PayTech


Taking the pain out of paying in Spain

Spanish banks La Caixa and Santander have partnered with telecoms firm Telefónica to create a joint venture offering mobile payment services and a digital wallet designed to relegate conventional payment methods to the history books.

Telefónica Joins with Spanish FIs for New Mobile JV (May 30, 2013)

May 30, 2013 Spain-based telecom giant Telefónica has joined with Spanish financial services providers CaixaBank and Santander to form a new company to develop “business opportunities based on the latest mobile and communication technologies.” According to the involved companies, the alliance is Europe’s first full joint venture between financial institutions and telecom operators for the […]

Vesta E-Wallet Targets Unbanked, Prepaid Mobile Users (May 30, 2013)

May 30, 2013 Vesta Corp., an Atlanta-based electronic payments services provider with offices in Ireland and China, has teamed up with three firms to develop Vesta PayMobile, a white-label e-wallet to help MNOs provide financial services to their prepaid customers. The smartphone application will launch with, yet unnamed, major mobile operators in the U.S. in […]

Mobey Forum: Most FIs Likely to Go It Alone on Digital Wallets (May 30, 2013)

May 30, 2013 Banks and other financial institutions looking to enter into the mobile wallet arena are likely to find a market rife with competition, mostly in the form of own-branded products that deliver proprietary services only. That was among the findings in a new white paper by Mobey Forum’s Business Workgroup, the fourth in […]

Putting the back office in the spotlight: the widespread impact of T2S

Europe’s post-trade infrastructure is undergoing significant change, driven by the implementation of the single settlement platform Target2-Securities and the forthcoming CSD Regulation. As a result, market participants need to review their current back office system capabilities.

IDology Beefs Up ID-Verification Tools, Harnessing Home Webcams (May 28, 2013)

May 28, 2013 Atlanta-based technology company IDology has beefed up its tools to verify individuals’ identities in card-not-present environments. The latest version of IDology’s verification tools, ExpectID Scan and ExpectID Scan Verify, build on the company’s core products, which have been in use for several years for organizations that routinely use them to verify identity […]

Boost Mobile’s Wallet Packs One-Two Punch (May 23, 2013)

May 23, 2013 Sprint’s Boost Mobile is taking a page out of O2’s playbook in the U.K.—launching a mobile wallet for online transactions with a companion prepaid Visa card for use at brick-and-mortar locations. One of the first telcos in the U.S. to launch its own wallet—AT&T Mobility, Verizon and T-Mobile have joined together on […]

Square Ventures Overseas: First Stop, Japan (May 23, 2013)

Mobile payments platform Square has ventured into its first market outside North America, becoming publicly available in Japan, the company announced today. “I am honored to introduce Square to a country with a rich history of design, innovation and tradition. Square shares the same values and attention to detail in our products,” said Jack Dorsey, […]

GiftCards.com Bolsters Mobile Offerings with Giftly Acquisition (May 23, 2013)

May 23, 2013 GiftCards.com, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Wolfe LLC, is deepening its digital offerings with the acquisition this week of Giftly, a mobile app-based digital gift card service. Giftly, a San Francisco-based startup launched in 2011, enables consumers to purchase digital gift cards that may be designated for specific purchases at any U.S. merchant […]

Blog: User Experience Flaws Bog Down Top Retail Apps (May 2013)

By Joseph DeSetto, Emerging Payments Blogger In every technology shift, users are confronted with interfaces that were designed for the previous generation. For example, early PCs rendered graphics of Rolodexes, clocks and other analog desk accoutrements. In this tradition, users of today’s smartphones often are presented with a shopping experience that was designed for the […]

Blog: Mobile Payments: A Solution Looking for a Problem? (May 2013)

By Ginger Schmeltzer, Fiserv For years we’ve been debating why mobile payments haven’t taken off faster. Debaters point out issues with the number of players in the value chain, business model challenges, competing technologies, lack of a compelling value proposition, security concerns and more. All of these points are valid: Business models are all over […]

Commerzbank chooses Clear2Pay payments platform

Commerzbank is to deploy Clear2Pay’s Open Payment Framework as a central platform for end-to-end XML-processing and to interface with new technology and products. Commerzbank will implement OPF as part of a longer term strategic payments renewal project for its clients in and outside Germany. The project will be implemented in phases, with the first go-live […]

Remittances: a window to the future?

The $400 billion global remittances market is moving from cash to account-based transfer, but costs, regulations and new competitors are still the key issues.

Tearing up the financial services value chain

Traditional finance is not as we once knew it. The internet has completely disrupted the financial services value chain. The banks are struggling to keep up with advancing technology. Understanding mobile, cloud computing, social media, big data and how to utilise each capability are key challenges for the banks to overcome.

Project Catalyst: A Collaborative Approach to Consumer Protection? (May 2013)

CFPB Invites ‘Innovative’ Companies to Share Consumer Data, Ideas to Help Shape Policies By Kate Fitzgerald, Emerging Payments Editor The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) since its formation in 2011 has generated great interest and, at times, controversy over its mission and leadership in its role of creating and enforcing federal financial services regulations. While […]

North African first for Earthport as it opens in Morocco

Earthport, the cross-border payments service provider, has launched a fully automated payment service into Morocco. The route is the first low value payment service for the company in North Africa and will allow it to expand its network infrastructure into the region.