People on the Move: Jonathan Donahue, Ingo Money
Real-time push payments technology provider Ingo Money has named Jonathan Donahue executive vice president of business development.
Worldwide
People on the Move: Larry Stone, JetPay Corp. Board
Payments industry veteran Larry Stone has joined the board of directors of JetPay Corp., a provider of debit, credit and prepaid card services.
People on the Move: Joel Sherwin, Neopay
London-based compliance consultancy Neopay recently opened a U.S. office in Los Angeles to serve clients on both sides of the pond and named Joel Sherwin president of U.S. operations.
People on the Move: Gerd Schenkel, Tyro Payments
Gerd Schenkel has been appointed CEO of Tyro Payments, an Australian financial institution specializing in acquiring, where he will be tasked with leading the company’s growth and public advocacy activities.
People on the Move: Avid Modjtabai, Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Co. has formed a new payments, virtual solutions and innovation group, to be headed by Avid Modjtabai.
Is customer loyalty dead in banking?
In an age of increasingly high consumer expectations, driven by ever increasing customer choice, the term “customer experience” has become more than a simple buzzword. Used as a key brand differentiator for all types of industries, it has emerged as a crucial tool in driving customer loyalty in the long-term. Irrespective of whether you are […]
The changing co-branded credit card landscape
As retailers across the country need to bring innovative customisation and convenience factors to their customers, credit cards are becoming an essential part of delivering value. Co-branded cards continue to play an important role in the retail landscape and can offer a unique point of distinction for retailers in today’s competitive environment.
CFPB Snapshot: Prepaid Complaints Drop 21% from Previous Month
It may come as no surprise that the CFPB’s latest monthly complaint snapshot released Oct. 25 focuses on complaints related to prepaid products, considering the agency released its long-awaited final prepaid accounts rule earlier this month. But despite the bureau’s contention that “the report shows that consumers continue to experience issues trying to manage their accounts and access funds,” prepaid-related complaints to the bureau dropped 21 percent in September.
Money20/20: Samsung Pay Expands Globally via Mastercard and Deals
Samsung Pay is expanding. The mobile wallet early next year will offer the Masterpass online payment service from Mastercard to Samsung Pay users. That comes as Samsung Pay deploys to Malaysia, Russia and Thailand, putting the mobile wallet in 10 countries total, executives said this week at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas.
Money20/20: Blackhawk’s Roche on Harnessing Brand Power
Payments are moving up the value stream and becoming an engagement platform, moving beyond the transfer and settlement of funds to more deeply connect a consumer and brand. In this environment, payment providers—including those in the gifting and rewards verticals—can leverage the popularity of other brands to improve their own value and stand out from the pack. Those were among the main takeaways from a Money20/20 keynote from Talbott Roche, president and CEO, Blackhawk Network.
Money20/20: Walmart Pay Lessons Learned—and the Road ahead
With Walmart Pay showing strong growth since launching earlier this year, Walmart’s Daniel Eckert—one of the main architects of the service—provided some insights into the motivation behind creating Walmart Pay and what’s in store for the service. Speaking in a Tuesday afternoon session at Money20/20 in Las Vegas, Eckert characterized Walmart Pay as an effort to improve the checkout experience in particular.
TSYS Signs on as Processor for Optal’s Virtual Card Payments
TSYS will be processing payment authorizations for Optal Financial Ltd.’s virtual card payments business, according to an Oct. 26 announcement. London-based Optal is a global provider of B2B payments services, including virtual account numbers, and is one of Europe’s biggest virtual card issuers, according to the companies.
Co-op turns cop in ATM crime coup
The UK-based Co-op has teamed up with forensic technology company SmartWater to roll-out a new deterrent linking criminals back to the scene of an ATM crime. In a “first of its kind”, SmartWater have adapted their dispersal technology to ensure that both the criminals and the stolen cash are marked, regardless of how the ATM […]
SETL blockchain powers Cobalt’s FX post trade
London-based blockchain firm SETL and Cobalt DL, a private peer-to-peer network, have teamed up to use SETL’s OpenCSD within the Cobalt FX post trade platform. The service is set to launch in 2017, with 15 institutional FX participants “already committed” to the service. Earlier this year, SETL unveiled the OpenCSD platform, its first commercial offering, […]
BBVA favours Amazon Web Services for cloud drive
BBVA has reached a global agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as it looks to cloud computing to boost its digital banking services. The agreement, which is part of a series of accords that the group is making with providers, turns AWS into its “preferred” cloud infrastructure services provider. AWS will execute the migration of […]
Bank of America to launch AI chatbot
Bank of America has unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to help customers make decisions on their finances. Called Erica, a nod to the name America, it will be available inside the bank’s mobile app in 2017. Customers can do the usual AI stuff – chat via text or voice – and it’s all […]
Money20/20: PayPal COO on Facebook Messenger Integration, Contextual Commerce
Fresh off announcing a plan to bring PayPal payments to Facebook Messenger, PayPal Inc. Chief Operating Officer Bill Ready said the move was part of the company’s larger push to serve what he called “contextual commerce”—enabling mobile payments to take place in areas outside of the traditional checkout environment.
Money20/20: Payment Networks Call for More Merchant Participation in Innovation
Merchants get ready: That was among the main messages at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, during an Oct. 25 roundtable session with executives from the four major payments networks.
Mastercard, BofA Employing Bots to Enhance Customer Service
The rise of chat bots in financial services and payments continues with announcements this week from Mastercard and Bank of America that each company will be introducing similar technology. Mastercard is launching a bot for client banks’ and merchants’ customers and BofA’s bot, which it says is more of an “assistant” will service its banking customers.
RGCA Survey: Consumers Are Getting Smarter about Gift Cards
Consumers are getting savvy to the myriad ways gift cards can be used, given, stored and obtained. For example, though 46 percent of consumers surveyed still prefer to hand cashiers a physical gift card, nearly 14 percent would rather load, store and redeem gift cards using a mobile wallet, and 40 percent of respondents were amenable to using mobile or plastic methods, according to a survey released Oct. 24 by the Retail Gift Card Association.
CBA and Wells Fargo in “world-first” interbank blockchain trade transaction
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Wells Fargo and trading firm Brighann Cotton have completed the “first” global trade transaction between two banks using blockchain, smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT). The transaction involved a shipment of cotton from Texas to Qingdao, China, using a distributed ledger – Skuchain’s Brackets system – for all […]
Dassault Systemes unveils seven finalists for KYC/AML start-up challenge
French software firm Dassault Systemes has named the seven finalists for its “3D FinTech Challenge” 2016 to address anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) issues. This is its fourth annual accelerator programme in collaboration with senior finance executives, regulators and “influencers”. As Banking Technology reported in August, Dassault Systemes invited start-ups to apply. […]
Envestnet Yodlee extends tie-up with Backbase, unveils updates
Envestnet Yodlee has extended its partnership with omnichannel banking specialist Backbase. The two companies have been collaborating for some time. With the new agreement, Backbase will be providing its customers with integrations to the Envestnet Yodlee data aggregation platform.
New bank in Iraq selects BML Istisharat’s ICBS core banking system
Al Qurtas Islamic Bank, a new Iraqi bank based in Erbil, has selected the ICBS core banking system from regional supplier BML Istisharat.
Money20/20: Cordray Says CFPB No Foe of Fintech
Those seeking to innovate in the financial services sector might view the CFPB as more of an obstacle than a partner. But bureau Director Richard Cordray sees the consumer protection watchdog as very much a friend of fintech. During a keynote session capping the opening day of Money20/20 in Las Vegas, Cordray said the CFPB and regulated fintech providers can learn a lot from each other.
InComm Taps Mastercard Vet for Leadership Role
Matt Lanford will join Atlanta-based prepaid product and technology company InComm as senior vice president and general manager, overseeing its financial services team, effective Oct. 31. Lanford, who has held numerous leadership roles at Mastercard in the U.S. and in Europe, will take the lead in expanding InComm’s consumer-facing Vanilla brand of gift and GPR products.
Money 20/20: Retailers Want Bigger Seat at Payments Table
Retailers want a bigger seat at the payments table as more consumers use mobile devices to shop and pay. That was the main message Monday morning during a Money 20/20 session in Las Vegas.
R3 blockchain code goes open source
R3 has made its blockchain platform’s code publicly available as it seeks to make it an industry standard. The Corda platform has been developed by R3’s consortium, which comprises more than 60 financial institutions around the world (the latest addition is Synchrony Financial – the first credit card company to join the consortium). “We want […]
Is your mobile banking app causing more harm than good?
Without the right digital strategy, small and midsize banks risk ceding built-in advantages to larger competitors. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to successfully move into the digital realm and retain customer engagement (and sales). Mobile banking has become an imperative for retail bankers looking to keep pace with the industry and satisfy customers’ needs. It […]
ST Bank to overhaul legacy tech with Oracle FSS and JMR Infotech
Laos-based ST Bank is replacing its legacy systems with solutions from Oracle FSS and JMR Infotech. On the way out is the Smartbank core banking system from a Vietnamese developer, FPT.
Visa and Chain team up for new B2B blockchain payments platform
Visa has unveiled Visa B2B Connect, a new blockchain-based platform that it is building with US-based blockchain specialist Chain Inc. At present, the solution is in preview mode. It will be piloted in 2017.
Ingo Money and Visa push B2C push payments
Ingo Money is teaming up with Visa again, this time to enable corporations, merchants, financial institutions and governments to make payments directly to more than 4 billion consumer prepaid, debit and credit cards, and mobile wallet accounts.
’Tis Almost the Time of Year for Gift Card Cheer
Here’s a shocker: Gift cards will be a popular item during the holidays and a bright spot for retail sales. New survey stats released Oct. 20 from InComm show that 95 percent of consumers expect to give two or more gift cards this year, a slight increase from last year.
Payments round-up: 21 October 2016
Jargon defeated. Unnecessary words deleted. A brief payments round-up. LeFinance, a division of Beijing-based tech firm LeEco, has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation for cross-border payments on the latter’s blockchain network. The deal means Stellar expands into China. LeFinance will also use Stellar’s network to monitor credits for usage across their various devices and […]
Wipro to buy cloud firm Appirio
IT services integrator Wipro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire US-based Appirio, a cloud services company, for $500 million. With the acquisition, Wipro will get Topcoder, a crowdsourcing marketplace for designers, developers and data scientists; and expand its cloud offerings. Abidali Neemuchwala, CEO and member of the board at Wipro, says it will “consolidate” […]
Top fintech stories this week – 21 October 2016
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Bank of Ireland in major tech revamp EXCLUSIVE. Accenture and Capgemini working on Project Omega. Trouble in the R3 paradise? Thinking about time and money. Millions at risk from India ATM hack Debit cards in danger due to […]
R3 and Ripple trial interbank cross-border payments
R3 and twelve of its blockchain consortium member banks have trialled Ripple’s Digital Asset XRP for interbank cross-border payments. Using XRP, Ripple says it can enable near real-time value exchange anywhere in the world, providing “liquidity on demand and reducing associated costs”. David Rutter, CEO of R3, says the prototype “paves the way for a […]
FDIC Study: Unbanked Rate Drops; Prepaid, Mobile on Rise
The number of households without bank accounts fell to its lowest level since the FDIC first began conducting its biannual survey in 2009. Seven percent of U.S. households were unbanked last year, according to the FDIC’s 2015 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, released Oct. 20.
Payolution Expands into U.K. with ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Online Payment Option
Online shoppers in the U.K. looking to get their hands on the latest athletic apparel now, but who might not have the funds to purchase them until later, can pay in installments.
Mobile Payments Roundup: Chase Pay and CVS Expand Their Programs
Chase said on Oct. 19 that Wakefern Food Corp., a supermarket chain based in New Jersey, will soon accept Chase Pay mobile payments. CVS Health, meanwhile, is rolling out its in-house CVS Pay service across the United States
