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.
Just weeks after a report surfaced that Facebook was seeking an e-money license in Europe to boost its international remittance business, PicomoPay, a social networking payments platform, announced a deal with MoneyGram to enable U.S. Facebook users to send money transfers to more than 336,000 MoneyGram agent locations in more than 200 countries.
Prepaid cards continue to be the fastest-growing form of electronic payment, with the number of prepaid payments in the U.S. increasing 15.8 percent annually between 2009 and 2012, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s EconSouth.
U.S. Bank is going real-time with its P2P offerings and adding a few key new features in a field where the P2P ambitions of companies like Square, Google and Amazon are generating considerable interest.
CardFlight, a New York-based firm that enables developers to integrate in-person card payments into their own apps, has received the 2014 Technology Innovation Award from the Electronic Transactions Association.
First Data Corp., an Atlanta-based payments processor, has hired Jose Garcia to lead the company’s government solutions business.
Mint Wireless Ltd., an Australia-based mobile payments and transaction processing company, has appointed Alex Teoh executive chairman and Robin Khuda CEO.
The Retail Gift Card Association, a trade association of closed-loop gift card retailers committed to promoting and protecting the use of gift cards, announced the election of three new members to its board of director.
Spindle Inc., a provider of mobile commerce solutions, announced it has appointed Christopher J. Meinerz chief financial officer and chief compliance officer.
Visa Inc. has announced that Kelly Mahon Tullier will join the company as executive vice president and deputy general counsel. Ellen Richey, chief legal officer, chief risk officer and member of the executive committee, will continue in those roles through Sept. 30, 2014, when she will become vice chairman, risk and public policy.
What does the Monetary Authority of Singapore have to do with virtualised data centres and cloud computing? Security measures that, among other policies, go a long way toward preventing attacks by rogue operators working on the inside, for one thing.
While the payments landscape has evolved rapidly over the past decade, due to a flurry of innovation and regulation, expansive growth in electronic payments and the inclusion of new market entrants, industry research indicates that the next decade will be a period of even faster changes.
First the Wall Street Journal reported in November that Square Inc. was considering an IPO. Then acquisition rumors swirled after the newspaper reported this week that Square had been in M&A talks with companies including Google, Apple and PayPal.
Consumers may be embracing mobile apps, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re comfortable with or even aware of what their apps can do, a new study suggests.
LevelUp is tinkering again with the transaction fees it charges merchants for participating in its mobile wallet, cutting the cost from 2 percent to 1.95 percent as the SCVNGR-owned company seeks an appropriate balance for its bottom line.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released a final committee report on enhancing security in the country’s electronic payments sector with the use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology.
Payment services provider Adyen has reported that one in five payments made on its network are now being made using a mobile device – a finding that reflects the rise of mobile payments worldwide, according to the firm.
While Google Wallet forges partnerships with merchants that don’t rely on NFC, one of contactless payments’ most high-profile skeptics may be coming around to seeing some real potential in the technology.
Gift Voucher Shop is opening its One4all multistore gift card program to independent retailers in Northern Ireland.
London-based Prepaid International Forum this week published a position paper outlining its concerns about certain provisions in the European Commission’s draft 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive.
As campus identification cards doubling as reloadable prepaid cards become more prevalent on college campuses, they’re also becoming more integrated into student life via smartphone.
Buy-side block trading venue Liquidnet has appointed former Wells Fargo Securities equity trading boss Bob Garrett as its new head of technology, based in New York.
The roars from the kings of the payments jungle have been heard. Today Paybefore reveals the winners in 2014 Paybefore Awards Europe.
Blackhawk Network is expanding the utility of its reload network beyond single card reloads.
The GPR card space is about to get more crowded as two prepaid veterans join forces.
American Express today announced it’s adding Walmart as a distribution and reload partner for its Serve digital prepaid account, and this week will kick off its first TV commercials for the product.
Shazam Network and Visa Inc. have reached an agreement for routing EMV debit transactions using Visa’s common debit application identifier (AID) for Visa- and Shazam-branded transactions, the Des Moines, Iowa-based debit network announced April 16.
Walmart moved further into financial services with its announcement today of its Walmart-2-Walmart Money Transfer Service, which enables customers to transfer money from one store to another at more than 4,000 U.S. Walmart locations.
The thus-far sluggish rate of mobile wallet adoption in the U.S. has been attributed to a range of factors, from security concerns, to lack of widespread merchant acceptance to the familiarity and convenience of traditional plastic payment cards. But according to a new report from TSYS, what might be holding mobile wallets back has less to do with the mobile and more to do with the wallet.
The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) celebrated leaders in the card manufacturing industry last week, presenting its Élan Awards for Excellence at the annual Card Manufacturing and Personalization EXPO in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Baidu Inc., China’s version of Google, has entered the mobile wallet arena, pitting the country’s most popular search engine against the likes of Alibaba and Tencent Holding Inc., both of which launched mobile wallets last year.
Citi has launched an electronic block pricing tool via the Bloomberg App Portal, marking the first time a major tier one broker has ever used the Portal to deploy an application around the world.
Industry players welcome the guidance to bring the legal framework for prepaid under a single policy document that leaves little room for ambiguity, and industry continues to advocate for further reforms that will help drive growth of prepaid products to benefit Indian citizens.
Just in case there was any doubt among the critics, skeptics and the media, new numbers prove the value of prepaid cards to merchants and consumers. In 2014, retail purchases made with prepaid cards will top US$200 billion, equaling 5 percent of all retail spending in the U.S. Now, merchants are looking for ways to capitalize on the popularity.
Personal budgeting is an effective method for consumers to build a strong and stable financial future. Yet, for many, staying on budget is a constant struggle.
FTC calls for data security legislation to address recent increase of data security breaches.
A new Canadian bill proposes regulations on virtual currencies, cross-border MSBs, due diligence requirements, politically exposed persons and group-wide information sharing.
Facebook is putting the pieces in place to launch a money transfer service in Europe.
The Illinois House last week approved legislation that, if signed into law, might affect companies’ payroll card programs, beginning Jan. 1, 2015, when the new rules would take effect.
Payments processor Heartland Payment Systems has acquired MCS Software, a provider of school foodservice payment solutions at 4,000 K-12 schools across the U.S.
