Isis says it’s bolstering its market position before its national rollout with a handful of payment terminal manufacturers and software providers that are integrating Isis SmartTap capabilities into a range of POS systems, including integrated POS terminals and vending machines.
Blue Label Telecoms today announced a partnership with MasterCard that will expand electronic payment terminals to 22,000 small traders and rural shops in South Africa.
Payments processor PreCash is combining a mobile app with its bill payment technology to help consumers pay bills with cash, which the company hopes will translate to a broader financial services relationship with PreCash.
What consumers want from mobile wallets is a question not easily answered, nor is it clear whether any of the mobile wallets developed so far will hit the jackpot in creating a consumer experience compelling enough to change entrenched habits.
Sept. 3, 2013 Health insurers must accept prepaid cards as payment for coverage mandated by the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said in a rule issued last week. The rule paves the way for more than 8.5 million uninsured people who would otherwise have difficulty buying coverage on insurance […]
Less than three months after iZettle’s first venture outside of Europe, the Swedish mobile payments company again has partnered with Spain’s Banco Santander to launch its m-payments service, which enables customers to accept card payments with their smartphones or tablets and an iZettle card reader, in Brazil.
Aug. 29, 2013 Following double-digit growth a year earlier, market growth for open- and closed-loop prepaid cards, as measured by total dollars loaded, slowed from 2011 to 2012, according to recently released annual reports by Mercator Advisory Group. Total dollars loaded in the open-loop prepaid market grew by only 6 percent to $194.5 billion year […]
Aug. 29, 2013 MasterCard is joining with mobile payment technology provider C-SAM and mobile wallet service provider DNP to bring a white-label NFC-based mobile wallet service to Japan. The service will integrate MasterCard’s PayPass Wallet Services contactless payment technology with C-SAM’s mobile transaction platform and DNP’s mobile wallet services, enabling merchants to offer their customers […]
Aug. 29, 2013 Prepaid cards are booming in India, where the prepaid card market is on track to grow 40 percent over the next four years, according to a new report from the Noida, India-based firm RNCOS Research. In its Indian Prepaid Card Market Outlook to 2017 report released this month, the consulting firm said […]
Aug. 29, 2013 Financial services technology provider Fiserv Inc. is seeking to capitalize on the recent boom in tablet-based banking with a new turnkey mobile banking app specifically for tablet users. The Mobiliti: Tablet service is being offered to banks and credit unions, which can use the system to offer their tablet banking customers a […]
Aug. 29, 2013 eGifter, a social and mobile gifting company and subsidiary of Melville, N.Y.-based GroupGifting.com, has partnered with Bitcoin wallet and platform provider Coinbase, enabling users of the eGifter Web and mobile apps to use Bitcoin virtual currency to purchase eGift cards from more than 100 brands, including GameStop, Home Depot and CVS. Coinbase enables its […]
By Shoney Yuan, Ceridian Stored Value Solutions (SVS) Take a stroll down any street in one of China’s big cities and it’s hard not to feel excited about the business potential this vast nation offers. Sophisticated marketing and innovative advertising compete for your attention as a consumer. There is much to buy—from groceries, to household […]
Aug. 27, 2013 The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has filed a motion to extend the stay of a July 31 court decision that invalidated the agency’s rules implementing debit interchange and network routing requirements under the Durbin Amendment. The consent order, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., requests that Judge Richard […]
Aug. 27, 2013 After several months of experimentation, Facebook has made the decision to focus on gift cards and eliminate the gift service in which it sold and shipped physical gifts to recipients. Since launching its Gifts service in September 2012, 80 percent of the gifts users chose to send to other Facebook users were […]
Aug. 27, 2013 Bitcoin Foundation, an advocacy group whose stated objectives include Bitcoin standardization, promotion and protection from counterfeiters and thieves, met yesterday with several federal agencies to provide information about the decentralized virtual currency. “The meeting was educational in nature,” says Jinyoung Englund, spokesperson for Bitcoin Foundation and director of communications and marketing at […]
Aug. 27, 2013 A new prepaid card in Nigeria enables shareholders to receive dividend payments directly onto the card. The First Dividend Plus Prepaid Card is being billed as a “revolutionary product” by Verve International, the payment card provider that is releasing the card in partnership with stock registrar service First Registrars Nigeria. The card […]
Aug. 26, 2013 Another element of PayPal Inc.’s in-store payments strategy fell into place today with the announcement that TSYS has inked an agreement with Discover Network to process PayPal transactions at U.S. brick-and-mortar locations as part of the PayPal in-store payment acceptance partnership announced last year with Discover. TSYS’s involvement will provide an expanded […]
Aug. 26, 2013 Shell Canada has launched a gift card program with StoreFinancial, which is providing processing and program management services. StoreFinancial is providing Shell with a restricted authorization network (RAN) card, along with its RASER card activation technology, which enables client retailers to sell and activate gift cards without a third-party distributor, regardless of […]
Aug. 26, 2013 A growing number of Canadian companies are using corporate incentive programs to motivate and reward employees and customers—and to greater effect, according to a recent report by Berkeley Payment Solutions, a Toronto-based provider of MasterCard and Visa prepaid card programs for corporations, governments and financial institutions. Slightly more than three-quarters of respondents […]
Aug. 26, 2013 Vodafone continues to expand availability of M-Pesa throughout India as it readies the launch of the money service in at least two other countries by the end of this year. As an expansion of its partnership with ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, M-Pesa is now available to consumers in Delhi, […]
A three-hour trading crash at Nasdaq OMX caused by a connectivity issue has once again put the spotlight on trading technology and the resilience of financial markets, which have been sorely tested in recent months and years.
Aug. 22, 2013 Financial industry groups are applauding yesterday’s announcement by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors that it will appeal a court ruling invalidating the agency’s debit interchange and network routing rules. Though the Fed’s rules setting debit interchange fee limits under the Durbin Amendment are “far from perfect,” the court’s July 31 decision […]
Aug. 22, 2013 MICROS Systems Inc. and PayPal Inc. this week announced a strategic global collaboration that will pave the way for thousands of restaurants and other hospitality industry businesses using MICROS’s payment platforms to add PayPal as a POS and mobile app payment option. MICROS, used in more than half a million businesses around the […]
Aug. 22, 2013 Bitcoin Ventures Inc. is aiming to make it easier for consumers to obtain and make transactions with Bitcoin virtual currency. The Calgary, Alberta-based software development company and provider of Bitcoin e-commerce solutions has announced CoinTap, a prepaid card the company says streamlines “an otherwise tricky and time-consuming process” of exchanging traditional currency […]
Aug. 22, 2013 Online gift card provider GiftCard.com has announced a new affiliate program that will enable online publishers and bloggers to earn revenue for referrals to the company’s gift and incentive card Websites. Affiliate e-publishers and bloggers will have access to banner graphics and text links for both GiftCard.com and IncentiveCardLab.com to help direct […]
By Kate Fitzgerald, Emerging Payments Editor Isis, the mobile wallet system backed by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, Verizon and three major card networks, is gathering steam as it nears its national rollout, with a new co-branding effort with American Express Co.’s Serve payments platform providing the latest push forward. Amex earlier this month announced plans to […]
Aug. 21, 2013 Certainty on debit interchange and network routing regulation isn’t likely any time soon. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has decided to appeal a judge’s ruling requiring the agency to rewrite those rules. During a hearing today in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the Fed’s lead attorney, Scott Alvarez, said the […]
A fragmented data architecture can threaten a financial institution’s ability to keep track of its assets. All too often, front office systems are separated into individual asset classes and lines of business, making the integration of the transaction flows from these systems very difficult.
Regulation is a key driver of change on IT strategies across the wealth management sector, and brings huge challenges, especially for smaller players: predictions are that the cost of compliance may rise by a further 16% by 2015.
Aug. 20, 2013 Groupon bucked the mPOS system from the outset with its unique merchant pricing strategy, and its latest move to embrace traditional payment terminals seems equally novel as mainstream acquirers like Chase Paymentech are now getting into dongles. Groupon last week said it will add traditional credit card terminals to its merchant payments […]
Aug. 20, 2013 Sixteen Australian payment service providers have added MasterCard’s MasterPass as a payment option for their electronic merchant clients. Announced at the Online Retailers and E-Commerce Expo in Sydney, the agreements brings MasterPass to thousands of online merchants, who will add a MasterPass button to their online checkout, enabling shoppers to make purchases […]
Aug. 20, 2013 A mobile payments network aims to bring financial services to Colombia’s unbanked consumers and move the country’s economy away from cash. The Miami-based network, known as YellowPepper, thus far has signed up 12 Colombian banks for its system, which includes a virtual payment card, P2P and mPOS capability, according to a report […]
Aug. 20, 2013 IntelliVoice Networks Inc., a provider of prepaid phone services, is broadening its array of offerings through a deal with Payteller LLC, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based provider of self-service kiosks offering financial services. Payteller will install its kiosks in high-traffic retail locations throughout the Midwest and in Texas, according to an announcement. Payteller […]
The way we pay is evolving, with changing consumer attitudes and new technologies combining to usher in a new era of payments and banking.
One common thread unites developed and emerging economies across the globe – the ubiquity of mobile devices are changing the way people interact with businesses and each other. In many countries, the number of mobile phones in use surpasses the number of consumer bank accounts. This shift in consumer behaviour is changing the face of payments as we know it.
Zapp, a U.K.-based provider of mobile payment technology, recently announced several senior-level appointments.
Visa Europe has named Nicolas Huss president and CEO.
France-based prepaid card provider Edenred recently announced two appointments to its executive committee.
Payments made via mobile devices are fast becoming de rigueur as tablet sales are expected to overtake personal computers by 2017. Shane Fitzpatrick addresses five common myths about m-commerce and how to capture online revenues. Smartphones are already more popular globally than desktop PCs and of the 1.875 billion phones to be sold in 2013, […]
Aug. 19, 2013 One of Europe’s largest private equity firms has acquired a controlling stake in U.K.-based online payment system Skrill. Funds advised by CVC Capital Partners doled out EUR 600 million (US$801 million) to nab a 75 percent stake in Skrill from Bahrain-based Investcorp. Founded in 2001 as Moneybookers, Skrill is among the world’s […]
