Chinese consumers soon will have a sizable selection of m-wallets to choose from as the country is becoming awash with big players in the m-wallet space. Both, Apple and Samsung Electronics, late last week announced deals with China UnionPay. Meanwhile, the road continues to be rocky for Apple in Australia, where banks have agreed to work with Android Pay, but not Apple Pay.
Up to 10 startups will join the FIS fintech accelerator, giving those fledging companies a chance to learn more about the industry from seasoned professionals.
As the issuance of EMV cards continues to grow, consumers are using their chip cards to buy sporting goods and pay for parking, according to new data from CardFlight.
The CFPB needs to return to its original plans on prepaid regulations and put its proposed rules on a New Year’s diet. By issuing rules focusing solely on disclosure, the CFPB could issue guidance earlier in 2016 that would help consumers, prevent access disruptions, and potentially reduce the size of the landfill needed to for the mountains of noncompliant cards and marketing materials.
Operational risk and cyber-security concerns are converging as a topic for risk managers, who also face a changing agenda resulting from the digital transformation of baking and financial services.
The CFPB yesterday released its “Safe Student Account Toolkit,” which includes a scorecard to help colleges pick the best school-sponsored deposit or prepaid accounts for their students.
In a deal that will bring together two major players in the merchant acquirer processing business, Global Payments Inc. has reached an agreement to purchase Heartland Payment Systems Inc. for $4.3 billion.
Global Processing Services (GPS) has a new testing ground for its payments solutions, now that the Dubai-based processor has licensed the T3 test platform from Iliad Solutions Ltd. to provide functional and load testing capabilities for GPS’s prepaid and debit products.
A new transaction tool for one of the country’s largest e-commerce platform providers will enable more online merchants to accept installment payments from shoppers with credit cards.
A range of financial services and technology firms are backing efforts by The Linux Foundation to develop “an enterprise grade, open source distributed ledger framework”.
R3, the bank-led consortium developing the use of distributed ledger technology in financial services, has added 12 new banks as it looks at how to extend its activities to work with buy-side and non-bank institutions in the New Year.
InComm is tapping into consumer preferences by connecting eBay shoppers with its gift card partners through a proprietary storefront exclusively on the e-commerce site.
Users of the popular Dunkin’ Donuts payment and loyalty app now can use Apple Pay to purchase, gift or reload virtual Dunkin’ Donuts Cards to fuel the retailer’s mobile app. The integration began on Dec. 7, in time for the holiday gifting season and adds another use case for Apple Pay.
China-based payments giant UnionPay has launched QuickPass, a mobile payments service with more than 20 bank partners and acceptance at more than 10,000 retail locations. That deep roster of launch partners could help state-run UnionPay compete with privatelyheld players in the Chinese m-payments sector, most notably Alibaba and Tencent.
London-based B2B fintech company Currency Cloud recently released a trend report revealing the need for faster, less expensive and less complicated ways to make cross-border business payments. With $18 million in funding fueling its U.S. expansion, Currency Cloud says it’s taking on those cross-border pain points.
Cashless payments are growing around the world as more people have access to bank accounts, but only at a slightly faster rate than ATM withdrawals, indicating that cash still has a strong hold.
The UK has made a good showing in a new report, the Fintech 100, with 12 start-ups from the UK’s fintech eco-system featuring on the report’s 50 ‘Emerging Stars’ list – the most from any single country – but the Chinese are fast catching up.
Six out of 10 chief financial officers from mid-market and large corporate firms in the UK say they would like to see the same flexible payments technology in their business’ finances as they enjoy in their personal finances, according to a survey by HSBC.
The Bancorp Inc. has named John Chrystal as interim CEO of the company and president of subsidiary The Bancorp Bank. A member of the Bancorp board of directors, Chrystal will replace Frank Mastrangelo, who will continue to serve the company in the newly created role of technologist in residence.
Big box retailer Walmart has joined the plethora of m-wallets on the market with its launch of Walmart Pay, but the retail giant says it’s committed to MCX’s CurrentC. And, even though the move could be a boon for Walmart, analysts say it doesn’t really go head-to-head with Apple Pay and other wallets usable at multiple retailers.
A new partnership between Germany’s Wirecard Group and Alipay will enable Chinese travelers to make POS payments in Europe using the Alipay mobile wallet. The initiative will give European brands and retailers access to the $165 billion Chinese tourism market—and Alipay’s more than 400 million active users.
The US and eurozone countries both look set to have live real-time payment infrastructures by the end of 2017, both using the ISO 20022 for real-time messaging standard.
Swift is planning to launch a global payment innovation initiative, which it says will dramatically improve the customer experience in correspondent banking by increasing the speed, transparency and predictability of cross-border payments. The platform is due to launch early next year.
Alternative trading system Chi-X Canada has been bought by Nasdaq, as part of a push by the global exchange group to grow its presence in North America’s largest country. The deal is expected to go through in Q1 next year.
Financial institutions are increasingly switching their investment towards smaller, shorter, cheaper technology projects rather than large initiatives, according to the results of a new survey published by technology and PR consultancy CCgroup. The results also suggest that uptake of cloud services is rising as cost pressure push firms to lower costs.
It’s almost become a holiday tradition for Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to propose prepaid legislation in December. His previous three attempts went nowhere, but this time he proposed his bill in November. Still, more pressing issues, such as spending and cybersecurity, may keep his measure on the back burner for now.
With EMV technology increasing security for card-present transactions, fraudsters are shifting their focus to the card-not-present (CNP) environment, including online, mobile and phone purchases—but new market entrant Tender Armor has a plan to increase security for CNP transactions.
Consumers are hot for gift cards this holiday, but more are turning to online and mobile channels to purchase virtual and physical cards, new data from InComm show.
The European Union’s cap on fees banks can charge retailers for processing credit and debit card payments went into effect today, but there are some questions whether the measure will have the desired effect.
Paysafe Group, a global provider of online payment solutions, has appointed Gavin Haycock to the newly created role of senior vice president, corporate communications.
BlueSnap, a global payments technology company, has hired three top executives with more than 70 years of combined payments and technology experience: Scott Fitzgerald, Bob Botelle and Scott Conti.
InAuth, a provider of solutions that help businesses limit risk, reduce fraud and enhance authentication within their digital channels, announced the addition of key staff and the opening of its European headquarters in London.
Digital wallet technology provider suretap has appointed Almis Ledas, an experienced executive in the Canadian mobility and mobile payments ecosystem, as its president.
Don Andrews, a compliance and risk management attorney with experience in regulatory enforcement and the corporate suite, has joined law firm Venable LLP as a partner in the New York City office.
Financially underserved Americans spent $138 billion in fees and interest in 2014, up 7.6 percent from the previous year, according to a new study from the Center for Financial Services Innovation and Core Innovation Capital. The survey results highlight the opportunity presented by the underbanked segment for financial services providers that can provide innovative solutions to help those consumers improve their financial security.
The FTC has banned telemarketers from accepting four types of payments—among them are cash reload mechanisms. The ban is supposed to help shield consumers from fraudulent telemarketers.
After adding a loyalty component to its mobile wallet last month, Canada-based suretap is working with mobile technology provider and sister company EnStream to test a program with the Société de transport de Montréal enabling commuters to pay transit fares using their mobile wallets.
The number of CFPB employees grew to 1,529 in 2015, from 1,443 the previous fiscal year, according to the agency’s financial report for the 2015 fiscal year, ended Sept. 30. The CFPB collected civil penalties totaling $183.1 million from 37 cases in 2015—a substantial increase from the $77.5 million collected in 2014.
Employment prospects in the UK finance and banking sector in the New Year are the brightest in the past three years as high profile data breaches, such as those at TalkTalk and Sony, create a surge in demand for cyber-security experts.
The CFPB has denied UniRush’s petition to narrow the scope and extend the time the company has to produce documents for a bureau investigation following an October system outage that left some RushCard cardholders without access to their account information and, in some cases, their funds.
