Payments


Company on the Move: TSYS, The Civic 50

Payments processor TSYS has been recognized as one of America’s most community-minded companies in The Civic 50, an initiative that identifies and recognizes companies for their commitment to improving the quality of life in the communities where they do business.

UniCredit and MasterCard launch mobile payments for insurance agents in Romania

UniCredit Bank, MasterCard and platform provider GoSwiff have launched mobile payments for Allianz-Tiriac Asigurari insurance agents in Romania. The partnership will enable Allianz-Tiriac agents to start accepting card payments with mobile point of sale (mPOS) for the insurance policies issued by the company. The firms say Allianz-Tiriac becomes the “first insurance company in Romania” to […]

Neopay: The Sky Likely Won’t Fall; Offers Brexit Insurance If It Does

The U.K.’s historic decision to exit the European Union (or Brexit) last month has left many businesses speculating what the ramifications will be for them, especially e-money issuers based in the U.K. that have licenses that they passport to EU countries. Neopay, a U.K.-based e-money and payment regulatory consultancy, is hoping to assuage the jitters of new and established e-money companies in Europe with Brexit Insurance.

Tech Titans Fight Back against Biometrics Suits

In a pair of legal battles that could have a ripple effect into the payments and retail sectors, Facebook and Google have invoked a recent Supreme Court decision and the U.S. Constitution to defend against claims that the companies’ facial recognition systems violate a key state biometric privacy law.

ItzCash to Join Integrated Bill Payment Platform in India

Indian payment solutions provider ItzCash Card Ltd. has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to participate in the country’s integrated bill payments platform, known as the Bharat Bill Payments System (BBPS).

Why payments can no longer be “an industry”

There are three options of a road ahead for the payments industry players: 1) to carry on as they are and watch their margins erode; 2) to transform into a utility; 3) to have a long hard look at their value chain. If you choose the latter – what do you see, asks Sapient Global Markets’ Leda […]

Wirecard moves into North America with Citi Prepaid Card Services acquisition

Wirecard has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Citi Prepaid Card Services – giving it an expansion into North America. The firm says Citi Prepaid card services have launched over 2,500 client programmes, associated with global companies and brands, but primarily in North America. Subject to the usual regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to […]

All that glitters isn’t just our clothes!

When I first started travelling for my job, it wasn’t too afield. I was working in Australia so it involved trips to New Zealand, Singapore and not much more. However, in only a few years, my travel grew to where it became routine to visit the US, Germany and the UK, but with the aircraft […]

Nets’ mobile wallet gets nod from Danish banking collective

Nordic digital payments firm Nets has been selected by a Danish banking collective to launch a new NFC mobile wallet solution. The collective, known as the Bokis partnership, includes 62 banks that form the small to mid-sized banks segment of Lokale Pengeinstitutter (the Association of Local Banks, Savings Banks and Co-operative Banks in Denmark), together […]

Panin Bank launches digital banking service with Fiserv

Panin Bank, a retail and business bank in Indonesia, has launched new digital banking products and services using Fiserv’s Mobiliti and Corillian Online. Ken Ng, director of retail banking, Panin Bank, says Fiserv has allowed it to develop an “innovative, feature-rich and integrated digital banking service that consumers have come to expect in the modern […]

Visa Lawsuit Alleges Walmart Plan to Eliminate Signature Verification

Visa has filed a lawsuit against Walmart in a dispute over customers’ use of signatures or PINs to verify purchases with EMV-equipped debit cards at Walmart. Last month, Walmart sued Visa, claiming the payments network required the retailer to offer EMV debit users the option of signature or PIN verification in violation of the Durbin Amendment.

Bottomline unveils universal aggregator for payments

Bottomline Technologies has launched its Universal Aggregator for payments and the accreditation of its “Faster Payment” processing capability. Bottomline Universal Aggregator has been designed to give banks, corporates, governments and non-financial banking institutions an “easy plug-in” to an array of payment clearing and settlement systems around the world. The “first-of-its-kind” service provides a single interface […]

Hackers use access to Swift network to steal $10m from Ukraine bank

Hackers have used the Swift network to steal $10 million from an unnamed Ukrainian bank, according to an independent IT monitoring organisation that spoke to the Kyiv Post. This latest incident is part of a spate of thefts when the banks’ access to the Swift network was used to execute them. Recently, investigators said they […]

Android Pay arrives in Singapore

Android Pay has launched in Singapore, making it the first country in Asia to get the system. Pali Bhat, senior director of product management at Google, says Singapore was chosen as the third market worldwide after the US and UK due to the number of mobile phone users and highly developed infrastructure. Android Pay will […]

Wirecard Stakes Claim in North America with Citi Prepaid Buy

Wirecard AG has been making numerous deals and acquisitions over the past several months to expand its global footprint, but today’s news that it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Citi Prepaid Services puts it firmly on the map in North America.

Senators Want Answers on Prepaid Outages

U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) are demanding answers from Green Dot, MasterCard and Walmart about a May outage that left Green Dot-issued Walmart MoneyCard customers without access to certain prepaid services. The senators also asked MasterCard to distinguish the circumstances between the Green Dot outage and the one RushCard experienced October 2015 when it switched to MasterCard’s processing platform.

Supreme Court to Hear ATM Fee Case

First filed in 2011 by a consortium of consumers, independent ATM operators and the National ATM Council, the suit alleges that payment networks’ ATM fee policies suppressed competition by barring ATM operators from offering discounts to users who transact via networks other than MasterCard or Visa.

Brexit threat to UK jobs at Visa

Hundreds of UK-based jobs at Visa are in danger following the fallout from Brexit, according to Sky News. Sky News says it “has learnt that an agreement in the recent £17.5 billion takeover of Visa’s European operations by its American sister company included a stipulation that data from Visa card transactions should not leave Europe”. […]

Kroger Latest Merchant to Challenge Visa Debit Verification Rules

Grocery giant Kroger Co. has filed a lawsuit against Visa Inc. over the payment network’s rules for verifying EMV debit card transactions. First reported by the Wall Street Journal, the suit is based on similar issues as those in a legal challenge by Walmart, which sued Visa in May.

Android Pay, QuickPass Expand to New Markets

This week marks a couple of “firsts” for two mobile wallets. Android Pay has launched in its first Asian country, and UnionPay International’s QuickPass mobile wallet took its first step outside of China.

QikServe Updates Mobile-Ordering Technology for Hotels

QikServe, which sells mobile ordering and payment services, has released QikServe5, which the company said caters to the hospitality sector. Mobile ordering, particularly order-ahead features, have been more prevalent in the QSR industry thus far.

Swift’s global payments initiative gets boost from 73 banks

Swift has revealed 73 banks worldwide have now joined its global payments initiative for cross-border payments. The latest to join are Alfa-Bank, Axis Bank, Banco de Crédito del Peru, Banco do Brasil, Bangkok Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Banque Européenne d’investissement, CaixaBank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Credit Agricole, CTBC Bank, E.Sun Commercial Bank, Fifth […]

Wells Fargo to launch real-time P2P payments in US

Wells Fargo will launch real-time person-to-person (P2P) transactions in the US – for more than 17 million mobile customers. Beginning 1 August, the service will allow Wells Fargo’s customers to send funds in real-time at “no cost” to any customer of a bank that participates in the real-time service, which operates on Early Warning’s clearXchange […]

Amex teams with Facebook for Messenger bot

American Express is partnering with Facebook to provide an Amex bot for its card members in Messenger. The concept will allow Amex card members to sign up to receive real-time notifications about their purchases, and information about card benefits and services related to those purchases. For example, if a member purchases an airline ticket, the […]

Amex to Reach Cardholders through Facebook Messenger

A new partnership with Facebook will enable American Express to interact with cardholders via Facebook Messenger. Unveiled at the Cannes-Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France, the initiative features an American Express messenger “bot” that sends cardholders real-time purchase notifications and information about card benefits and services related to those purchases.

Jacobs Named Green Dot Chairman

Green Dot Corp. has announced the appointment of William I Jacobs as chairman of the board of directors, effective June 23, 2016. Jacobs takes the helm following the company’s May decision to split the roles of chairman and CEO—both of which had been held by Steve Streit—after a lengthy proxy battle with shareholder Harvest Capital Strategies.

Novabase builds customer onboarding platform for Banco CTT

Banco CTT, a new bank recently launched by CTT Correios de Portugal, the Portuguese post office, has developed a new customer onboarding platform. The platform promises to complete the opening of a new account at Banco CTT in just 20 minutes online. It has been developed together with a local software specialist, Novabase. It is […]

Canada to Germany Ripple bank transfer breakthrough for banking industry

Canada’s ATB Financial sent €666.67 to ReiseBank in Germany using Ripple technology, with the transaction completing in eight seconds. The participants say this is the world’s first bank transfer using blockchain. SAP, which provides ATB with its core banking software, and Accenture (SAP’s partner and system integrator at ATB) were also involved in the project. […]

U.K. Votes to Exit EU; Payments Industry Faces Uncertainty

The people have decided and the U.K. is splitting from the European Union, raising serious concerns for the payments industry. Among those concerns is how passporting will work when the U.K. is no longer part of the EU since the majority of European e-money issuers have licenses in the U.K. that they passport elsewhere. Fifty-two percent of voters opted to bow out, or “Brexit,” as it’s commonly called.

Payments Industry Braces for ‘Brexit’ Results

As voters head to polling places today to decide whether the U.K. should split from the European Union, the referendum is top of mind for members of the payments industry around the world. Several issues for the industry would be in flux should the U.K. decide to bow out, or “Brexit,” as it’s commonly called.