Both political parties again are backing problematic payroll card legislation from New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman that could squeeze margins and force some providers to pull programs from the state.
As preparations for the U.S. EMV migration go into high gear, some payments industry participants are questioning whether merchants have enough time to make POS terminals chip-compliant by October 2015, when a liability shift goes into effect.
GPR prepaid cards have fewer fees and providers are disclosing clearly the fees they do have, helping cardholders avoid paying additional costs to use their cards, according to a new survey from Bankrate.com.
With a fresh infusion of cash, Indian payment startup MobiKwik plans to invest in data analytics, brand building and growing its network of mobile wallet users and merchants, according to reports.
New data suggest prepaid issuers would do well to target millennials and tout the security benefits of their cards, according to a new survey by TD Bank, the Cherry Hill, N.J.-based subsidiary of the Toronto-Dominion Bank.
The Brink’s Co., a brand known for security and armored cash transport, is expanding its financial services product suite with a new GPR card.
The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has developed “Tokenization Product Security Guidelines” because of the rising demand for tokenization products.
New regulations went into effect in Italy last week that require mobile payments providers and merchants involved in the sale of digital goods to notify customers that their personal data are being collected and what that data are being used for.
Last week saw the launch of the Payment Systems Regulator, the first time the UK gets a regulatory body overseeing the £75 trillion a year payments systems. Its brief is clear: to open up the UK payments infrastructure, which is currently controlled by the high street banks, make it more accessible to challenger banks and fairer for consumers. The regulator has been given strong powers by the government and has already made it clear it will fine the banks if they do not step up to the mark.
PayPal has moved significantly closer to its goal of making its digital wallet “ubiquitous” for consumers paying online, via mobile devices and at the POS.
The quest to use alternative data to score thin- or no-file consumers continues with a new program being led by FICO, LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Equifax.
The U.S. continues to lead e-commerce sales with expected revenue of $349.2 billion in 2015—compared with a combined $254 billion in projected sales in eight European countries, according to a report.
Two agents involved with the investigation of Silk Road, a Website that backed bitcoin transactions and was shut down by the FBI, face federal charges of money laundering and wire fraud, among other alleged crimes.
A coalition of bitcoin entrepreneurs and advocates are backing a petition that would exclude companies supporting the bitcoin infrastructure, as well as smaller startups, from the scope of New York’s BitLicense proposed regulations.
Customer usage of mobile bill pay has grown substantially over the past year, but many billers aren’t keeping up with how their customers want to pay, according to the “Third Annual Biller Mobile Bill Pay Benchmark Study,” commissioned by Fiserv Inc., a global provider of financial services technology solutions.
After several weeks of speculation, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) was indicted yesterday on federal corruption charges over allegations he accepted bribes from a donor in exchange for political favors.
Immediate payments have been available for some time now. The UK led the way with the launch of the Faster Payments Service in 2008 and other countries have followed, including Sweden, Singapore and Mexico. Real-time technology is fundamental to any mobile payments initiative and immediacy is the new norm of the digital age. Other countries can learn from the UK experience to avoid pitfalls and realise the benefits sooner.
There are two major trends in the cross-border payments world: an explosive growth in the number of payments between developed and developing countries, and the fact that governments, regulators and commercial actors increasingly favour payments being executed in local currency and discourage the use of US dollars to settle local.
The UK’s new Payment Systems Regulator looks set to shake up the way the industry is structured, with reviews of the ownership of the infrastructure and of the way that indirect access is managed through sponsoring banks.
The inaugural meeting of the Open Forum on Pan-European Instant Payments drew 77 representatives from 55 payment service providers, technology providers and other stakeholders to Frankfurt this week to kick off discussions about requirements and collaboration on infrastructure services to support instant payments at a pan- European level.
Mobile wallet rivals for Apple Pay, including Samsung Pay and Google Inc.’s rumored Android Pay, may face another giant tech competitor. Microsoft Corp.’s latest moves suggest it may brand its own mobile payments service, too.
Consumers in Asia-Pacific are taking to contactless payments in a big way, with the number of unique contactless users in 2014 up by 49 percent, compared with the previous year, according to MasterCard.
Ubiquity Global Services has announced that payments veteran Jonathan Weiner has joined its board of directors. Weiner is founder and co-chairman of Money20/20 and former global head of payments business development at Google.
Users of Vodafone’s mobile wallet soon will be able to make NFC in-store purchases via a linked bank-issued Visa credit or debit card after the telecom operator struck new deals with Visa and Carta Worldwide.
Following last week’s Optimal Payments purchase of Skrill for $1.2 billion, another $1 billion-plus will change hands in two more acquisitions that will have global implications for the payments companies involved.
Google is working on developing a Gmail-based bill payment service called Pony Express, which could roll out as early as the fourth quarter.
As retailers prepare for the year’s second-largest shopping season—Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and graduations—First Data research from the 2014 holiday season can help retailers drive gift card sales.
Ingo Money’s purchase of Fuze Network Inc.—a payments technology provider enabling loads to more than 1 billion payment cards at thousands of retail networks—closed last month.
More than half (51 percent) of mobile banking users in the U.S. had deposited a check using their mobile phones last year, up from 38 percent in 2013, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest study, “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2015.”
Hong Kong’s share of the international Renminbi market has fallen over the past two years as other countries increase their share, which now stands at 25% compared to 17% in February 2013
Host card emulation specialist Bell ID is enabling the launch of ANZ New Zealand’s upgraded goMoney mobile app, which is set to feature a cloud-based HCE NFC mobile wallet. The project, for the New Zealand division of ANZ Bank, will bring contactless mobile payments to the smartphones of more than 120,000 ANZ customers. The ANZ […]
Establishing an omnichannel marketing presence for their gift card programs will help retailers appeal to the buying behaviors and expectations of a demographic with growing purchasing power.
Although it’s great to see so many new players emerge at every SXSW gathering, entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs should keep in mind some basic but key considerations when it comes to launching a new payments product. Come to think of it, this mantra isn’t bad advice for payments veterans either.
Gaps in merchant readiness for the U.S. EMV migration may cause banks to move more slowly in issuing new credit and debit cards equipped with EMV chips, a new study from Auriemma Consulting Group suggests.
An industry group is calling 2015 the “year of the prepaid economy” in the U.K., as consumers there increasingly adopt prepaid cards for everyday spending, online shopping and transit.
U.K.-based Monitise plc is no longer for sale.
Tanzania is taking steps to tighten up electronic payments against fraud, with the government working to establish best practices, regulations and supervision of efficient, effective payment, clearing and settlement systems, according to Finance Minister Saada Mkuya Salum.
Türk Ekonomi Bankası is to launch a mobile contactless payment application using Visa Europe’s host card emulation functionality to provide secure contactless payments.
Square Inc. this week poured more heat into P2P with the debut of Square Cash for Business, an extension of its consumer-targeted Square Cash P2P product launched in 2013.
The CFPB received nearly 5,800 comments on its proposed prepaid regulations before yesterday’s deadline.
