February 2013 Contis Group, a U.K.-based provider of online banking and prepaid card technologies and services, has enhanced its domestic and international capabilities with the addition of five hires. Chris Cresswell joins Contis as sales and business development director. Formerly with LaSer UK, Cresswell has experience in the cards and loyalty sector and will be […]
February 2013 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently announced that Steve Antonakes will serve as acting deputy director while the agency searches for a replacement for Raj Date. As Antonakes assumes this temporary role, he will maintain responsibility for his current duties as associate director for supervision, enforcement and fair lending, which he began […]
Feb. 19, 2013 Sightline Interactive, a provider of payment services to the gaming industry, and its partner Vantiv have inked a deal with Northern California’s Colusa Casino to create a GPR prepaid card that works in tandem with the casino’s closed-loop loyatly card. The open-loop Discover-branded Loyalty Card Plus initially will be distributed to the casino’s “best […]
Feb. 19, 2013 Citigroup Inc. plans to expand a mobile payments service it has developed for its small-business customers to replace large cash payments in underbanked regions into Latin America. Citi recently launched a pilot of Mobile Collect in the Dominican Republic, targeting approximately 80,000 cash-based grocery stores and other small businesses and their suppliers. […]
Feb. 19, 2013 The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has issued guidance to educate merchants on the factors and risks they need to address to protect card data when using mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to accept payments. Because consumer mobile devices are not solely used as point-of-sale tools, but also carry […]
Feb. 19, 2013 Chase Bank (Kenya) and the University Students Community Organization (UNISCOO) have teamed up to launch a new MasterCard-branded prepaid card for Kenya’s college students. The UNISCOO card will enable students to shop in stores and online anywhere MasterCard is accepted and receive specially targeted discounts and promotional offers from merchants. Available at […]
Feb. 19, 2013 Buck Corp. is introducing a new mobile invoice service for small businesses that it touts as “dongle-free,” enabling businesses to send electronic invoices to any mobile phone and receive credit card payment without swiping a card. Buck Mobile Invoice is free to businesses using it, but participants must already have a merchant […]
Consulting and IT specialist Rule Financial has hired Emily Cates as a principal consultant. Based in the London office, Cates joins Rule Financial with over 18 years of experience.
Rival FX platforms EBS and Thomson Reuters have agreed that they will cooperate to combine the sources for their FX pricing, in a bid to increase transparency for FX market participants.
Banks may have a poor reputation with the public, but the majority of people in the UK would be more likely to adopt mobile payment services if they are provided by a bank.
Market participants using NYSE Technologies’ market data feed SuperFeed and SFTI network will soon be able to get social media sentiment statistics, following a deal between NYSE and specialist company Social Market Analytics.
For an event that is based around the idea of introducing new players and new concepts to the financial technology world, this year’s Finovate Europe was heavy on familiar faces and some increasingly familiar concepts.
Senior market participants have expressed outrage that exchanges continue to charge high fees for market data, while MTFs still lack the means to compete on auctions and are not represented on international indices.
Feb. 14, 2013 Pressure is mounting for U.S. debit networks to find a suitable technology for routing chip-based debit transactions under the Durbin Amendment network non-exclusivity rules, but a unified plan is not yet within sight, industry executives say after a new round of meetings this week to digest last week’s developments. MasterCard Inc. and […]
Feb. 14, 2013 A new “plug-and-play” mobile money platform from Visa Inc. is aimed at enabling financial institutions and mobile network operators in developing nations around the world to offer mobile financial services. The program—built on technology Visa acquired via its 2011 purchase of mobile financial services provider Fundamo—enables the payment network to host and […]
Social media and mobile now are intertwined, according to panelists who participated in Tuesday’s panel on The Power of Social Media in Business at the InComm Partner Alliance in Miami.
Feb. 14, 2013 Three members of the Senate Banking Committee yesterday demanded that Republicans “end unprecedented obstruction” of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray’s nomination as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) assert that several Senate Republicans have stalled Cordray’s confirmation in […]
Feb. 14, 2013 Needham, Mass.-based Enservio, which provides software and services to property insurers, has been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on what the company claims is the industry’s first co-party activation debit card for insurance claims payments. Since its debut three years ago, Enservio’s ReStore Card debit card has been utilized for some […]
A 400% increase in malware for mobile devices masks a security scene where many of the threats are much as they have been for several years – but where the volume of attacks means that firms should think in terms of when they will be attacked rather than if they will be.
Bank deleveraging may inadvertently spur a revival of equity markets, Antonio Zoido, chairman and chief executive at Spanish exchange group BME told delegates at the World Exchange Congress in London yesterday.
As new rules for the reporting of OTC derivatives draw closer around the globe, US post-trade services utility the DTCC is positioning itself as the provider of a global network of trade repositories – but OTC derivatives reform will only work if consistent measures are taken everywhere, says Stewart Macbeth, president and chief executive at the DTCC.
Feb. 13, 2013 Three members of the Senate Banking Committee will hold a press conference today at 2:30 p.m. at the U.S. Capitol to discuss the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and how Senate Republicans are “circumventing the traditional democratic process” by stalling on the confirmation of its director, Richard Cordray. Sens. […]
Financial systems supplier Temenos made something of a splash at the Finovate Europe conference in London with the launch of LiveDesigner, a dynamic user interface designer.
Indonesia-based PermataBank has developed the first mobile payments service for the BlackBerry Messenger service. The bank has teamed up with UK mobile banking solutions provider Monitise to roll out a commercial pilot of BBM Money in the country ahead of a full launch. BlackBerry users will have the option to access a Mobile Money account from their […]
The Enterprise Data Management Council has appointed Dennis Wisnosky to lead the implementation process for its Financial Industry Business Ontology – FIBO – suite of standards. Wisnosky is a veteran of the data management world, having previously acted as the chief technology officer and chief architect in the US Department of Defense Business Mission Area, […]
Feb. 12, 2013 Shoppers are getting some help navigating Tokyo’s Ginza district from nearly 300 NFC-based location tags the city’s government has placed throughout the upscale retail hub. The system works with an Android app, available for download from the Google Play store, which enables users to search for and select a destination within Ginza, […]
Feb. 12, 2013 In the opening sessions of InComm’s annual Partner Alliance yesterday, CEO Brooks Smith and futurist Mike Walsh offered glimpses of their visions of the future. With a corporate acquisition strategy based on delivering new technologies to retailers, Smith focused his comments on a future filled with more choices—for retailers and their customers. […]
Feb. 12, 2013 Job growth and an improved housing market, among other dynamics, put consumers in a mood to spend in January, despite the Jan. 1 expiration of the payroll tax cut, according to the latest SpendTrend data released by First Data Corp., an Atlanta-based payments processor. Dollar volume growth last month improved to 6.2 […]
Feb. 12, 2013 United Arab Emirates-based RAKBANK, also known as the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah, recently launched a reloadable prepaid MasterCard for Filipinos who live and work in the UAE, featuring an extra card for remittance funds-recipients back home. Each new RAKBANK Bayani Prepaid MasterCard comes with two cards—one for personal use and another […]
Feb. 12, 2013 Money transfer provider MoneyGram has launched a mobile version of its online transfer service, which enables users to send cash via smartphones using a mobile-optimized version of moneygram.com. The service is part of Dallas-based MoneyGram’s efforts to tap into what the company claims is a $50 billion cross-border remittance industry—much of which […]
Market data and technology company Activ Financial has expanded its risk gateway tool to cover all Canadian exchanges, ahead of new rules that will require market participants in Canada to have pre-trade risk controls in place across all asset classes from next month.
While card payments continue to grow – up by 10% in 2011 – the use of cash is still growing “at a more than healthy pace”, says the latest edition of the European Payment Cards Yearbook. The use of cards to withdraw cash at automated teller machines was also up – with 17.3% more ATMs issuing 2% more cash during the year.
OTC derivatives trade processing service MarketSERV and banking technology provider Misys have partnered to create a service for CCP clearing of FX derivatives trades.
Nadeem Chowdhry, formerly sales director of financial services for QlikTech, the makers of the QlikView business intelligence system, has joined data visualisation specialist Panopticon as senior vice president in the UK.
Feb. 11, 2013 Two prepaid card-related bills being considered by the New Jersey State Assembly took steps forward last week, earning approval by the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee. The first bill, A-3561, permits New Jersey’s Treasury Department to issue state income tax refunds onto prepaid cards, while the second, A-3562, enables state and local governments to […]
Feb. 11, 2013 Monitise plc today announced the launch of a mobile payments pilot in Indonesia harnessing BlackBerry smartphones. The new service will enable BlackBerry users to access a mobile money account on their smartphones and transfer funds among bank accounts and to other BlackBerry customers who are also signed up for the service, as […]
Feb. 11, 2013 Italian software provider TAS Group and Payair South Europe S.A., a Swedish mobile commerce company, have agreed to launch a mobile commerce platform that incorporates Payair’s commerce platform and a customization solution supplied by TAS. The platform will support large-scale retailers that require advanced automation of their purchase and payment processes, according […]
Germany’s Commerzbank has adopted a visual transaction signing tool from British security firm Cronto for its online banking customers, designed to protect against Trojan malware.
Technologists in financial services are the least loyal to their employers, even though they also have the worst perception of the economy and of their employment prospects.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is among merchants worried they will miss the October 2015 U.S. EMV liability-shift deadline, in part because the debit networks have not yet determined which technology path they will take to route chip-based debit transactions under the Durbin Amendment network non-exclusivity rules.
