Visa Mobile Payments to Expand to 33 African Countries
Visa-backed mobile payments will expand in Africa thanks to a deal with pan-African banking group Ecobank. The agreement follows a similar one the bank struck with Mastercard in 2014.
PayTech
FIS execs talk payments’ future
From payments robots to data analytics and customer engagement, find out what got FIS payments execs excited at Money20/20.
SEB and Ripple to build real-time payments system on blockchain
SEB has teamed up with blockchain specialist Ripple to enable SEB customers to make real-time transfers between SEB accounts in Stockholm and New York. This is “the first step” of a larger blockchain-based payments project.
Chase Pay Lands Walmart, More MCX Retailers to Come?
It may not be surprising that MCX’s largest member will support Chase Pay, but it’s still a coup for the bank-backed mobile wallet, which already has deals with some other retail heavyweights. Walmart will begin accepting Chase Pay starting in 2017.
College: There’s a Gift Card for That
With holiday shopping expected to kick into high gear after this week’s U.S. presidential election—and gift cards at the top of everyone’s list—shoppers looking for the perfect gift will have a new option: Gift of College Gift Cards. Atlanta-based technology provider InComm is working with Gift of College to distribute the gift cards, which can be used to contribute to any 529 college savings plan, at Toys“R”Us and Babies“R”Us stores.
Tesco Bank Security Breached; Money Pilfered from 20,000 Accounts
U.K.-based Tesco Bank was the victim of a security breach over the weekend that exposed thousands of customer accounts, half of which had money removed. The bank’s fraud security systems detected “suspicious activity” Nov. 5, affecting approximately 40,000 accounts, and 20,000 of those accounts had money stolen from them, a Tesco Bank spokesperson tells Paybefore.
Uber Hopes to Hail New Riders in Mexico with Debit Card
Ride-hailing service Uber has partnered with Mexico-based digital bank Bankaool to launch a new debit card to reach riders without access to a bank account. Linked to an account with the Mexican online bank, the Mastercard-branded UberCard could help drive ridership of Uber among consumers in Mexico who don’t have a traditional payment card to link to the app.
Viewpoint: California as a Model for Legislation on Responsible Lending
California already has a way to protect consumers from predatory lending practices while also encouraging the kind of innovation that leads to increased access to responsible and affordable credit—especially for those most often left out of the financial mainstream.
Viewpoint: The CFPB’s Prepaid Rule Makes Positive Changes, but Compliance Challenges Remain
Oct. 5, 2016, the CFPB released its final rule governing prepaid accounts. The final rule and its commentary come in at nearly 1,700 pages. Find out what products are covered under the rule, what triggers Reg Z and what still needs clarifications before the regulations go into effect Oct. 1, 2017.
Banking Technology November 2016 issue out now
The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
Fintech funding round-up: 4 November 2016
Let’s put the fun in funding by keeping it mercifully brief. A round-up of some key events. KEEN Venture Partners, a new venture capital firm operating from London and Amsterdam, has announced €90 million first close of its inaugural fund. It will use the money to provide early growth capital for tech firms with a […]
Top fintech stories this week – 4 November 2016
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Weatherbys Bank live with new core banking system EXCLUSIVE. Oracle FSS’s Flexcube flexes its muscles. Mobile payments and European millennials Vocalink reveals millennials’ habits and perceptions. Japan rises to blockchain challenge with new consortium Launches with 42 member […]
Editor’s Letter: Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
Last night the Cubs proved—after a long and grueling fight—that the narrative can change. New winners can be crowned. Who in payments will come out on top in 2017? Will it be you?
Viewpoint: Money20/20: The End of Payments as We Know It
The conference, which concluded last week, showed that retailers face significant payments challenges as consumer behavior changes, and gave a deeper look into wearables and other technologies that promise to make transactions much more efficient.
Viewpoint: Most Americans Are Banked. So Why Aren’t More of Us Financially Healthy?
Banked households—those that have at least a checking or savings account at a bank or credit union—have risen to 93 percent. That’s the good news. But a whopping 57 percent of U.S. households are financially unhealthy, and that financial health impacts even those earning middle-class incomes and beyond.
Viewpoint: Fintech Is Driving Inequality in the Digital Economy (And 3 Ways to Reverse the Trend)
Instead of leveling the playing field, the Great Fintech Revolution is driving inequality between those with easy access to the digital economy and those without. Luckily, there are some simple but significant ways to change that.
Payroll Card Bill Passes in Pa. amid Court Decision against Employers
A Pennsylvania appeals court has sided with McDonald’s employees, deciding that the owners of 16 franchises were in violation of the state’s Wage Payment and Collection Law (WPCL) by requiring employees to be paid with payroll debit cards. The court filed its decision Oct. 21, 2016, which stems from a 2013 lawsuit—consisting of a class of 2,380 current and former employees, according to Law360—alleging that franchise owners Albert and Carol Mueller made it mandatory that employees’ wages be paid through payroll card rather than cash or check.
Dunkin’ Donuts Enables Gifting within iMessage
As the holiday shopping season kicks into gear, Dunkin’ Donuts customers now can send gifts via Apple iMessage in iOS 10. The popular chain—and longtime mobile pioneer—is the first national coffee retailer to integrate with the updated messaging service, which enables users to access the Dunkin’ Mobile App within a chat and purchase a mobile gift card using Apple Pay.
Post-Brexit Poll Shows Bank Executives Worried about Exile, Costs
Despite Brexit, 72 percent of British banks think London will remain Europe’s financial center in five years, according to new results from a survey the Tabb Group conducted on behalf of consultancy Synechron. Yet 55 percent of the 80 capital market executives polled said their financial institutions have set up committees charged with coming up with relocation plans as the U.K. prepares to leave the European Union.
UK challenger Pockit reaches 100,000 customer mark
UK challenger “neo-bank” Pockit says it now has 100,000 customers, “nearly twice as many” as three of its rivals – Monzo, Atom and Tandem – “combined”. On its website, Pockit says it is a “prepaid MasterCard, not a bank”, so the term “neo-bank” may be worth scrapping or explaining. It’s been around for a while, […]
Will Bank-Backed M-Wallets Win?
As banks gain a more prominent spot in the mobile payments market, will they become the one wallet to rule them all?
Payments and blockchain: Pilotville
The payments industry went just a bit blockchain bonkers at this year’s Sibos. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) was a hot topic throughout the week. This was quite astounding given there are very few examples of working blockchain or DLT use cases; most of the initiatives under way are proofs of concept.
Debit and Prepaid Card Bases Set to Gain Market Share
The global prepaid card base will increase to 921 million in 2021, up 46 percent from 624 million as of Dec. 31, 2015, according to a new forecast from U.K.-based Retail Banking Research, or RBR. Despite the prepaid surge, debit will continue its dominance of the overall cards market. RBR’s “Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2021,” which does not cover closed-looped prepaid cards, found that debit cards in 2021 will account for 72 percent of all payment cards worldwide, up from 70 percent in 2015.
Smart Card Alliance Calls for More Secure IoT Devices
In the wake of a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that shut down hundreds of Websites in October, the Smart Card Alliance has issued a warning on the “critical need” to ramp up security on hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected devices. It’s those devices—which range from cars to refrigerators and make up the Internet of Things (IoT)—that hackers are hijacking and incorporating into their botnet attacks, making attacks large enough to overwhelm Websites’ defenses—as was the case in the most recent attack, which affected major Websites including Twitter, Netflix and Spotify, among others.
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.
Spanish Online Bank Uses Biometrics, Videos to Speed up Customer Onboarding
Self Bank, the Spain-based online subsidiary of France’s Boursorama financial services group, said it will register new customers via video-conferencing, biometrics and electronic signatures, a move that could reduce time and costs of the expensive customer-onboarding process.
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: Fernando Dias, Bango
Mobile carrier billing specialist Bango has hired Fernando Dias to head its operations in Latin America.
People on the Move: John Donovan, Bizfi
Small business lending fintech provider Bizfi has appointed John Donovan as the company’s CEO.
People on the Move: Jo Ann Sowers, Central Payments
Central Payments, the payments division at Central Bank of Kansas City (CBKC), has announced that Jo Ann Sowers has joined the company as vice president of client relations.
Company on the Move: Discover Financial Services, Network Rebranding
Discover Financial Services has officially rebranded its payments network to Discover Global Network, representative of Discover Network, Diners Club International, PULSE debit and ATM network, as well as alliance partners around the globe.
