People on the Move: Thomas Ott, FinCEN
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has named Thomas Ott as associate director for its enforcement division.
Worldwide
People on the Move: Greg Temm, FS‒ISAC
The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS‒ISAC) has appointed Greg Temm to the newly created role of chief information risk officer.
People on the Move: New Board Officers, Incentive Gift Card Council
The Incentive Gift Card Council (IGCC), a strategic industry group within the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA), has elected new officers for 2016-2017. L
Company on the Move: PAI, Best Places to Work Award
Payment Alliance International (PAI), a provider of electronic payment processing solutions, has been honored for the second year in a row by Louisville Business First as a “Best Places to Work” in Greater Louisville award winner.
People on the Move: G. Padmanabhan, Qwikcilver
Indian gifting technology and prepaid provider Qwikcilver has appointed G. Padmanabhan as a strategic advisor.
People on the Move: Ronald Webb, Safaricom
Ronald Webb has joined Safaricom to head the Kenyan telecom operator’s financial services division, which includes the popular M-PESA money transfer service.
People on the Move: Heather Cox, USAA
Former Citigroup fintech head Heather Cox has signed on with San Antonio-based bank USAA.
All the time in the world? Not if you’re an institutional trader
Organisations select a telecommunications provider for different reasons – reliability, global interconnectivity, price and performance are some of the more common drivers – so why do institutional investment arms and FX traders still buck this trend by focusing heavily on network latencies? It is simple, there are very few sectors within international finance where time […]
Green Dot and Uber Expand Debit Card Payments for Drivers
Green Dot and Uber on Aug. 16 expanded the Instant Pay option that enables Uber drivers to quickly get their earnings via debit cards. The expansion builds upon the launch earlier this year of Instant Pay through Green Dot’s Pay Award-winning GoBank mobile checking account, via a special GoBank Uber debit card.
First Multi-Currency Prepaid Card Touches Down on Apple Pay
Apple Pay is getting its first multi-currency prepaid card, as the mobile payment service adds support for Mastercard’s Cash Passport card, issued by Raphaels Bank, the bank announced on Aug. 16.
UnionPay’s Mobile Wallet Debuts in North America
China-based UnionPay on Aug. 16 introduced its QuickPass mobile wallet in Canada, the technology’s North American debut.
Alibaba Buying Its Way into India, Southeast Asia
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. appears poised to continue expanding its multi-billion dollar business into India and Southeast Asia. Alibaba has been in talks with Paytm, an m-commerce platform, to acquire all of Paytm Mall or at least a large share of the company’s marketplace business, according to the Hindustan Times.
Green Dot Walmart Outage Cost More Than $4.4 Million, Impacted 58,500 Customers
A series of technical glitches during Green Dot Corp.’s processing conversion to MasterCard Payment Transaction Services for Walmart’s MoneyCard in May set Green Dot and Mastercard back more than $4.4 million, which includes letting customers keep money that was incorrectly credited to them.
Fintech funding round-up: 15 August 2016
Let’s put the fun in funding by keeping it mercifully brief. A round-up of some key events. Finova Financial’s cloud and mobile-based consumer auto title lending platform raised $52.5 million in a combination of equity and a credit facility, one of the “largest initial rounds in fintech industry history”. The funding round was led by […]
As U.S. Credit Card Debt Increases, Millennials Appear to Turn Away from the Payment Method
U.S. credit card debt increased by $17 billion to $729 billion in the second quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, even as there are indications that millennial consumers are turning away from that payment option.
Tesco’s PayQwik Expands to More Stores
After a successful trial run, UK retail chain Tesco will roll out its PayQwiq mobile payment service in all of its stores by the end of 2016. The QR code-based app is available for Android and iOS and enables shoppers to connect any payment card with American Express, Mastercard or Visa branding.
Reports: China Will Legalize Payments via QR Codes
Chinese consumers could soon make legal payments in that country via their smartphones and QR codes, media reports indicate. Shoppers with such online services as Alipay and Tenpay already use the codes, but they exist “in a regulatory gray zone, banned by the government, yet still continue operating,” according Ecns.cn.
Diebold completes Wincor Nixdorf acquisition
ATM maker Diebold has completed its $1.8-billion acquisition of Wincor Nixdorf. As Banking Technology reported in March, US-based Diebold announced it had met the tender condition for its German rival Wincor Nixdorf. The combined organisation will begin operating as Diebold Nixdorf tomorrow (16 August). The market share of the combined company will be about 35%. […]
Amazon and Facebook power Mizuho innovation
Mizuho Bank has carried out testing for new banking services through the Facebook bot and Amazon Echo. The tests took place in Silicon Valley, California, in partnership with two other Japanese firms – Information Services International – Dentsu and Nomura Research Institute. The companies are looking to use CUI (conversational user interfaces) to develop platforms […]
Counting the cost of legacy systems
There’s both a science and an art to arriving at an estimated return on investment (ROI) when it comes to legacy system replacement, writes Mike Maltby, product manager at Eagle Investment Systems. One of the biggest challenges in the decision-making process to replace legacy technology is demonstrating an ROI. System replacements, described by one consultant as […]
Four to score in ING innovation studio
Four start-ups will enter ING’s Innovation Studio in September to see whether they can make the big time – the launch of a viable commercial business. Axyon AI, Gekko, Startup Insight and Surance will take part in the bank’s accelerator programme, the third of its type, since it began in July 2015. ING selected the […]
Top fintech stories this week – 12 August 2016
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Apple bites back over Australian banks’ “cartel” Don’t team up on them. Thieves steal $72m from Hong Kong Bitcoin exchange Now looking for new funding to compensate its customers. UK challenger Mondo gets banking licence It also needs […]
Two’s the Charm: FinCEN Trying for a Cross-Border Reporting Rule Again
After a previous attempt by FinCEN to implement an anti-money laundering rule stalled and was withdrawn, the agency is planning to reintroduce a version of the rule. A FinCEN spokesman told Reuters the rule is being revised and could be submitted next year.
Can Mobile Ordering Apps Handle Payments?
As mobile app operators try to make lunch easier for workers by enabling them to reserve seats and place lunch orders before arriving at restaurants, questions are being raised about how efficiently those fledgling apps handle payments.
CVS Pay Aims to Eliminate Checkout Pain
The company’s new CVS Pay offers payments, loyalty and prescription management within the CVS Pharmacy mobile app. The service currently is available in some CVS locations in select markets, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, with a nationwide rollout expected to begin later this year, CVS said.
Payza Prepaid Card Broadens Its Horizons
The online payments technology platform provider launched the Mastercard-branded GPR prepaid card late last year in the U.S. and Canada as part of a test before taking the product globally, according to the company.
Kyc.com and Dow Jones team up for compliance drive
Kyc.com is partnering with Dow Jones, Exiger and Regulatory DataCorp (RDC) to drive standardisation and compliance for Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. The alliance plans to deliver an end-to-end KYC process integrating compliance, onboarding, sanctions, screening, negative media searches and client risk assessment across regulatory regimes and multiple jurisdictions. Joel Lange, managing director of Dow […]
Payments round-up: 11 August 2016
They said it. We read it. We edit. Here’s a round-up of events in the payments space to save you time. Payments platform Payza has expanded the availability of its Payza Prepaid Card to the majority of its account holders worldwide. It was initially launched to a “limited group” in December 2015, but Firoz Patel, […]
How Consumers Are Driving Mobile Integration across Retail Channels
In 2016, mobile payment sales are projected to reach $27 billion and users are expected to spend an average of $720, up from $8.7 billion and $376, respectively, in 2015. But exploding mobile adoption is just one of a handful of customer behaviors that are making streamlined, integrated payments a must-have for many retailers.
R3 blockchain consortium gets smart on trade finance
R3 and over 15 of its blockchain consortium member banks have “successfully” completed two prototypes using distributed ledger technology for smart contracts. The banks designed and used self-executing transaction agreements – aka smart contracts – on R3’s Corda distributed ledger platform to process accounts receivable (AR) purchase transactions, aka invoice financing or factoring, and letter […]
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and HSBC team up for blockchain-based trade finance innovation
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) have teamed up to develop a blockchain prototype for trade finance innovation. The consortium uses the distributed ledger framework provided by Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Project; and the proof of concept has reduced manual processing in letter of credit transactions. […]
Oracle’s Micros POS network hacked
Oracle’s global network of 330,000 point-of-sale (POS) payment systems has been hacked by a Russian organised cybercrime group. The breach occurred on the network run by Micros Systems, which Oracle bought in 2014. The incident was first picked up by computer security expert Brian Krebs, who contacted Oracle for comment. The firm acknowledged it has […]
Study: EMV Existence Much More Widespread Than Its Use
Despite the accelerating rollout of EMV debit, the actual use of chip cards at chip-enabled POS terminals has been held back by the “slower-than-anticipated” pace of merchant EMV adoption, with just 4 percent of all debit card transactions with a chip card happening at a chip-enabled terminal, according to the 2016 Debit Issuer Study from Discover Financial Service’s PULSE network, released on Aug. 9.
Apple Pay Vending Machines Are Coming
Mobile payments are coming to more vending machines in the U.S. and Canada, thanks to partnerships between vending operators in both countries with automated retail payments provider PayRange.
Alibaba’s Financial Services Affliate Expands in Europe with Ingenico Deal
An affiliate of China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba will expand its payments prowess in Europe via a deal with Ingenico Group, according to a report. The deal calls for the France-based payments provider to enable customers of Ant Financial Services—an affiliate of Alibaba—to access European offline merchants that are part of the Ingenico network, according to an Aug. 9 report in the Wall Street Journal.
BlueSnap, Visa Checkout Grease Online Shopping Cart Wheels
BlueSnap, a payments technology provider, has partnered with Visa Checkout to help online merchants fight checkout abandonment by providing consumers with an easier checkout process and higher payment conversion rates.
Naspers Gobbles Up India’s Citrus Payments
Naspers, a South-African-based media and Internet company and parent of online payment service provider PayU, is acquiring Mumbai, India-based online payments company Citrus Payments Solutions in a cash deal valued between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 1,200 crore (US$150 million to $180 million), according to The Times of India.
Tullett Prebon teams with GMEX for trading platform launch
Inter-dealer money broker Tullett Prebon has partnered with GMEX Group to develop a hybrid voice and electronic trading platform for FX Options. The new FX Options trading solution will integrate GMEX’s request for quote (RFQ) technology with Tullett Prebon’s existing central limit order book (CLOB) capability. GMEX Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GMEX Group, supported […]
Cambodia’s Prasac launches remote banking with Compass Plus
Prasac, the largest microfinance institution (MFI) in Cambodia, has launched internet and mobile banking services using the TranzWare multi-card processing solution from Compass Plus. Its customers can now transfer money between their accounts, pay bills, top-up their mobile phones, manage their cards, check their balances and get a mini-statement by logging on to their internet […]
Big data is no longer a big deal but smart data is sure a smart strategy
We are all pretty much unanimous that the once IT buzz word “big data” is no longer the awe-inspiring complex beast which can be tamed only by expensive databases and superlative data analytics platforms. Cloud architecture and collaborative open source software brought big data processing within the reach of pretty much all enterprises. Analytics domain […]
