PayTech


CFPB: Prepaid Complaints Down in December (Feb. 1, 2016)

Prepaid cards continued to comprise just a tiny percentage of the consumer complaints received by the CFPB, according to the agency’s latest monthly complaint “snapshot” report. During the month of December 2015, the CFPB received a total of 230 prepaid-related complaints (out of 20,388 total complaints), down 11 percent from the 257 complaints it received in November.

Mobile ATM Withdrawals Coming to BofA, Wells Fargo, Chase (Feb. 1, 2016)

Apple Pay is on its way to thousands of ATMs across the country, as Bank of America and Wells Fargo reportedly are working on integrating the mobile payments service into their ATMs. Meanwhile, Chase soon will roll out ATMs that offer cardless withdrawals via the bank’s mobile app.

Viewpoint: Leaders, Learners and Laggards

I talk with a lot of banking leaders who describe their approach to innovation as being a “fast follower. My typical retort is that they are half-right—most of them are definitely followers, but there usually isn’t anything fast about their approach.

Viewpoint: Mobile Wallet Myth-Busting Starts Now

For those of us in prepaid, combating misrepresentation of our products in the media is nothing new. A recent news story claiming banks are leaving customers on the hook for fraud if they use a mobile wallet shows there’s plenty of work to do for new payment methods.

TSYS Makes $2.35 Billion Merchant Service Play (Jan. 27, 2016)

TSYS continued its push to expand its role in the payments value chain with a big move in the merchant services space, reaching a definitive agreement to acquire merchant solutions provider TransFirst for $2.35 billion from current owner Vista Equity Partners.

Report: Fraudsters’ Test Runs Surged in Q4 2015

Cybercriminals could be ramping up their attacks on financial services providers, according to a new study. The fourth quarter of 2015 saw a tenfold increase in “bot attacks”—essentially test attacks meant to gauge the security of targeted systems—according to the report by ThreatMatrix, a San Jose, Calif., cybersecurity company.

Electronic payment volumes and security fears rocket

A survey of more than 3,700 IT security practitioners from more than a dozen major industry sectors found 54% of those firms surveyed had a security or data breach involving payment data, on average four times in past two years.​ The research, independently conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of digital security firm Gemalto, also […]

FTC: Big Data Practices Could Violate Federal Laws (Jan. 25, 2016)

Big data has proven to be a useful tool for retailers and financial services providers seeking to identify customer habits and preferences—but federal regulators are warning that certain uses of consumer information may potentially violate consumer protection laws.

Swift payments innovation initiative gains ground as 45 banks sign up

A total of 45 banks including Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank and many others have signed up to a new payments innovation initiative headed by Swift, which is due to launch early next year. Announced in December, the initiative aims to dramatically improve the customer experience in correspondent banking by increasing the speed, transparency and predictability of cross-border payments.

Banks face new wave of disruption warns report

Following years of mistrust and rivalries, the time has come to reimagine the payments relationships between banks, retailers and fintech firms, according to a joint report from analyst firm Celent and payments systems company ACI Worldwide.

Viewpoint: 5 Banking Trends for 2016

Financial institutions are undergoing a seismic transformation. Digital technology is reshaping what consumers want from their banks and the way they conduct transactions. Let’s take a look at the top five banking trends for 2016.

PrePaid Ventures Buys KEEPS America (Jan. 13, 2016)

PrePaid Ventures, the company behind the Visa-branded NexisCard prepaid program, has bought KEEPS America, which provides prepaid cards for lawsuit, workers’ compensation and Social Security settlement awards.