Committee when the new Congress convenes in January, according to reports citing congressional aides. By joining the committee, Warren, known as a strong advocate for regulation of Wall Street, would gain significant power to […]
Dec. 6, 2012 InComm this week said it’s removing fees from its Vanilla-branded Visa and MasterCard prepaid cards in Canada as part of an initiative begun earlier this year, aligning the fee structure with competing brands’ prepaid cards. The new program eliminates monthly maintenance fees and fees to replace cards, effective July 1, 2012, InComm […]
Dec. 6, 2012 H&R Block, in an effort to drive up year-round usage of its Emerald Prepaid MasterCard, this week added a mobile check-deposit feature with “instant” funds availability, plus a new shopping incentive that provides instant cash rewards for making purchases at about a dozen different retailers. Though a growing number of prepaid card […]
Dec. 6, 2012 ICICI Bank Ltd., India’s largest private commercial financial institution, has launched iWish, a flexible recurring deposit feature for its savings account customers, enabling them to choose how much and how often to save to meet their goals. Customers can choose to post their savings goals to Facebook, and iWish enables friends and […]
Dec. 6, 2012 Prepaid card company AccountNow has finalized its previously announced purchase of nFinanSe Inc., a Tampa, Fla.-based provider of prepaid cards distributed via retail stores. The move gives San Ramon, Calif.-based AccountNow, which distributes its GPR cards online, a strong presence in the in-store distribution channel. “[nFinanSe’s] capabilities in retail distribution are highly […]
December 2012 By Adam Perrotta, Assistant Editor Prepaid providers are setting their sights on Africa, where large underbanked populations, emerging economies and advancing technology are combining to offer what many industry players see as a golden opportunity—and not just for outside companies looking to enter the market. African banks and other local firms also […]
SIX Payment Services has chosen Clear2Pay’s CBK solution to support its chargeback business and processes on a single platform. The CBK Chargeback system replaces two old systems and will evolve over time to encompass both acquiring and issuing chargebacks for credit and debit cards. The new system has so far been implemented in Switzerland and […]
Mobile and NFC payment technologies have been on the rise in recent years. But with many merchants and retail outlets still reluctant to invest in the new technologies, and with the rise of fraud in existing solutions, industry participants are divided over how and whether the technology will ever gain widespread acceptance in developed markets.
An avid but long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan, Rick Fletcher knows the meaning of passion and persistence—two qualities that have served him well on his path to professional success.
Dec. 4, 2012 Better ATM Services today announced what it describes as the first ATM-issued, multibrand prepaid card. The myGIFT One Card Many Choices Discover Prepaid Card enables consumers to shop and dine at nine national restaurants and retailers, including Express, Lowe’s, Outback Steakhouse and Macy’s, according to the Mesa, Ariz.-based ATM technology provider. As part […]
Dec. 4, 2012 Spain’s La Caixa bank this month begins an aggressive push to distribute contactless payment stickers to 200,000 of its customers in Barcelona, aiming to become a model city for mobile contactless payments by the end of February when Barcelona hosts the annual Mobile World Congress trade show. Though such NFC-based stickers lack […]
Dec. 4, 2012 In time for the holiday season, CVS/pharmacy stores are promoting a gift card exchange through a partnership with Plastic Jungle. CVS customers with a smartphone scan a QR code in the store that launches their mobile Web browsers and takes them to cvsgiftcard.plasticjungle.com. To exchange their cards, consumers enter the card number and […]
Dec. 4, 2012 Video game publisher Nexon America Inc. has expanded its Karma Koin prepaid card program to Mexico, where cards will be available at more than 1,300 7-Eleven and Best Buy stores. Originally launched as Nexon Game Cards in the U.S. and Canada in 2007, the cards expanded to Australia and New Zealand, and […]
