The Chinese renminbi has become one of the world’s top five payments currencies, according to new figures released by Swift. The currency, first introduced to foreign investors in 2007, overtook the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar in the last two months of 2014 to reach the top five.
Apple Pay clearly has awakened consumer curiosity about mobile payments, but the surprise is it’s also generating unprecedented retailer interest in adding NFC acceptance at the POS, according to payments industry panelists speaking yesterday at the Mobile Payment Leadership Summit in Phoenix.
The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) has expanded its Compass Guide series with today’s release of its Compass Guide to Payroll Cards, which it says defines best practices and product features for high-quality payroll cards.
M&A activity and global expansion of prepaid continue this week with Toronto-based gift card processor Givex announcing plans to acquire Chase Paymentech’s gift card business and open an office in Dallas. Meanwhile, U.K.-based Tuxedo Money Solutions is partnering with Silicon Valley-based processor i2c Inc. for international expansion of its prepaid business, including entering the U.S. market.
The Federal Reserve this week issued a new report, “Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System,” outlining a plan to enhance the overall speed, safety and efficiency of the nation’s payment system with collaboration from payment industry participants including businesses, payment card networks, processors, payment technology firms, consumers and financial institutions.
The National Technical Information Service has extended by 60 days the comment period for its proposed rule to establish a certification program for access to the Death Master File. The new deadline is March 30, 2015.
Apple Pay continues to make major inroads just three months into its existence, Samsung preps to challenge and Google gains 200,000 online merchants.
Ditching high-overhead bank branches in favor of mobile-centric financial services is an idea that’s catching on across geographies. The latest entrant is Berlin-based startup Number26, which provides a mobile app and debit MasterCard, real-time transaction records, email or text-based P2P transfers and app-based card management, as well as foreign transactions—all at no cost.
Bitcoin-wallet provider Coinbase today announced the launch of what it describes as the first regulated bitcoin exchange based in the U.S., adding some stability to the much-hyped and often maligned digital currency.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda are betting that mobile banking is one of four transformative events that will improve the lives of the world’s poorest citizens by 2030.
Consumers in both developed and developing countries have embraced their mobile devices to check balances, make payments and conduct other financial activities. As a result, mobile banking has become a must-have offering for financial institutions. However, many are still working out how to go beyond the basics to add value for customers, increase engagement and maximise the return on the mobile channel investment.
With the newly seated 114th Congress in its third week, the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) has laid out its agenda for the upcoming term, including several items with potential implications for the prepaid and emerging payments industry.
Tax time is always busy for prepaid card providers seeking to encourage consumers to have their refunds loaded onto prepaid cards for faster delivery. This year, Walmart is offering a different delivery mechanism—cash.
Ingenico Group, which already owned a controlling interest in m-POS provider ROAM, has purchased the remainder of the company and is now its sole owner, the France-based POS hardware maker announced this week.
Monitise plc has put itself on the block after missing recent sales growth targets, the U.K.-based mobile payments technology firm announced today.
Several of the UK’s major banking brands are losing customers to rivals such as Spanish bank Santander and building society Nationwide, according to figures released by the UK Payments Council – while competitor bank Nationwide continues to add customers.
E-commerce giant Amazon ended the beta test of its mobile wallet app this week, but didn’t say whether it was shuttering the wallet for good.
Retailo GmbH—the German subsidiary of Blackhawk Network—has struck a deal with Berlin-based Deutsche Kreditbank AG to offer digital gift cards to the bank’s customers.
First Data is working with UL, a payment security and compliance leader, to help U.S. merchants prepare for the EMV migration.
Nine months out from the October 2015 U.S. EMV liability shift, more than half of all merchants aren’t fully ready to accept chip cards, according to a study ACI Worldwide released today.
The Bancorp Inc., parent of The Bancorp Bank, disclosed last week in a short regulatory filing that it reclassified deposits as “brokered” as a result of FAQs issued by the FDIC on Dec. 24, 2014. The FAQs—which, for practical purposes, have the effect of a rule of law—require reclassification of deposits underlying many types of prepaid cards, as newly documented by the FDIC.
The U.S. Supreme Court today said it would not hear retailers’ challenge to the Federal Reserve’s debit card interchange fees, enforcing a lower court’s decision to keep existing regulations in place.
A year after JPMorgan Chase announced plans to exit its corporate and public sector prepaid business, Citigroup Inc. told investors last week it’s transferring Citi Prepaid Services to Citi Holdings, where the business line will be groomed to become a free-standing entity.
Google Wallet is reportedly in talks to buy NFC-based mobile wallet rival Softcard, causing speculation about how the combination might stack up against Apple Pay and other emerging wallet concepts.
The CFPB is accepting applications to fill seats on three separate committees. The CFPB announced the openings in a notice in the Federal Register late last week.
In declining to review the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the controversy over the Fed’s interchange fee cap is over. Read more later today in Pay News.
India’s ICICI Bank has launched a new banking service for Twitter, ICICIbankpay, which allows customers to transfer money to anyone in the country who has a Twitter account. Customers can also check their account balance, view the last three transactions and recharge prepaid mobile. The service follows the bank’s earlier moves into social media, which included launching a Facebook banking app in September 2013, and is aimed partly at broadening access to financial services.
Bitcoin market Netagio has launched credit and debit card payment options, as part of a push to make it easier to buy and sell Bitcoin with pounds, euros and US dollars. The exchange, which was founded in 2013, is seeking to popularise the alternative currency and improve its controversial public image.
Overall sales from the holiday sales season rose a healthy 4 percent, reaching their highest level since 2011, the National Retail Federation (NRF) announced this week.
PayPal this week announced a partnership with Microsoft to provide a new POS approach for small businesses to accept cards payments using the computer titan’s Surface Pro 3 tablet and certain Windows-based phones.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is creating a guide to help colleges evaluate institutions that offer financial accounts to students—and the CFPB is seeking input in devising the document.
As in any complex document, there are some ambiguities in the FAQs and time will tell how those will play out. But, what’s clear is that for many banks, the FAQs raise the cost of doing business, which will (or should) precipitate a review of business models.
Macro trends, including increased access to mobile devices and the Internet as well as consumer appetite for deals, will continue to drive changes in shopping behavior and broaden the use of both prepaid and electronic payments in 2015.
Retailers and payments executives who were hoping to get an answer from the Supreme Court this week on whether the court will hear NACS et al v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System will be waiting a bit longer.
President Obama is throwing support behind new legislation to further protect consumers from data breaches, while backing another new bill that would prevent companies from misusing student data. At a Federal Trade Commission presentation Jan. 12, President Obama outlined the Personal Data Notification & Protection Act, which would require U.S. companies to notify customers within […]
PayPal this week rolled out a set of enriched features for PayPal Credit and introduced a new Business Consulting service to enhance retailers’ e-commerce operations.
MasterCard is joining with the Indian state of Gujarat to accelerate the adoption of electronic payments across multiple sectors, including commercial, government and transit.
We asked a number of prominent players in emerging payments to give us their opinions on what the shift in the 114th Congress might mean to payments.
Merchant Warehouse, a provider of payment technologies and processing solutions, has changed its name to Cayan.
Prepaid provider UniRush LLC has made a move into the payroll vertical, striking a deal to acquire the rapid! PayCard business from WEX Inc.
