DOJ’s Operation Choke Point, which encourages financial institutions to scrutinize clients that process payments for certain types of businesses, continues to draw criticism from lawmakers and industry advocates, who argue that the policy is harmful to legitimate, legal businesses.
When Hamed Shahbazi graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1997, many people were still calling the Internet a “fad.” But the Vancouver native knew better.
Corporate treasurers are increasingly looking beyond traditional of finance to a wider range of alternative funding options that support their working capital requirements, including supply chain finance, trade receivable securitisation and factoring.
Apple Pay may go live as early as Saturday, and it’s likely to include an option for users to initiate a payment via voice command with Apple’s Siri feature, according to a number of reports.
Visa Europe today announced an exclusive partnership with edo Interactive to bring targeted card-linked offers to Visa debit and credit cardholders in Europe.
With B2B prepaid programs on the rise globally as corporations look to streamline and control expenses, Wave Crest Group Ltd. is rolling out a new B2B prepaid platform for European businesses.
Data breaches continue to hit some of the U.S.’s largest corporations, with a spate of financial institutions and retailers announcing incidents over the past two weeks.
Major credit and debit card providers in the U.K. are among the main “payment systems” the government is proposing to bring under the purview of the new Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), beginning next April.
The CFPB is gathering information about the methods banks and credit unions use to screen consumers before approving or denying them a checking account.
League Service Corp. (LSC), a national credit union service organization, has tapped Cachet Financial Solutions to power its prepaid mobile application, which currently is offered by 900 credit unions.
ATM network operator Cardtronics Inc. has been named exclusive ATM services provider for natural grocery chain Fresh & Easy.
While a great deal of attention has been given to Lloyds Banking Group’s retail operations as its various elements are split up, less has been given to its activities in transaction banking, where it is “one year into a three-year journey” to transform itself and its customer offerings to create“the best global transaction bank in this region”.
It is essential for banks to ensure they have the right strategies and technology in place now, if they are to retain their position as market-leading payment providers in the future, writes Saket Sharma,chief information officer, treasury services, BNY Mellon.
The M&A market for payments companies is booming, as larger companies look to acquire smaller innovators. Even if no deal is on the immediate horizon, early preparation pays off when a sale transaction is at hand.
If we want to consolidate the gains we’ve made and scale the innovations we’ve seeded, we need to think big. We need to redefine financial services from the pursuit of wealth to the pursuit of health.
GPR cards are quickly moving beyond their traditional role as an alternative to checking accounts for the financially underserved, to serve broader use cases for a changing demographic.
Facebook looks to be planning to add a money transfer function to its Messenger app—and the social media giant reportedly already has installed the underlying code to the popular messaging service.
Dunkin’ Donuts plans to launch a new service that enables customers to order ahead and prepay for menu items via their smartphones, then visit a store location to pick up their orders.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has moved further into financial services now that its affiliate Alipay, an online payments platform provider, received approval to establish a privately owned bank.
Carrier billing specialist Boku Inc. has acquired one of its largest competitors, Germany-based mopay.
More than 7,500 Walgreens and Duane Reade drugstores throughout the U.S. now offer Western Union domestic and international money transfers through touchscreen kiosks that are part of the Walgreens Balance Financial platform.
A trio of major U.K. mobile network operators—including O2, EE and Vodafone—has partnered with carrier billing specialist Boku Inc. to enable mobile phone customers in the U.K. to charge the purchase of physical goods and services up to £30 (US$48) to their phone bills.
Mobile payment provider Square has landed $150 million in new venture capital in a funding round valuing the company at around $6 billion, and financial app developer Yodlee Inc. raised $75 million in its initial public offering last week.
New Jersey legislation (A3480) introduced last June, which would eliminate the need to collect consumer data when purchasing GPR prepaid cards, was advanced last week by the Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee and has been referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Digital gifting has become a cornerstone feature for many retailers—but a few merchants are going above and beyond what have become standard features and functionality.
MasterCard has launched SafetyNet, a global tool for banks and processors to mitigate the risks of cyber hacking.
A segment of tech-savvy, mobile-minded consumers comprising more than $1 trillion in deposits could represent a major opportunity for FIs, according to a new report.
Ray Iglesias has come into his own. As CEO of Ubiquity Global Services, he has stepped out of the shadows to take center stage and with it his dream job.
There is a high risk of another financial crisis within the next 15-20 years, according to a poll of Sibos delegates yesterday. Those attending the regulatory reform session voted 74 per cent to 26 per cent that another financial crisis within that period was a high risk.
Direct connectivity to the Target2-Securities settlement platform will give participants the opportunity to build new business models, access new markets more easily and deliver new services to clients, said a white paper, Taking the Direct Route to T2S: the industry view, released this week by Swift. Ten representatives of organisations that have decided to become directly connected parties (DCPs) were interviewed by Swift about their decisions to become DCPs and their plans for T2S participation.
The launch of Apple Pay, the re-launch of PayPal as a separate company and the move to allow mobile operators to add payment for goods to phone bills across Europe are all threatening the hegemony of banks. But is it going to be as disruptive as many outside the banking world hope?
Besides mounting enthusiasm for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, momentum is gathering to develop the infrastructure needed to turn what some see as a technology into a universally accepted currency.
With attention increasingly focusing on mobile payments and mobile banking, Fiserv is urging banks to look more closely at how to use mobile to not only deliver services to customers, but also as an up- and cross-selling channel.
The rise of an emerging middle class in Africa is transforming the continent as a group of 11 African nations power past the $1 trillion GDP mark. With tens of millions expected to rise out of poverty in the next decade, it is also providing compelling new opportunities for banks, according to Standard Bank of South Africa.
Microsoft has begun a joint pilot project with the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (FS-Isac) to tackle financially-motivated cyber crime attacks, which are estimated to cost $100 billion a year in the US alone.
A range of product and service announcements during Sibos show Swift becoming ever more tightly integrated with customer and vendor systems.
Warsaw-based Polish central securities depository (CSD), KDPW, has launched a negotiated securities lending and borrowing system in co-operation with KDPW CCP, the country’s central clearing counterparty. The system is designed to prevent or eliminate suspension of settlement of transactions and ensure the return of securities loaned in the automatic lending system.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of World Payments Report. In this extract from the report, which was launched at Sibos this week, the impact of innovation on payments is examined.
The rise of Facebook has been one of the most striking cultural phenomena of the past decade. In January 2007 the site had around 25 million users. But by July 2014, Facebook had reached 2.2 billion users; a number equivalent to one out of every three people on this planet. Meanwhile, Twitter had emerged as the platform of business and news, with 500 million posts ‘tweeted’ daily by its 271 million active users.
A lack of available collateral to meet demand has become a global problem, with various models being deployed to ensure financial institutions meet the changing regulatory requirements.
