News


Skrill, Microsoft Expand Access to E-Commerce in Africa (Nov. 11, 2014)

Skrill, provider of online payment technologies to merchants and consumers, and Microsoft4Afrika, an initiative launched last year to help accelerate Africa’s economic development and to improve its global competitiveness, together are launching an e-commerce portal enabling Africans to use their mobile wallets to buy from global Internet brands, access free educational content and use Microsoft software.

Treasury, FinCEN Seek Balance between Doing Business and Compliance (Nov. 11, 2014)

The U.S. Treasury and FinCen are addressing the importance of money services businesses (MSBs) to the financial system in the wake of reports that banks are refusing to do business with categories of companies, such as remittance companies and check cashers, because of the perceived risk of doing business with them following government agencies’ aggressive efforts in fighting money laundering.

Deutsche Bank hires Salesforce chief scientist for new data role

JP Rangaswami has been appointed as chief data officer at Deutsche Bank, a newly-created role in which he will “play a key role in standardising the bank’s processes, tools and governance around information and in supporting its digital strategy”.

CARTES Paris Showcases Payments Industry’s Diversification (Nov. 6, 2014)

Attendees at the 29th gathering of CARTES concluding today in Paris noticed the event’s growing emphasis on mobile payments, as well as another striking feature of the show—drawing 20,000 attendees from 140 countries—is the diversity of products and business models mobile payments support.

Banks should go digital says Monitise

The time is right for a new breed of digital-only banks to enter the market and steal away share from the established players, according to a new report by Monitise.

Don’t neglect social media and tablets, banks warned

Banks will be judged on how well they provide mobile services and social media interaction in the coming years. Instead of being just another channel, these forms will be the first point of contact for customers, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent.

Ripple protocol integrated into risk management system from Yantra

Yantra Financial Technologies, an electronic payment systems developer, has integrated its latest system for risk scoring of payments with the Ripple real-time settlement protocol. The integration means that institutions using the Ripple protocol can analyse transactions in seconds, including what other payments the customer recently made and potential concerns regarding a specific transaction. Risk levels can be assigned to certain transactions based on pre-determined criteria.

Prepaid Accounts Topic of Next Week’s CFPB Hearing (Nov. 3, 2014)

After a somewhat vague notice of its next field hearing, the CFPB updated its blog to specify that “prepaid accounts” will be the topic of the hearing, scheduled for 11 a.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 13, in Wilmington, Del.—an exact location has not been given.

U.K. Consumers Prefer Buying, Giving Physical Gift Cards (Nov. 3, 2014)

As more aspects of life leave the physical world and enter the digital one, the majority of U.K. consumers still prefer buying and giving physical gift cards, rather than buying and sending them electronically, according to a recent survey by global gift card provider and program manager Stored Value Solutions (SVS).

The Network Effect: Ingo Money Acquires Fuze

Ingo Money, known for its mobile check deposit capture technology and Good Funds Network, is planning to acquire Fuze Network, a payments technology company that enables loads to more than 1 billion bank-issued cards at thousands of retail locations.

Currency Cloud and XE.com plan “transparent” FX service

Currency site XE.com and money transfer business Currency Cloud plan to launch a new international payments service called XE Money Transfers before the end of this year, which they claim will make foreign exchange transactions more transparent.

People on the Move: Arthur Levitt, BitPay and Vaurum

Bitcoin payment processor BitPay and Bitcoin exchange Vaurum announced that Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will serve as adviser to both enterprises.