Cardtronics Lands ATM Management for Fresh & Easy (Oct. 9, 2014)
ATM network operator Cardtronics Inc. has been named exclusive ATM services provider for natural grocery chain Fresh & Easy.
Worldwide
Starting over: Lloyds Banking Group’s transaction banking ambitions
While a great deal of attention has been given to Lloyds Banking Group’s retail operations as its various elements are split up, less has been given to its activities in transaction banking, where it is “one year into a three-year journey” to transform itself and its customer offerings to create“the best global transaction bank in this region”.
Gearing up for the future of payments
It is essential for banks to ensure they have the right strategies and technology in place now, if they are to retain their position as market-leading payment providers in the future, writes Saket Sharma,chief information officer, treasury services, BNY Mellon.
Blog: Get Ready to Be Acquired
The M&A market for payments companies is booming, as larger companies look to acquire smaller innovators. Even if no deal is on the immediate horizon, early preparation pays off when a sale transaction is at hand.
Blog: The Future Is Financial Health
If we want to consolidate the gains we’ve made and scale the innovations we’ve seeded, we need to think big. We need to redefine financial services from the pursuit of wealth to the pursuit of health.
Viewpoint: With Expanding Use Case, GPR Poised for Growth
GPR cards are quickly moving beyond their traditional role as an alternative to checking accounts for the financially underserved, to serve broader use cases for a changing demographic.
Financial institutions ramp up IT innovation
Banks and other financial institutions are finally spending more on growing new products in areas such as mobile and data analytics rather than maintaining legacy systems, according to a new report by Capgemini.
Facebook’s P2P Plans Come to Light (Oct. 7, 2014)
Facebook looks to be planning to add a money transfer function to its Messenger app—and the social media giant reportedly already has installed the underlying code to the popular messaging service.
Dunkin’ Donuts to Add Order-Ahead Service (Oct. 7, 2014)
Dunkin’ Donuts plans to launch a new service that enables customers to order ahead and prepay for menu items via their smartphones, then visit a store location to pick up their orders.
Alibaba’s Alipay Approved to Establish Bank (Oct. 7, 2014)
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has moved further into financial services now that its affiliate Alipay, an online payments platform provider, received approval to establish a privately owned bank.
Boku Acquires Rival mopay (Oct. 7, 2014)
Carrier billing specialist Boku Inc. has acquired one of its largest competitors, Germany-based mopay.
Regulatory overload and the role of the data scientist
In the ongoing discussion about the need to use data to increase business value, it is imperative to substantiate the argument with practical, real-world use cases. Otherwise, the debate becomes just another line of marketing waffle around big data – an area already suffering from too much hype.
Western Union Expands Services to Walgreens, Duane Reade Stores (Oct. 6, 2014)
More than 7,500 Walgreens and Duane Reade drugstores throughout the U.S. now offer Western Union domestic and international money transfers through touchscreen kiosks that are part of the Walgreens Balance Financial platform.
Boku Provides Leading MNOs with Direct Carrier Billing in U.K.
A trio of major U.K. mobile network operators—including O2, EE and Vodafone—has partnered with carrier billing specialist Boku Inc. to enable mobile phone customers in the U.K. to charge the purchase of physical goods and services up to £30 (US$48) to their phone bills.
Square Raises $150MM, Yodlee IPO Yields $75MM
Mobile payment provider Square has landed $150 million in new venture capital in a funding round valuing the company at around $6 billion, and financial app developer Yodlee Inc. raised $75 million in its initial public offering last week.
N.J. Bill Eliminating Data Collection Requirement
New Jersey legislation (A3480) introduced last June, which would eliminate the need to collect consumer data when purchasing GPR prepaid cards, was advanced last week by the Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee and has been referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Digital Gifting’s Top 5 (Oct. 2, 2014)
Digital gifting has become a cornerstone feature for many retailers—but a few merchants are going above and beyond what have become standard features and functionality.
MasterCard Provides SafetyNet for Banks, Processors (Oct. 2, 2014)
MasterCard has launched SafetyNet, a global tool for banks and processors to mitigate the risks of cyber hacking.
Report: Mobile-Centric ‘Moneyhawks’ a Huge Potential Market for FIs (Oct. 2, 2014)
A segment of tech-savvy, mobile-minded consumers comprising more than $1 trillion in deposits could represent a major opportunity for FIs, according to a new report.
Executive Profile: One on One with Ray Iglesias, Ubiquity
Ray Iglesias has come into his own. As CEO of Ubiquity Global Services, he has stepped out of the shadows to take center stage and with it his dream job.
Another financial crisis highly likely, say Sibos delegates
There is a high risk of another financial crisis within the next 15-20 years, according to a poll of Sibos delegates yesterday. Those attending the regulatory reform session voted 74 per cent to 26 per cent that another financial crisis within that period was a high risk.
DCPs look beyond T2S cost savings to user benefits
Direct connectivity to the Target2-Securities settlement platform will give participants the opportunity to build new business models, access new markets more easily and deliver new services to clients, said a white paper, Taking the Direct Route to T2S: the industry view, released this week by Swift. Ten representatives of organisations that have decided to become directly connected parties (DCPs) were interviewed by Swift about their decisions to become DCPs and their plans for T2S participation.
Banks defend their payments turf
The launch of Apple Pay, the re-launch of PayPal as a separate company and the move to allow mobile operators to add payment for goods to phone bills across Europe are all threatening the hegemony of banks. But is it going to be as disruptive as many outside the banking world hope?
Bitcoin needs infrastructure
Besides mounting enthusiasm for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, momentum is gathering to develop the infrastructure needed to turn what some see as a technology into a universally accepted currency.
Mobile becomes a sales platform
With attention increasingly focusing on mobile payments and mobile banking, Fiserv is urging banks to look more closely at how to use mobile to not only deliver services to customers, but also as an up- and cross-selling channel.
Microsoft fights cyber crime with pilot project
Microsoft has begun a joint pilot project with the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (FS-Isac) to tackle financially-motivated cyber crime attacks, which are estimated to cost $100 billion a year in the US alone.
Swift opts for more vendor and bank integration
A range of product and service announcements during Sibos show Swift becoming ever more tightly integrated with customer and vendor systems.
Building a transformation vision
This year marks the tenth anniversary of World Payments Report. In this extract from the report, which was launched at Sibos this week, the impact of innovation on payments is examined.
What’s not to like?
The rise of Facebook has been one of the most striking cultural phenomena of the past decade. In January 2007 the site had around 25 million users. But by July 2014, Facebook had reached 2.2 billion users; a number equivalent to one out of every three people on this planet. Meanwhile, Twitter had emerged as the platform of business and news, with 500 million posts ‘tweeted’ daily by its 271 million active users.
Limiting collateral damage
A lack of available collateral to meet demand has become a global problem, with various models being deployed to ensure financial institutions meet the changing regulatory requirements.
Onboarding challenges can be overcome
Increased sanctions, tighter anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) controls, plus client demands for a quicker, better all-round service in the cloud and the move to shared service platforms present client onboarding challenges to banks. But there are also opportunities, said Karen Braithwaite, BNY Mellon’s global head of client service, treasury services.
Alternative realities
The debut of SAP’s Financial Services Network at Sibos last year led many to see it as a threat to Swift’s plans for corporate connectivity.
Enhancing Economic Capital Model Design and Data Validation to Achieve a Risk Informed Capital Management Practice
New York, NY– October 1, 2014 – marcus evans, the world’s largest event management group, will host the Economic Capital Modeling and Management in Insurance 2014 Forum on November 18-19, 2014 in New York, NY. As risk assessment strategies become more aligned with business objectives and regulators grow increasingly interested in that integration, risk management executives and actuarial professionals alike have been tasked with designing frameworks capable of holistically managing enterprise risk.
People on the Move: Monica Monaco, The Bitcoin Foundation
The Bitcoin Foundation has retained Monica Monaco, founder and managing director of Trust EU Affairs, to assist with outreach to political leaders and policymakers in the European Union.
People on the Move: Mary Carol Harris, Apple Europe
Apple Europe has hired Mary Carol Harris to lead the company’s mobile payments efforts in the region.
People on the Move: Dan Schulman and Devin Wenig, eBay Inc.
eBay Inc. announced that Dan Schulman has joined PayPal as president, effectively immediately, and he will become PayPal CEO after PayPal and eBay are separated next year into independent, publicly traded companies. eBay Inc. also announced that Devin Wenig, president of eBay Marketplaces, will become CEO of eBay in 2015.
People on the Move: Richard Hall, Mercator Advisory Group
Mercator Advisory Group has hired Richard A. Hall as head of its Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service.
People on the Move: John Walsh, SightSpan Inc.
In partnership with the U.S. Government, the North Carolina Secretary of State has requested that John Walsh, SightSpan CEO and president, provide counterterrorist financing training to government officials from Moldova.
People on the Move: Christopher Russell, Skrill
Skrill, provider of online payment technologies to merchants and consumers, has appointed Christopher Russell CEO of Skrill USA Inc.
