Indications continue to be positive for gift card sales this holiday season, with a recent report coming from Mercator Advisory Group predicting a bounce-back year from 2015, and research from the UK Gift Card & Voucher Association highlighting the popularity of digital gift cards, regardless of season.
The Federal Trade Commission has charged NetSpend with deceiving cardholders and denying or delaying their access to funds, but the prepaid provider says any delays stem from federal regulations and that consumers are not being deceived.
Financial services provider J.G. Wentworth Co.’s new Give Some! Play Some! Gift Card combines a $20 virtual Visa gift card with a $5 scratch-off lottery ticket—discounted to $3—included as part of the purchase.
Vantiv, which sells payment processing services and technology, said that it will pay $425 million to buy U.S.-based merchant acquirer Moneris Solutions Inc. from Moneris Solutions Corp., which is headquartered in Canada.
V-Key, a Singapore-based digital security firm, and Ant Financial have teamed up for mobile payments. Under the partnership, V-Key will provide its virtual software solution, V-OS, for Ant Financial to help secure transactions on AliExpress, one of Alibaba Group’s retail ecommerce platforms. (Ant Financial is an affiliate company of Alibaba Group). V-Key will also provide […]
Our new series of thrillers – produced and directed by CustomerXPs and Banking Technology – narrate the tales of the fight between the forces of good (the Clari5 analytics and anti-fraud software) and the forces of evil. Based on real events and guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat!
US banking giant Citi is launching its own branded mobile wallet – Citi Pay – to take on rivals such as Android Pay, Samsung Pay and PayPal.
Cuscal, a major payments provider to Australia’s credit unions and smaller banks, has signed a deal with Apple to bring Apple Pay to its customers. The service will be available to nearly four million Australians that bank with 31 entities (which work with Cuscal).
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Steve Streit, CEO of Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot, hailed the third quarter as another strong one for the company, pointing to operating revenue, adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share improving on quarter-by-quarter and year-over-year bases. He also highlighted several Green Dot products and services.
The recent surge of bank-backed mobile wallets continues, with Citi the latest financial institution to announce it’s getting into the game. The bank on Nov. 10 unveiled its Citi Pay app, which will enable customers to make online and mobile purchases using their Citi card accounts via Mastercard’s Masterpass digital payments service.
Electronic payments providers in India are celebrating the Indian government’s abolition of the Rs 500 ($7.46) and Rs 1,000 ($14.92) currency notes, which went into effect Nov. 8, because it’s driving transactions to their platforms.
As an online retailer heading into the holidays with approximately $105 billion in sales up for grabs, competing for spend is a top priority.
PayPal is bringing its users “an early holiday present” – the integration of Siri into PayPal.
The recently published Chambers UK 2017 legal ratings recognized several Locke Lord LLP lawyers as leading practitioners in their respective practice areas and recognized two of the firm’s U.K. practice areas for excellence.
Parth Desai, CEO and founder of Pelican, discusses why artificial intelligence (AI) is already fact not a fantasy, but cautions that we need to be realistic about what can really be achieved on the journey to true AI adoption in transaction banking and payments.
With a victory that took the pollsters by surprise, Trump’s win sent the markets plummeting overnight. Although reports suggest markets are steadying, what’s in store for the U.S. payments and financial services industry in the wake of this election?
Prison cards are under fire again, this time in Arizona. Bank of America has been named in a proposed class action lawsuit over claims the bank charged excessive fees on prepaid cards issued to former prison inmates in the state.
Fintech companies and challenger banks in the U.K. have a new tool for targeting consumers without traditional banking relationships. Prepaid card issuer Wirecard Card Solutions Ltd., a subsidiary of Wirecard AG, is working with payments processor GPS and Bottomline Technologies to support a digital banking solution called “U,” which was designed by U.K. program manager FFF Ltd.
Visa-backed mobile payments will expand in Africa thanks to a deal with pan-African banking group Ecobank. The agreement follows a similar one the bank struck with Mastercard in 2014.
Intelligent Processing Solutions (iPSL), a UK-based cheque clearing firm owned by Unisys, plans to close down seven of its nine locations in 2018. This puts 600 jobs at risk, according to trade union Unite.
UK-based banking services challenger Ffrees Fiamily Finance has launched a new “digital agency banking solution” – U Account. The account is supported by Wirecard, Global Processing Services (GPS) and payments software vendor Bottomline Technologies.
From payments robots to data analytics and customer engagement, find out what got FIS payments execs excited at Money20/20.
Soldo, a London-based fintech start-up, is launching its flagship multi-user spending account. Soldo is not a bank, but a prepaid MasterCard. It holds an e-money licence from the UK’s regulator, FCA.
Sparebank 1, an alliance of 16 Norwegian savings banks, has extended the contract with incumbent software supplier Evry. The agreement represents total contract value of NOK 3 billion ($364 million) over a six-year period.
SEB has teamed up with blockchain specialist Ripple to enable SEB customers to make real-time transfers between SEB accounts in Stockholm and New York. This is “the first step” of a larger blockchain-based payments project.
It may not be surprising that MCX’s largest member will support Chase Pay, but it’s still a coup for the bank-backed mobile wallet, which already has deals with some other retail heavyweights. Walmart will begin accepting Chase Pay starting in 2017.
With holiday shopping expected to kick into high gear after this week’s U.S. presidential election—and gift cards at the top of everyone’s list—shoppers looking for the perfect gift will have a new option: Gift of College Gift Cards. Atlanta-based technology provider InComm is working with Gift of College to distribute the gift cards, which can be used to contribute to any 529 college savings plan, at Toys“R”Us and Babies“R”Us stores.
U.K.-based Tesco Bank was the victim of a security breach over the weekend that exposed thousands of customer accounts, half of which had money removed. The bank’s fraud security systems detected “suspicious activity” Nov. 5, affecting approximately 40,000 accounts, and 20,000 of those accounts had money stolen from them, a Tesco Bank spokesperson tells Paybefore.
Ride-hailing service Uber has partnered with Mexico-based digital bank Bankaool to launch a new debit card to reach riders without access to a bank account. Linked to an account with the Mexican online bank, the Mastercard-branded UberCard could help drive ridership of Uber among consumers in Mexico who don’t have a traditional payment card to link to the app.
California already has a way to protect consumers from predatory lending practices while also encouraging the kind of innovation that leads to increased access to responsible and affordable credit—especially for those most often left out of the financial mainstream.
Oct. 5, 2016, the CFPB released its final rule governing prepaid accounts. The final rule and its commentary come in at nearly 1,700 pages. Find out what products are covered under the rule, what triggers Reg Z and what still needs clarifications before the regulations go into effect Oct. 1, 2017.
Eight start-ups and scale-ups in wealth management, regtech, artificial intelligence (AI), payments, big data, blockchain and cybersecurity are to take part in SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 2.0.
The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
Let’s put the fun in funding by keeping it mercifully brief. A round-up of some key events. KEEN Venture Partners, a new venture capital firm operating from London and Amsterdam, has announced €90 million first close of its inaugural fund. It will use the money to provide early growth capital for tech firms with a […]
BBVA says it is the first financial institution in Spain to launch online onboarding via mobile, which allows anyone to open an account in “just a few minutes”. A customer’s identity is verified through a selfie and a video call. Users can open an account at BBVA through their mobile phone by going to its […]
Berlin-based payments start-up Cookies has ended its short life and applied for insolvency. As Banking Technology reported in August, Cookies launched its peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app in Germany. The app was in beta phase and in invite-only mode. However, in a statement, Cookies co-founder Lamine Cheloufi says the other co-founder, Garry Krugljakow, has been dismissed. […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Weatherbys Bank live with new core banking system EXCLUSIVE. Oracle FSS’s Flexcube flexes its muscles. Mobile payments and European millennials Vocalink reveals millennials’ habits and perceptions. Japan rises to blockchain challenge with new consortium Launches with 42 member […]
Vocalink has unveiled its comprehensive research into the habits and perceptions of millennials when it comes to mobile payments. Turns out, this group is still waiting for the “Uber moment” of payments.
Last night the Cubs proved—after a long and grueling fight—that the narrative can change. New winners can be crowned. Who in payments will come out on top in 2017? Will it be you?
