On Nov. 27, the bitcoin was trading at a record $1,000. While some applaud its decentralized nature, others, including regulators, have become wary of its potential effects. We asked two analysts to square off with Viewpoints on the pros and cons of the volatile virtual currency.
Bitcoin (and the tsunami that has ensued) has been characterized as the next stage in the revolution of payments—more precisely, of money.
If Bitcoin manages to become wildly successful, it’s likely that several similar currencies will appear alongside it. The focus of hackers all across the globe will then surely turn to these anonymous stores of virtual value rather than to traditional account-based payments.
The House Financial Services Committee, led by Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), approved no less than a half-dozen bills late last week aimed at bringing more accountability, oversight and transparency to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Vodafone is bringing its NFC-based mobile wallet to Europe, and using an open standard to make it easy for banks, retailers and transportation agencies to host services in the wallet.
With online gaming legal in New Jersey as of early this week, digital payments provider Skrill is anteing up to offer the only mobile wallet fully approved by the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), the company said.
The m-POS revolution, led by newcomers like Square targeting small merchants with smartphone-based card readers since 2009, is slowly but surely reshaping the payments landscape while regulatory and competitive changes also are afoot, according to Mobey Forum.
For centuries, Turkey has stood at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. While the country is leading the way in mobile banking, its infrastructure reflects a culture where minarets mix with mobile masts and ATMs compete for space with ancient monuments.
Green Dot Corp.’s plan to take over issuing duties for Walmart’s MoneyCard prepaid line has earned regulatory approval from the Federal Reserve and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions, paving the way for the deal to close early next year.
While the future of widespread NFC payment adoption hangs in limbo, the number of contactless cards in circulation with simple tap-and-go payment technology will see a growth surge next year, according to new data from Juniper Research.
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank has drafted a set of recommendations to enhance mobile payments security, and the agency is seeking comment from industry participants and other interested parties on the proposed guidelines.
Bank of China and Union Pay International have launched the first BOC UnionPay Travel Card in Southeast Asia, offering cardholders discounts for more than 700 tourist attractions in China and the surrounding region as well as offers for travel, dining, shopping and car rentals.
A draft set of 14 recommendations to promote the security of mobile payments has been published by the European Central Bank for public consultation.
With the rise in mobile payments and wallets, cash is dead and so is the ATM business, right? Not according to the ATM manufacturers, who are all being remarkably sanguine.
Google Wallet is giving users a way to pay the old fashioned way, unveiling a plastic payment card that can be used instead of a smartphone to make in-store purchases.
A week after going live throughout the U.S., Isis has announced the launch of an alliance program to support merchant technology providers by offering them tools and resources to help capitalize on the spread of mobile commerce.
Financial institution and merchant executives looking to capitalize on industry growth opportunities anticipate expansion in prepaid card products, especially among younger consumers, according to new research from Vantiv.
ReD, a London-based provider of fraud prevention and payment services, has signed a five-year partnership agreement with Transact Connect to introduce ReD’s products and services to merchants and financial institutions throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, a region where payments industry experts believe much opportunity exists.
Russian bank Tinkoff Credit Systems has become the latest financial institution to launch a mobile wallet service, which is due to go live on 1 December 2013. The new wallet will target Russia and will be available on both Android and Apple iOS devices.
Visa and prepaid processor i2c are teaming up with their sights set on Asia-Pacific, Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
If Facebook can garner trust from enough of its active users to adopt Autofill by Facebook, there are billions of dollars at stake. But, no one goes to PayPal to post baby pictures. No one congratulates 12-year-olds for winning a soccer game on Amazon. Facebook wandering into payments easily could be as awkward, especially as users become more leery of how their information is shared between Facebook and its partner sites.
The No. 1 barrier to consumer adoption of flexible spending accounts (FSAs) has been removed. The U.S. Treasury and IRS on Halloween announced they were changing their stance on the so-called “use-or-lose” rule, enabling consumers for the first time to rollover up to $500 from their FSAs instead of forfeiting those funds back to their employers.
Barclays has retooled its Pingit mobile payment app to enable large firms to send funds for insurance claims, utility refunds and other corporate payments directly to consumers.
Pay-by-tap is coming to a computer or tablet near you, now that chipmaker Intel Corp. has announced plans to embed select computing devices with NFC acceptance technology that will enable online shoppers to pay by tapping a MasterCard contactless payment card or mobile phone on a reader embedded in the device. Intel will use a […]
Add car rides to the ever-growing list of things that can be purchased with PayPal, now that the popular Uber service has begun accepting fares via the payments giant.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Monday announced the arrests of five more defendants connected to a massive global bank heist involving $45 million siphoned from ATMs around the world in coordinated efforts in December of 2012 and February of this year.
Littleton, Colo.-based card producer CPI Card Group announced it’s able to deliver dual-interface cards to U.S.-based financial institutions to support the ongoing market migration to EMV.
“Virtual currencies have captured the imagination of some, struck fear among others and confused the heck out of many of us.” So said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) yesterday during a hearing on virtual currencies, thus encapsulating the spectrum of opinion surrounding decentralized digital money, such as Bitcoin, which has garnered worldwide attention in recent months. […]
One Year in, Picture Bright for Photo Bill Pay Service Photo bill-payment service Picture Pay has gotten off to a strong start in its first year of operation, increasing its number of users by 17 percent month-over-month while seeing a 13 percent monthly growth in the number of bill payments processed, the company said this […]
The number of contactless payment cards being used globally next year is set to reach 249 million, according to a new report by Juniper Research.
Gift cards once again are topping consumers’ 2013 holiday wish lists, with a twist: Santa will deliver more gift cards than ever via mobile devices and there will be plenty of caffeine for all, according to the National Retail Federation’s latest consumer survey forecasting a record $29.8 billion in total gift card spending. “As more […]
Austria-based e-voucher provider paysafecard group is expanding its services to Australia, the company has announced. Citing Down Under as “one of the world’s leading countries in terms of digital development,” paysafecard is launching there with more than 12,000 retail partners out of the gate. “We enter the Australian market with high expectations as we see […]
New York State and federal officials plan to take a hard look at virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, to determine whether they need to be regulated. The U.S. Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs plans to meet this afternoon to consider how virtual currencies are affecting law enforcement and banking. Pay News will […]
While many industry players are betting that smartphone-based digital wallets will someday replace cards, one startup is offering a wallet that takes the form of a card. San Francisco-based Coin has unveiled a new payment card-sized device with a magnetic strip that can hold the credentials of up to eight payment, gift and loyalty cards. […]
The latest version of the telco-backed Isis mobile wallet service has been launched across the US, following 18 months of testing in Texas and Utah by owners AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless.
Swift’s head of banking talks about how the industry co-operative plans to build services based the data flowing through its interbank messaging systems.
Change is coming to the prepaid card industry, whether by regulation or legislation, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray promised lawmakers this week at a Senate Banking Committee hearing, but he declined to provide a timetable. “[Prepaid cards] are one of the problem areas in consumer financial protection because they’re a hole in the […]
McDonald’s is embracing PayPal at the POS in all of its French locations, after a successful pilot with the San Jose, Calif.-based payments company. The Oakbrook, Ill.-based fast food giant McDonald’s Corp. said its mobile payment program with PayPal will be live in all of its restaurants in France by the end of the year, […]
Ubiquity Global Services has raised more than $4 million in Series B funding from existing investors to support its global expansion and additional technology investments, the business process outsourcing company announced yesterday. The funds also will be used to scale operations to keep pace with the growth and customer demand since Ubiquity’s founding in 2012, […]
It’s official; Blackhawk Network’s purchase of corporate incentive and promotions provider InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions has closed, with InteliSpend now operating as a business unit of Blackhawk. First announced in October, the all-cash acquisition was billed by Blackhawk as a way to capitalize on the “great synergies” between Blackhawk’s own retail gift card partners and InteliSpend’s […]
