Allpoint Network, the Bethesda, Md.-based ATM network operator, has expanded its surcharge-free network by 5,000 new cash machines located across the upper Midwest and northern Plains states. Allpoint’s surcharge-free ATM network, already the world’s largest, according to the company, now totals more than 55,000 machines across North America, the U.K. and Australia. An affiliate of […]
Spain’s Banco Sabadell, operating under various local bank brands from its headquarters in the city of Sabadell, has launched an NFC payments pilot with mobile network operator Telefónica and BlackBerry. Participating customers will receive an NFC-enabled BlackBerry Curve smartphone with their Visa payment card details stored in the handset, the bank said. Customers may download […]
The decision by Senate Banking Committee chairman Tim Johnson, (D-S.D.), to retire next year opens a race for another Senate seat and simultaneously puts leadership of the influential banking committee into play. Sen. Johnson, 66, today announced that he will not run again when his current term ends in 2014, leaving a vacant seat that […]
Zappix, a Boston-based mobile portal and customer service app company, has announced the hiring of two executives. Shay Artzi, Ph.D, joins Zappix as chief technical officer and Gal Steinberg as vice president of marketing. Artzi previously served as senior software engineer for IBM, where he was a key member of a software group leading the […]
Skrill, one of Europe’s largest payment providers, has appointed Neil Steinhardt, currently managing director of paysafecard.com USA Inc., to the position of CEO at Skrill USA Inc. He will be responsible for the management and continued growth of Skrill and paysafecard USA, including shaping the evolution of e-wallets in the United States. Steinhardt brings payment processing […]
Alegeus Technologies, a Waltham, Mass.-based health care and benefit payments solutions provider, has appointed John Park chief strategy officer, Matthew Francis chief sales officer and Robert Pinataro chief service officer. Park will lead corporate strategy and corporate development for Alegeus. Prior to joining the company, he was a senior leader at CIGNA Healthcare, responsible for […]
Banks, asset managers and hedge funds will have to increase their IT budgets in 2013 to take account of weak market growth and a raft of oncoming financial regulation, according to new research by Ovum.
The U.S. economy’s slow recovery from the recession is driving millions of consumers between 18 and 34 years old to use prepaid cards as an alternative to a traditional bank account, forcing banks to rethink how they market financial services to young adults, various experts suggest. And as underemployed young adults in the so-called Millennial […]
More U.S. consumers are paying bills online and more are considering using their mobile phones to pay bills as well, according to the Western Union Payments Money Mindset Index, released today. The online survey of more than 3,000 respondents conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, found that consumer preference for online and mobile bill payments […]
Contactless payment cards are gaining a significant foothold in Turkey, passing the 10 million card milestone in 2012, according to a new report from the Interbank Card Center of Turkey (BKM). The pace of growth has been rapid, with the number of contactless prepaid, debit and credit cards expanding to 10.3 million in 2012, up […]
The growing student card market has a new entrant. Chattanooga, Tenn.-based processor and program manager TransCard is targeting banks that want to offer prepaid cards to college students with its newest reloadable prepaid product. The company’s announcement of its Student Prepaid Card comes just weeks after unveiling a prepaid card for banks to offer customers […]
Indonesian bank PT Bank Central Asia Tbk has adopted an anti-money laundering toolkit from specialist security firm Nice Actimize, to help the bank monitor for suspicious market activity and ensure regulatory compliance.
March 21, 2013 A troublesome roadblock to U.S. EMV adoption crumbled this week when 10 debit networks agreed to license a common U.S. debit application identifier (AID) from Discover Financial Services as the foundation solution for routing debit transactions under the EMV, or chip-card standard. The Secure Remote Payments Council’s decision resolves a stalemate that […]
March 21, 2013 The news that MasterCard soon will begin charging a fee to operators of some types of digital wallets has many industry observers considering the move a shot across the bow in a coming struggle for access to digital wallet customers. But others say the fee simply represents a step forward in the […]
March 21, 2013 Western Union Co. continues to expand its prepaid offerings globally and yesterday announced the rollout of its Global Share platform, which the company says will enable it to work more easily with partner companies that offer complementary products and services. The platform will facilitate better collaboration and improve products’ speed to market, […]
March 21, 2013 For mobile wallet providers, reaching scale with consumers and merchants has proved to be the 800-pound gorilla. However, Heartland Payment Systems, the Princeton, N.J.-based merchant processor, and LevelUp, a promotion-based mobile payment and loyalty network from Boston-based SCVNGR, believe their partnership will solve the problem. Following pilot programs in New York City, Boston, […]
The Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation recently released five cease and desist orders from January 2013 against six entities for unlicensed activities under the state’s Transmitters of Money Act. These six entities offer a variety of services in Illinois, including domestic and international money transfer, bill payment services and prepaid cards. One of […]
The Federal Reserve Board (Fed) quietly released changes to its FAQs on Reg. II’s restrictions on debit card interchange fees and routing. Five new FAQs were added and one existing FAQ was revised. Changes in two areas directly affect prepaid cards: the exemption for “general use prepaid cards” and the requirement for adding a second […]
As tough new collateral requirements bring ever greater pressure to bear on banks and financial market participants, the union of European clearing houses EMCF and EuroCCP into a new combined entity will help make clearing and settlement more efficient, according to Diana Chan, chief executive at EuroCCP.
March 19, 2013 The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued clarification of its regulatory stance on persons and entities engaged in the use, exchange and administration of virtual currencies. According to a guidance notice issued by FinCEN this week, users of virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin and Amazon Coins are not considered […]
March 19, 2013 International payment processor Planet Payment Inc. has joined with China UnionPay to enable UnionPay card users to shop online at e-commerce merchants based in the U.S. and Canada. The deal grants such retailers access to one of the largest card brands in the world, while continuing UnionPay’s recent efforts to expand acceptance […]
March 19, 2013 The key to widespread adoption of mobile payments will be the degree to which consumers trust the process of using smartphones or other mobile devices to pay, according to new survey data from Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG). In a Web survey conducted in December 2012 of 1,000 consumers in the U.K., where […]
March 19, 2013 Billtrust today has launched QR codes for biller statements, a service enabling consumers and businesses to pay their bills online by scanning the QR code with their smartphones. The Hamilton, N.J.-based provider of outsourced billing services can imprint a QR code on any outbound billing document, according to the company. When the […]
Technology and information companies CGI and Experian have partnered to help Europe’s banks and corporates meet the requirements of SEPA, the Single Euro Payments Area, on direct debits.
Information Mosaic and Thomson Reuters have agreed to integrate the latter’s ISO-based corporate actions data feed with the former’s corporate actions solution, IMActions. Customers will get access to corporate actions data covering 94,000 companies in more than 93. “Corporate actions is a complex market where customers are balancing a global set of requirements combined with […]
Swedish trading system specialist Tbricks has released OnDemand, a new platform that it says will remove the need for trading firms to make any investment in hardware, installation nor running costs.
March 18, 2013 Another prepaid veteran is going public. Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. filed for an initial public offering today, planning to raise up to $200 million in stock to be sold by existing investors, including its parent company, Safeway Inc. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based prepaid card provider and third-party distributor, founded in 2001 as a […]
March 18, 2013 PayPal Inc. has received approval from regulators in Russia to operate as a non-credit banking institution in the country, which paves the way for the e-commerce giant to begin operating a domestic payments business in a market the company considers to be one of its biggest growth opportunities. The news initially was […]
March 18, 2013 Intuit Inc. has cast its lot into the competitive European mobile card reader market. Announced as a pilot in November, Intuit Pay includes a chip-and-PIN card reader and companion iOS app that enables payments via MasterCard or Visa. Intuit said versions of the app for other platforms, such as Android, are coming […]
March 18, 2013 Samsung’s plan to embed Mobeam Inc.’s new light-pulse technology into its latest generation of smartphones could provide a quicker route to connecting consumers’ handsets with millions of retailers’ existing POS scanners than some other methods, including NFC, some experts suggest. The South Korean phone maker last week said the new Samsung Galaxy S4 […]
Market data vendor Interactive Data has responded to the introduction of Financial Transaction Taxes in France and Italy with a new service that supports the identification of instruments that are likely to be subject to them.
An analysis of mobile solutions for financial advisors concludes that applications to support client interaction and advisory services “will become one of the most industry-disruptive, but potentially most rewarding” developments in the wealth management sector. This is the main finding of Mobile Apps for Financial Advisors and Wealth Managers by Swiss research company MyPrivateBanking Research. […]
Payment systems specialist Dovetail has hired Rossana Salaris as director of product strategy.
March 14, 2013 The Federal Reserve Board this week provided last-minute clarification on debit card routing rules under the Durbin Amendment and on the General Use Prepaid Exemption that experts say could give prepaid issuers heartburn, just about two weeks before the regulation’s April 1 effective date. Under a “Frequently Asked Questions” heading, the Fed […]
March 14, 2013 PayPal Inc. is preparing to rev up its digital wallet with the acquisition of Duff Research, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based mobile app development shop, the company announced this week on its blog. PayPal since last year has been putting a heavy emphasis on mobile in all of its new product developments, wrote James […]
March 14, 2013 i2c Inc. has enhanced its process for obtaining feedback from prepaid card customers by enabling issuers and program managers that use the Redwood City, Calif.-based payments processor’s IVR system or customer service agents to gather customer feedback through mobile text surveys and automated collection of customer voice messages. Low response rates to […]
March 14, 2013 Continuing its recent global payments push, money transfer giant Western Union has announced a new program in Haiti aimed at enhancing government aid disbursements to citizens. The service initially will enable aid recipients, such as parents of young children, university students and senior citizens, to receive government payments at more than 600 […]
March 14, 2013 PKO Bank Polski has launched a new mobile payment service for use at POS, online, ATMs and for P2P money transfer. The system, known as IKO, is available as a free app for Android and iOS-based smartphones and will soon expand to BlackBerry, Symbian, Java and Windows Phone, according to the Polish […]
Yorkshire Building Society is to offer online personal financial management capabilities through a multi-year agreement with eWise.
March 2013 Expanding the Boundaries of PrepaidLeft to right: Lisa Breitengross and Kevin Boglarsky, Discover On March 4, Paybefore celebrated 72 programs in 23 categories, naming for the first time Best-in-Category honorees at the 7th Annual Paybefore Awards Ceremony, which capped off the first day of Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla. This year—for […]
