Yodlee Eyes $75 Million from Planned IPO (July 1, 2014)
Financial app development pioneer Yodlee Inc. is ready to go public, 15 years after it launched amid the dotcom boom.
Mobile
InComm to Offer Digital Retail Cards through SEQR Wallet (June 30, 2014)
Just months after landing a mobile app partnership with McDonald’s in Sweden, Stockholm-based developer Seamless has reached a deal with U.S.-based technology company and prepaid distributor InComm.
PayPal Launches Smartwatch App, Expands Fingerprint Authentication (June 30, 2014)
PayPal’s bid for payments ubiquity continues. The company has unveiled a pair of initiatives that incorporate wearable and biometric technology, launching a new app for the Android Wear line of smartwatches and expanding its fingerprint authentication to the Samsung Galaxy tablet.
BBVA Adopts HCE for Mobile Wallet (June 30, 2014)
Getting mobile payments services to market quickly is one of the calling cards for host card emulation (HCE) technology, and Spanish financial services group BBVA is claiming to be the first major global bank to commercially launch an HCE-based mobile contactless payments service.
U.K. Legislation Opens Door for Mobile Deposit Capture (June 26, 2014)
A convenience that’s been catching on in the U.S.—depositing a check by taking a picture of it with a smartphone—is coming to the U.K., according to reports.
Mobey Forum: Big European Banks Can’t Ignore Prepaid Anymore (June 24, 2014)
The combination of prepaid card infrastructure and mobile wallets will disrupt the current account model in Europe, according to a new white paper from Mobey Forum.
Online transactions to touch $5 trillion in four years’ time
The annual transaction value of online, mobile and contactless payments will nearly double over the next four years, reaching $4.7 trillion by 2019, up from just over $2.5 trillion this year, with contactless payments primarily driven by card purchases rather than mobile.
SIMalliance: HCE Will Expedite NFC Rollout (June 23, 2014)
Host card emulation (HCE) technology has gained an unlikely supporter. SIMalliance, which had been critical of HCE’s role in bringing NFC-based mobile payments into the mainstream, said today that HCE likely will expedite SIM-based NFC payment deployments.
Report: D.C. to Get Moving on NFC Transit Pilot (June 23, 2014)
Mass transit continues to be among the most promising areas for NFC payments, with Washington, D.C., reportedly planning to put the technology in motion next year.
Conference Coverage: Industry Leaders Outline Ways to Keep Prepaid Going Up
The prepaid card continues to be the fastest-growing form of electronic payment, but to maintain that position in a world where emerging payments are gaining ground every day, the industry must keep innovating.
CFPB Launches Mobile Banking Inquiry, Requests Information (June 17, 2014)
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is turning its attention to mobile financial services and is seeking information from the industry and consumers.
HCE Continues to Gain Ground as PPS, Proxama Ink Deal (June 16, 2014)
More mobile wallet providers are pinning their hopes on host card emulation technology to facilitate NFC payments.
Amazon Expands One-Click Payments to Subscriptions (June 10, 2014)
Less than a year after Amazon launched a one-click checkout feature for outside Web merchants, the online retail giant has unveiled a similar service for recurring and subscription-based payments.
American Express Goes Mobile in Uber Deal (June 10, 2014)
Uber, the global service that connects drivers with riders, has integrated American Express’ membership reward points into its iOS app, giving consumers another way to use their mobile devices to pay with American Express.
Cachet App to Expand FirstView’s Mobile Presence (June 10, 2014)
On the heels of its March acquisition of the moneto mobile payment platform from DeviceFidelity Inc., Minneapolis-based remote deposit capture specialist Cachet Financial Solutions announced it will be developing a prepaid mobile app for cardholders of FirstView, an Atlanta-based program manager and processor.
Amex Bolsters Bluebird, Serve with Budgeting Tools; Expands Free Reload Network (June 5, 2014)
New financial management tools for American Express Serve and Bluebird GPR prepaid cards announced today likely will strike a chord with cardholders—many of which already are displaying positive financial behavior, according to the payments network.
Apple Might Be Readying Digital Currency, Too (June 3, 2014)
As speculation mounts around Apple’s plans for mobile payments and the tremors the company could create among mobile wallet providers, Apple might be prepping to launch its own digital currency.
Rise of m-POS Hastens Move Away from Cash (June, 2, 2014)
The spread of m-POS platforms has accelerated the decline of cash, according to a new report revealing that the volume of cash used in POS transactions in the U.S. dropped 10 percent between 2012 and 2013.
Forget ‘mobile first’: are we heading for mobile-only banking?
The speed at which the mobile market evolves is staggering. Just as we started to look at mobile first, where banks need to align their services and strategies to cater for mobile before desktop or other traditional channels, the notion of mobile-only is now creeping to the fore.
UnionPay Spending Millions to Promote Online, Mobile Payments (May 29, 2014)
Five months after UnionPay’s partnership with Rev Worldwide to expand its prepaid market opportunities globally, payment network UnionPay is spending a sizable chunk of change to promote card and mobile app usage for online purchases to cardholders within China.
Patent Application Latest Clue to Apple’s NFC Ambitions (May 28, 2014)
As speculation grows that Apple will include NFC technology in its next-generation iPhone, another clue came to light last week, when the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application filed by the company for an NFC antenna design
Report: Hispanic Demographic Important to Mobile Payments, Banking (May 28, 2014)
Mobile app providers might be overlooking a key demographic as they try to develop the right mix of form and function that will help their apps gain traction with a large population of consumers.
Yoyo Strings $5 Million Investment, Expands U.K. Campus Presence (May 27, 2014)
The European mobile payments market continues to draw the interest of investors, with London-based mobile payment and loyalty app Yoyo landing $5 million in seed investment.
InComm Banks on Prepaid Platform to Bolster New M-Wallet Service (May 22, 2014)
A new mobile wallet platform from InComm is capitalizing on the company’s prepaid expertise to offer wallet providers a multitude of features, possibly giving InComm a competitive boost and signaling a shift in the prevailing business model. T
Global NFC SIM Shipments More than Double (May 22, 2014)
Despite skepticism that the path to widespread NFC-based mobile payments is in the SIM card, global shipments of NFC-enabled SIM cards more than doubled last year, and the SIMalliance expects such growth to continue.
CARTES: Gazing into the Payments Crystal Ball
Don’t get bogged down by existing technological limitations—they will inevitably fade with the march of innovation—and the future will be beyond what you can imagine.
At APEX Europe: Mobile’s the Thing (May 19, 2014)
At the launch of the All Payments Expo Europe today in Marbella, Spain, speakers invariably turned to the topic of mobile, with strong emphasis on (and statistics to support) meeting the needs of merchants participating in mobile payments services and the consumers who use them.
Apple Set to Take Bite out of Payments? (May 19, 2014)
Apple’s recent deal with China’s UnionPay on a pair of contactless payment initiatives may be a sign that the tech giant is ready to make a major move into NFC payments, including equipping the next generation of the iPhone with NFC technology.
Isis Touts 600,000 Monthly Account Activations, as Pace Doubles (May 15, 2014)
Incentives may be working for Isis, which says consumers activated an average of 20,000 mobile wallets per day over the past 30 days. But activations don’t necessarily equal continued usage.
CARTES: For Mobile Wallets, Survival Means Adaptation (May 15, 2014)
“Winners” will be those platforms that are flexible enough to accommodate the breakneck pace of technological advancement.
Square Wallet Out, Square Order In as m-POS Pioneer Tweaks Strategy (May 13, 2014)
Square, no stranger to experimentation, this week surprised observers by pulling its Square Wallet from the Apple and Google stores three years after its launch and introducing an order-ahead app for cafes and restaurants.
Apple Adds EMV Features to its In-Store m-POS System (May 13, 2014)
Apple Inc. is joining the push to accommodate EMV cards in its stores with its EasyPay m-POS, which uses a special iPhone case made by VeriFone that employees may use for customer checkout.
In Money Transfer Push, Facebook Finds Plenty of Friends (May 12, 2014)
Facebook has already conquered the social media sphere—and now there are signs the company is seeking to capitalize on its global ubiquity and massive user base to make a splash as a money transfer service, recently partnering with financial service providers on transfer initiatives around the globe.
Small financial institutions must face the mobile challenge
As contactless and mobile payment methods continue to grow, building societies and other financial institutions need to avoid being complacent about new technology, according to senior delegates speaking at the BSA annual conference in Manchester this week.
Startup Taps Gift Cards for Fee-Free Remittances (May 6, 2014)
San Diego-headquartered Quippi is taking the fees out of remittances by offering gift cards that can be purchased online or in-store in the U.S. and redeemed by recipients in Mexico.
Blackhawk Opens Digital Gift Platform to suretap Users (May 5, 2014)
Digital gift cards are getting a boost in Canada as Blackhawk Network and Rogers Communications have opened Blackhawk’s digital gift card platform to users of the Rogers suretap mobile wallet app.
U.K. Banks Debut P2P Payments Service (May 5, 2014)
A group of the biggest financial institutions in the U.K. have banded together to launch a new P2P mobile payments system that by year-end will be accessible to 9 out of 10 bank account holders in the U.K.
With Square Knocking, Australian Bank Enters m-POS Market (Apr. 30, 2014)
Australia’s Commonwealth Bank could be looking to get out ahead of Square’s eventual arrival Down Under.
Mobile payment security will depend on using the ‘smart’ in smartphone
Confusion and concern over security is cited over and over again as the biggest barrier to widespread consumer uptake of mobile payments. And no wonder – confidence in the protection of sensitive cardholder data lies at the heart of trust in this technology. An EMV card as a physical asset is cryptographically secure. How can we emulate this security with something that is virtual?
SIMalliance: HCE No ‘Silver Bullet’ for Mobile Wallets (April 29, 2014)
Several major payments players recently have thrown their weight behind host card emulation (HCE), the technology many believe could be the key to finally bringing NFC-based mobile payments into the mainstream.
