Worldwide


Mastercard Bolsters Authentication with NuData Acquisition

Mastercard is beefing up its transaction security and authentication capabilities in the age of connected devices, entering an agreement to acquire NuData Security, a Pay Award-winning provider of anti-fraud technology that uses session and biometric indicators to verify online transactions.

Wells Fargo Settles Account-Scandal Claims but Runs Afoul of Federal Regulator

Wells Fargo will pay $110 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by U.S. consumers over a scandal about fake accounts its employees set up for customers without their knowledge. But the trouble continues for the financial institution, which has received a dim evaluation from a federal regulator.

PSR pushes for greater payments competition and innovation

The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is calling for even more competition and creativity in the sector over the next 12 months. At the launch of its “Annual Plan and Budget for the year 2017/18”, held at the Barbican Centre in London, it summarised its achievements and set out its ambitions to build on the […]

SCOTUS Won’t Revive Settlement in Interchange Case

A legal battle between merchants and payment networks over interchange fees that has been raging for more than a decade will continue now that the Supreme Court has declined to restore a $5.7 billion settlement agreement that was tossed out by a lower court.

BBVA joins Hyperledger blockchain project

BBVA has become an official member of the Linux Foundation’s open-source collaborative blockchain project Hyperledger. The bank joins American Express, the Bank of England, SAP, Wells Fargo and Thomson Reuters. BBVA is already a member of R3, which is also participating in Hyperledger, and of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, which supports the creation of blockchain […]

Blackhawk Renames Incentives Division

Blackhawk Network has given its incentives business a new identity, renaming it Hawk Incentives, which includes products and services formerly part of Blackhawk Engagement Solutions and the prepaid and payments company’s B2B digital incentive teams, according to a March 28 announcement.

Federal Judge Dismisses CFPB Suit against Payments Processor

A federal judge has dismissed an unfair practices lawsuit filed by the CFPB against a North Dakota-based payment processor. The federal agency had accused Intercept Corp. of permitting unauthorized and other illegal withdrawals from consumer accounts by its clients.

Fintech funding round-up: 28 March 2017

Enjoy a word-lite delight with our brief fintech funding round-up. Features Clarity Money, The Glue and OOjiBO. US-based Clarity Money, a personal finance app, has announced a $11 million Series B funding round led by RRE Ventures and Citi Ventures. This financing comes three months after Clarity Money launched its product and eight months after […]

ClauseMatch right match for Barclays compliance

Barclays has chosen smart document management provider ClauseMatch for handling policies and standards in one place with a new online editor. London-based ClauseMatch, a 2014 graduate of the inaugural Barclays accelerator programme, will provide its editor to the bank. This tool turns a “fragmented workflow” of Word documents, PDFs and e-mails and replaces them with […]

A vaccination for financial crime

ransaction monitoring is emerging as one of the top priorities for banks and other financial institutions. Some now employ up to three per cent of their workforce to track financial crime. But, as leadership teams look to increase the effectiveness of their processes in the face of regulatory scrutiny and reduce costs, are there lessons to be learnt from health industry and its battle against infectious diseases?

Responsibility isn’t about rules

What can banks learn from the fintech community when it comes to fostering a culture of innovation against a backdrop of regulation?

Webinar recap: for prepaid issuers, agility is a process(or)

In last week’s Paybefore Spotlight Webinar, attendees representing markets from across the globe said the No. 1 challenge to growing their prepaid businesses is differentiation. Find out what experts from Celent’s banking practice and global processor i2c had to say about creating dynamic prepaid products to compete in the changing payments landscape.

Tradeshift’s AI Ada aids commerce

Supply chain finance firm Tradeshift has unveiled Ada – an artificial intelligence (AI) layer on its commerce platform. Ada will learn from user interactions, “improve business processes”, and offer contextual information. It is available to third-party developers and interacts with users platform-wide as a conversational interface. Christian Lanng, CEO and co-founder of Tradeshift, says Ada […]

Samsung makes your wedding ring a payments plaything

Samsung, Smartlink and Ingenico have unveiled their “contactless companion platform” (CCP) to let people pay for things using anything they’re wearing — such as a watch or a wedding ring. It has been built with a dual interface smart card chip for multiple applications and form factors. Users tap the wearable on an NFC card […]

Accenture, IBM and Microsoft fuel blockchain market growth

The global blockchain market will experience massive growth during the next five years – powered by the activities of “key vendors” Accenture, IBM and Microsoft. According to Research and Markets’ report, “Global Blockchain Technology Market 2017-2021”, the market will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55.59%. One trend in the market is […]

Fintech funding round-up: 23 March 2017

Fintech funding news comes thick and fast, so here are four stories in one to save you time. Featuring Revolut, Jirnexu, Airpay and Quantexa. UK-based payments start-up Revolut has launched its 2017 funding round. The latest bout takes place almost a year after it raised £1 million with 10,000 investors registering, pledging in excess of […]

Criminals turn their attention to online fraud in the US

Criminals have deepened their focus on U.S. online transactions since the country’s October 2015 EMV liability shift, with card-not-present fraud expected to hit $6.4 billion in 2018, according to a new report from the U.S. Payments Forum. The expected total would represent a 23 percent increase from fraud losses in 2017, and a 68 percent increase from 2016.

Proposed M-Wallet Rules Don’t Hinder Samsung Pay Launch

While the Indian government works toward a digital economy, the Reserve Bank of India is soliciting feedback through March 31 on guidelines for prepaid payment instruments that could adversely affect issuers of prepaid products, including mobile wallets.

EdgeVerve calls for fintech’s magnificent seven

EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys, has launched Finacle FinTech Connect and the chance for firms to integrate their solutions into Finacle’s banking suite. Companies are invited to register for a partnership evaluation process and stand a chance to present at its event Infosys Confluence 2017 in May in San Francisco; along with joint […]

Nesta calls for SME innovation with £5m prize fund

UK-based innovation foundation Nesta has launched its “Open Up Challenge” as it looks for services, apps and tools for SMEs. The competition is now open for entries. A £5 million prize fund is on offer and it is looking for 20 entries from anywhere in the world that will use open banking APIs – “newly […]

Diamonds and blockchain are forever for SAP Ariba

SAP Ariba has unveiled its plans to use blockchain across its cloud-based applications and business network for trading goods and services. Among the first applications that SAP Ariba sees potential in involves the tracking and tracing of goods. SAP Ariba will join forces with Everledger, a London-based fintech firm. The latter captures the defining characteristics […]

People on the Move: Simon Banks, Hyperwallet

Global payments provider Hyperwallet has hired Simon Banks to lead its e-commerce and gig economy businesses in the Asia-Pacific region as managing director and senior vice president of Asia-Pacific, based in Sydney.

Why we need diversity before AI takes over

We hear a lot about how artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to displace jobs, especially those held by women in tech, but should we also worry about a future overrun with sexist, racist machines?

Earthport revenue and payment volume power up

Earthport, a cross-border payments service provider, has reported a massive rise in its number of transactions and payment volume for the six-month period ended 31 December 2016. The number of transactions reached five million, a growth of about 85% over the prior year period. Payment volume increased by 97% to $7.80 billion and revenue per […]

Tug of love turns to group hug for banks and fintechs

With the EU’s Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and open architecture framework set to come into force next year, regulation may well tip the scales between banks and fintechs for customer loyalty, according to a new report conducted for Temenos by the Economist Intelligence Unit. In the 36-page study, “Symbiosis: Your bank has your trust. […]