Innovators’ Spotlight: SUBWAY (Franchise World Headquarters LLC)
The mega-chain goes mobile with many partners and a mobile app of its own with two key ingredients—convenience and loyalty.
Features
USPS Adds Blackhawk Network Gift Card Malls (Dec. 10, 2014)
Blackhawk Network this week announced a new distribution deal with the U.S. Postal Service, introducing the company’s gift card malls to select post offices in time for the holiday season.
U.S. and Europe Focus on Faster Payments, Quicker Access to Funds (Dec. 10, 2014)
NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based electronic payments association, and the European Central Bank (ECB) independently are taking steps to speed up the payments process with the goal of same-day settlement.
Viewpoint: CFPB Issues Prepaid Account Study
Simultaneously with the release of its 870-page prepaid account proposal last week, the CFPB issued a “Study of Prepaid Account Agreements.”
Industry Leaders Outline Fraud-Fighting Techniques to U.S. Senate (Nov. 20, 2014)
Prepaid industry leaders, which included representatives from InComm, Blackhawk Network and Green Dot, met with members of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging during a hearing yesterday to outline how they’re working to prevent fraudsters from using prepaid debit cards to swindle consumers, particularly phone scams perpetrated against the elderly.
EU Debate on Payments Package Starts Nov. 19 (Nov. 18, 2014)
Debate over revised European payments legislation, including interchange reforms, is set to begin in Brussels tomorrow.
A movement for change
Fintech innovation gets a lot of press, but there is a lack of co-ordination. Innovate Finance’s Claire Cockerton tells David Bannister how her organisation aims to change that
CFPB Issues Prepaid Account NPRM: Converging Prepaid into Bank Regulation Mainstream
My original intent, based on attending the field hearing in Wilmington, Del., this morning, was to summarize the key elements for publication today. But, that won’t happen. The 870 pages that comprise the NPRM suggest why it took the CFPB extra time to create and why it will take industry time to understand everything the NPRM covers and, of course, the implications of the proposed rules.
CFPB Field Hearing: Responding to NPRMs Is Everyone’s Business
We have the opportunity to make a difference, to be part of the process and to influence the outcome of prepaid regulations.
Consumer Reports Names Best Prepaid Cards (Nov. 12, 2014)
On the eve of the CFPB’s field hearing on GPR cards (and the rumored release of its GPR notice of proposed rulemaking), Consumer Reports has named the “best” GPR prepaid cards.
CFPB Field Hearing: Reg. E Error Resolution Is Everyone’s Business
If you’re a third-party service provider to prepaid issuers, don’t overlook your Regulation E error resolution
responsibilities. Here are five topics to think about.
The Bancorp Opens Office to Industry Reps Attending CFPB Field Hearing (Nov. 11, 2014)
The Bancorp is inviting all industry representatives traveling to the CFPB field hearing on Thursday to use its complimentary workspace, which it created to make the trip more convenient and collaborative.
Treasury, FinCEN Seek Balance between Doing Business and Compliance (Nov. 11, 2014)
The U.S. Treasury and FinCen are addressing the importance of money services businesses (MSBs) to the financial system in the wake of reports that banks are refusing to do business with categories of companies, such as remittance companies and check cashers, because of the perceived risk of doing business with them following government agencies’ aggressive efforts in fighting money laundering.
Hollywood Sharia Law controversy rekindles Islamic finance debate
Controversy over Sharia Law reached Hollywood recently as protesters boycotted the glamorous Beverly Hills Hotel over a tough new code introduced by the hotel’s owner, the Sheikh of Brunei. More prosaically, bankers remain divided over how best to respond to demand for Sharia-compliant banking.
Money20/20 Keynote: Lawsky Floats ‘Transitional’ BitLicense for Startups (Nov. 3, 2014)
During a Money20/20 keynote, New York State Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin M. Lawsky raised the possibility of a new addition in the proposed rules; licensing specially designed for virtual currency startups.
CFPB Field Hearing Announced: Is the GPR NPRM on Its Way? (Oct. 30, 2014)
Yesterday the CFPB posted on its Website the announcement of its next field hearing, 11 a.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 13, in Wilmington, Del.
Study: Rate of Un/Underbanked U.S. Households Still Hovers around 28% (Oct. 30, 2014)
While more than a quarter of American households still were either unbanked or underbanked last year, as was the case in 2011, the proportion of unbanked households declined to 7.7 percent or 9.6 million households, compared with 8.2 percent in 2011, according to the latest report from the FDIC.
The death of the branch? Or is mobile over-hyped?
Do banks still need branches, or does the smartphone make a physical presence obsolete? Panellists disagreed during a spirited debate hosted by ATM maker Wincor Nixdorf in Istanbul last week.
U.S. Treasury Selects Banking Up to Help Consumers Build Credit (Oct. 23, 2014)
Finding ways to use GPR prepaid card usage data as a tool to help thin- and no-file consumers build credit has been an enticing yet elusive goal for the industry for years.
Viewpoint: Prepaid Program Managers Must Be Exam-Ready Bank Partners
In light of the intense regulatory focus and pressure on prepaid cards, it’s time for program managers to step up and manage their own compliance to the point of being “exam-ready.”
Groups Appeal to Pres. Obama on Data Security Responsibility
Retailers and financial institutions struggle with costs of data breaches.
TD Bank Reaches Breach Settlement with Nine States (Oct. 20, 2014)
TD Bank has reached a settlement over a 2012 data breach that compromised customers’ personal information.
Innovators’ Spotlight: Cachet Financial Solutions
RDC specialist’s busy year includes an IPO and a fast-growing prepaid platform.
CFPB Examines Screening Process for Consumer DDAs (Oct. 9, 2014)
The CFPB is gathering information about the methods banks and credit unions use to screen consumers before approving or denying them a checking account.
Building a transformation vision
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.
What’s not to like?
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.
Limiting collateral damage
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.
Alternative realities
The debut of SAP’s Financial Services Network at Sibos last year led many to see it as a threat to Swift’s plans for corporate connectivity.
A call to pragmatic action
In a recently published white paper on intraday liquidity reporting*, Swift urges financial institutions to initiate programs now to address serious challenges with regard to data availability, centralisation, aggregation and interpretation in meeting Basel Committee guidelines. Greater industry collaboration will also help to accelerate moves towards cost effective and sustainable models and solutions.
Power to the people
The growth of peer to peer lending demonstrates that there is an alternative to the traditional lending model of banks. But can crowd funders ever replace the incumbents and do they enjoy long-run advantages or face being co-opted?
The shifting sands of commerce
Changing trade patterns and attempts to ‘de-dollarise’ international commerce are changing the landscape of trade finance, as new partnerships emerge.
A guiding light
Building a single regional market is a goal for many groups of nations; however Europe’s development of a single settlement platform is the only effort to come to fruition.
Next out of the block
Forget Bitcoin, cryptographic payments networks will be the real game-changer, according to many people working in the payments world.
The high cost of failure
Data in all its forms and access to it in real time is becoming ever more critical as financial institutions seek to manage myriad risks.
The long arm of the law
Crypto and virtual currencies have garnered plenty of headlines in the past couple of years. Now financial regulators around the world are turning the spotlight on these instruments and attempting to bring them into the legal fold.
Changing the world
Change is a theme at this year’s Sibos. But what type of change? A cross-section of delegates discuss what they think will be the main disruptive forces in their part of the business.
A city that commands attention
One of the most attractive cities in the US, Boston is also steeped in history: get your walking shoes on and explore the many historical and culinary delights of the Sibos 2014 host city.
Access all new areas
While mobile commerce and payments have been slow to take off in Western countries, the developing world has been stealing a march with innovative services and products.
Silver linings
In early September, cloud computing stories finally became interesting as an apparent hacking attack on Apple’s iCloud released hundreds of photos of ‘celebrities’ in the nude. It was a perfect story for the mainstream media, combining celebrities with nudity and a bit of unintelligible (to them at least) technology thrown in for good measure. Among […]
MPIW Backs Tokenization, Calls for Coordination (Sept 25, 2014)
A key payments industry group is throwing its support behind tokenization—with a few caveats as to the hurdles that remain before broad industry adoption can occur, including coordinating different tokenization models.
