PayTech


N.Y. Facing BitLicense Backlog after Lawsky Departure

New York State’s pioneering BitLicense program could be losing momentum after the departure of New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) head Benjamin Lawsky last year. The state has issued just two BitLicenses since enacting the program in June 2015, shortly before Lawsky left the agency. Another 15 licenses are pending, while four applications have been withdrawn and four others have been denied, according to Reuters, citing an NYDFS spokesperson.

MasterCard unveils new blockchain

MasterCard has unveiled its own blockchain as it reacts to arch-rival Visa’s partnership with Chain and seeks to use the technology in payments and trade finance. Its version is currently at the testing stage and offers the usual things in this corner of the fintech world. These include smart contracts – scriptable transactions that automate […]

Fed Seeks Industry Input on Payments Security by Nov. 8

As part of its mission to improve the U.S. payments system, the Federal Reserve’s Secure Payments Task Force is seeking industry input on ways to beef up security. Industry members can provide comment through online surveys, which are separated into the task force’s three areas of focus: payment identity management, information sharing for the mitigation of payment risk/fraud and data protection.

NRF Study Projects Post-Election Holiday Shopping Surge

Election-season politics are taking up ad space typically used to get holiday shopping on the minds of consumers—but observers predict a post-election surge as Americans finally get into the holiday shopping spirit. And much of that spending will be on gift cards—both as gifts for others and for self-use.

India, Singapore Banks Launching Sound-Based Payment Services

Audio-based payments continue to make noise with India’s YES Bank enabling payments via sound waves over its mobile wallet and OCBC Bank becoming the first in the Asia Pacific region to enable secure payments via Apple’s Siri service.

Earthport revenue and payment volume take off

Earthport, a cross-border payments service provider, has revealed its revenues increased 18% to £22.8 million for the full year (FY) 2016 – powered by the rise in payment volume and transaction numbers. For the year ended 30 June 2016, it says payment volume increased to more than $11 billion, a 64% increase prior to the […]

“Outstanding sales” boost Fiserv revenue

Fiserv’s GAAP revenue increased 5% in the third quarter to $1.38 billion, with 8% growth in its payments segment and 2% growth in the financial segment, compared to Q3 2015. The firm also released figures for the first nine months of 2016, with GAAP revenue rising 5% to $4.07 billion, with 8% growth in the […]

Report: Consumers’ Use of Mobile Devices in Stores Stops at the Register

U.S. consumers’ usage of mobile devices in-store ranks as one of the highest compared with shoppers in other countries. However, their use of mobile devices at the POS drops dramatically, according to the 2016 FutureBuy report, which tracks trends in online, mobile and brick-and-mortar shopping. The results indicate that payments providers have work to do to convince shoppers m-wallets are worth the effort.

Money20/20: The Future ATM Features Biometrics, Leaner Look

Sleek, small, clean and thumbprint-operated—a new Diebold Nixdorf ATM shown off at this week’s Money20/20 show in Las Vegas points toward the future of cash distribution, and speaks to the spreading potential of biometrics in payments.

Discover Global Network Brings Startups into Global Spotlight at Money 20/20

Last month, Discover Global Network announced its support of two fintech scholarship contests hosted by the Center for Financial Services Innovation, an authority on consumer financial health, and Gefen Capital, an investment group representing U.S. and Israeli investors that focuses on investing in Israeli startups. The contest winners, Lenny, Debitize, and PayKey, received financial awards from CFSI and Gefen Capital, and were given the opportunity to demonstrate their unique solutions in the DGN exhibition booth onsite at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, the largest payments and innovation conference in the world.

People on the Move: Tiffani Montez, Aite Group

Financial services research and advisory firm Aite Group has hired Tiffani Montez as a senior analyst in its retail banking and payments practice, where her research will span card issuance for prepaid, credit and debit cards.

People on the Move: Joel Sherwin, Neopay

London-based compliance consultancy Neopay recently opened a U.S. office in Los Angeles to serve clients on both sides of the pond and named Joel Sherwin president of U.S. operations.

People on the Move: Gerd Schenkel, Tyro Payments

Gerd Schenkel has been appointed CEO of Tyro Payments, an Australian financial institution specializing in acquiring, where he will be tasked with leading the company’s growth and public advocacy activities.

CFPB Snapshot: Prepaid Complaints Drop 21% from Previous Month

It may come as no surprise that the CFPB’s latest monthly complaint snapshot released Oct. 25 focuses on complaints related to prepaid products, considering the agency released its long-awaited final prepaid accounts rule earlier this month. But despite the bureau’s contention that “the report shows that consumers continue to experience issues trying to manage their accounts and access funds,” prepaid-related complaints to the bureau dropped 21 percent in September.

Money20/20: Samsung Pay Expands Globally via Mastercard and Deals

Samsung Pay is expanding. The mobile wallet early next year will offer the Masterpass online payment service from Mastercard to Samsung Pay users. That comes as Samsung Pay deploys to Malaysia, Russia and Thailand, putting the mobile wallet in 10 countries total, executives said this week at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas.

Money20/20: Blackhawk’s Roche on Harnessing Brand Power

Payments are moving up the value stream and becoming an engagement platform, moving beyond the transfer and settlement of funds to more deeply connect a consumer and brand. In this environment, payment providers—including those in the gifting and rewards verticals—can leverage the popularity of other brands to improve their own value and stand out from the pack. Those were among the main takeaways from a Money20/20 keynote from Talbott Roche, president and CEO, Blackhawk Network.

Money20/20: Walmart Pay Lessons Learned—and the Road ahead

With Walmart Pay showing strong growth since launching earlier this year, Walmart’s Daniel Eckert—one of the main architects of the service—provided some insights into the motivation behind creating Walmart Pay and what’s in store for the service. Speaking in a Tuesday afternoon session at Money20/20 in Las Vegas, Eckert characterized Walmart Pay as an effort to improve the checkout experience in particular.

TSYS Signs on as Processor for Optal’s Virtual Card Payments

TSYS will be processing payment authorizations for Optal Financial Ltd.’s virtual card payments business, according to an Oct. 26 announcement. London-based Optal is a global provider of B2B payments services, including virtual account numbers, and is one of Europe’s biggest virtual card issuers, according to the companies.

BBVA favours Amazon Web Services for cloud drive

BBVA has reached a global agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as it looks to cloud computing to boost its digital banking services. The agreement, which is part of a series of accords that the group is making with providers, turns AWS into its “preferred” cloud infrastructure services provider. AWS will execute the migration of […]

Bank of America to launch AI chatbot

Bank of America has unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to help customers make decisions on their finances. Called Erica, a nod to the name America, it will be available inside the bank’s mobile app in 2017. Customers can do the usual AI stuff – chat via text or voice – and it’s all […]

Money20/20: PayPal COO on Facebook Messenger Integration, Contextual Commerce

Fresh off announcing a plan to bring PayPal payments to Facebook Messenger, PayPal Inc. Chief Operating Officer Bill Ready said the move was part of the company’s larger push to serve what he called “contextual commerce”—enabling mobile payments to take place in areas outside of the traditional checkout environment.

Mastercard, BofA Employing Bots to Enhance Customer Service

The rise of chat bots in financial services and payments continues with announcements this week from Mastercard and Bank of America that each company will be introducing similar technology. Mastercard is launching a bot for client banks’ and merchants’ customers and BofA’s bot, which it says is more of an “assistant” will service its banking customers.

RGCA Survey: Consumers Are Getting Smarter about Gift Cards

Consumers are getting savvy to the myriad ways gift cards can be used, given, stored and obtained. For example, though 46 percent of consumers surveyed still prefer to hand cashiers a physical gift card, nearly 14 percent would rather load, store and redeem gift cards using a mobile wallet, and 40 percent of respondents were amenable to using mobile or plastic methods, according to a survey released Oct. 24 by the Retail Gift Card Association.

Chinese tourism powers Verifone and Alipay payment partnership

Verifone is partnering with Alipay to enable retailers in North America and Europe to accept payments from Chinese tourists. According to Verifone, nearly 100 million Chinese consumers annually travel abroad and use Alipay to make purchases. This latest partnership follows quickly on Alipay’s deals with Zapper and Ingenico – both for the same reason as […]

Money20/20: Cordray Says CFPB No Foe of Fintech

Those seeking to innovate in the financial services sector might view the CFPB as more of an obstacle than a partner. But bureau Director Richard Cordray sees the consumer protection watchdog as very much a friend of fintech. During a keynote session capping the opening day of Money20/20 in Las Vegas, Cordray said the CFPB and regulated fintech providers can learn a lot from each other.

InComm Taps Mastercard Vet for Leadership Role

Matt Lanford will join Atlanta-based prepaid product and technology company InComm as senior vice president and general manager, overseeing its financial services team, effective Oct. 31. Lanford, who has held numerous leadership roles at Mastercard in the U.S. and in Europe, will take the lead in expanding InComm’s consumer-facing Vanilla brand of gift and GPR products.

Ingo Money and Visa push B2C push payments

Ingo Money is teaming up with Visa again, this time to enable corporations, merchants, financial institutions and governments to make payments directly to more than 4 billion consumer prepaid, debit and credit cards, and mobile wallet accounts.

’Tis Almost the Time of Year for Gift Card Cheer

Here’s a shocker: Gift cards will be a popular item during the holidays and a bright spot for retail sales. New survey stats released Oct. 20 from InComm show that 95 percent of consumers expect to give two or more gift cards this year, a slight increase from last year.

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