Payments


Swift unveils new instant payments solution for Europe

Swift has launched an instant payments messaging solution for the European market, offering a single gateway to multiple systems, and available by November 2018. According to Swift, this latest development builds on its earlier deal in Australia. In 2015, it was awarded the contract to deliver the messaging infrastructure to underpin Australia’s new payments platform, […]

Misys and D+H merge to launch fintech titan Finastra

Misys and DH Corporation (D+H) have joined forces to create Finastra, the third largest financial services technology company in the world. As reported in March, D+H was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $3.6 billion. The venture capital firm, which owns UK-based banking software vendor Misys, beat rival Advent International to acquire D+H. Finastra will […]

Q&A with Andrew Buckley, Mastercard

When the self-described skeptic took over as global head of prepaid for Mastercard earlier this year, Andrew Buckley wasn’t quite convinced that the opportunities ahead were worthy of all the hype. Five months later and he’s among the converted, preaching the gospel of democratization—not just of payments but of innovation.

Mastercard, Oxford Plan Helps Banks Breathe Life into Biometrics

With increasing global smartphone penetration and a willing consumer base, financial institutions recognize the potential of biometrics to offer more convenience and security to their customers—but a lack of familiarity with the still-new technology among top banking brass remains a significant barrier to adoption, a new report from Mastercard and Oxford University found.

Walmart Pay Offers Instant Credit Access

Can a mobile payment service gain users by offering instant access to credit card accounts? Walmart is about to find out. The retail giant has launched a program that enables Walmart Pay customers to spend via their credit lines immediately upon approval instead of waiting for plastic cards to arrive.

TSYS launches fraud prevention tool that learns

Global payments provider TSYS announced June 12 it has launched TSYS Foresight Score with Featurespace, a fraud-prevention and risk-scoring product that integrates artificial intelligence, enabling the software to learn and improve its ability to detect fraudulent behavior while reducing false positives, the company says.

Revolut launches multi-currency service across Europe

UK-based payments start-up Revolut has unveiled its new business service across Europe for multi-currency accounts, transferring money and corporate cards. Called Revolut for Business, it will enable companies to hold, exchange and transfer in 25 currencies with the interbank exchange rate, issue employees with corporate cards for “global fee-free spending” and manage their transactional activity […]

House Passes Dodd-Frank Reform Minus Interchange Reform

The Financial CHOICE Act of 2017 (HR 10), legislation to overhaul the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, was approved along party lines by the U.S. House of Representatives 233-186 on June 8. The legislation focuses on ending big-bank bailouts and supporters say it provides more accountability for Washington and Wall Street, while removing barriers to economic growth.

Preview: Prepaid Power Players to Gather in D.C.

Prepaid stakeholders from around the U.S.—and beyond—are set to converge on Washington, D.C.’s Mayflower Hotel next week for the NBPCA’s sixth annual Power of Prepaid. We’ve got a sneak peek of what’s in store at the prepaid industry’s most important event of the year, including some surprises from industry pioneer Steve Streit.

Case study: Amsterdam Trade Bank – Amster-can

A bank-wide replacement of its main business applications is ambitious enough but it is just the starting point for Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), as it seeks to harness new technologies, adopt a new culture and digitise its business.

The age of face-to-face conversation is pretty much over

It wouldn’t quite be June if we didn’t have rain or Cisco’s annual visual networking index (VNI) forecast. We’ve had plenty of rain, now it’s time to tuck into some stats! Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication) reports that you probably didn’t need us to tell you, but internet traffic is going to grow. The total […]

Moroku’s Marrakash makes a splash with POS software deal

German payments company AEVI and Australian software firm Moroku have teamed up to offer POS software in AEVI’s B2B app store. Called Marrakash, Moroku’s software is for small retail and hospitality merchants that integrates their business, products, customers and payment systems into one platform. Moroku says it lets firms run their business “entirely from a […]

Australia Post taps i2c for digital payments push

Australia Post is partnering with processor i2c Inc. to “expand and modernize” its digital payments offerings. Under the pact, the Australian postal service will use i2c’s Agile Processing platform to roll out enhanced digital functionality for its payments products, including the Load&Go GPR Visa card, along with gift, multicurrency travel and corporate incentive cards. The i2c platform also will underpin future financial services products from Australia Post.

Philip Morris Test Promotes Blockchain Payments in Poland

Moving incentives to virtual prepaid cards is an important trend, but Philip Morris International is taking its incentives a step further with blockchain. The cigarette company and fintech firm Billon Group reportedly have completed a test replacing prepaid cards with the distributed ledger technology, enabling digital and mobile payments.

Mastercard launches digital payment B2B hub for SMEs

Mastercard has unveiled its B2B Hub to help SMEs speed up invoice and payment processes with accounts payable and payment automation tools. According to the firm, a majority of all B2B payments in the US are still made via cheque with manual payment processes. The Mastercard B2B Hub, delivered through card issuers, is an automated […]

Concardis brings Alipay to Austria and Switzerland

German payment service provider Concardis is bringing Chinese mobile payment solution Alipay to Austria and Switzerland. Clothing brand Gössl will be the first merchant in Austria to let Chinese citizens pay via smartphone and the Alipay app. The roll-out in the Swiss market is planned for October this year. In Germany, Concardis says it has […]

Compliance Titans: Craig James, Neopay

Craig James, founder and CEO of compliance consultancy Neopay, views compliance like a chess match—you have to know the board better than everyone else, so nothing surprises you.

Four Australian banks sign up for Swift’s global payments innovation

Four Australian banks, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac are now live or planning to implement Swift’s global payments innovation (gpi) initiative. According to Swift, these Australian banks represent over 80% of cross-border payments flow for Australia. The banks all say the same stuff – so […]

SunTec system fits the bill for Amex business travel

American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) has opted for SunTec’s Xelerate billing system for its corporate clients. According to SunTec, its platform can onboard new geographic regions and “weaves data locked in various legacy and modern billing systems” to create relevant offers for American Express GBT’s corporate clients. Michael Konstas, VP of billing strategy at […]

Commcise and RBC team up for MiFID II research payment solution

With MiFID II in mind, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has teamed with Commcise for a service that lets research funds be held in a segregated research payment account (RPA) established in the name of a buy-side client. Commcise’s technology will provide a broker-neutral, independent and un-conflicted platform to help management of the research payment […]

Fintech funding round-up: 7 June 2017

Fintech funding can be an intense blur of money, jargon and unerringly similar expansion plans. Here’s a round-up that gets to the heart of the matter. Features Plynk, IHS Markit, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Wahed. Ireland’s Plynk, a money messaging app, has revealed a Series A raise of €25 million. Led by […]

Local banking for global trading – an impossible goal?

Anders la Cour, CEO of ground-breaking payments utility Saxo Payments Banking Circle, which is underpinning the service propositions of a growing number of payments businesses, reports on the payment pain points currently faced by merchants who have ambitions to trade globally.

Turkey’s Garanti Bank wins BBVA fintech ideas challenge

Turkey-based Garanti Bank’s new mobile app has won BBVA’s “Open Talent Ideas” fintech competition. BBVA launched the competition in February, and yesterday (5 June) the ten finalists presented their idea to experts from BBVA’s senior management. The winning idea was GarantiStore, a mobile app able to identify products automatically. Through image recognition techniques or by […]

Green Dot Aids Apple’s Bid to Bite into P2P

Apple has made a bold foray into the P2P money transfer market—and Green Dot is helping the tech giant in its bid to unseat Venmo and other established players in the increasingly crowded space.

Amex Faces State Pressure over Anti-Steering Case as DOJ Backs Off

The U.S. Justice Department may have dropped its antitrust suit against American Express, but 11 states want to press on in a case that started in 2010. At issue is the company’s push to prevent Amex-accepting merchants from offering shoppers financial incentives to use other card brands.

Flywire Nabs Multi-Currency Specialist PACE

On the heels of expanding into the B2B sector earlier this year, cross-border payments specialist Flywire has acquired PACE Invoice, a multicurrency invoicing platform provider based in London. The purchase bolsters Flywire’s offerings to enable its business, education and health care clients to more easily link invoices to cross-border receivables, increasing efficiency and savings, according to the company.

Apple squares up to rivals with Pay Cash feature

Apple has unveiled Pay Cash as it looks to fight it out with PayPal, Square and Venmo in the overcrowded peer-to-peer (P2P) payments market. In a range of updates to its mobile operating system, iOS 11, new features to the iPhone and iPad are coming this autumn. Apple Pay users will be able to make […]

LG Electronics unleashes mobile payments in South Korea

Watch out Samsung Pay, but South Korean titan LG Electronics has unleashed its mobile payment service in the country. Called LG Pay, it will be offered first as a service that allows users to pay offline in the same way as a credit card. Its use is limited at the moment to Shinhan, KB, BC […]

CPI Touts Speed, Security of New Instant-Issuance Printer

A new instant-issuance product from CPI Card Group promises faster card processing times along with higher resolution printing. Called Precision by Card@Once, the system is designed to improve security and the customer experience.

GPS Captures Contactless Lightning in a Bottle

You’ve heard of wearables—now meet “drinkables.” Global Processing Services (GPS) is helping support a new energy drink marketing campaign featuring special bottles equipped with contactless chips, each preloaded with a credit for a trip on the London Underground. The campaign for the Lucozade Energy brand launched last week, with bottles distributed free at major London train stations and commuter hubs.

Payments firm Tilt wilts

Following Airbnb’s acquisition of crowdfunding and social payments start-up Tilt in February, it is now being wound down. Tilt (formerly Crowdtilt) was built with the aim to allow groups and communities to collect, fundraise, or pool money online. It was founded five years ago with high hopes. Its co-founder and CEO James Beshara said at […]

Payments Firm Tilt Wilts

Following Airbnb’s acquisition of crowdfunding and social payments startup Tilt in February, it is now being wound down.

GTCR to acquire Sage Payment Solutions for $260m

Private equity firm GTCR will buy Virginia-based Sage Payment Solutions (SPS) for $260 million. Chicago-based GTCR is acquiring SPS from the Sage Group, a provider of accounting, payroll and payment solutions headquartered in the UK. GTCR says it will work with SPS management to pursue organic growth and fund future acquisitions in the payment processing […]

UK payments firm Helixion is liquidated

It’s not only the end of the working week but the end of the line for Edinburgh-based payments firm Helixion. The company has gone into liquidation and intellectual property (IP) firm Metis Partners has been appointed to support the marketing and sale of its assets. On Metis’ website, it says the deadline for offers has […]