People on the Move: Heather Cox, USAA
Former Citigroup fintech head Heather Cox has signed on with San Antonio-based bank USAA.
PayTech
Green Dot and Uber Expand Debit Card Payments for Drivers
Green Dot and Uber on Aug. 16 expanded the Instant Pay option that enables Uber drivers to quickly get their earnings via debit cards. The expansion builds upon the launch earlier this year of Instant Pay through Green Dot’s Pay Award-winning GoBank mobile checking account, via a special GoBank Uber debit card.
First Multi-Currency Prepaid Card Touches Down on Apple Pay
Apple Pay is getting its first multi-currency prepaid card, as the mobile payment service adds support for Mastercard’s Cash Passport card, issued by Raphaels Bank, the bank announced on Aug. 16.
UnionPay’s Mobile Wallet Debuts in North America
China-based UnionPay on Aug. 16 introduced its QuickPass mobile wallet in Canada, the technology’s North American debut.
Alibaba Buying Its Way into India, Southeast Asia
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. appears poised to continue expanding its multi-billion dollar business into India and Southeast Asia. Alibaba has been in talks with Paytm, an m-commerce platform, to acquire all of Paytm Mall or at least a large share of the company’s marketplace business, according to the Hindustan Times.
Green Dot Walmart Outage Cost More Than $4.4 Million, Impacted 58,500 Customers
A series of technical glitches during Green Dot Corp.’s processing conversion to MasterCard Payment Transaction Services for Walmart’s MoneyCard in May set Green Dot and Mastercard back more than $4.4 million, which includes letting customers keep money that was incorrectly credited to them.
As U.S. Credit Card Debt Increases, Millennials Appear to Turn Away from the Payment Method
U.S. credit card debt increased by $17 billion to $729 billion in the second quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, even as there are indications that millennial consumers are turning away from that payment option.
Tesco’s PayQwik Expands to More Stores
After a successful trial run, UK retail chain Tesco will roll out its PayQwiq mobile payment service in all of its stores by the end of 2016. The QR code-based app is available for Android and iOS and enables shoppers to connect any payment card with American Express, Mastercard or Visa branding.
Reports: China Will Legalize Payments via QR Codes
Chinese consumers could soon make legal payments in that country via their smartphones and QR codes, media reports indicate. Shoppers with such online services as Alipay and Tenpay already use the codes, but they exist “in a regulatory gray zone, banned by the government, yet still continue operating,” according Ecns.cn.
Two’s the Charm: FinCEN Trying for a Cross-Border Reporting Rule Again
After a previous attempt by FinCEN to implement an anti-money laundering rule stalled and was withdrawn, the agency is planning to reintroduce a version of the rule. A FinCEN spokesman told Reuters the rule is being revised and could be submitted next year.
Can Mobile Ordering Apps Handle Payments?
As mobile app operators try to make lunch easier for workers by enabling them to reserve seats and place lunch orders before arriving at restaurants, questions are being raised about how efficiently those fledgling apps handle payments.
CVS Pay Aims to Eliminate Checkout Pain
The company’s new CVS Pay offers payments, loyalty and prescription management within the CVS Pharmacy mobile app. The service currently is available in some CVS locations in select markets, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, with a nationwide rollout expected to begin later this year, CVS said.
Payza Prepaid Card Broadens Its Horizons
The online payments technology platform provider launched the Mastercard-branded GPR prepaid card late last year in the U.S. and Canada as part of a test before taking the product globally, according to the company.
Payments round-up: 11 August 2016
They said it. We read it. We edit. Here’s a round-up of events in the payments space to save you time. Payments platform Payza has expanded the availability of its Payza Prepaid Card to the majority of its account holders worldwide. It was initially launched to a “limited group” in December 2015, but Firoz Patel, […]
How Consumers Are Driving Mobile Integration across Retail Channels
In 2016, mobile payment sales are projected to reach $27 billion and users are expected to spend an average of $720, up from $8.7 billion and $376, respectively, in 2015. But exploding mobile adoption is just one of a handful of customer behaviors that are making streamlined, integrated payments a must-have for many retailers.
Study: EMV Existence Much More Widespread Than Its Use
Despite the accelerating rollout of EMV debit, the actual use of chip cards at chip-enabled POS terminals has been held back by the “slower-than-anticipated” pace of merchant EMV adoption, with just 4 percent of all debit card transactions with a chip card happening at a chip-enabled terminal, according to the 2016 Debit Issuer Study from Discover Financial Service’s PULSE network, released on Aug. 9.
Apple Pay Vending Machines Are Coming
Mobile payments are coming to more vending machines in the U.S. and Canada, thanks to partnerships between vending operators in both countries with automated retail payments provider PayRange.
Alibaba’s Financial Services Affliate Expands in Europe with Ingenico Deal
An affiliate of China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba will expand its payments prowess in Europe via a deal with Ingenico Group, according to a report. The deal calls for the France-based payments provider to enable customers of Ant Financial Services—an affiliate of Alibaba—to access European offline merchants that are part of the Ingenico network, according to an Aug. 9 report in the Wall Street Journal.
BlueSnap, Visa Checkout Grease Online Shopping Cart Wheels
BlueSnap, a payments technology provider, has partnered with Visa Checkout to help online merchants fight checkout abandonment by providing consumers with an easier checkout process and higher payment conversion rates.
Naspers Gobbles Up India’s Citrus Payments
Naspers, a South-African-based media and Internet company and parent of online payment service provider PayU, is acquiring Mumbai, India-based online payments company Citrus Payments Solutions in a cash deal valued between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 1,200 crore (US$150 million to $180 million), according to The Times of India.
Cambodia’s Prasac launches remote banking with Compass Plus
Prasac, the largest microfinance institution (MFI) in Cambodia, has launched internet and mobile banking services using the TranzWare multi-card processing solution from Compass Plus. Its customers can now transfer money between their accounts, pay bills, top-up their mobile phones, manage their cards, check their balances and get a mini-statement by logging on to their internet […]
POS Security Woes: MICROS Hacked, Researchers Claim Chip Card Flaw
A pair of developments on the cybersecurity front are giving retailers more reasons to worry—as if they didn’t have enough already. Cyberthieves have compromised a customer support portal for Oracle Corp.’s MICROS POS system, which is used by more than 330,000 retail and hospitality providers worldwide. Meanwhile, payments technology company NCR claimed to have found a flaw in EMV chip technology that could enable criminals to bypass a chip’s transaction encryption.
Samsung Pay Security Exposed; Company Calls Reports ‘Inaccurate’ But Doesn’t Refute Them
A computer science student and security researcher has found a chink in the armor of Samsung Pay’s security in the form of a weak tokenization process that could lead to fraudulent purchases.
Paybefore Award Winner Buyatab Exists On the Gift Card Frontier
Consider it a frontier of payments: How best to match gift card offerings with a consumer base that is ever more reliant on mobile devices? And doing so while retaining easy portability and wide flexibility.
Cyberthieves Target Brazil Banks
Cyberthieves are targeting banks in Brazil via malware that has already hit financial institutions in Europe and North America. In the Olympic host country, at least 10 banks have come under attack from “Panda Banker,” a variant of the Zeus Trojan malware.
BBVA picks its 56 for innovation start-up contest
BBVA has revealed the 56 finalists for the 8th edition of its Open Talent contest to compete in three separate finals in Mexico, London and New York in September. The start-ups come from 17 different countries, and BBVA says “one of the most noteworthy points” of its 8th edition is the “high number” of finalists […]
Green Dot’s Active Card Metrics Propel Q2 Results
Per-card revenue for active cards and better unit economics on new products boosted second-quarter revenues for Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot, which beat revenue expectations for the second consecutive quarter.
Top fintech stories this week – 5 August 2016
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! RBS scraps Williams & Glyn banking platform plans, writes off £345m Defeated by the IT challenges. W&G is now likely to be sold to Santander. Azimo “industry first” to enable money transfers via Facebook Messenger Sending money should […]
Azimo “industry first” to enable money transfers via Facebook Messenger
Azimo says it has become the first money transfer operator to enable money transfers worldwide via Facebook Messenger. “Money transfer is now social,” Azimo states. It describes its new functionality as “revolutionary”. It connects senders and receivers through their Facebook friend list, enabling them to exchange details immediately and links them to the Azimo app […]
Viewpoint: The Visa/PayPal Deal Is Not as It Appears
The recent partnership between the two payments giants will impact fees, consumer data and other areas. An analyst discusses the benefits and motivations of the deal.
Earthport teams with Aftab Currency Exchange Limited for payments growth
Earthport, a cross-border payments service provider, is partnering with Aftab Currency Exchange Limited (ACEL) for payments growth. ACEL wants to expand its bank-to-bank capability and will initially use Earthport’s capabilities to “strengthen” its EU offering with a view to further expansion globally over the coming months. Aftab Ashraf, founder director, ACEL, says Earthport brings it […]
ING Bank Romania launches new mPOS service with GoSwiff and MasterCard
ING Bank Romania has launched a new mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) service, underpinned by MasterCard and specialist vendor GoSwiff. ING mPOS is aimed at local merchants of all sizes. It enables them to accept card payments through mobile devices, smartphones and tablets, connected to a card reader. It also supports other added-value services, such as consumer […]
New mPOS solution for Indonesian merchants launched by Indosat Ooredoo and GoSwiff
Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo and GoSwiff International have teamed up for a new mobile payment acceptance solution for merchants in Indonesia, D-Pay. Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) is the acquiring bank. D-Pay is a financial service that enables merchants to accept mobile payments, allowing their customers to pay using debit/credit cards (Visa, MasterCard and JCB) and […]
Viewpoint: One-Time Passwords Aren’t Going Away
A recent NIST announcement would seem to toss SMS one-time passwords to the junk pile. But the anti-fraud technology still has value for low risk transactions.
Viewpoint: Brexit Can’t Save U.K. from Data Protection Regs
A tough new European data protection rule, scheduled to come into force in 2018, will command businesses’ attention no matter the relationship the U.K. has with the EU.
Viewpoint: Who Dominates P2P?
Beware of predictions that upstarts will push aside incumbents when it comes to consumer-to-consumer remittances. The numbers tell a different story.
“Strong sales” send Fiserv revenue rising
Fiserv’s GAAP revenue increased 5% to $1.36 billion for the second quarter of 2016. Compared to Q2 2015, its payments segment saw 9% growth and the financial segment grew 1%. In terms of the first six months of 2016, the firm’s financial results were a similar story. GAAP revenue increased 5% to $2.69 billion, with […]
SIA buys e-money processing unit of Unicredit
Unicredit is selling its e-money processing unit to payments vendor SIA. The unit – part of Unicredit Business Integrated Solutions (UBIS) – processes around 13.5 million payment cards and manages 206,000 POS terminals and 12,000 ATMs in Italy, Germany and Austria. SIA has also got a ten-year outsourcing contract from UBIS for the supply of […]
Prepaid International Forum Rips into Proposed EC Prepaid Rules
The European Commission’s proposed changes to anti-money laundering rules would place an “immense burden on the regulated e-money sector,” the Prepaid International Forum argues in a new position paper.
clearXchange to Offer Debit Transfers, Upping Speed, User Base
Users of bank-owned P2P money network clearXchange soon will be able to send funds via debit cards, offering faster transfers and significantly expanding the network’s potential customer base to nearly anyone in the U.S. with a debit card.
