MasterCard has formed a deal with electronic payments processing company Emerging Markets Payments to sponsor issuers in Egypt and other African markets, in a move intended to help small issuers reach the region’s unbanked population.
Mobile banking may be on the rise around the world but the bank branch is not dead, according to new research by IT firm GFT Technologies.
Could college campuses serve as labs for U.S. NFC payment adoption? The answer may depend on the results of pilots launched last month at two midsize universities.
Square Inc. is turning up the heat in the m-POS race with a major promotion with Staples to drive sales of its Square Stand POS solution to smaller brick-and-mortar merchants.
Borrowers of short-term and payday loans use up to an average of 36 percent of their periodic wages to pay back those loans—far more than they typically can afford, according to a new report from The Pew Charitable Trusts, which calls on regulators to make such loans safer and more transparent. “Payday Lending in America: […]
Mobile payments are spreading fast in Brazil, with nearly half of the country’s consumers having made a purchase on a tablet device between May and June 2013, while almost 30 percent did so via a mobile phone, according to a new study. The research, conducted by Mobi.life on behalf of Brazilian mobile payments company Pagtel, […]
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) late last week issued a fact sheet on Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act, offering guidance to help financial institutions understand permissible use of information sharing related to AML and counter-terrorist financing efforts. The fact sheet highlights the benefits of sharing information, which organizations are eligible to participate […]
South Africa’s Nedbank has opened a bank branch powered entirely by renewable energy, a move that it claims is the first of its kind in Africa.
India’s first all-female bank, Bharatiya Mahila Bank, plans to open on 19 November, the birthday of former Indian female Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Andrea Galeazzi, director of network services at Italian payments and technology infrastructure company SIA, has taken up a new role as chairman at Italian telecoms firm Emmecom. The move is part of SIA’s acquisition of the smaller firm, which took place in July and forms a key part of its European expansion plans.
Citibank and mobile operator 3 Hong Kong have co-launched an NFC mobile wallet in the form of a sticker for iPhone and mobile app for Android.
The high double-digit growth numbers in prepaid fall to single digits as the industry faces regulatory uncertainty and a sluggish economic recovery.
Just over a year since launching the Bluebird prepaid card with American Express, retail giant Walmart is expanding its suite of prepaid products, adding six new cards to its Paybefore Award-winning line of GPR cards—all issued by Green Dot Corp.’s Green Dot Bank. Four of the new cards will be under Walmart’s own MoneyCard brand. The […]
Payroll cards are coming under fire again, after lawmakers in Pennsylvania last week proposed a ban on all payroll cards and a new lawsuit filed in federal court in California alleges payroll card abuses by a major U.S. apparel maker. The moves suggest more challenges ahead for payroll card companies, which came under attack earlier […]
Citibank Hong Kong and 3 Hong Kong, the mobile operation of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Ltd., have launched 3 Citi Wallet for mobile subscribers of 3 Hong Kong and Citibank Visa cardholders.
Google’s latest Android mobile operating system includes a new feature that could enable Google Wallet to cut out telecom providers as middlemen for NFC applications.
Jon Sarvis has been named CEO of TMG Financial Services (TMGFS), a Des Moines, Iowa-based payments solutions provider.
ProPay, a merchant services provider and TSYS company, recently was recognized as the top online payment service by merchants participating in the EcommerceBytes awards survey.
Payveris, a Wethersfield, Conn.-based online and mobile payments company, has expanded its executive leadership team with the addition of industry veterans Rich Pelikan and Mickey Goldwasser.
China Financial Futures Exchange has signed a deal with Nasdaq OMX to strengthen cooperation and promote mutual development, in a move that will likely see Nasdaq technology expand into China.
Starbucks, arguably the largest mobile payments operator in the world with its wildly popular closed-loop mobile app, grabbed attention late Wednesday with news that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has resigned from Square Inc.’s board after 15 months.
Growth of the open- and closed-loop prepaid card markets will be slower than previous years as the industry weathers a stubbornly sluggish economy and regulatory uncertainty, according to Mercator Advisory Group. Total loads on open-loop cards, which include GPR, payroll, open-loop gift and unemployment benefits, will drop from a previously forecasted 21 percent compound annual […]
Mobile POS payment startup LoopPay Inc. is getting out of the gate fast, inking a deal to distribute its dongle-based mobile wallet to college students through marketing and payments provider Campus Nation Network (CNN).
More than 12.5 million Americans already are taking advantage of mobile bill payments, but the untapped potential of the market could be worth $2.1 trillion, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. That’s the total amount Javelin estimates Americans spend annually on seven essential bill types: open-loop credit cards, store-branded credit cards, […]
Pioneer Islamic bank Islami Bank Bangladesh is planning a rapid expansion of its ATM network, using a platform for its debit cards and ATMs provided by tech firm ElectraCard Services.
Portugal’s Caixa Geral de Depositos bank is planning to grow its trading business in Brazil, using a hosted service provided by SunGard.
Clear and effective legislation could result in a beneficial change for business. An unclear and ineffective one would result in another obstacle to a “further integrated and efficient European payments market,” which the commission has set as the first objective the Payments Package should achieve.
Uganda’s Crane Bank has chosen a core banking system from Temenos, together with various add-on systems, to support the bank’s Uganda head office as well as its expansion into neighbouring Rwanda.
Furness Building Society has chosen a mortgage and savings suite from vendor Sopra Banking Software, to act as the society’s core banking platform. The new system is intended to help the society become more flexible and develop new products, especially online products.
Moscow Exchange has opened its new cleared OTC derivatives market, marking a major step towards Russia’s G20 commitments. But some observers still have doubts about Russia’s reputation as an investment destination.
The value of international money transfers made via mobile phones will exceed $10bn for the first time this year, according to Juniper Research. However, the cost and complexity of regulating cash transfer has led many service providers to focus exclusively on airtime top ups, the research firm reported.
Rakuten Securities is planning to become the first broker-dealer in Japan to use Chi-X Global’s smart order routing technology.
Japanese mobile telecom provider NTT Docomo is partnering with MasterCard to enable users of Docomo’s iD mobile wallet to make contactless purchases at 1.2 million MasterCard PayPass acceptance locations worldwide.
First Data Corp., an Atlanta-based payments processor, has acquired Perka, provider of a mobile marketing and consumer loyalty platform enabling small to midsize merchants to better engage with customers through location-based smartphone apps. Perka will continue to operate autonomously as an entrepreneurial company led by its current management and product development team, according to an […]
U.S. Bank next month will roll out Mobile Photo Balance Transfer, a feature from Mitek Systems enabling customers to apply for a credit card balance transfer by snapping a photo of a credit card bill with a smartphone and sending it to the bank. Standard credit card approval processes apply. The new service rounds out […]
Workers are highly motivated by rewards and inventive programs provided by their employers, with nearly three-quarters of employees saying they would put in extra effort to earn rewards, according to a new study from U.K. payment provider Ixaris. The company’s 2013 Study of Rewards and Incentives polled 4,800 workers in the U.S., U.S., Canada, France […]
Germany’s Eurex and Austria’s Vienna Stock Exchange have formed an index licencing agreement that will see Eurex list new futures and options based on leading indices of the Vienna Stock Exchange.
Cloud computing company SAP has signed a deal with Citibank for a major new cloud platform that promises to simplify corporate to bank connectivity for some of the world’s largest banks, Banking Technology has learned.
Standard Chartered has completed the rollout of its corporate actions platform across 39 countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, which the bank says will help clients cut costs and reduce their corporate actions risk exposure.
PayPal on Oct. 25 announced a new partnership with Kenya’s Equity Bank to link local merchants with the global online marketplace. Kenya’s e-commerce operators for the first time will be able to hold proceeds from online sales in a local bank account where they may receive payments in 26 different currencies, which are automatically converted […]
