July 2013 Prosper Marketplace Inc., parent company of peer-to-peer lending marketplace Prosper Funding LLC, has announced that Raj Date, former deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has joined its board. Date is currently managing partner at Fenway Summer, a consumer finance advisory and investment firm based in Washington D.C. Before joining the federal […]
July 2013 MoneyGram International has announced that W. Alexander Hoffmann has been appointed to the global money transfer company’s executive leadership team as senior vice president, global product management and emerging channels. He will lead MoneyGram’s global product portfolio, emerging channels and MoneyGram Online. He has 20 years of experience in payments and cards, online […]
July 2013 Enacomm Inc., a Tulsa, Okla.-based provider of voice processing infrastructure, applications and services, has announced that Michael Kirk will join the company as vice president of business development, channels and alliances. An IT and services veteran, Kirk has more than 25 years of experience with sales, sales management and business development for IVR, […]
July 2013 C-SAM, a Chicago-based provider of mobile transactions technology, has announced that Kurt Weiss and Conrad Sheehan have joined the company as managing director of global financial institutions and vice president and general manager of strategic initiatives, respectively. Weiss will work closely with financial institutions and networks deploying C-SAM’s mobile transaction platform, which enables […]
Employers looking at consumer-directed health care plans with HSAs tend to pick providers based on one or two administrative details, but they really need to dig into what kind of benefit experience employees will get. The quality of that interaction can make all the difference, and yield happy, engaged employees.
Spain’s CaixaBank is planning to target Brazil’s payments industry via a new joint venture with US transaction processing firm Global Payments that builds on the bank’s experience of digital channels its home market.
In our world of 100%+ mobile penetration, companies in Latin America will soon need to think like their next wave of prospective customers, most of whom are unbanked. This means understanding their lifestyles, habits and needs in order to decide how to best generate value.
July 29, 2013 Payroll card provider ADP is rolling out a new feature for its Paybefore Award-winning ALINE Pay program aimed at aiding employees to better manage their finances, while helping employers improve electronic pay adoption and streamline payroll management. The new myALINE platform, accessible online and via mobile device, provides ALINE Pay cardholders with […]
July 29, 2013 Cash will be knocked out of its position as the No. 1 form of payment in Canada within the next five years, if present growth trends in mobile, prepaid and online payments continue, a new report suggests. All forms of electronic payment are experiencing substantial growth in Canada as consumers’ use of […]
July 29, 2013 Two-thirds of companies in a variety of sectors reported suspected fraud attempts in the last 12 months, according to a report by IDology Inc., an Atlanta-based identity-verification company. More than one-third of respondents reported that these suspected attempts have increased in the last year, according to the survey’s findings, while 50 percent […]
Financial technology company SIA has acquired Italian telecoms firm Emmecom, as part of a plan to create a new technology infrastructure across Europe for merchants and banks.
Orange and oil and gas group Total have forged a partnership in Africa and the Middle East, providing access to Orange Money services at all Total service stations in the regions, spanning a total of 13 countries to date.
July 25, 2013 The European Commission (EC) has proposed new regulations curbing interchange fees, including a 0.3 percent cap on credit card fees and a 0.2 percent cap on debit card fees. The caps would also apply to prepaid cards. Interchange fees in the European economic region currently range from 0.1 percent to 2.5 percent […]
July 25, 2013 London-based prepaid voucher provider Ukash has taken the next step in enabling users to turn its virtual vouchers back into cash, striking a deal with ATM operator Bank Machine under which voucher holders can withdraw cash at ATMs. With the new “Ukash Out” function, voucher holders need only to enter a numeric […]
July 25, 2013 U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) this week announced legislation that would prevent “predatory” overdraft practices by banks, such as reordering consumers’ debit card transactions to increase the likelihood that they will overdraw their accounts and incur fees. “Banks should play by the rules instead of purposefully ‘reordering’ their consumers’ debit card transactions […]
For the lucrative and important teen demographic especially, shopping doesn’t start at the mall or even in a magazine. It starts at the virtual corner of Instagram and Vine.
A mobile wallet offering built by Kalixa Group claims to be able to turn just about any phone – including the iPhone – into an NFC payment device. The toolkit has launched in the UK, marking the first step in the firm’s plans for Europe-wide NFC mobile payments.
July 23, 2013 U.S. open-loop prepaid revenue will reach $4.5 billion this year, up 18.4 percent from $3.8 billion in 2012 as growth rates on prepaid load volume, transactions and revenue continue to exceed 15 percent annual growth, according to new data from First Annapolis Consulting. Increasing consumer adoption of GPR products, which accounted for […]
July 23, 2013 A new smartphone-based prepaid wallet launching in the U.K. will enable iPhone and Android users to pay for in-store purchases via tap using NFC technology. First launched in the U.S. last August, the Paybefore Award-winning moneto digital wallet is a joint venture between Kalixa Group, DeviceFidelity and MasterCard. The wallet is powered […]
July 23, 2013 Bank of America Merrill Lynch continues its push to expand the reach and capabilities of its Global Transaction Services (GTS) with the unveiling this week of a new dashboard tool for its commercial card clients around the world. Dashboard Analytics, a module on the bank’s global reporting and account management system, harnesses […]
July 23, 2013 Kimberly Pisinski, a Connecticut-based attorney, yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia claiming that the federal agency engaged in “abusive practices, including attempts to regulate the practice of law, attempts to collect attorney-client protected material and overreaching demands […]
July 23, 2013 A new prepaid MasterCard is coming to Slovenia, now that Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) has unveiled what it calls the nation’s first domestically issued prepaid card bearing the MasterCard brand. The SmartPayCard Prepaid MasterCard is available in two versions: SmartPayCard Simple, a non-reloadable virtual prepaid card, which can be loaded up to […]
India’s ICICI Bank is to launch a mobile payments service built by Movida, the Indian joint venture between Visa and mobile money specialist firm Monitise, that will draw on the potential to reach unbanked customers in the country.
Mobile operator EE is launching a UK mobile payments service called Cash on Tap, in a move that highlights recent efforts across Europe to make mobile payments a reality.
July 22, 2013 Discover cardholders in the U.S. now have free access to cash at 43,000 more ATMs, thanks to a partnership that brings the Discover and Diners Club brands into the Allpoint Network, part of the largest independent ATM provider in the country. The deal enables Discover to provide its cardholders with expanded cash […]
July 22, 2013 With its latest move making it easier for customers to pay using the Square Inc. mobile app, U.S. Bank left no doubt it plans to support multiple digital wallet providers. The Minneapolis bank last week announced that its customers may link a credit, debit or prepaid card to the Square app within […]
July 22, 2013 ICICI Bank customers soon will be able to pay bills, make purchases and reload prepaid airtime from their mobile phones. India’s largest private commercial financial institution today announced a deal with Movida, the joint venture between Visa Inc. and Monitise, which enables consumers to use Movida’s mobile payments technology regardless of phone […]
July 22, 2013 Two distribution deals in the last week promise to increase prepaid card availability for consumers. InComm announced it will be distributing gift cards for Cabela’s through its retail distribution network of 225,000 locations, while rival Blackhawk Network will be rolling out its Gift Card Mall in U.S. Home Depot locations this year. […]
Predicting the future is never easy, but trying to anticipate likely developments in a particular area is essential in order to take timely action. With that caveat, Stephen Lindsay, head of standards at SWIFT, sets a boundary on a discussion on the Future of Standards: “What we are trying to do is extrapolate a little bit from where we are now to where we might be in a few years’ time,” he says.
At a passionate debate in Westminster this week MPs, led by Rushanara Ali, member for Bethnal Green & Bow, called for government action in the wake of Barclay’s recent decision to close accounts for a large number of small payments businesses in the remittances sector.
The on-going turf wars that have held back the adoption of using mobile phones as a payment device at the point-of-sale will soon be a thing of the past if the progress made in Bratislava over the past year is any indication. The success of a project involving Visa Europe, Tatra Bank, Telefónica Slovakia’s O2 operation and a substantial number of retailers makes the Slovakian capital a showcase market for contactless technology.
Despite security concerns, contactless payments technology continues to be rolled out globally. Visa International recently estimated that the volumes of contactless transactions it will process during 2013 will quadruple. MasterCard’s figures show that since 2012 there has been a 50% increase in the number of contactless cards it has issued.
July 18, 2013 The shift to omnichannel retail continues as InComm this week rolled out a pair of services to enable the prepaid provider’s client companies to expand their digital product offerings in stores and on the Web. InComm’s new in-store digital sales program opens the door for merchants to offer products such as downloadable music, […]
July 18, 2013 European consumers are most comfortable turning to their banks when it comes to mobile shopping, according to a new report. The study, commissioned by Monitise and conducted by the Future Foundation in May 2013, polled a sample of 1,500 smartphone users in the U.K., Germany and Spain. Fifty percent of German smartphone […]
July 18, 2013 Responding to growing demand for digital gift cards, CardCash.com has revamped its system for handling electronic gift card sales, including beefing up bulwarks against fraud, the company said. Brick, N.J.-based CardCash.com, launched in 2008, specializes in reselling unused consumer gift cards via the secondary market. In June CashCard introduced an “e-code” sale […]
July 17, 2013 The U.S. Senate yesterday confirmed Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) amid growing acrimony along party lines over several of President Barack Obama’s nominations. The vote was 66-34. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) late last week filed cloture motions to force votes on seven nominees in […]
July 2013 Virtual Piggy Inc., a Hermosa Beach, Calif.-based provider of e-commerce solutions enabling children to manage and spend money within a parent-controlled environment, has appointed Ivo Weevers creative director, mobile design, to lead and manage the mobile consumer experience team. He has 15 years of experience creating highly successful mobile, Web, device and desktop […]
July 2013 TSYS, a Columbus, Ga.-based processor, has announced executive promotions and additions to its senior management group. Gaylon Jowers Jr. has been appointed senior executive vice president. He also serves as president of TSYS’s international services segment. Jowers has held leadership roles in which he was responsible for the company’s debit, prepaid, loyalty, debt […]
July 2013 The Members Group (TMG), a Des Moines, Iowa-based card processing and payment solutions provider, announced that CEO Shazia Manus has been appointed to serve a one-year term on the Credit Union National Association’s (CUNA) Payments Policy Subcommittee. The CUNA Payments Policy Subcommittee monitors, reviews and makes recommendations to the organization’s Governmental Affairs Committee […]
July 2013 Payza, an online payment platform, has named Ferhan Patel chief compliance officer and director of global risk and compliance. He will oversee the risk, fraud and compliance departments and be responsible for the company’s AML/CTF, compliance, fraud- and risk-mitigation policies. Prior to his new position, Patel led the company’s product development strategies, marketing […]
