As companies fight for wallet share, ClassWallet’s focus on bringing efficiency to K-12 education expense management has helped the startup launch a successful digital wallet, prepaid card and online marketplace that could be a springboard to other niche markets.
The U.K.’s Post Office, which has a long history of providing financial services, including prepaid cards, has entered the banking market in a new way with an industry-wide agreement with the nation’s banks going into effect today. From Jan. 24, 99 percent of U.K. personal bank customers and more than 75 percent of business customers can do their day-to-day banking at the Post Office—described as the “biggest expansion in face-to-face banking access in a generation.”
Western Union will pay $586 million in customer refunds and beef up its money laundering and fraud protections. after admitting to criminally violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and federal anti-fraud regulations, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The settlement also involves the Federal Trade Commission and covers conduct that took place between 2004 and 2012.
A new service launched to mitigate customers’ inconvenience if their payment cards are lost or stolen might lead to greater adoption of mobile wallets and be a model for other banks. ANZ, one of the largest banks in Australia, has introduced a service that automatically uploads replacement card details as virtual cards to customers’ m-wallets, while halting activity on the missing physical cards.
U.K.-based Starling Bank has become the “first of the digital-only challengers” to join Faster Payments this week. The 13th direct participant of the Faster Payments Scheme, Starling says its customers will be able to see where their money is flowing and when in real-time, 24/7.
A lone concern by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regarding Mastercard buying VocaLink appears to be nearing resolution, thus paving the way for the card network’s acquisition of the U.K. transaction processor.
Blackhawk Network’s expansion into the incentives industry continues to bear fruit. In its latest partnership, business travel site Upside will be offering its customers incentives, including gift cards from the more than 50 merchants in Blackhawk’s network.
2016 Pay Award winners FIS and Verifone are working together to make it easier (and instantaneous) for consumers to redeem loyalty points, some $16 billion of which are left on the table annually in the U.S., the companies said.
Banks and retailers aren’t the only companies getting into the digital wallet game. Daimler Financial Services, which operates under the same corporate umbrella as the Mercedes luxury car brand, plans to build an electronic payments service via its acquisition of Luxembourg-based PayCash Europe.
Daimler Financial Services is acquiring e-payments services provider PayCash Europe, based in Luxembourg. This will enable Daimler to launch its own e-payments service under the Mercedes Pay brand.
De Surinaamsche Bank (DSB), the largest commercial bank in Suriname, is implementing the latest version of Fiserv’s Signature core banking system and DigitalAccess for digital banking capabilities.
Smooth Commerce and Visa have completed the first integration of Visa’s Developer Programme in Canada and brought to market “a first of its kind innovation” in the mobile commerce space.
A Texas Republican under consideration to lead the CFPB met with President-elect Donald Trump last week, Trump Spokesman Sean Spicer confirmed on a Jan. 12 call with reporters, according to The Huffington Post. Former U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, a long-time critic of the bureau and a proponent of repealing the Durbin Amendment and other aspects of Dodd-Frank, could please financial services providers, while putting retailers on edge.
Gift cards are very good for business, and getting better: 75 percent of U.S. consumers using the payment devices in 2016 spent more during their shopping trips than the value stored on those cards, according to a First Data study. That compares with 69 percent in 2015. The average extra spending stands at $27.74 more than the value of the card, the report said.
With last year’s Brexit decision casting uncertainty on U.K.-based e-money passporting, the Emerging Payments Association (EPA) has released a new report recommending the best options for U.K.-licensed fintech and financial services companies in danger of losing their European Union passporting rights following the U.K.’s exit from the EU.
Following the OCC’s plans for a special fintech bank charter, which has state regulators and a few Democratic senators up in arms, the National Economic Council (NEC) of the U.S., part of the Office of White House Policy, has published a whitepaper, “A Framework for Fintech,” reports Paybefore’s sister publication Banking Tech.
They said it. We read it. We edited. A round-up of the latest funding efforts in the fintech and payments space. Featuring Kasisto, BillGO, Gumption Labs and Fraugster.
Blockchain incubator Adel has unveiled its project framework for people to create a peer-to-peer (P2P) network in retail banking. The firm says it will work in the “same way as Airbnb and Uber revolutionised the hospitality and taxi industries”. “Anyone with a car can be a taxi. Anyone with accommodations can be a hotel. Anyone […]
As you consider a New Year’s resolution to improve fraud prevention in 2017, remember that implementing fraud prevention at the platform level not only protects your merchants, but actually helps you enhance growth and protect margins and profitability.
Blockchain, the foundation for digital currency transactions, shows the potential to create better passenger ID and cut down on fraud targeted at airline loyalty programs.
Card issuers have only a few months to plan and implement the new CFPB rules. For card issuers looking to control costs and maintain more flexibility, now is the time to investigate on-demand card production and lean on the experts to ensure you meet the October 1, 2017 deadline.
All signs point to the rapid nationwide decline in check use being good for consumers, businesses and the financial system. Payments Canada forecasts that by 2020, virtually all checks written by businesses and governments in Canada will have migrated to electronic payments.
Discover and PayPal have reached a deal that will expand PayPal’s POS presence while making Discover a more visible payment option within the PayPal mobile wallet. Under terms of the pact, PayPal will gain access to Discover’s tokenization services, enabling U.S. PayPal customers to use their Discover cards within the PayPal wallet app to make contactless purchases at contactless-enabled merchants that accept Discover.
Credit card surcharges came before the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 10, in a case that concerns how much freedom retailers have in telling consumers they are being charged extra for the payment method. Comments from justices suggested that the Supreme Court might send the case back to New York for further review, though it was unclear when a decision would be announced, according to news reports.
Go big or go home: Fifth Third on Jan. 11 said that its customers can now use five major mobile wallet providers, with debit and credit card purchases via the recently added Android Pay and Microsoft Wallet, along with previous partners Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Masterpass.
Andrew Buckley has been named executive vice president, global prepaid solutions at Mastercard.
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has appointed Green Dot Corp. founder and CEO Steve Streit to its Los Angeles Branch board of directors for a three-year term, beginning Jan. 1, 2017.
Airtel Payments Bank has appointed Dhiraj Sharda as its new chief digital officer ahead of the full launch of the digital banking service throughout India
E-money and payment solutions provider Contis Group has named Neil Delaney as chief commercial officer.
Jay Lerner has been sworn in as the inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
GlobalPlatform, an association which standardizes the management of applications on secure chip technology, has announced its board of directors for fiscal year 2017.
Mastercard has announced three new leadership appointments for its global products and solutions team in Asia-Pacific, based in Singapore.
Corey Besaw has been appointed senior vice president of innovation for Ubiquity Global Services, a multinational services organization offering solutions for the financial services and payments space.
The newly seated 115th U.S. Congress includes several new faces on one of the most important committees for financial services regulation. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) announced 10 new Republican members who will serve on the committee for the new Congress.
Honda and Visa are testing a system that enables a driver to pay for fuel and parking from inside Web-connected cars, the latest development in the emerging Internet of Things, and yet another sign that more payments are moving beyond physical payment cards.
A skirmish over the future of U.S. fintech is underway in the new U.S. Senate, with two Democratic senators this week saying a new federal charter governing the industry “could weaken consumer protections, limit competition and threaten financial stability.”
U.S. adults bought about $46 billion worth of gift cards over the past year—and a significant chunk of that total was comprised of gift cards for self-use, according to a new study by market research firm Packaged Facts. Of the total consumers spent on gift cards, $28 billion was for gift cards given to friends and family, while $11 billion was for gift cards they gave to themselves, the report found. The remaining $7 billion was comprised of gift cards given by companies to their employees.
Ahead of what could be some big changes for the CFPB during the incoming Trump administration, the agency has announced new appointments to several leadership positions.
A major payments battle has come to an end: Walmart Canada and Visa said they have reached a deal that enables consumers to use Visa-branded payment cards at retail locations in that country.
Data analytics and artificial intelligence are on nearly everyone’s 2017 trend-watch lists, but Clarity Money wants to put those same tools directly into consumers hands with an app it says will improve financial well-being and increase users’ financial literacy.
