Financial institutions have been battling waves of large distributed denial of service attacks since early 2012. Many of these attacks have been the work of a group called the Qassam Cyber Fighters, which until recently posted weekly updates on Pastebin about the reasons behind its attacks.
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.
Despite what you’ve been seeing in the mainstream media recently, many prepaid card providers have not only lowered fees in the last few years but many are educating cardholders about how to avoid fees altogether.
On 23 April 2013, the markets suffered a brief, sharp drop as algorithms reacted to “news” from the Associated Press’s Twitter handle that President Obama had been injured in a bombing attack at the White House. In a few minutes, the Dow Jones dropped 145 points, Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost $136 billion in […]
Patrice Peyret of Banking Up responds to a front-page article in the New York Times, “Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees.”
The prepaid industry must seize on the recent media frenzy as an opportunity to inform and educate the public, government officials and other policymakers.
Regulators regulate, and when they do act, it can have dramatic impact on a company’s business model.
Tori Blake and Chuck Rouse explain the new rules of breakage connected to the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board’s upcoming Revenue Recognition Standards.
By Patrice Peyret, Banking Up In the July 1 New York Times story “Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees,” reporters Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Stephanie Clifford raise an important question but fail to answer it: Are a significant number of employers forcing hourly workers to use expensive payroll cards? The three key conditions here […]
The past few years have seen major changes to the way we make low value payments, from pre-paid wallets such as the Oyster Card through to contactless cards in retail transactions – thanks to Near Field Communication devices.
The financial services sector’s growing interdependence between internet-accessible clearing and transaction processing infrastructure means that a successful DDoS attack can have far reaching consequences, such as customer dissatisfaction and loss of trust, brand damage, increased operating costs and lost revenue to name just a few.
After a long wait, the first real FATCA implementation deadlines are just around the corner. To meet the new account identification requirements, by 1 January 2014, institutions should be in the process of implementing the necessary upgrades in their onboarding and overall compliance systems and processes.
The last five years have been tough for the UK banking sector, but optimism is slowly returning, writes Ian Byrne, banking director UK & Ireland at Wincor Nixdorf. Capital reserve ratios are largely being met, the prices of bank stocks are becoming more stable, and there is now even talk of the Government divesting its stake in the banks which it bailed out. Indeed the sector has deserved this boost, but it has got a lot of work to do before it can rekindle the relationship with today’s more technology-adept consumer.
The possibility of jail for miscreant top bankers has hit the headlines following publication of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards final report, a compendium of all that is considered wrong with both banks and the regulator …
Responsible for protecting people and assets across single or multiple countries in a range of different environments, the role of security manager in the finance industry is not for the faint hearted.
Mobile wallets get a considerable amount of media attention, but will any of them really drive users to leave the plastic card era behind? I recently did a comparison test of Square Wallet, Lemon and Starbucks’ own mobile app. While all the payment types I used worked surprisingly well, none of them was an experience that elevated shopping into the futuristic world these apps conjure up among payments enthusiasts.
The impact of the internet on the banking industry may yet turn out to be far more important than the financial crisis and the subsequent regulatory overhaul. Viewing statements on-line and making payments electronically is just the very beginning of the revolution.
ISO 20022 has been hailed as the lingua franca in payments and securities for some years now. It offers great potential for re-engineering the payments industry, and for process improvement, but for a standard that promises so much it is still relatively unknown.
Although the network EMV liability shift is about two years out, card manufacturers already are consulting with their U.S. issuing clients to help them make decisions now about how they will approach the transition to EMV. First and foremost is the decision on when to begin, then which cards in their portfolio should have priority. […]
By Thomas Cornelius, SVP, InComm Today’s consumers are constantly on the go—they’re busier, they multitask more and they have less time to get everything done. As a result, their shopping habits have changed. In fact, according to Forrester, more than 50 percent of in-store retail sales (approximately $1.2 trillion) are now Web-influenced. To meet the […]
Customers expect their interactions to be as short, and as easy as possible, with a satisfactory outcome. This ideal customer experience can be achieved through a combination of the right strategy, the right resources, the right workforce skills and supporting tools and technology . But so many firms still fail to get it right
Much has been said about the ‘bank 3.0’ landscape. We all now know that the Generation Y consumer, or the ‘digital native’ customer, demands a new type of banking. From online, anytime banking, to mobile payments, the face of banking is changing accordingly
While a child as young as nine years old can use Facebook and Twitter (despite rules saying users should be over 13), multi-million dollar financial service companies often fall behind in their adoption of social media.
If you believe that Apple will support near field communications (NFC) on its next iPhone, it’s time to give up on that hope.
The number of new financial services jobs available in London during May was 20% over the previous month and recruitment specialists say that the trend is upwards, but the number of new jobs in May was 59% down compared to the same period last year.
In early 2009, soon after the global subprime fallout, the official Vatican newsletter published a rather contextual referral for Islamic banking, observing that the ‘ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service‘, writes Riaz Akhtar, senior consultant, […]
The UK retail banking sector is characterised by a continuing lack of competition and resultant limited customer churn between financial services providers. This has made it difficult even for new market entrants to gain market share from long-standing, less popular competitors, due to the inconvenience and complexity involved in switching banks.
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.
Trading and risk technology specialist Cinnober is investing in a financial IT cluster in northern Sweden, centred on the university town of Umeå and initiating a a one-year trainee programme stating in the autumn.
The idea of sending money via email is not entirely new. This month, however, a new financial player entered this arena: Google announced that it will integrate Google Wallet into Gmail.
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 […]
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 […]
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.
Across Europe many banks feel unprepared for the next phase of the ‘digital revolution’, while factors such as expensive compliance regulations, poor data management and outdated systems are constraining them from implementing new solutions
By Joseph DeSetto, Full Sail University Near field communication, or NFC, is a technology that, on the surface, has tremendous potential. The Japanese vending machine experience of paying for your favorite flavor of sugar water without taking coins from your wallet has been an image of the future for several years now. But for […]
By Joe DeSetto, Emerging Payments Blogger Great design is often highly subjective and can be maddening for executive decision makers. Steve Jobs’ well-known response to his engineers trying to find a solution he would accept was: “I’ll know it when I see it.” Design, and the delightful products and experiences that result, is an art […]
By John Grund, First Annapolis Consulting Safeway’s decision to IPO a minority stake of Blackhawk Network is yet another milestone in the evolution of the prepaid industry, given Blackhawk’s unique distribution role in the broader value chain. Green Dot and NetSpend serve as bell weathers for the market value of program managers in the prepaid […]
By David Parker, Polymath Consulting Recently we saw the announcement by Nakumatt in Kenya—think Tesco in the U.K., Walmart in the United States—that it will convert all of its 1 million loyalty cards to prepaid MasterCard cards. Polymath Consulting worked with Diamond Trust Bank (DTB), one of the two issuing banks selected by Nakumatt, and […]
The developed world, especially here in the United States, has a very specific idea of what mobile means, and mobile payments in particular. There are certain technologies that spring to mind as acceptably cutting edge and worth attention, such as apps, QR codes, Square, Apple Passbook and Google Wallet. These technologies are now and ahead […]
By Cynthia Merritt, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta It’s no secret that cross-border travel has involved a lot more restrictions since 9-11. Declaration of assets and physical inspection of luggage and other items are expected, as well as tedious and unpleasant, aspects of a vacation or business trip. That could change soon and not for […]
