News
2013 Paybefore Awards Europe: Best Consumer Value in Prepaid/Emerging Payments (June 2013)
The prepaid or emerging payments program or product that delivers the best consumer value proposition for the combination of features, functionality, service and price. Best-in-Category: paysafecard paysafecard, an e-voucher with 16-digit PIN, is sold in 450,000 retail locations, bringing e-commerce to cash customers in 29 European countries at no cost to the customer. paysafecard group […]
2013 Paybefore Awards Europe: Best Incentive, Reward, Rebate or Loyalty Card Program (June 2013)
Best use of a business- or corporate-funded prepaid card to deliver incentives, rewards or rebates to consumers to promote their loyal behavior. Best in Category: Western Union MyWU Prepaid Card Rewards customers for their prepaid transactions by giving them faster money transfers and special offers. The Western Union Company The Western Union […]
2013 Paybefore Awards Europe: Best Gift Card or Voucher Program (June 2013)
Best use of a consumer-funded gift card/voucher or line of gift cards/vouchers. Best in Category: £5 for a £10 Starbucks Card eGift LivingSocial Deal Delivered nearly 65,000 Starbucks Card eGifts from Nov. 29-Dec. 1, 2012, powered by CashStar’s eGifting platform and LivingSocial’s local marketing engine. Starbucks LivingSocial CashStar CashStar, LivingSocial and coffee giant […]
Research: Consumers Clamor for Gift Cards All Year Long (June 18, 2013)
Gift cards continue to get high marks from consumers who like to buy them and receive them, according to research released today by the Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA), a trade association of closed-loop gift card retailers.
Taiwan Continues to Develop M-Payments with Far EasTone Pilot (June 18, 2013)
June 18, 2013 Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., one of Taiwan’s largest telcos, is launching a mobile payments pilot in cooperation with Far Eastern International Bank and MasterCard. The program, scheduled to begin during the second half of 2013, will use near field communication (NFC) technology and be limited to mobile payments under NT$3,000 (US$100.37), according […]
Amazon.com Inc. Is Extending Its Gift Cards to Facebook (June 18, 2013)
Amazon.com Inc. is extending its gift cards to Facebook. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant today unveiled Amazon Birthday Gift, enabling users to surprise their friends on Facebook by purchasing a digital gift card that shows up on the recipient’s Facebook Timeline on his birthday. The social media multiplier effect: Any other friend can add funds to […]
Brokers need to focus on risk management says Tabb Group
Brokers will need to spend more on risk management over the remainder of 2013 if they are to survive incoming financial regulation and new technologies will be required to make that possible, according to new research by Tabb Group.
Innotribe names New York contenders for Sibos showdown
Innotribe, the Swift-backed initiative to enable collaborative innovation in financial services, has announced the names of the five contenders from the US leg of its annual Startup Challenge to compete at Sibos 2013 in Dubai in September.
UK Payments Council plans shared payments infrastructure
The UK Payments Council has published a ‘payments roadmap’, which sets out the steps that could help to build up a shared payments infrastructure in the UK.
U.K. Payments Council Maps Plan to Create 10-Year Industry ‘Roadmap’ (June 17, 2013)
June 17, 2013 The U.K. Payments Council hopes to map the future of its nation’s payment infrastructure by creating a roadmap for the next decade, drawing broad input from government, business, charity and consumer groups, the London-based organization announced today. In “Payments Roadmap—An Initial Report,” the council outlined an approach to nurturing development of the […]
MTS unveils European swaps trading platform
Fixed income trading venue MTS is to launch a new platform called MTS Swaps designed for buy-side firms that want to have more control over how they trade interest rate swaps.
Bank of Korea embraces Calypso STP technology
The Bank of Korea has installed a new system from technology company Calypso that will help it better manage the country’s sovereign reserve.
Payments validation in the cloud through new UK service
A new cloud-based payments validation, enrichment and account conversion service has been launched by UK start-up Apply Financial. Called Validate, the service enables banks, non-banking financial institutions, corporates and individuals transferring money internationally to check and validate that international payment details are correct.
Indian SMEs in crosshairs at Western Union and IndusInd Bank
India’s IndusInd Bank and Western Union have created a partnership designed to make foreign exchange and global business easier for SMEs in India.
The future of payments: beware of the dud?
The financial services sector needs to be wary of payments solutions that may be solving phantom problems that are of little relevance to the consumer, according to speakers at the Experian payments conference in London on Tuesday.
Doubts cloud UK Treasury retail competition plans
UK Treasury officials and senior bank representatives showed diverging views over the future of retail banking at an event hosted by Experian in London yesterday, revealing differences of opinion about how best to reform the sector.
New CHAPS mechanism reduces intraday liquidity demands on members
A new Liquidity Savings Mechanism for CHAPS clearing members is showing significant improvement in liquidity efficiency after its first two months of operation. Members of the CHAPS Clearing Company, the organisation responsible for the operation of the UK’s same-day high-value payment system, began using the new LSM in April. Developed by the Bank of England, […]
Accounting for the value of (big) data
While the value of data has become increasingly clear to businesses in the wake of the financial crisis and subsequent regulatory and compliance initiatives across Europe, they are not yet reflecting data as a valued asset on their balance sheets.
Tradition reveals Volatis volatility trading service
Interdealer broker Tradition has released a new hybrid trading service for volatility futures, Volatis, which aims to improve transparency, liquidity and participation in volatility futures.
MoneyGram forges deal with Lebara Mobile for international money transfers
MoneyGram has forged a deal with European mobile telecom operator Lebara Mobile.
Stopping Tax Refund Fraud in Its Tracks (June 2013)
Strong customer authentication and account monitoring are keys to preventing tax refund/benefits fraud on prepaid cards. By Loraine DeBonis, Editor-in-Chief As identity theft increases in the digital age, fraud perpetrated with stolen identities has risen dramatically. And, tax refunds have become a target for fraudsters. Tax-related identity theft jumped more than 650 percent between 2008 and […]
“Disruptive” Spanish and Portuguese start-ups to showcase talent in Madrid
A new joint project between Spanish financial services project Next Bank Madrid and Swift’s Innotribe innovation wing aims to unleash the potential of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American start-up companies in financial services.
London financial jobs scene showing upward trend
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.
Apple Grows Payments Patent War Chest (June 10, 2013)
Just days before Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which runs all this week in San Francisco, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted Apple another patent that could be a signal of what the tech giant is planning for mobile payments. The patent relates to a “method and system for managing credits […]
Green Dot to Replace GE Capital as Walmart MoneyCard Issuer (June 10, 2013)
Green Dot Corp. will benefit from its exempt status from debit interchange caps by becoming the issuer of one of the largest GPR programs on the market—the Walmart MoneyCard. Green Dot Bank, which also serves as the issuer for Green Dot’s GPR cards, replaces GE Capital Retail Bank, which is bowing out of the relationship […]
