Blog: ‘All in’… ‘Double Down’… ‘Jackpot’…
Why prepaid is a winning play for casinos and their customers
By Alpesh Shah, FIS
Payments
PayPal, Braintree Reach $800 Million Purchase Agreement (Sept. 26, 2013)
It’s official; eBay Inc. has announced it will acquire e-commerce processor Braintree Payment Solutions in an $800 million deal that will bring Chicago-based Braintree under eBay’s PayPal business unit. The two companies were reported to be in negotiations for a sale earlier this week. With the purchase agreement in place, PayPal gains Braintree’s more than […]
MasterCard, Bank of Egypt Unveil Mobile Payments App (Sept. 26, 2013)
The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has partnered with MasterCard to launch a new mobile app that enables users to send money, pay bills and soon make purchases at selected merchants in Egypt and electronic retailers across the globe. Dubbed Phone Cash, the service was developed in conjunction with electronic bill payment provider Fawry and […]
m-POS Rivals Intuit and Square Announce QuickBooks Integration (Sept. 26, 2013)
Capitalizing on explosive growth in the m-POS arena, Square this week announced an integration with Intuit Inc.’s popular QuickBooks business and financial management software, enabling users of Square’s m-POS solutions to automatically import transactions directly into QuickBooks to streamline their operations.
Zagat, i2c Launch Virtual Gift Card (Sept. 26, 2013)
Zagat, known for its ratings guide for restaurants and nightlife, has launched the Zagat Dining Card, an electronic gift card currently accepted at nearly 230 restaurants in New York City.
Payment Networks to Slash Interchange Fees in France (Sept. 24, 2013)
MasterCard and Visa have agreed to cut interchange fees by nearly half in France, striking a deal with the French Competition Authority, the country’s anti-trust regulator. Under the agreement, the payment card networks will lower interchange fees on purchases to 0.28 percent of a transaction’s value starting on Nov. 1. Currently, MasterCard charges .055 percent […]
Facebook Rolls Out ‘Autofill’ Test with PayPal, Braintree and Stripe (Sept. 24, 2013)
Sept. 24, 2013 Will Facebook opt to become an e-commerce payments hub, rather than dive directly into payments? It’s beginning to look that way for now, as Facebook this week rolls out a new “Autofill with Facebook” payments feature for mobile apps, taking care not to step on the toes of merchants’ existing payment processors. […]
Saudi-U.K. Partners Ready for Prepaid Rollout (Sept. 24, 2013)
Today in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, U.K.-based payments technology company Ixaris and Middle East technology provider 3omlti e-Commerce have announced a significant partnership to bring prepaid cards to Saudi consumers and companies. Together the companies plan to use Ixaris’ prepaid platform, known for its virtual prepaid cards, and […]
Report: Greater Input Helps CFPB Avoid Missteps (Sept. 24, 2013)
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is most successful when it solicits wide-ranging input before issuing guidance; when the agency doesn’t is when it could falter, according to a new report by the nonprofit organization Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC).
ACI Gains another Foothold in Bill Pay with $109 Million Acquisition (Sept. 24, 2013)
Sept. 24, 2013 Payment systems provider ACI Worldwide has bolstered its position in the bill payment business with the $109 million acquisition of Official Payments Holdings Inc., which provides bill payment solutions to federal, state and local governments, utilities, higher education institutions and charitable organizations throughout the U.S. Based in Norcross, Ga., Official Payments has […]
ACI Gains another Foothold in Bill Pay with $109 Million Acquisition (Sept. 24, 2013)
Sept. 24, 2013 Payment systems provider ACI Worldwide has bolstered its position in the bill payment business with the $109 million acquisition of Official Payments Holdings Inc., which provides bill payment solutions to federal, state and local governments, utilities, higher education institutions and charitable organizations throughout the U.S. Based in Norcross, Ga., Official Payments has […]
PayPal Reportedly Close to Purchasing E-Commerce Processor Braintree (Sept. 23, 2013)
Sept. 23, 2013 PayPal Inc. reportedly is nearing a deal to acquire e-commerce payments processor Braintree Payment Solutions, which processes nearly $10 billion in annual payments for popular startups, including Uber Technologies, Rovio and Airbnb. Sources familiar with the discussions did not disclose financial terms of the potential deal, and cautioned that the talks could […]
Italian Bank to Offer payleven mPOS System (Sept. 23, 2013)
Europe-headquartered mobile payments provider payleven has inked a deal to make the company’s mobile payment card reader system available to clients of Italian bank BancoPosta.
TransCard Buys PayPartners, Forms Acquisition Division (Sept. 23, 2013)
Sept. 23, 2013 TransCard is continuing its acquisition spree with the announcement last week that it’s acquiring PayPartners Inc., a provider of payroll and other corporate prepaid cards. PayPartners’ platform and cloud-based back-office portal complement TransCard’s services, making it easy to on-board, issue and manage payroll card portfolios, according to the Tenn.-based prepaid processor and […]
Occupy Wall Street Movement Seeks Donations to Launch Prepaid Card (Sept. 23, 2013)
Sept. 23, 2013 Occupy Wall Street’s second anniversary last week did not draw large crowds, but organizers are pushing forward with plans to launch a reloadable prepaid card backed by a nonprofit cooperative, a spokesperson tells Paybefore. The Occupy Card, envisioned as an FDIC-insured Visa prepaid card, is designed so that anyone—including millions excluded by banks—may qualify […]
Google Wallet Connects to iPhone (Sept. 19, 2013)
Google Wallet has cracked the iPhone barrier, proving, some would say, there’s no reason to wait for NFC to advance mobile payments.
Study: Young Consumers Ready for Mobile Payments (Sept. 19, 2013)
Younger consumers likely will lead the charge toward mobile payments ubiquity over the coming years, but they have certain expectations that must be met by providers who seek to harness that demand, according to a new report from payments processor Vantiv Inc.
State Bank of India Taps Yalamanchili for Money Transfer Card (Sept. 19, 2013)
Sept. 19, 2013 The State Bank of India has selected international payments solutions provider Yalamanchili to provide the processing platform for the bank’s new State Bank Xpress Money Card, which enables cardholders to receive instant money transfers from the United Arab Emirates. The prepaid Visa card is co-branded by the State Bank of India and […]
Foundation Seeks Green Light for Bitcoin Campaign Contributions (Sept. 19, 2013)
Sept. 19, 2013 The Bitcoin Foundation is pushing for permission to allow bitcoins as a source of federal political contributions. The trade group this week made its pitch to the U.S. Federal Election Commission in a letter announcing its support for the concept, which the Conservative Action Fund PAC (CAF) proposed earlier this month. The […]
Clear2Pay extends hub to run virtual institutions
Clear2Pay has launched Business-in-a-Box, based on the company’s existing corporate payments hub (CPH) and open payments framework (OPF). The two products are aligned with the company’s new Virtual Vault Account Solution (Vivas) in a package that can be used to establish a virtual financial institution.
SunTec lets Visa put its foot down and Xelerate
Visa Europe is to introduce a new services suite called Xelerate Card Services from revenue management and business assurance firm SunTec, which it will use to track a peak volume of 100 million transactions a day. Xelerate is designed to help bill member banks and approved non-members of Visa Europe in 36 countries. Visa Europe […]
Innovation: there is a better way
Innovation in financial services may not generate products quite so world-changing as the inventions of Edison, but the principle of finding better ways to do something does inform most developments.
PreCash Sees Bill Pay as Acquisition Gateway (September 2013)
Houston-based provider launches bill pay/mobile app combo as ‘ideal hook’ to establish customer relationship that expands to other financial services, including prepaid.
Barclays builds on Pingit head start
Barclays is making a determined effort to capitalise on the two-year lead it has built up with its Pingit mobile payments application with two new applications intended to allow retailers to integrate mobile payments into their services.
Standard Chartered backs mobile wallets
Standard Chartered has launched a mobile wallet service targeted at corporate clients in Kenya. The service has been developed in partnership with Safaricom, which operates the mobile money transfer service M-Pesa. The bank hopes the deal will herald the start of a major drive to open up financial inclusion in emerging markets.
New Age of Bank-Technology Partnerships (September 2013)
The partnerships banks are forming with financial technology suppliers today look very different than routine client-vendor relationships of past decades, and one of the most interesting aspects of the trend is how both sides are transforming each other.
MasterCard Research: Industry Must Bridge Education Gap to Serve Financially Excluded in Europe (Sept. 17, 2013)
Sept. 17, 2013 The prepaid industry has a big opportunity in reaching the financially excluded and underserved across Europe, but it also has a lot of work to do to bridge the consumer education gap, according to new research from MasterCard Worldwide. The payment network today unveiled the “Road to Inclusion,” a report that shows while […]
Visa, Docomo Prep Virtual Prepaid Card in Japan (Sept. 17, 2013)
Visa’s Japanese subsidiary Visa Worldwide (Japan) Co. is joining with mobile telecom provider NTT Docomo Inc. to launch what the companies are calling Japan’s first mobile-based virtual prepaid card for online shopping.
BofA Merrill Offered Faster Corporate Payments to Asia (Sept. 17, 2013)
Sept. 17, 2013 Bank of America Merrill Lynch is aiming to improve the speed and efficiency with which banks and corporations can make high-dollar payments to Asia. The company’s new Accelerated Payments to Asia solution uses smart routing technology to mitigate the difficulties typically faced by corporations making U.S. dollar payments to Asia due to […]
rePower Expands in Europe, Adds paysafecard (Sept. 17, 2013)
Sept. 17, 2013 MasterCard is expanding the reach of its rePower prepaid card reload network to more European nations and adding partners as part of its push to make loading cash onto prepaid cards easier for consumers across Europe, according to Matt Lanford, MasterCard Europe’s head of prepaid. At the 2013 MasterCard Europe Prepaid Conference […]
People on the Move: Ali Nizameddine, Payza (September 2013)
Payza, an online payment platform, has promoted Ali Nizameddine to executive vice president.
Misys modular back office service will streamline and consolidate
Banking software vendor Misys has launched a modular back office service that it says will centralise and consolidate all processing across asset classes, trading systems and branches globally.
People on the Move: Peter Ayliffe, Monitise plc (September 2013)
Monitise plc has appointed Peter Ayliffe non-executive chairman.
People on the Move: Steve Antonakes, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (September 2013)
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently announced that Steve Antonakes has been named deputy director of the agency.
BAML builds single data repository
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) has completed consolidation of client transaction banking data from multiple systems into a single centralised data repository. The service will provide corporate clients with up to 14 months of data online or in file format.
Daily News at Sibos 2013: Day 2
Daily News at Sibos Day 2 2013
Digitisation of cash a focus at Innotribe session
Bitcoin has had a bizarre beginning, full of whats, ifs and maybes. In what seems to be a case of virtual reality came virtual cash, with software written by an anonymous donor and a principle that could play a leading role in the future of online transactions.
MasterCard and EFL partner to underwrite unbanked SMEs
MasterCard and Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL) have announced a global partnership to promote small business growth in developing countries. The partnership, agreed yesterday at Sibos, provides international issuers in developing markets with new tools to help to improve credit underwriting for unbanked small businesses.
