The European Parliament’s ECON Committee vote on the “Payments Package” has resulted in inconsistent legislative text that differs significantly from the EC draft proposal. With an aggressive timeline for passage, including an April plenary vote, the payments industry needs to make its voice heard on the potentially harmful impacts of the proposed changes.
Minneapolis-based remote deposit capture (RDC) specialist Cachet Financial Solutions has made a major move into the mobile wallet arena, acquiring the moneto mobile payment platform from DeviceFidelity Inc.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch last week began testing a new product in six states that could compete with GPR cards and low-cost bank accounts, such as Moven, Simple and Green Dot Corp.’s GoBank, the latter two of which are Paybefore Awards winners.
McDonald’s Sweden has integrated the SEQR payment service of Stockholm-based software development company Seamless into its own mobile app, enabling customers of the QSR to pay with SEQR.
We may not be the shiny new thing like mobile, but prepaid has a role to play in the new era of payments because it’s accessible to every consumer. For prepaid businesses to stay relevant and take their place in this evolving market, they must hold onto the innovative spirit and keen focus on solving problems that sparked the industry more than 15 years ago.
Prepaid products now have a proven track record in many major European countries, where the industry has begun the process of transitioning from its adolescent phase into one of mature, stable growth.
Many Chicago drivers soon won’t have to dig under the seat for spare change to feed the meter. The city has announced a new initiative to launch a mobile payment system for parking, set for a pilot run in the downtown area this spring, with a rollout throughout Chicago to follow.
Vodafone’s NFC-based mobile wallet and prepaid Vodafone SmartPass Visa account went live this month in Germany, enabling Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica Deutschland mobile network subscribers to conduct contactless and P2P transactions with NFC-ready phones via participating banks.
EMVCo today has released its tokenization specification, and is inviting all payments industry participants to provide feedback.
Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. next month will complete its spinoff from parent Safeway Inc., but the two companies will remain close partners because of a deal Blackhawk inked to extend its role as exclusive prepaid and gift card provider to Safeway through 2019.
MasterCard plans to roll out its MasterPass mobile wallet platform to the United Arab Emirates later this year.
MasterCard and Visa announced the formation of a new cross-industry group focused on enhancing payment system security to keep pace with the expectations of consumers, retailers and financial institutions.
Sally Beauty, the specialty retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies, is the latest retailer allegedly falling prey to hackers—or, at least, becoming the victim of rumors that credit and debit card information and other customer data has been compromised.
With Bitcoin and other digital currencies continuing to stir controversy, one of the main arguments of critics calling for tightly regulating such forms of tender is that the currencies’ anonymous nature makes them conducive to use in illicit activities and transactions. But as a U.S. Congressman points out in a letter to federal regulators, paper money also can be used anonymously for illicit ends—and thus, the tongue-in-cheek missive claims, regulators should turn their attention to banning cold, hard cash too.
BNY Mellon says a global overhaul of its payments infrastructure will position it for “a new era” in payments and fundamentally change its relationship with customers and other financial institutions internationally.
First Data’s plan for its STAR Network to license Visa’s common Application Identifier (AID) could help get the ball rolling for EMV adoption as other debit networks continue to weigh their own options for routing debit transactions under the Durbin Amendment, observers say.
Government agencies using prepaid cards to deliver benefits are seeing solid user satisfaction and improving efficiencies as such programs evolve, amid an environment of pending regulatory changes and heavy scrutiny by consumer advocates, according to a panel of experts convened at the All Payments Expo (APEX) in Las Vegas this week.
Four months after the nationwide rollout of the Isis mobile wallet, two-thirds of Isis users have installed at least one payment card on the wallet, and those users make an average of six to seven NFC-based transactions with Isis each month.
The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed the Consumer Financial Protection and Soundness Improvement Act (H.R. 3193), which combines six bills, approved by the House Financial Services Committee last November, that are designed to bring more accountability, oversight and transparency to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), according to the bill’s supporters.
Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., today are hosting the fifth in a series of hearings to discuss data breaches, their effect and possible methods to prevent them, as the All Payments Expo (APEX) wraps up four days of hot-topic discussions in Las Vegas, including payments security and fraud trends.
The “fractured” U.S. banking system, which shuts out many consumers and fails to provide ideal utility for others, presents a major opportunity for new players to enter the financial services market.
Several trends in retail financial services are bringing together large financial institutions and much smaller startup companies.
Paybefore today announced the Best-in-Category winners in 20 categories for its eighth annual Paybefore Awards.
Mobile payment isn’t about reinventing the wheel – it’s about making merchants and customers’ lives better by establishing a relationship built on knowledge and trust, according to mobile payments platform Znap.
Paybefore held a special 2014 Paybefore Awards presentation on the kickoff day of All Payments Expo (APEX) in Las Vegas today, honoring three winners in the new Consumer Champion category.
Millions of Americans use small-dollar credit products each year to deal with unexpected expenses, smooth income fluctuations or build credit history.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. last week announced plans to adopt Pew’s GPR model disclosure box for its Chase Liquid GPR card, sold only at its bank branches.
InComm has partnered with a major Asian online payment service provider to launch a POS-activated gift card mall platform in Southeast Asia.
The fight against fraudsters who attack prepaid cards is getting some major network muscle. Visa Inc. announced it has completed technical development on the first industry-wide prepaid database to detect and prevent fraud schemes that target prepaid cards.
MasterCard has partnered with mobile technology specialist Syniverse under an audacious plan that aims at nothing less than “bringing mobile financial services to every single mobile user on the planet”.
Owners of the new Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone soon will be able to make in-store payments via their PayPal accounts by just lifting—or rather, swiping—a finger.
Fraud associated with ACH transactions and wire transfers is on the rise, creating fresh challenges for financial institutions already grappling with higher risks from data breaches, malware and account hijacking, according to Fiserv.
Spanish financial services group BBVA has announced it is acquiring Paybefore Award-winning Simple, the Portland-Ore.-based digital banking company founded in 2009, for $117 million.
When upgraded public transit fare-payment systems went live recently in Chicago and Salt Lake City, contactless payment transactions soared into the millions.
MasterCard has entered into an agreement to acquire Chicago-based mobile payment technology provider C-SAM.
The Nevada Gaming Commission has approved the use of prepaid cards for wagering on slot machines in the state.
Amazon has announced that customers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany now can use the e-retail giant’s Amazon Coins in-app currency on all Android-based smartphones and tablets.
What do taxis, the weather, mobile wallets and raincoats have in common? They are all potential variables in determining a person’s daily spend – and they provide a great opportunity for banks to use data to save customers money, according to Aman Narain, global head of digital banking Singapore at Standard Chartered.
Google has acquired Israeli startup SlickLogin, which has developed technology that uses high-frequency sound waves to authenticate user identity when logging into Websites.
With a growing number of U.S. employers offering their employees the option of payroll cards, the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) has joined with consumer advocacy group Consumer Action to develop a pair of guides to help companies and employees learn about payroll cards, including how they work, options for accessing wages and how to avoid or limit fees.
