Payments


Mastercard, Swarovski Launch VR Shopping

Mastercard and Swarovski have teamed up to launch a virtual reality (VR) shopping app for the Atelier Swarovski home décor line. The app immerses consumers in a home where they can browse and purchase the pieces with Masterpass.

Cashplus Expands with £30 Million Debt Facilities Led by RBS

Cashplus, a London-based alternative financial services provider—and Top 5 Best Challenger Bank—has announced two new, three-year funding arrangements totaling £30 million (US$40.52 million). The company will use the credit to expand its lending products for SMEs.

Banks going Kodak

When was the last time you visited a bank branch? While the rise of the internet, banking shifted the customer interaction from the branch to the web, the business was still owned and run end-to-end by the bank and at lower cost. For a few years now, the landscape has altered significantly bringing Kodak to […]

American private equity firm makes $5.3bn offer for Nets

In response to media speculation, Nordic payments processor Nets has confirmed that it has received a DKK 33.1 billion ($5.3 billion) takeover offer. Evergood 5, a newly formed firm controlled by funds managed and advised by American private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, has made a recommended voluntary takeover offer to acquire Nets – offering […]

How millennials are shaping the future of payments

For the millennial generation, paying for a latte using a contactless card, transferring money to a family member or friend online or buying a pair of trainers with “one click” has become the norm. This generation has not only shaped and driven the payments revolution, but is also playing an active role in developing a lot of the payment technologies emerging today.

UK watchdog approves Cardtronics purchase of ATM provider DCP

Cardtronics’ $460-million purchase of rival ATM provider DirectCash Payments (DCP) has finally been approved by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Back in May 2017, Cardtronics had to offer undertakings due to competition concerns, and initially didn’t. The CMA said at the time: “As Cardtronics has not offered these undertakings, the CMA will now […]

Fintech funding round-up: 22 September 2017

There was a round-up yesterday because fintech funding won’t go away. More action featuring Tuition.io, Apiax and Etch. Tuition.io, a US-based employer-funded student loan repayment assistance platform, has announced a $7 million Series B funding round led by Wildcat Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Mohr Davidow Ventures and MassMutual Ventures, the corporate venture […]

FinovateFall 2017: a look back at the four-day flow

Adding a pair of discussion days to Finovate’s traditional demo days format, has made it that much easier for FinovateFall attendees to answer the question perennial post-conference question: “So. What did you think?”

Innovators’ Spotlight: SPENT Money

Rather than being top of wallet, SPENT Money wants to help consumers manage and earn rewards from what’s already there—at least for now.

Fintech funding round-up: 21 September 2017

Following swiftly on from the fintech funding round-up on 19 September, here’s more concise, cash-coated action. Features CivilisedBank, HighRadius, Swirlds and Luno. UK challenger CivilisedBank, which got its banking licence in May, has agreed terms for a further round of funding from current investor Warwick Capital Partners. No more details on that but the bank […]

Swift gives final wave to four more CSDs on T2S

Swift has announced the migration of Iberclear (Spain) and the Baltic central securities depositories (CSDs) of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and their respective communities to live operations on Target2 Securities (T2S) using its value added network (VAN) solution. The migration marks the end of the T2S migration plan, which started back in June 2015. Since […]

Bento for Business Names Jeff Pomeroy VP of Product

Blackhawk Network veteran Jeff Pomeroy has joined the Pay Award-winning Bento for Business, a provider of employee expense management solutions for small businesses, as vice president of product.

Bankart and Nets to deliver new payments infrastructure to Slovenian banking sector

Bankart and Nordic payments processor Nets will provide the Slovenian banking sector with a new payments central infrastructure to handle both SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT) non-urgent and SCT instant credit transfers. The duo has signed an agreement where Nets will deploy and operate an instant payments solution for Bankart via Nets’ RealTime24/7 solution. The latter […]

Fifth Third Bets on Gaming with Investment, Partnership

Fifth Third Bancorp is placing its bets on the newly merged gaming payments companies NRT Technology Corp. and Sightline Payments, announcing a strategic relationship and equity investment in NRT Sightline, “one of the largest pure-play casino payment-technology companies in the world.”

Kenya leads Africa in financial inclusion innovation

Kenya is leading the way when it comes to digital innovation for financial inclusion in Africa, according to research by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). Earlier this year, CGAP says it invited firms and organisations to submit proposals for digital innovations they believe have the most potential to advance financial inclusion in […]

Interview: Aleksey Chubar, VTB – leading a fintech revolution in Russia

If you’ve got preconceptions about what fintech looks like and where it’s happening, then Aleksey Chubar, head of digital transformation at VTB, has news for you. Russia is becoming a hotbed of fintech innovation – not just domestically, but internationally too. More than that, the rapid pace of technological change in the country means you’ll soon wonder how you got left behind.

Executive profile: Solana Cozzo, Mastercard

It’s a good thing Solana (“Sol”) Cozzo is high energy. When she’s not literally running or chasing after 3-year-old twins, she’s running Mastercard’s North American prepaid and inclusive growth business. It’s hard work when you consider that “the cardable opportunity is about seven times the current market,” she says.

JP Morgan Chase goes in for the Bill for digital payments platform

JP Morgan Chase has teamed with Bill.com, the largest digital business-to-business (B2B) payments network in the US, for its new paytech platform. This B2B solution, to be rolled out next year, will be integrated into Chase’s digital platform for businesses, used for online and mobile solutions. Andrew Kresse, CEO of business banking at JP Morgan […]

Raise Pulls in $60 Million in Funding, PayPal Joins Party

Raise, which bills itself as the world’s largest gift card marketplace, has raised $60 million in a Series C funding round led by Accel, with participation from PayPal and existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Juniper: Apple Users Likely to Reject Facial Recognition

A new survey conducted by Juniper Research has found that more than 40 percent of iOS users in the U.S. consider themselves unlikely to use facial recognition as a payment security technology. This suggests that a core use case for the iPhone X’s main security feature may struggle to gain traction among consumers, the consultancy says.

Fintech funding round-up: 19 September 2017

Four stories in one for a fast fintech funding round-up. Features Ellevest, iZettle, GoCardless and MarketInvoice. New York-based fintech Ellevest, led by former Merrill Lynch CEO Sallie Krawcheck, has got itself $34.6 million funding. Ellevest is a bit different from the rest as it was founded to provide an investing experience to “help women meet […]

Viber brings good vibes to Addiko Bank’s chat banking payments

Austrian banking group Addiko has unveiled chat banking for its customers – the “first ever” Viber-based financial transaction service available in Croatia. Called “Addiko Chat Banking”, it’s a digital banking service that, in partnership with Comtrade Digital Services and communication platform Viber, enables customers to directly communicate with the bank and make payments. Mario Žižek, […]

EML Payments Europe Partners with Fortuna on Gaming Payout Cards

EML Payments Limited announced that its wholly owned subsidiary EML Payments Europe Limited has entered into a multiyear agreement with Fortuna Entertainment Group to provide branded reloadable cards for customers to access their winnings or remit funds back into their gaming accounts.

Barcode Payments Spread across Africa with M-vendr, PiP iT

M-vendr, a U.K.-based tech company with a POS pay-in system across 12 African nations, has signed an agreement with international cash payments platform PiP iT to integrate the latter’s barcodes across its network of 45,000 merchant locations.

Zambian start-up Zazu plans to be digitally true

Zambia-based Zazu is readying for launch – as it targets being “Africa’s first digital-only bank” and offering a “more personalised solution” than a traditional bank. In November, it will launch with 1,500 prepaid debit cards. It wants to give these out to people who regularly use cards to make payments, so it can improve and develop […]

App it. The future of banking

This morning I was having breakfast with a colleague. I paid the bill, and he sent me his share of the bill using our Monzo app. Before we’d walked out of the café, the money was in my account. Simple!

Finastra goes on a job cutting spree

EXCLUSIVE: Finastra, which emerged earlier this year from the combination of two banking tech vendors, D+H Corporation and Misys, has made a number of job cuts across its operations.