Aug. 5, 2013 A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of portions of the Dodd-Frank Act, including the formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the appointment of its director, Richard Cordray. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle last week determined that the claims in State National Bank of Big […]
Aug. 5, 2013 Online cash payment provider Ukash has struck a deal that will expand its retail network across Italy. The London-based company’s new partnership with prepaid distributor and producer Epipoli gives Ukash entry to the 145 locations of grocery retailer Esselunga in which Epipoli is already present, along with the firm’s other retail partners. […]
Aug. 5, 2013 Telecom and payment services provider IDT Corp. has added a new international money transfer service to its Boss Revolution payment platform. The remittance service currently is live for recipients in Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. IDT Payment Services—the IDT Corp. subsidiary that runs Boss Revolution—said within […]
Aug. 5, 2013 On the heels of Thailand’s central bank banning the use of Bitcoin, virtual currency companies, including virtual currency exchanges, have spelled out plans to establish a self-regulating industry group called the Digital Asset Transfer Authority. “Our companies are pioneering new services with potential to reduce the friction and cost of payments substantially […]
The US Securities & Exchange Commission is often accused of using skateboards to chase Ferraris in its attempts to keep up with trading houses, but less than a year after announcing that it intended to create a new market surveillance system – and six months after going live with it – its cloud-based approach is […]
New research shows that large businesses are continuing to identify risk management and corporate governance as pressing financial priorities. To achieve true visibility into these areas, corporate treasurers need detailed insight and accurate forecasting capabilities.
A new service that claims to be able to dramatically cut post-trade costs for brokers and asset managers has been launched in the UK, using FIX messaging.
Aug. 1, 2013 Isis may be the first whole-ecosystem mobile payments system to go national when it expands to all regions later this year, and begins its toughest challenge yet: building scale. The NFC-based mobile wallet venture, led by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile U.S. and Verizon Wireless, on July 30 announced plans to roll out across […]
Aug. 1, 2013 MasterCard is bringing its MasterPass digital wallet to the U.K., with several major retailers onboard as launch partners. The cloud-based service, available since earlier this year in the U.S., Canada and Australia, enables consumers to store payment and loyalty card information, along with shipping and billing address details, and make purchases online […]
Aug. 1, 2013 PULSE, a Houston-based debit/ATM network and Discover Financial Services company, announced today it’s using Paydiant’s mobile payment platform, enabling PULSE financial institution and merchant partners to “quickly deploy” contactless mobile payment and cash-access capabilities for their customers. Paydiant is a Wellesley, Mass.-based provider of a cloud-based, white-label mobile payment and offer-redemption platform for retailers, banks […]
Aug. 1, 2013 Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) now is providing mobile financial services to unbanked and underbanked consumers in Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, using Mobiliti Reach from Fiserv, a Brookfield, Wis.-based provider of financial services technology. Under ANZ’s goMoney brand, Mobiliti Reach enables consumers to send money to […]
Aug. 1, 2013 With prepaid payroll cards the subject of negative press and increasing regulatory scrutiny over the past several weeks, groups representing low-income consumers and payroll administrators have expressed support for the products, noting that payroll cards can offer unbanked workers an economical, safe and convenient way to receive their wages. In a release […]
Authentication, risk management, transaction integrity and cardholder verification, are the four features that define the EMV standard, specified by EMVCo, the organisation that manages the EMV standards and associated compliance processes. These are designed to protect merchants, acquirers and cardholders from fraudulent transactions. However, closing the loop on fraud altogether will be almost impossible without […]
July 31, 2013 Merchants, which have continued to oppose the Durbin interchange fee caps set by the Fed, won a huge victory in court today. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors overreached in its interchange and network routing rulemaking. The decision, which, if upheld, will […]
Banks should report all cases of fraud to law enforcement agencies and punishments should be substantially increased, according to a committee of MPs.
July 30, 2013 Because of the growing popularity of prepaid cards, Consumer Reports has, for the first time, ranked more than 25 GPR prepaid cards. Consumer Reports based its list on how much the cards cost to use; convenience, which includes availability of in-network ATMs, bill-pay features and how widely the card network brand is […]
July 30, 2013 The U.S. migration to EMV chip cards reached another milestone today with the announcement by Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide that the two networks will license their own EMV chip technologies to each other and other networks, to further enable efficient routing of U.S. chip debit transactions over multiple, unaffiliated networks. The […]
July 29, 2013 The long-awaited draft of the Second Payment Services Directive (2PSD) was released by the European Commission last week. The draft regulation is larger than the current regulation and includes several updates that could bring more businesses under its purview. The current PSD has 63 Recitals and 96 Articles, while 2PSD has an 11-page […]
July 30, 2013 A pair of lawmakers is calling on the Federal Reserve to take into account interchange restrictions proposed by European regulators while it formulates its next biennial assessment of interchange fees in the U.S. In a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last week, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Peter Welch […]
July 30, 2013 Thailand’s central bank has effectively banned Bitcoin in the country by declaring it illegal to buy, sell or make purchases with the virtual currency, according to a Bitcoin exchange that had been seeking guidance from the bank. In a message on the Website of Bitcoin Co. Ltd., the Bangkok-based exchange said it […]
July 29, 2013 Two-thirds of companies in a variety of sectors reported suspected fraud attempts in the last 12 months, according to a report by IDology Inc., an Atlanta-based identity-verification company. More than one-third of respondents reported that these suspected attempts have increased in the last year, according to the survey’s findings, while 50 percent […]
Strong customer authentication and account monitoring are keys to preventing tax refund/benefits fraud on prepaid cards. By Loraine DeBonis, Editor-in-Chief As identity theft increases in the digital age, fraud perpetrated with stolen identities has risen dramatically. And, tax refunds have become a target for fraudsters. Tax-related identity theft jumped more than 650 percent between 2008 and […]
Skrill Group, one of Europe’s largest payment providers, has appointed Jonathan Wood vice president responsible for electronic remittance.
July 2013 SIMalliance, a London-based nonprofit trade association supporting the creation, deployment and management of secure mobile services and applications, has announced its board of directors for the next 12 months. The four permanent SIMalliance board seats, retained by the founding SIMalliance member organizations, will continue to be served by: Frédéric Vasnier, senior vice president, […]
July 29, 2013 Payroll card provider ADP is rolling out a new feature for its Paybefore Award-winning ALINE Pay program aimed at aiding employees to better manage their finances, while helping employers improve electronic pay adoption and streamline payroll management. The new myALINE platform, accessible online and via mobile device, provides ALINE Pay cardholders with […]
July 29, 2013 Cash will be knocked out of its position as the No. 1 form of payment in Canada within the next five years, if present growth trends in mobile, prepaid and online payments continue, a new report suggests. All forms of electronic payment are experiencing substantial growth in Canada as consumers’ use of […]
July 29, 2013 Two-thirds of companies in a variety of sectors reported suspected fraud attempts in the last 12 months, according to a report by IDology Inc., an Atlanta-based identity-verification company. More than one-third of respondents reported that these suspected attempts have increased in the last year, according to the survey’s findings, while 50 percent […]
Whether or not the coalition government succeeds in implementing all of its proposals remain to be seen but undoubtedly the transformation of the banking sector – across all levels – is most certainly underway …
Orange and oil and gas group Total have forged a partnership in Africa and the Middle East, providing access to Orange Money services at all Total service stations in the regions, spanning a total of 13 countries to date.
July 25, 2013 The European Commission (EC) has proposed new regulations curbing interchange fees, including a 0.3 percent cap on credit card fees and a 0.2 percent cap on debit card fees. The caps would also apply to prepaid cards. Interchange fees in the European economic region currently range from 0.1 percent to 2.5 percent […]
July 25, 2013 London-based prepaid voucher provider Ukash has taken the next step in enabling users to turn its virtual vouchers back into cash, striking a deal with ATM operator Bank Machine under which voucher holders can withdraw cash at ATMs. With the new “Ukash Out” function, voucher holders need only to enter a numeric […]
July 25, 2013 U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) this week announced legislation that would prevent “predatory” overdraft practices by banks, such as reordering consumers’ debit card transactions to increase the likelihood that they will overdraw their accounts and incur fees. “Banks should play by the rules instead of purposefully ‘reordering’ their consumers’ debit card transactions […]
For the lucrative and important teen demographic especially, shopping doesn’t start at the mall or even in a magazine. It starts at the virtual corner of Instagram and Vine.
If your role has anything to do with governance, risk and compliance or with international tax agreements, then you’ll be familiar with the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and the potential impact on many of the world’s financial institutions …
Peter Leukert, formerly of NYSE Euronext and Commerzbank, has joined banking and payments technology firm FIS after just 15 months in the job.
Risk and post-trade processing specialist firm Traiana has appointed Guy Eden, formerly of the London Stock Exchange, as head of product management.
July 23, 2013 U.S. open-loop prepaid revenue will reach $4.5 billion this year, up 18.4 percent from $3.8 billion in 2012 as growth rates on prepaid load volume, transactions and revenue continue to exceed 15 percent annual growth, according to new data from First Annapolis Consulting. Increasing consumer adoption of GPR products, which accounted for […]
July 23, 2013 A new smartphone-based prepaid wallet launching in the U.K. will enable iPhone and Android users to pay for in-store purchases via tap using NFC technology. First launched in the U.S. last August, the Paybefore Award-winning moneto digital wallet is a joint venture between Kalixa Group, DeviceFidelity and MasterCard. The wallet is powered […]
July 23, 2013 Bank of America Merrill Lynch continues its push to expand the reach and capabilities of its Global Transaction Services (GTS) with the unveiling this week of a new dashboard tool for its commercial card clients around the world. Dashboard Analytics, a module on the bank’s global reporting and account management system, harnesses […]
July 23, 2013 Kimberly Pisinski, a Connecticut-based attorney, yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia claiming that the federal agency engaged in “abusive practices, including attempts to regulate the practice of law, attempts to collect attorney-client protected material and overreaching demands […]
