New mobile payments and loyalty management technologies envisioned for public transportation and automobiles may spark some big changes in commuters’ daily routines, according to announcements from Visa and MasterCard this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Ubiquity Global Services, which last fall announced the opening of a contact center in Lisbon, has recently signed deals with two major prepaid companies, Meta Payment Systems and Wave Crest.
ATM owner/operator Cardtronics Inc. is launching a new surcharge-free ATM membership program called ATMpass that enables consumers to purchase monthly, quarterly or annual memberships for surcharge-free ATM access in retail locations.
CFPB Director Richard Cordray today addresses the House Financial Services Committee for the bureau’s semi-annual report to Congress.
New York is considering a plan to hold top banking executives personally responsible for the quality and effectiveness of their firms’ AML efforts.
The CFPB’s Antonakes explained his bureau’s supervisory approach and enforcement actions and how they are different from that of the federal banking agencies.
Mobile money is expanding rapidly as global smartphone penetration grows. This year, many providers are looking to expand their range of mobile money services to areas such as credit and savings – but operators must be wary of the remaining challenges, including regulation and market sizes, according to a new report by the GSMA.
PayPal took a big step forward in expanding its in-store payments presence today, announcing plans to acquire Paydiant, an Auburndale, Mass.-based mobile payments technology company.
Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled details of Samsung Pay, its mobile payments service set to roll out in the U.S. this summer to compete with Apple Pay and Google Wallet, further expanding the potential audience—and merchants—that can participate in the tap-to-pay experience.
Visa last week announced plans to buy TrialPay, an e-commerce platform that helps merchants convert free users into paying subscribers for gaming and other online and mobile services.
The CFPB is updating the system credit card issuers use to submit their card agreements to the agency’s public database, and the new automated process could be used by prepaid card issuers if submitting cardholder agreements as proposed by the agency’s NPRM on prepaid accounts becomes law.
Samsung has announced a new mobile payment service called Samsung Pay, that it claims will break the obstacles to mobile wallet adoption by being compatible with older point-of-sale terminals through the use of Magnetic Secure Transmission, which allows terminals using traditional magnetic stripe technology to accept payments.
Limited availability of key skills is seen as a threat to growth prospects by 70% of chief executives in the financial services sector. A global survey by PwC shows that the disruptive impact of new technology and new competition in the sector has created new challenges for employers looking to hire in the months ahead. Concerns centre on the shortage of employees with the right combination of skills, with more than three quarters of executives looking for a broader range of skills when hiring than they did in the past.
In a joint international operation Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre seized servers said to have controlled the Ramnit botnet that had infected 3.2 million computers internationally. The operation involved investigators from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK – which led the operation – along with partners from private industry.
Google Wallet is getting fresh horses in the mobile wallet race, where Apple Pay has the early lead.
Mobile payments technology is driving multiple types of innovations, but one of the most transformative likely will be location-based technologies that improve the shopping experience, according to Square’s co-founder Jim McKelvey.
With more than a quarter of U.S. households either unbanked or underbanked, there is a major opportunity in creating alternative financial products to serve that segment.
Deutsche Bank and Hewlett-Packard have announced a 10-year, multi-billion dollar agreement that will see parts of the bank’s global IT systems rationalised and migrated to HP platforms10
Citi has opened the doors to entrants for its Citi Mobile Challenge in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, an annual competition that invites developers from around the world to build innovative financial services based on Citi’s digital platform.
Visa is expanding Visa Checkout, its secure online payment service, to reach a total of 16 countries this year, the company said last week.
Google Inc. is plotting another makeover for its 4-year-old Google Wallet, to be revealed in May at its annual I/O developer’s conference, according to a Feb. 20 report in the Wall Street Journal.
Customers of Advanced Payment Solutions (APS), a London-based provider of alternative banking solutions, soon will be able to access banking serves through the U.K. Post Office’s 11,500 branches.
Continuing its policy of offering products that fit across user workflows, Bloomberg has moved in to the transaction reporting space in Europe. The company’s Trade Order Management System has been granted approval by the Financial Conduct Authority to report securities with an ISIN and OTC derivatives as part of the UK’s Approved Reporting Mechanisms regime.
Samsung this week announced its purchase of mobile payments startup LoopPay, taking over its technology that enables magnetic stripe cards to be processed as contactless transactions at traditional payment terminals.
A federal judge has ruled that American Express no longer may bar retailers from steering customers toward paying with cards with lower merchant fees.
Pay.gov, the U.S. government’s online payments portal for 90 federal agencies, is expanding to embrace digital wallets, including PayPal and Dwolla, the U.S. Treasury announced this week.
Apple Inc. has filed a patent application indicating plans to add loyalty features to Apple Pay, introducing the option to redeem coupons and tickets via NFC, according to a new report.
Mobile deposit capture (MDC) has gained tremendous ground with consumers looking for more convenient access to funds.
Prepaid may be a more expensive business to enter—as compliance costs increase and margins thin—but that doesn’t mean the entrepreneurialism and innovation that birthed the industry are finished. A panel at All Payments Expo in Las Vegas next week will explore what it takes to enter and succeed in the market amid unprecedented regulatory scrutiny and oversight.
Online social investment network eToro has moved its core IT infrastructure onto a hybrid cloud system. The platform will allow it to maintain sensitive applications in a private cloud while using a public cloud for others.
The U.S. government is the latest to get behind Apple Pay as part of its commitment to encourage more secure payments technologies, the White House announced during its Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University on Feb. 13.
Lawmakers last week reintroduced a bill to add congressional oversight for the CFPB, which currently operates independently.
Hackers may have made off with as much as $1 billion in a series of attacks on more than 100 banks and financial institutions in 30 nations.
Financial institutions are being urged to revisit their cyber-security following revelations that an online gang using the Carbanak malware stole up to $1 billion from banks in 30 countries around the world in a series of highly-sophisticated attacks over the last two years.
Capital markets firms are losing their intellectual property too easily to competitors, business partners and third parties. Most companies could benefit from a tougher approach to IP, including licencing agreements and more use of patents, according to a new report by analyst firm Aite.
Banks have been struggling to work out the balance between the potential of new technologies, and the propensity (or otherwise) of customers to use them. After years of standardisation between platforms, the answer may actually be to carefully analyse and categorise customers based on their digital propensity and level of financial engagement – and to make sure that each kind of customer is handled differently, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent.
Green Dot has acquired AccountNow and AchieveCard to expand its active cardholder base and distribution outside traditional retail, the company tells Paybefore.
Wondering what the CFPB’s NPRM emphasizes?
About 60 percent of U.S. POS locations will accept EMV chip transactions by yearend, according to a recent Aite Group survey. The results suggest the push to upgrade terminals in advance of the October 2015 liability shift is “accelerating,” but serious gaps in awareness and planning still exist, especially among small and midsize merchants.
India’s second-largest bank ICICI Bank this week launched “Pockets,” a mobile wallet targeting younger consumers powered by a Visa prepaid card, enabling smartphone users to send and request funds, shop online and pay bills, whether or not they are an ICICI bank customer.
