July 30, 2013 A pair of lawmakers is calling on the Federal Reserve to take into account interchange restrictions proposed by European regulators while it formulates its next biennial assessment of interchange fees in the U.S. In a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last week, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Peter Welch […]
July 30, 2013 Thailand’s central bank has effectively banned Bitcoin in the country by declaring it illegal to buy, sell or make purchases with the virtual currency, according to a Bitcoin exchange that had been seeking guidance from the bank. In a message on the Website of Bitcoin Co. Ltd., the Bangkok-based exchange said it […]
One of Forbes’ “Fastest-Growing Tech Companies,” Vantiv talks about its growth since becoming independent and how it sees the payments landscape transforming.
Skrill Group, one of Europe’s largest payment providers, has appointed Jonathan Wood vice president responsible for electronic remittance.
July 2013 SIMalliance, a London-based nonprofit trade association supporting the creation, deployment and management of secure mobile services and applications, has announced its board of directors for the next 12 months. The four permanent SIMalliance board seats, retained by the founding SIMalliance member organizations, will continue to be served by: Frédéric Vasnier, senior vice president, […]
July 2013 Ian Horsted has been awarded the “U.S. Recruiting Network, South Dakota, Top Producer” for the second quarter of 2013, according to R&P Group, a Sioux Falls, S.D.-based payment industry recruiting firm. Over the last seven years, Horsted has become a key partner at R&P as he identifies, evaluates and recruits potential candidates for […]
July 2013 Prosper Marketplace Inc., parent company of peer-to-peer lending marketplace Prosper Funding LLC, has announced that Raj Date, former deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has joined its board. Date is currently managing partner at Fenway Summer, a consumer finance advisory and investment firm based in Washington D.C. Before joining the federal […]
July 2013 MoneyGram International has announced that W. Alexander Hoffmann has been appointed to the global money transfer company’s executive leadership team as senior vice president, global product management and emerging channels. He will lead MoneyGram’s global product portfolio, emerging channels and MoneyGram Online. He has 20 years of experience in payments and cards, online […]
July 2013 Enacomm Inc., a Tulsa, Okla.-based provider of voice processing infrastructure, applications and services, has announced that Michael Kirk will join the company as vice president of business development, channels and alliances. An IT and services veteran, Kirk has more than 25 years of experience with sales, sales management and business development for IVR, […]
July 2013 C-SAM, a Chicago-based provider of mobile transactions technology, has announced that Kurt Weiss and Conrad Sheehan have joined the company as managing director of global financial institutions and vice president and general manager of strategic initiatives, respectively. Weiss will work closely with financial institutions and networks deploying C-SAM’s mobile transaction platform, which enables […]
Spain’s CaixaBank is planning to target Brazil’s payments industry via a new joint venture with US transaction processing firm Global Payments that builds on the bank’s experience of digital channels its home market.
July 29, 2013 Payroll card provider ADP is rolling out a new feature for its Paybefore Award-winning ALINE Pay program aimed at aiding employees to better manage their finances, while helping employers improve electronic pay adoption and streamline payroll management. The new myALINE platform, accessible online and via mobile device, provides ALINE Pay cardholders with […]
July 29, 2013 Cash will be knocked out of its position as the No. 1 form of payment in Canada within the next five years, if present growth trends in mobile, prepaid and online payments continue, a new report suggests. All forms of electronic payment are experiencing substantial growth in Canada as consumers’ use of […]
July 29, 2013 Two-thirds of companies in a variety of sectors reported suspected fraud attempts in the last 12 months, according to a report by IDology Inc., an Atlanta-based identity-verification company. More than one-third of respondents reported that these suspected attempts have increased in the last year, according to the survey’s findings, while 50 percent […]
Financial technology company SIA has acquired Italian telecoms firm Emmecom, as part of a plan to create a new technology infrastructure across Europe for merchants and banks.
Market participants have condemned a proposal in the UK House of Commons that calls for the UK government to consider implementing a tax on high-frequency trading activity in the country.
US post-trade utility the DTCC has agreed to acquire post-trade specialist firm Omgeo, in a deal that it says will help improve collaboration between investment managers, broker-dealers and custodian banks and reduce risk for market participants.
Orange and oil and gas group Total have forged a partnership in Africa and the Middle East, providing access to Orange Money services at all Total service stations in the regions, spanning a total of 13 countries to date.
July 25, 2013 The European Commission (EC) has proposed new regulations curbing interchange fees, including a 0.3 percent cap on credit card fees and a 0.2 percent cap on debit card fees. The caps would also apply to prepaid cards. Interchange fees in the European economic region currently range from 0.1 percent to 2.5 percent […]
July 25, 2013 London-based prepaid voucher provider Ukash has taken the next step in enabling users to turn its virtual vouchers back into cash, striking a deal with ATM operator Bank Machine under which voucher holders can withdraw cash at ATMs. With the new “Ukash Out” function, voucher holders need only to enter a numeric […]
July 25, 2013 U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) this week announced legislation that would prevent “predatory” overdraft practices by banks, such as reordering consumers’ debit card transactions to increase the likelihood that they will overdraw their accounts and incur fees. “Banks should play by the rules instead of purposefully ‘reordering’ their consumers’ debit card transactions […]
Securities trading in France, the Netherlands and Belgium is to move to T+2 settlement in October 2014, following a decision by Euroclear to pre-empt Europe-wide settlement reforms.
Peter Leukert, formerly of NYSE Euronext and Commerzbank, has joined banking and payments technology firm FIS after just 15 months in the job.
A group of Chilean banks working on a new CCP for OTC derivatives have chosen Calypso technology to help build its core clearing platform, in an initiative that highlights Latin America’s efforts to match G20 financial sector reforms.
Bangladeshi bank AB Bank has chosen ElectraCard Services to run its ATM network and process credit and debit cards, as the bank ramps up its drive to increase financial inclusion in the country.
Risk and post-trade processing specialist firm Traiana has appointed Guy Eden, formerly of the London Stock Exchange, as head of product management.
A mobile wallet offering built by Kalixa Group claims to be able to turn just about any phone – including the iPhone – into an NFC payment device. The toolkit has launched in the UK, marking the first step in the firm’s plans for Europe-wide NFC mobile payments.
July 23, 2013 U.S. open-loop prepaid revenue will reach $4.5 billion this year, up 18.4 percent from $3.8 billion in 2012 as growth rates on prepaid load volume, transactions and revenue continue to exceed 15 percent annual growth, according to new data from First Annapolis Consulting. Increasing consumer adoption of GPR products, which accounted for […]
July 23, 2013 A new smartphone-based prepaid wallet launching in the U.K. will enable iPhone and Android users to pay for in-store purchases via tap using NFC technology. First launched in the U.S. last August, the Paybefore Award-winning moneto digital wallet is a joint venture between Kalixa Group, DeviceFidelity and MasterCard. The wallet is powered […]
July 23, 2013 Bank of America Merrill Lynch continues its push to expand the reach and capabilities of its Global Transaction Services (GTS) with the unveiling this week of a new dashboard tool for its commercial card clients around the world. Dashboard Analytics, a module on the bank’s global reporting and account management system, harnesses […]
July 23, 2013 Kimberly Pisinski, a Connecticut-based attorney, yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia claiming that the federal agency engaged in “abusive practices, including attempts to regulate the practice of law, attempts to collect attorney-client protected material and overreaching demands […]
July 23, 2013 A new prepaid MasterCard is coming to Slovenia, now that Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) has unveiled what it calls the nation’s first domestically issued prepaid card bearing the MasterCard brand. The SmartPayCard Prepaid MasterCard is available in two versions: SmartPayCard Simple, a non-reloadable virtual prepaid card, which can be loaded up to […]
India’s ICICI Bank is to launch a mobile payments service built by Movida, the Indian joint venture between Visa and mobile money specialist firm Monitise, that will draw on the potential to reach unbanked customers in the country.
Mobile operator EE is launching a UK mobile payments service called Cash on Tap, in a move that highlights recent efforts across Europe to make mobile payments a reality.
July 22, 2013 Discover cardholders in the U.S. now have free access to cash at 43,000 more ATMs, thanks to a partnership that brings the Discover and Diners Club brands into the Allpoint Network, part of the largest independent ATM provider in the country. The deal enables Discover to provide its cardholders with expanded cash […]
July 22, 2013 With its latest move making it easier for customers to pay using the Square Inc. mobile app, U.S. Bank left no doubt it plans to support multiple digital wallet providers. The Minneapolis bank last week announced that its customers may link a credit, debit or prepaid card to the Square app within […]
July 22, 2013 ICICI Bank customers soon will be able to pay bills, make purchases and reload prepaid airtime from their mobile phones. India’s largest private commercial financial institution today announced a deal with Movida, the joint venture between Visa Inc. and Monitise, which enables consumers to use Movida’s mobile payments technology regardless of phone […]
July 22, 2013 Two distribution deals in the last week promise to increase prepaid card availability for consumers. InComm announced it will be distributing gift cards for Cabela’s through its retail distribution network of 225,000 locations, while rival Blackhawk Network will be rolling out its Gift Card Mall in U.S. Home Depot locations this year. […]
At a passionate debate in Westminster this week MPs, led by Rushanara Ali, member for Bethnal Green & Bow, called for government action in the wake of Barclay’s recent decision to close accounts for a large number of small payments businesses in the remittances sector.
German exchange Deutsche Börse is to launch a new block trading service in partnership with Liquidnet, the buy-side crossing network.
