The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority gave its blessing April 11, enabling Mastercard to complete its acquisition of 92.4 percent of VocaLink Holdings for $920 million. The deal, which is expected to close within weeks, gives Mastercard control of a large portion of the U.K. transaction processing market.
White-label digital banking services provider Urban FT is joining forces with Sunrise Banks.
No doubt banking on the value consumers will place on integrating online coupons into the purchasing experience, payments provider Harland Clarke has agreed to purchase merchant offers marketplace RetailMeNot Inc., in a deal valued at around $630 million.
Fintech entrepreneurs still have a few weeks left to win financial backing from two big players in the payment space. The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) and JPMorgan Chase’s Financial Solutions Lab (FinLab) plan to award $250,000 to programs that help consumers build financial health, “with a special focus on those communities that are frequently underserved, such as older Americans, communities of color, people with disabilities and products that address the gender wealth gap.”
US-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and First Data are calling on US start-ups to apply for their latest Commerce.Innovated accelerator programme. The four-month virtual programme provides participants with operational mentorship from the pair’s respective networks. Reetika Grewal, head of SVB’s payments strategy and solutions group, says its “small class size allows us to work closely […]
Visa has expanded its Everywhere Initiative innovation programme into Europe as it looks for the “next big thing” in payments. Entrants in Visa’s first-ever European Everywhere Initiative can win up to €50,000 to support a development programme with Visa, or through business partnership with Visa’s clients, and potentially have access to Visa APIs, mentors and […]
Payments industry practitioners in the European Union are understandably obsessed with the implications of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). This was evident at the recent European Payments Summit, held in the Netherlands, where PSD2 dominated many of the discussions.
Financial consultancy firm DeVere Group has launched an app-only e-money service as it pushes deeper into the banking and fintech sector. As Banking Technology reported last month, the group took advantage of Lithuania’s ambitions to attract fintech firms and set up a new office in the capital Vilnius. This was preceded by the unveiling of […]
Mastercard has welcomed five new start-ups to its Start Path Global programme – its initiative to boost its share of the commerce market. The programme is open to all start-ups who focus on banking and payments and have raised a “significant seed” or Series A round of investment. Three out of the five firms joining […]
The CFPB accepted comments on its proposed delay of the effective date for its final rule on prepaid accounts through April 5. Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Colo.) likes the idea of a delay so much, he’s proposing giving the industry even more time.
From his current role as senior vice president of mobile innovations at Digiliti Money (formerly Cachet Financial Solutions), Walt Granville has the perfect vantage point to see the transformative power of mobile for prepaid programs. Find out more from the former pro runner, including which apps are on his must-list, where he sees prepaid in five years and the trend he’s watching most in 2017.
Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, Banking Technology’s deputy editor Antony Peyton briefly reflects on last week’s visit to Morocco for HPS Worldwide’s PowerCARD Users Meeting 2017. At […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Payments companies are used to defending themselves against fraud from all sorts of angles, but they would do well to mind the phones. By 2020, 75 percent of omni-channel, customer-facing companies will face a targeted attack, with the contact center as the primary point of compromise, according to Gartner research.
WeChat is on the move again. The China-based social messaging and mobile wallet platform plans to expand its presence in Europe and the U.S., efforts that could bring it better relationships with advertisers, brands and payment providers.
Facing increased competition from mobile P2P services, money transfer giant Western Union has made a move to bolster its own mobile offerings. U.S.-based users of Western Union’s mobile app now can use Apple Pay to send money from within the app domestically, or to more than 200 countries and territories.
The agreement between Alipay and UniCredit has now entered the operational stage. Technological infrastructure for this has been provided by SIA.
Cachet Financial Solutions is working with Central Bank of Kansas City (CBKC) to bring mobile-optimised prepaid programmes to community banks. The two companies have also teamed with Rebar Interactive to provide Select Mobile Money-Express, a platform that includes a Mastercard-branded prepaid card.
Spain-based financial services group BBVA has officially joined Hyperledger, a global coalition working to advance blockchain technologies in various corporate sectors.
Mobile money and remote deposit capture specialist Cachet Financial Solutions Inc. has changed its name change to Digiliti Money Inc.
A group of 13 Australian financial services and technology startups has come together to form the RegTech Association, a consortium focused on encouraging collaboration between startups and other stakeholders in the regulatory technology, or “regtech” space in Asia-Pacific.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp is reportedly looking to get into mobile payments and has picked India as the best place to start.
Deutsche Bank has launched a new mobile payment app for Android devices.
OP Financial Group has partnered with Token, a Silicon Valley-based crypto-payment software provider. Token says the agreement will enable the Finnish bank “to innovate in the European open banking market and generate new revenue streams via future payment solutions”.
Students gain financial literacy and banks develop important relationships with the community and new banking customers as shown in the FDIC’s Youth Savings Pilot.
Billing disputes and fraud, identity theft and embezzlement are among the most common complaints that consumers have about their credit cards, according to the CFPB.
The states weigh in on the CFPB leadership structure with two amicus briefs. A group of 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, has sided with the agency as it fights a court ruling that says the president should have the authority to fire the head of the CFPB. Meanwhile, 15 other states have taken an opposing stance.
As the U.K. moves ahead with plans to implement the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), the Prepaid International Forum (PIF) has asked regulators for more clarification on certain aspects of how the framework will be applied in the country.
A proposed class action lawsuit was filed by a former prisoner who claims he had no choice but to receive a prepaid card upon his release instead of the cash he arrived with, minus any card fees he was charged.
The Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision finding that a New York law prohibiting merchants from disclosing surcharges to cover the costs of credit card processing while allowing for discounts in the case of cash transactions regulated speech
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s round-up, here’s more bite-sized blockchain and Bitcoin news. Featuring TaaS, Living Room of Satoshi and Bitfinex. TaaS, the “first-ever” tokenised closed-end fund dedicated to blockchain assets, will partner with two cryptocurrency exchanges, Livecoin and Kuna, to offer its tokens for trading starting on 28 April. Investors will be able […]
Facing charges by the Federal Trade Commission that Netspend deceived cardholders and denied or delayed their access to funds, the TSYS subsidiary agreed to a $53 million settlement, which consists of $40 million on deposit in customer accounts and $13 million in refunded fees. Netspend doesn’t admit any wrongdoing under the terms of the settlement.
Cachet Financial Solutions is working with Central Bank of Kansas City again. The two companies, which in March announced a partnership to bring mobile-optimized prepaid programs to community banks, now are working with Rebar Interactive to provide Select Mobile Money-Express, a platform that includes a Mastercard-branded prepaid card.
In a bid to reach unbanked consumers as well as those who prefer cash, Amazon has debuted a new service that enables consumers to load cash to Amazon accounts at U.S. brick-and-mortar merchant locations and then use those funds to make online purchases through Amazon.
With the B2B virtual card market estimated at more than $95 billion in gross spending in 2016, payment providers would do well to target the travel sector, which represents the largest single vertical volume of that spending, according to Mercator Advisory Group. One such company, WEX Inc., has found that moving to virtual payments offers travel suppliers, such as hotels, car rental agencies and tour operators, distinct advantages, including getting paid faster, easier reconciliation across borders and improved analytics.
BNP Paribas is buying a 95% stake in Financière des Paiements Électroniques (FPE), which provides the digital-only bank Compte-Nickel. BNP Paribas wants to tap into Compte-Nickel’s growth – citing its 540,000 accounts opened over the past three years and that a new account is being opened in France every 30 seconds. Compte-Nickel also offers real-time […]
Visa says it has become the first card network to give its UK commercial account holders a comprehensive view of their Amazon Business purchases. The new transaction data, available to Barclaycard, Citi, HSBC, and Lloyds Bank account holders, provides line-item details on all purchases for Amazon Business customers and integrates with reconciliation tools. Kevin Jenkins, […]
Ukrainian start-up Attic Lab has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Polybius Foundation to provide the blockchain backbone for a new digital bank. As Banking Technology reported in September last year, Attic Lab unveiled its open source blockchain platform and has been gaining some traction with banks in Europe. It will implement SmartMoney, a […]
Meezan Bank in Pakistan is partnering with 1LINK Guarantee, an interbank payment network service, to issue PayPak branded debit cards across the nation. PayPak is Pakistan’s “first” domestic payment scheme that aims to provide an “indigenous alternative to international payment schemes”. Ariful Islam, deputy CEO of Meezan Bank, says it “will, inshallah [God willing], develop […]
Australia and New Zealand-based banking group, ANZ, has announced it will be the first Australian bank to introduce voice biometrics on mobile devices to allow higher value transactions. From the middle of this year, customers transferring more than $1,000 through ANZ’s mobile apps will be able to use their voice to automatically authorise high value […]
