SWIFT, a Belgium-based, bank-owned co-op and provider of financial messaging services, said this week that criminals attacked the technology infrastructure of member banks even as the group sought to tighten up security in the wake of an $81 million cyber theft of Bangladesh Bank, according to an Aug. 31 report from Reuters.
Prepaid card-related complaints to the CFPB ticked down in July, the bureau announced in its latest monthly consumer complaint report. The month saw 211 complaints about prepaid products, down 5 percent from 223 prepaid complaints in June and slightly below the monthly average of 215 since the CFPB began tracking prepaid complaints in July 2014.
More consumers are using mobile banking, however there are obstacles to further adoption that present opportunities to financial institutions, according to a new report by global provider of financial services technology Fiserv Inc.
TransferWise, a five-year-old P2P firm based in the U.K., plans to “scale back” its reliance on banks as it expands, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
London-based Currencycloud is partnering with Arkéa Banking Services, a subsidiary of Credit Mutuel Arkea, to offer clients its Euro bank accounts and direct access to European payments systems. This partnership will enable Currencycloud to process international payments through Target2 for real-time payment settlement. It says this builds on and “enhances” existing capabilities that allow cross-border […]
Swift has revealed new hacking attacks on its members’ banks as it pressured them to comply with security procedures instituted after the heist at Bangladesh Bank, according to Reuters. In a private letter to clients, Swift says new cyber theft attempts – some of them successful – have appeared since June, when it last updated […]
Merchant advocacy group and services provider the National Merchants Association has been listed on the 2016 Inc. 5000 list.
Payments processor Total Merchant Services has been ranked No. 9 in Fortune Magazine’s Best Workplaces in Finance and Insurance—the only payment processing company to make the list.
Digital-only B1NK, part of Capital Bank Kazakhstan, has unveiled the region’s “first” chat and payments bot – using Telegram Messenger. The bank says its customers can send money to friends and manage their cards all via the messenger service. Gani Uzbekov, CEO, Capital Bank Kazakhstan (B1NK), says: “Today only a couple of tier-2 banks in […]
Early Warning, a provider of real-time payments, authentication and risk mitigation services, is preparing to raise the profile of its P2P payments platform clearXchange, upping the competition with Venmo, arguably the king of the hill in P2P payments. Competing with Venmo might seem daunting, considering its parent company is PayPal and its student-popular P2P service is currently free for people on both ends of the transaction.
Apple is pushing back against a bid by a group of Australia’s major banks to be allowed to negotiate collectively with the U.S-based tech giant over contactless payments. In a filing with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released Aug. 30, Apple called upon the regulator to reject a request by the banks to collectively bargain with Apple in negotiations to offer Apple Pay to their customers.
Consumers in India made 18.29 million prepaid transactions in June, down 11 percent from 20.60 million in May but up nearly 127 percent from 8.06 in June 2015, according to figures from the Reserve Bank of India. The total prepaid transactions in June 2016 topped $342.7 million, up from approximately $252.6 million in June 2015.
India’s fledgling mobile payments system, the Unified Payments Interface, has a head of steam behind it: An Aug. 30 story in Mashable said that some two dozen banks in the country are set to release UPI apps via Google Play in the coming days.
Payments firm PhonePe and Yes Bank have teamed up to launch India’s “first” UPI (Unified Payments Interface) based mobile payments app. UPI was launched in April by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) – with Yes Bank being one of the 21 banks recently going live. UPI offers instant, online bank payments, and is […]
Canada-based Windsor Family Credit Union (WFCU) has unveiled its new line of everyday accounts – Eva – for “unlimited” daily banking. WFCU says Eva provides “unlimited” deposits, withdrawals, transfers, electronic and cheque debits, point-of-sale transactions, ATM transactions worldwide and “unlimited” bill payments online, by phone, in-branch or at an ATM. Account access through online, mobile […]
As a Gen Xer, I have always had difficulty relating to the obsessive appeal social media has to millennials. Tweeting and Facebook posting of mundane daily events seemed like over-sharing and just a little narcissistic to me. This is not an intellectual problem of understanding the concepts or technologies, but a kind of generational disparity […]
TerraPay, a mobile-first international network, has bought UK-based Pay2Global Limited to boost its ambitions for European expansion in payments. Pay2Global is being rebranded as Terra Payment Services. In an outright purchase, Netherlands-based TerraPay, which is part of the Mahindra Group, has acquired 100% of Pay2Global for an undisclosed amount. Pay2Global is a digital international money […]
Traditionally there weren’t any obligations for financial institutions to provide complete information on all parties in a payment process. Today, it is quite a different story. The initiator and receiver are responsible for reporting account numbers, names and addresses of remitters. There are even cases now where regulators may prevent banks from processing transactions when […]
After a tumultuous nearly year-long span in which UniRush LLC was making headlines stemming from a major service disruption to its RushCard GPR product last October, the company announced Aug. 29 positive news in the form of a new app it says has best-in-class security features and a pharmacy program providing discounted prescription medications.
As China-based payments network UnionPay continues to grow its global acceptance network, Chinese students studying abroad can use UnionPay cards for tuition payments at more than 2,000 educational institutions outside mainland China, the network announced Aug. 29.
India-based online commerce platform Paytm soon could gain a $300 million investment from China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba and Taiwan-based microchip firm MediaTek, according to an Aug. 29 report in the Financial Times.
A new international network of fintech hubs aims to foster global cooperation for the development of fintech and give the emerging industry a collective voice. Dubbed the Global Fintech Hubs Federation, the new group was formed by Innotribe—the innovation arm of global financial network SWIFT—and Innovate Finance, a fintech industry organization.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has released a consultation paper on proposed changes to the payments regulatory framework and establishment of a National Payments Council. Jacqueline Loh, MAS deputy managing director, says this is an “important step for MAS and the payments industry to co-create the future of Singapore’s payments landscape; one where payments […]
Unified Payments Interface (UPI), launched in April by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), is going live for 21 banks. UPI offers instant, online bank payments, and is seen as a major change to the Indian financial sector. It enables banks to provide real-time payments through QR code enabled addresses and offers device fingerprinting […]
Prepaid cards have gained popularity among U.S. consumers in recent years, with 63 percent of adults buying the payments device in the year preceding June, according to a new survey report from Mercator Advisory Group. That compares to 61 percent for the last survey report, and 56 percent for the year before that.
In the wake of the cyberattack that struck international financial messaging network SWIFT earlier this year, U.S. banking regulators say that they are assessing cybersecurity threats facing the country’s financial institutions and the controls in place to defend against attacks.
Seoul, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics recently announced that Samsung Pay had been launched a year ago, and that approximately 100 million unique transactions have been made using its m-wallet thus far.
Consumers enrolled in multiple, unrelated loyalty programs often experience confusion and friction when it comes to redeeming rewards. Some see coalition loyalty—platforms that enable customers to earn and redeem points across multiple brands and retailers—as the way to win.
Retailers are now operating in an era where convenience is key—and secure and simple payments have begun to take hold. Amy Parsons, vice president of global commerce at Discover, recently offered her insights into on-demand payment technology.
Welcome to the bundle. South Africa’s First National Bank has launched its own-branded smartphones as it looks to mobile banking growth. The ConeXis X1 and A1 phones will be available from 380 branches around the country and come bundled with FNB’s smartphone banking app. Jan Kleynhans, CEO of the FNB Consumer Segment, says the initiative […]
BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, ICAP and Santander have joined UBS and Clearmatics to advance their utility settlement coin (USC) concept, and plan tests in a real-market environment. USC is a digital cash model for payments and settlement. It will run on blockchain and be another rival to Bitcoin. The group plan to build on the […]
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has launched a mobile app to identify and train people in the country to work in the private banking sector. Khalefa Al Mesalam, head of QIB Human Capital Group, says: “Through this mobile application, QIB aims to reach out to young talents and encourage them to work in Qatar’s banking sector. […]
It’s no secret that the financial services industry has tended to lag behind when it comes to adopting digital technology. Far from being leaders of innovation, banks are often stifled by lumbering IT systems and an inherent sense of caution when it comes to challenging the status-quo. With growing investment in the internet of things […]
The weakest gift card retailers, according to a report from Retail System Research published Aug. 23 that gave them each zero points, include Eddie Bauer, Costco, Walgreens, and Advance Auto Parts as well as quite a few quick-service restaurant chains, including McDonald’s, Denny’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC and Chick-Fil-A.
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s proposal prohibiting financial services firms from including class action waivers in arbitration agreements has another critic: The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) has sent a letter to the federal agency about the “negative” impacts the rule would have on the prepaid industry.
Walgreens on Aug. 22 became the first retailer to enable customers to earn loyalty points via NFC tap with Android Pay. The pharmacy and convenience giant’s Balance Rewards members now can load their rewards card onto Android Pay and hold their phone near the PIN pad to earn points when making a purchase.
Some members of big box retailer Costco received erroneous email messages Aug. 19 from Citi stating their Costco Anywhere Visa credit card account had been closed. The emails were intended to inform certain Costco customers that they couldn’t use their Costco Anywhere Visa cards because their memberships had expired.
If you’re curious, then it’s been fast and furious. Spending on UK contactless cards in the first half of 2016 has already outstripped contactless spending for the whole of 2015, according to the UK Cards Association. Some £9.27 billion was spent using contactless methods between January and June of this year, more than the total […]
SBI Ripple Asia has announced that a Japanese consortium of 15 banks in a new network will use Ripple’s blockchain technology for payments and settlement. Using Ripple, customers of the banks will get real-time domestic and cross-border payments, 365 days of the year. Initial participants include Bank of Yokohama and SBI Sumishin Net Bank (SBI […]
In the course of a recent active business day I observed myself carrying a multitude of financial instruments. I had to make a payment from my business checking account to a local government agency and I was reluctant to use my business debit card. Should I have chosen my credit card the agency charged an […]
