People on the Move: Ming Maa, Grab
Southeast Asian ride-hailing app Grab has named Ming Maa as its new president, based in Singapore.
PayTech
People on the Move: Jonathan Donahue, Ingo Money
Real-time push payments technology provider Ingo Money has named Jonathan Donahue executive vice president of business development.
People on the Move: Larry Stone, JetPay Corp. Board
Payments industry veteran Larry Stone has joined the board of directors of JetPay Corp., a provider of debit, credit and prepaid card services.
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.
People on the Move: Avid Modjtabai, Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Co. has formed a new payments, virtual solutions and innovation group, to be headed by Avid Modjtabai.
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.
Money20/20: Payment Networks Call for More Merchant Participation in Innovation
Merchants get ready: That was among the main messages at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, during an Oct. 25 roundtable session with executives from the four major payments networks.
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.
Money 20/20: Retailers Want Bigger Seat at Payments Table
Retailers want a bigger seat at the payments table as more consumers use mobile devices to shop and pay. That was the main message Monday morning during a Money 20/20 session in Las Vegas.
Visa and Chain team up for new B2B blockchain payments platform
Visa has unveiled Visa B2B Connect, a new blockchain-based platform that it is building with US-based blockchain specialist Chain Inc. At present, the solution is in preview mode. It will be piloted in 2017.
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.
Payments round-up: 21 October 2016
Jargon defeated. Unnecessary words deleted. A brief payments round-up. LeFinance, a division of Beijing-based tech firm LeEco, has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation for cross-border payments on the latter’s blockchain network. The deal means Stellar expands into China. LeFinance will also use Stellar’s network to monitor credits for usage across their various devices and […]
R3 and Ripple trial interbank cross-border payments
R3 and twelve of its blockchain consortium member banks have trialled Ripple’s Digital Asset XRP for interbank cross-border payments. Using XRP, Ripple says it can enable near real-time value exchange anywhere in the world, providing “liquidity on demand and reducing associated costs”. David Rutter, CEO of R3, says the prototype “paves the way for a […]
FDIC Study: Unbanked Rate Drops; Prepaid, Mobile on Rise
The number of households without bank accounts fell to its lowest level since the FDIC first began conducting its biannual survey in 2009. Seven percent of U.S. households were unbanked last year, according to the FDIC’s 2015 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, released Oct. 20.
Payolution Expands into U.K. with ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Online Payment Option
Online shoppers in the U.K. looking to get their hands on the latest athletic apparel now, but who might not have the funds to purchase them until later, can pay in installments.
Mobile Payments Roundup: Chase Pay and CVS Expand Their Programs
Chase said on Oct. 19 that Wakefern Food Corp., a supermarket chain based in New Jersey, will soon accept Chase Pay mobile payments. CVS Health, meanwhile, is rolling out its in-house CVS Pay service across the United States
Payveris and COCC team up on community bank P2P platform
Dubbed PayItNow, the white-label service is fully integrated within the existing digital platform COCC provides its client financial institutions.
Banking Technology October 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.
Payments round-up: 20 October 2016
Words cut. Time saved. A round-up of key events in the payments enclave. Azimo, the money transfer service, has launched a new version of its mobile app for Apple and Android users. On the iPhone, the app will allow users to transfer money through the voice-activated Siri system. Customers can transfer money by telling Siri […]
Fintech funding round-up: 19 October 2016
Want to save some time but be in the know of the latest funding initiatives in the fintech space? Then read on.
Wirecard Launches Prepaid—and Supervised—Mobile Payments for Teens
Wirecard AG and Orange have launched a parent-supervised, prepaid mobile payment service for teenagers called Orange Cash Jeune. Parents go online to create an account for their children who are younger than 18, signing up via the Web interface of Orange Cash before the app is installed on their children’s smartphones.
FIS Launches Mobile Payments Platform for Gas Stations
A new mobile payments platform from FIS aims to make shopping easier for consumers at gas stations and convenience stores. Called BuyWay, the technology “unites all points of contact within a transaction to deliver seamless, secure, personalized shopping experiences at thousands of gas stations and convenience stores across the nation,” FIS said this week.
Reports: Retailers Must Up Their Game to Compete in Apps Battle
Despite the 60 percent growth of mobile e-commerce to $120 billion in 2015 from 2014, many merchants are doing little to sway consumers to use their apps versus using a mobile browser, according to a Javelin study. Last year, consumers’ purchases via Web browser totaled $75.3 billion, while retailer apps accounted for just less than $47 billion.
Shake Shack Cooks Up Mobile Ordering Service
Experiments with mobile order-ahead continue to be on the menu for many companies in the fast-casual dining vertical, with popular burger chain Shake Shack launching a test run of the service this week as part of its first-ever app. At the moment, the order-ahead function only works at one Shake Shack location, in midtown Manhattan, which the company said will serve as a market test for the service before rolling it out to “additional markets.”
Online and Mobile Commerce: Fraud Products to Help Protect E-Commerce Channels
Online commerce accounts for 8.5 percent of all card transactions but 45 percent of fraud, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. As more transactions move to online and mobile channels, fighting fraud in those channels will become even more challenging. Discover Global Network discusses the latest fraud-prevention tools that offer protection without adding friction.
Interview: Kyle Ferguson, Fraedom’s CEO – on the road to Fraedom
Payments technology and expense management specialist Fraedom is on the journey to tap into the $110 trillion B2B market opportunity that remains untapped today. “If the technology is both powerful and intuitive, people will use it,” states Kyle Ferguson, Fraedom’s CEO.
Configo launches site to aggregate banks’ API portals
Fintech start-up Configo has launched a project to aggregate the API portals launched by financial players around the world. It is not commercial driven but is “just a small project to put everything in order”, says Yosi Dahan, co-founder and CEO of Configo.
