PayTech


Treasury’s Walt Henderson Wins Terrence P. Maher Award

The NBPCA’s Power of Prepaid Conference kicked off in Washington, D.C., on June 22, with discussion of the prepaid industry’s most pressing challenge, regulatory uncertainty. One of the highlights of the morning sessions, however, was the presentation of the third annual Terrence P. Maher Prepaid Influencer Award to Walt Henderson, director of EFT strategy division at the U.S. Department of Treasury. Henderson has managed the Treasury’s benefits disbursement prepaid program from its inception, overseeing substantial growth and consistently high customer satisfaction.

Study: Apple Wallet Users Love Sharing Digital Coupons, Loyalty Cards

A new report indicates that retailers and brands have a powerful channel to distribute digital coupons and loyalty cards via mobile wallets: wallet users themselves. An analysis of Apple Wallet users by mobile engagement specialist Urban Airship found that every digital coupon or loyalty card a user installed on the wallet was shared to an average of 3.3 other mobile devices.

Curve Hits 50-50 Milestones; Consumer Card to Come

Curve and its all-cards-in-one Curve Mastercard and accompanying banking app apparently has struck a chord with small businesses and freelancers. More than 50,000 SMEs have signed up for the London-based startup’s program, which recorded £50 million (US$63.3 million) in user spending since the beta period began last year.

ECB to develop service for settlement of instant payments

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) says it will develop a new service for the settlement of instant payments. The new service, Target instant payment settlement (TIPS), will enable citizens and firms to transfer money between each other in real-time and will be available around the clock, 365 days a year. The […]

Case study: Valley National Bank – cloud atlas

Valley National Bank, a $23 billion regional bank holding company headquartered in northern New Jersey, is undertaking a widespread technology refresh to improve customer experience and profitability.

SIX’s payments offer cashless waltz for Vienna Life Ball

SIX Payment Services (SIX) has enabled the Vienna Life Ball in Austria to be cashless for the first time in its history. The Life Ball is an annual AIDS charity event, and 110 cashless point of sale (POS) terminals were installed, configured and serviced by SIX, across the whole arena. There were also 30 top-up […]

Mastercard, Western Union Designing Digital Solutions for Refugees

Mastercard and Western Union have teamed up to help refugees around the world access goods, services and financial services within refugee settlements. Announced on June 20—World Refugee Day—the partnership will explore ways to use a digital model to serve the more than 65 million people around the world currently displaced from their homes due to political conflict and natural disasters.

SoftBank Invests $100 Million in Cybersecurity Firm Cybereason

Cybereason, a Boston-based cybersecurity startup, continues to rake in the cash, with the latest capital infusion coming from SoftBank Corp. The Japanese telecom and Internet service provider has invested $100 million in Cybereason, according to a June 21 announcement.

Top Payments Consultants: Rick Oglesby, AZ Payments Group

Even when serving in senior manager and director roles with the likes of American Express and TSYS early in his career, Rick Oglesby, AZ Payments Group president, always felt he was destined to be a payments consultant. That vision came true in 2011, and you don’t have to spend too much time with him before his love of consultancy work—helping companies succeed while establishing and nurturing relationships—becomes apparent and likely is the reason why he was selected as one of the industry’s Top Payments Consultants.

Money’s the honey for Swift global payments innovation challenge

Swift is offering funding of up to €200,000 for the two winning fintech finalists of its industry challenge to develop new overlay services that use its global payments innovation (gpi) platform. The winners will work with banks on collaborative concepts that solve additional industry challenges in cross-border payments on top of gpi. As reported previously, […]

Colu launches local digital currency for London

Colu, a blockchain-powered platform provider, has unveiled its second currency in the UK – the “Local Pound, East London”. The firm’s idea is to provide people in East London with a digital, localised currency and so create a “closed-loop economy”. It uses Colu’s digital wallet app, and individuals can pay from a smartphone. It is […]

PayPal unveils speedier money transfers to bank accounts

PayPal users in the US will soon be able to speed up money transfers to their bank accounts via eligible debit cards linked to their PayPal account. Bill Ready, EVP, COO, PayPal, says it expects that funds “will typically be available in your bank account in a matter of minutes, although some banks may take […]

Bank to the future: five ways financial apps are changing banking

Less than half a year from now, PSD2 will revolutionise consumers’ access to their own financial information. In fintech hubs across Europe, bright young people are planning a consumer revolution. Their financial apps and tools are helping customers manage their money far more easily than they have before. Here are five important ways in which they are changing the face of banking.

Wirecard Lends Speed, Functionality to Partner VEON

Amsterdam-based mobile network operator and technology company VEON has partnered with Wirecard AG as part of a global payments and processing agreement. Wirecard, a Germany-based provider of global payments solutions, now manages third-party payments functionality and airtime top-up on VEON’s Internet platform, enabling customers to upload funds and update mobile payment accounts within seconds, according to an announcement.

Report: How Banks Can Beat the Fintech Threat

Facing disruption from fintech providers, traditional banks must embrace APIs and the open-source model to avoid losing their place at the center of consumers’ financial lives, a new report warns. Capgemini’s 2017 World Retail Banking Report polled thousands of retail banking customers around the world to gauge how the rise of fintech-based financial services has changed the game when it comes to banking.

Eight Fledgling Fintech Providers Win Capital with CFSI Awards

Eight fledgling fintech companies have won $250,000 each from the Center for Financial Services Innovation. Each FinLab winner in this third annual competition from the CFSI receives $250,000 in capital, along with resources to test, enhance and scale their products, in part via the expertise of JPMorgan Chase, a founding lab partner.

BBVA taps into biometrics with new firm Veridas

BBVA and start-up Das-Nano have formed Veridas, a new firm specialising in biometrics for client identification and authentication systems. Veridas, which will be directed by Eduardo Azanza, who is also co-founder of Das-Nano, will research and develop software for the digital verification and authentication of personal identity, through facial, voice, image or document recognition, or […]

Who is the greatest fintech leader of 2017?

This year’s Banking Technology Awards are taking place on 13 December in London and once again we will be recognising individuals for leading and playing an instrumental role in devising and/or delivering the technology strategy to support the key business objectives of an organisation. The Tech Leadership Award category is open to all industry participants worldwide – those […]

Executive Profile: One on One with Richard Steggall, Urban FT

Richard Steggall didn’t even set foot in the U.S. until he was approaching 30. So, what prompted the native Aussie by way of London to set up a fintech shop in New York—first as Waspit, then as Urban FT, the SaaS-based digital payments platform he now heads? It was, of course, American optimism.

Screen scraping: in or out?

Amid last month’s extensive ransomware attack, made possible after cyber criminals stole hacking tools created by the US National Security Agency, the European Banking Federation (EBF) again urged the European Commission (EC) not to dismiss recommendations about screen scraping.

TSB drops Visa to issue Mastercard debit and credit cards in 2018

Visa is no longer a pleaser as TSB will issue Mastercard debit cards to all its current account customers in 2018 as part of a seven-year agreement. The bank says it will continue to issue Mastercard credit cards over the same term. The agreement means the two organisations “will partner to offer additional payment solutions”. […]

Tate Takes Reins at NBPCA

Brian Tate has been named president and CEO of the NBPCA, replacing Brad Fauss, who in May stepped down from his role at the helm of the prepaid industry association to join Wirecard North America. Tate has served with the NBPCA since 2013 as vice president of government affairs, helping lead the organization’s legislative and regulatory policy agenda, including managing the federal political strategy and building relationships with policymakers on the national and state levels.

Instant Payments Set to Displace Cards in Europe, Report Says

More than $809 billion is set to switch to the fledgling instant payments system in Europe by 2027, representing a significant threat to cards, according to a new report from Ovum, a London-based consultancy. Instant, or real-time, payments enable account-to-account bank transfers in seconds instead of days.

PSD2 meets ISO 20022

How will service providers and banks implement ISO 20022 in the APIs being created for PSD2?

The Monday mindset: 19 June 2017

Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, Anita Liu Harvey, VP for strategy and innovation at Barclaycard, fires us in the direction of “the magic bullets of future retail”. […]

Klarna enters the big time with banking licence

Payments provider Klarna has powered up with a full banking licence from Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, says it is “now one of Europe’s largest banks with 60 million customers, 70,000 merchants and working seamlessly across borders”. With the licence, Klarna states it can broaden its product portfolio for […]

White paper: GDPR – banks, breaches and billion euro fines

The European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduces 72-hour breach notification requirements along with severe regulatory fines and consumers and affected third parties now have the right to sue organisations responsible for data breaches.

Monese debuts direct debits to challenge traditional banks

Mobile-only bank Monese has unveiled direct debit functionality for its customers – a move designed to offer services closer to that of a traditional high street bank account. Alongside this, it has also gained access to Faster Payments, so customers can send funds to accounts outside or within the UK with a “quicker transfer”. In […]

Fiserv the Architect for Affinity Plus digital banking revamp

Minnesota-based Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union has selected Fiserv’s Architect platform for a digital banking overhaul. The credit union will use Architect to help its online and mobile customers in branches, over the phone, and through digital channels. Dave Larson, president and CEO, Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union, says Fiserv has “the size and expertise […]

CFPB Seeks Comment on Proposed Changes to Prepaid Rule

The CFPB has issued a request for comment on proposed changes to its final rule on prepaid accounts that would adjust requirements for resolving errors on unregistered accounts and provide greater flexibility for credit cards linked to digital wallets.

Making the Case for More ACH

ACH payments are on course for exponential growth in the government sector, reducing costs for agencies and appealing to younger consumers.

Circle rounds on rivals with free cross-border payments

Payments services provider Circle is offering its customers in the US, UK and Europe the ability to send and receive money across borders with no fees and no mark-up on foreign exchange (FX) rates. The firm says it is “just like sending email or sharing photos” – meaning it’s “free and instant”. There will be […]

Are Plastic Cards Headed for Extinction?

Probably not. Even so, the case for virtual prepaid accounts is growing stronger. A journey through the landscape—including a stop at a recent Apple conference—shows why.