A fluctuating economy has made for a more dynamic prepaid market, benefiting some segments and causing slower growth in others, according to Mercator Advisory Group’s “11th Annual U.S. Prepaid Cards Market Forecasts, 2014-2017.”
Merchants using “Google Wallet for digital goods” to accept online payments on their Websites soon will have to find a new provider, and consumers no longer will be able to check out with the Google Wallet for digital goods when buying digital merchandise.
UK bank TSB is emphasising its shift to customer-friendly online services as it seeks to redefine itself in the wake of its split from Lloyds Banking Group last year.
The securities industry is suffering from “innovatism”, a serious disease that if untreated could result in significant damage by detracting attention away from genuine business growth. At the same time, commercial pressures could force radical change in several areas of the capital markets, according to panellists at a debate hosted by Mondo Visione this week.
The prepaid industry was well-represented at today’s CFPB field hearing on prepaid accounts in Wilmington, Del. The consensus among industry experts was that the popularity of prepaid products continues to grow and that the NPRM is the next step in the evolution of the industry, as the rules could create a level playing field for prepaid providers.
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.
Controversy over the handling of derivatives dominated talk at the Mondo Visione Exchange Forum this week, where panellists contested the value of interoperability and whether CCP contagion might bring down the financial system.
The wait is over. In advance of today’s field hearing, the CFPB has released its proposed consumer protections for the prepaid market. Read the NPRM as well as proposed “Know Before You Owe” disclosures.
It’s an odd juxtaposition that the day before our nominations are due for the 2015 Paybefore Awards, the CFPB is holding a field hearing on prepaid. My hope is that the visionaries that make Paybefore Awards a remarkable annual event also make their voices—and those of their customers—heard, as the rules go from proposal to regulation.
We have the opportunity to make a difference, to be part of the process and to influence the outcome of prepaid regulations.
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.
InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions is expanding its Paybefore Award-winning cashback program for prepaid incentive cards to the Discover and MasterCard networks, the Fenton, Mo.-based firm announced today.
Square, considered by many to be a trailblazer in the arena of mobile card readers that plug into smartphones, today has announced the San Francisco-based company is accepting pre-orders from U.S. merchants on a new Square reader that accepts EMV chip cards.
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.
Capital markets firms often have little idea how much they are spending on technology and even less control, according to a new report by Tabb Group and Thomson Reuters. The report’s authors call for greater emphasis on data, which could help to save the half a million dollars per front office employee spent on technology every year.
The Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit institution founded to promote bitcoin use, has appointed Patrick Murck executive director.
ClassWallet has appointed Neil Steinhardt senior vice president.
Payment technology supplier FIS has appointed Gary Norcross president and CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2015. Frank Martire, who has served as the company’s CEO for five years, will assume the role of executive chairman.
IP Payments Pty. Ltd. has appointed Bonnie Boezeman chairperson of its board of directors.
IQR Consulting has hired Terresa Patton as business development director to support the company’s analytics division.
Meta Financial Group Inc., has been recognized in Bank Director Magazine’s 2014 Bank Performance Scorecard as earning the highest ranking among peers in South Dakota with an asset range of $1 billion to $5 billion.
Payveris, an online and mobile payments company, has appointed Jeff Weikert president. Fran Duggan the founder and president of Payveris is moving to the newly created role of chief operating officer.
Stockholm-based Seamless, developer of the mobile payment solution SEQR, has hired Beverly Cole as its U.S head of sales
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.
Skrill, provider of online payment technologies to merchants and consumers, and Microsoft4Afrika, an initiative launched last year to help accelerate Africa’s economic development and to improve its global competitiveness, together are launching an e-commerce portal enabling Africans to use their mobile wallets to buy from global Internet brands, access free educational content and use Microsoft software.
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.
Payments industry executives at the CARTES Secure Connexions conference in Paris last week were bullish about NFC’s future in mobile payments, but most agreed banks and merchants still face plenty of challenges in crafting their individual mobile strategies.
A landmark deal between China’s Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges is set to open up unrestricted access to the China A-shares market to foreign investors for the first time, starting this month. The deal also reflects the rising internationalisation of the Chinese renminbi currency worldwide.
Brooklyn Nets basketball fans can use their smartphones to purchase refreshments at the Barclays Center as part of a pilot program for the Brooklyn eWallet by American Express, the Barclays Center and the Nets.
As payment options multiply, Fiserv Inc. wants financial institutions to be able to serve their customers no matter how or when they want to pay.
One of the biggest obstacles to consumer adoption of NFC- and EMV-enabled mobile payments over the next 12 months is the lack of a compelling enough reason for consumers to change how they pay, according to a recent survey of payment executives.
In the past few days, payments processor Heartland Payment Systems has acquired XPIENT Solutions, a food-service industry POS software provider; and JetPay Corp., a provider of prepaid card services, debit and credit card processing and payroll services, acquired ACI Merchant Systems LLC, a debit and credit card processing company.
The time, date and location have been set for the CFPB’s field hearing on prepaid cards this week. The hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. EST, Thursday, in the conference center at Delaware Technical Community College, 333 N. Shipley Street, Wilmington, Del. Paybefore CEO Marilyn Bochicchio will be in attendance to report on the hearing.
JP Rangaswami has been appointed as chief data officer at Deutsche Bank, a newly-created role in which he will “play a key role in standardising the bank’s processes, tools and governance around information and in supporting its digital strategy”.
The Financial Stability Board is proposing a new minimum standard for total loss-absorbing capacity, which is designed to provide confidence that systemically important global banks can absorb losses without upsetting financial stability and the wider economy.
Standard Chartered and Clearstream have implemented a new service to help customers in Singapore make more efficient use of collateral, as tough new financial regulations drive investor fears of an impending collateral shortfall.
The current boom in mobile commerce technologies is giving small and medium businesses an array of powerful new tools with which to manage payments—and beyond.
Attendees at the 29th gathering of CARTES concluding today in Paris noticed the event’s growing emphasis on mobile payments, as well as another striking feature of the show—drawing 20,000 attendees from 140 countries—is the diversity of products and business models mobile payments support.
A group of state and national merchant associations, 44 in all, sent a letter to congressional leaders today calling for the establishment of a single, national standard for notifying American consumers when businesses suffer a breach of security involving financial data or other sensitive personal information.
The time is right for a new breed of digital-only banks to enter the market and steal away share from the established players, according to a new report by Monitise.
