Joby Orlowsky is a die-hard Cubs fan—is there any other kind?—but the Chicago native’s optimism extends well beyond baseball. After nearly 20 years at Discover, Orlowsky is animated when he talks about the future of payments and Discover’s place in it. And unlike some, he’s not spooked about a potential fintech bubble.
The Bancorp Inc. has named John Chrystal as interim CEO of the company and president of subsidiary The Bancorp Bank. A member of the Bancorp board of directors, Chrystal will replace Frank Mastrangelo, who will continue to serve the company in the newly created role of technologist in residence.
Big box retailer Walmart has joined the plethora of m-wallets on the market with its launch of Walmart Pay, but the retail giant says it’s committed to MCX’s CurrentC. And, even though the move could be a boon for Walmart, analysts say it doesn’t really go head-to-head with Apple Pay and other wallets usable at multiple retailers.
A new partnership between Germany’s Wirecard Group and Alipay will enable Chinese travelers to make POS payments in Europe using the Alipay mobile wallet. The initiative will give European brands and retailers access to the $165 billion Chinese tourism market—and Alipay’s more than 400 million active users.
The US and eurozone countries both look set to have live real-time payment infrastructures by the end of 2017, both using the ISO 20022 for real-time messaging standard.
Swift is planning to launch a global payment innovation initiative, which it says will dramatically improve the customer experience in correspondent banking by increasing the speed, transparency and predictability of cross-border payments. The platform is due to launch early next year.
It’s almost become a holiday tradition for Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to propose prepaid legislation in December. His previous three attempts went nowhere, but this time he proposed his bill in November. Still, more pressing issues, such as spending and cybersecurity, may keep his measure on the back burner for now.
Churn is by far the biggest challenge facing prepaid debit card companies. Issuers can combat it by tapping smartphones and real-time analytics to deliver personalized services through a preferred communication channel.
Poor user experience with EMV could be a boon for contactless cards and NFC mobile payments. But retailers could take immediate steps to improve the UX with contact EMV, starting with cashier education.
When it comes to the payments, there are more choices than sweet treats at Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC (i.e., the world’s largest candy emporium!). The payments landscape is likely to become increasingly confusing and fragmented as retailers ramp up their efforts to influence buying decisions. If we don’t help our members evolve and understand how things are changing, credit unions risk losing the transaction and engagement.
With EMV technology increasing security for card-present transactions, fraudsters are shifting their focus to the card-not-present (CNP) environment, including online, mobile and phone purchases—but new market entrant Tender Armor has a plan to increase security for CNP transactions.
Consumers are hot for gift cards this holiday, but more are turning to online and mobile channels to purchase virtual and physical cards, new data from InComm show.
The European Union’s cap on fees banks can charge retailers for processing credit and debit card payments went into effect today, but there are some questions whether the measure will have the desired effect.
Paysafe Group, a global provider of online payment solutions, has appointed Gavin Haycock to the newly created role of senior vice president, corporate communications.
BlueSnap, a global payments technology company, has hired three top executives with more than 70 years of combined payments and technology experience: Scott Fitzgerald, Bob Botelle and Scott Conti.
InAuth, a provider of solutions that help businesses limit risk, reduce fraud and enhance authentication within their digital channels, announced the addition of key staff and the opening of its European headquarters in London.
Digital wallet technology provider suretap has appointed Almis Ledas, an experienced executive in the Canadian mobility and mobile payments ecosystem, as its president.
Don Andrews, a compliance and risk management attorney with experience in regulatory enforcement and the corporate suite, has joined law firm Venable LLP as a partner in the New York City office.
Financially underserved Americans spent $138 billion in fees and interest in 2014, up 7.6 percent from the previous year, according to a new study from the Center for Financial Services Innovation and Core Innovation Capital. The survey results highlight the opportunity presented by the underbanked segment for financial services providers that can provide innovative solutions to help those consumers improve their financial security.
The FTC has banned telemarketers from accepting four types of payments—among them are cash reload mechanisms. The ban is supposed to help shield consumers from fraudulent telemarketers.
After adding a loyalty component to its mobile wallet last month, Canada-based suretap is working with mobile technology provider and sister company EnStream to test a program with the Société de transport de Montréal enabling commuters to pay transit fares using their mobile wallets.
The number of CFPB employees grew to 1,529 in 2015, from 1,443 the previous fiscal year, according to the agency’s financial report for the 2015 fiscal year, ended Sept. 30. The CFPB collected civil penalties totaling $183.1 million from 37 cases in 2015—a substantial increase from the $77.5 million collected in 2014.
The CFPB has denied UniRush’s petition to narrow the scope and extend the time the company has to produce documents for a bureau investigation following an October system outage that left some RushCard cardholders without access to their account information and, in some cases, their funds.
As the global e-commerce market surges to $2.4 trillion by 2019, 23 percent of this total is expected to come exclusively from mobile devices, according to a recent study by Worldpay. The results for prepaid are a mixed bag, with closed-loop vouchers/cards booming and network branded card e-commerce volume expected to decline.
Hardware issues are to blame for a brief outage of First Data’s ability to process certain credit and debit cards Friday.
Swift’s Innotribe initiative is to expand its programme to support innovation in emerging fintech ecosystems, including Africa and Latin America. It has also announced a new Industry Challenge programme under which the Innotribe team will work with Swift members to identify business areas that could benefit from collaborative solutions.
Complying with the European Commission’s Payment Services Directive II is like climbing the massive sandstone bulk of Ayers Rock in Australia – you think you’ve reached the top, and then you realise you still have a long way to go, according to speakers at the recent European Payments Regulation conference in London.
The online retail numbers keep rolling in as the holiday shopping season launches into high gear, and more shoppers than ever are making purchases online.
During a Dec. 2 press conference with Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, InComm announced it will remain in its Atlanta headquarters and invest $20 million in facilities and equipment as well as hire an additional 275 employees in the state.
Boasting more than half of Indonesia’s 255 million people as wireless customers, mobile network operator Telkomsel Indonesia is tapping Mozido to help it entice more of its 140 million customers to use its mobile wallet.
If the global payments industry were to be designed from scratch, nobody would design the system which we have today. Yet distributed ledger technology has the potential to bring about dramatic change– if it can overcome the unanswered questions over to what extent the industry should collaborate or compete and whether there will be one model or many different ones, according to speakers and delegates at the European Payments Regulation conference in London on Wednesday.
Deciphering how the CFPB handles consumer complaints—and ultimately decides to take action against a company—can be difficult. During a recent Webinar, Tristram Wolf, a Ballard Spahr associate and former CFPB attorney policy writer and investigator, joined colleagues in offering an inside look at the complaint process and tips for staying out of the CFPB’s crosshairs.
Target is moving another step forward in its attempts to put its 2013 data breach behind it.
In a Congressional hearing yesterday, lawmakers examined the role mobile payments technologies are playing in disrupting traditional payments, paying particular attention to how mobile has increased payments security and enabled small businesses and underbanked consumers to access electronic payments.
Samsung Pay has expanded its roster of supported payment cards with the addition of eight new card issuers.
Competition for consumers looking to get their doughnut and coffee fix, among other offerings, has heated up with this week’s announcement of Krispy Kreme’s new loyalty app.
The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator has published draft guidance on its plans for regulating new European payment card legislations that comes into force next week.
A new digital banking startup has received a U.K. banking license, adding another challenger to the growing ranks of financial services providers seeking to contest the dominance of established banks. Tandem Bank is just the second digital-only bank to earn a license from the Bank of England, following Atom Bank, which was licensed in June.
The pressure to build scale rises with new competitors—Android Pay, Samsung Pay and CurrentC—joining Apple Pay in the emerging m-payments fray. Will consumers climb aboard? How they’re using m-payments so far, may tell the tale.
U.S. shoppers flocked to physical and online stores during the Thanksgiving weekend, with more than 151 million Americans shopping in-store and/or online, based on data from the National Retail Federation. The shopping frenzy is expected to continue, with Cyber Monday deals projected to drive 121 million U.S. consumers to shop online. Average spending per shopper was $299.60, and gift cards were especially popular, comprising a whopping 76.6 percent ($229.56) of that average total.
