March 12, 2013 Higher payroll taxes, federal tax refund delays, high gasoline prices and inclement weather that spanned much of the United States dampened consumer spending last month, according to the latest SpendTrend data released by First Data Corp., an Atlanta-based payments processor. Dollar volume growth slowed to 4.6 percent year-over-year compared to January’s growth […]
March 12, 2013 Sunrise Community Banks is bringing its three separate local bank operations together under a single bank charter and will rebrand the enterprise as Sunrise Banks, effective April 1, 2013, the company announced this week. Under the new name, Franklin Bank, Park Midway Bank and prepaid issuer University Bank will merge into a […]
March 12, 2013 Ingenico, a Paris-based POS terminal maker, today announced that subsidiary easycash Loyalty Solutions has developed a gift card for gas station company JET Tankstellen Austria GmbH, enabling the Phillips 66 subsidiary to replace paper vouchers. Customers can use the card to pay for gas purchases at the more than 140 JET gas […]
The good news is that 63% of corporate executives are “highly satisfied” with the service they get from their core banking partners; the bad news is less than half of them are confident that their banks are stable and operating securely within their risk parameters. This is making them increasingly interested in the stability of […]
FATCA compliance might not need a separate programme – it ought to be covered by the same approach as AML, RDR and KYC regulations, among others.
While laudable in intention, reforms to Europe’s OTC derivatives markets may be in danger of inadvertently adding so much cost for participants that the original purpose is undermined, according to Anthony Belchambers, chief executive officer at the Futures and Options Association.
March 11, 2013 The Federal Reserve Board last week said it has no plans to change its regulations on debit card interchange fee limits, despite outcry from retail and consumer groups that claim the limits are currently too high. The Fed issued its second biennial report on the debit card market—as required by Dodd-Frank—which surveyed card […]
March 11, 2013 Many U.S. banks are taking a cautious approach in making any plans to broadly issue EMV cards to consumers prior to October 2015, when the card networks’ liability-shift deadlines take effect, as they weigh the cost of the migration against the risks of doing nothing, several banking executives said today during a […]
March 11, 2013 The Federal Trade Commission is setting its sights on the mobile sector. Late last week, the agency filed a series of lawsuits against accused senders of mobile marketing spam and released a report on mobile payments expressing concern over privacy, security and billing issues. The FTC filed eight complaints in courts around […]
March 11, 2013 Government agencies must use their full enforcement authority to penalize institutions that run afoul of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requirements, especially with the advent of mobile payments, which present “huge potential” for fraud, said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) during his summation of a hearing last week on BSA compliance. Warner added that […]
Rising to the challenge of reconnecting with customers, rebuilding trust and renewing the banking experience, banks are starting to explore digital technologies and solutions.
Infrastructure reforms are intended to turn Moscow into an international financial centre. There is still a long way to go. Also in this issue: Interview: MPowa’s Dan Wagner – closing the m-commerce gap Mixing up the pieces: will seven-day account switching really bring more competition to the UK retail banking market? SEPA readiness: evidence is […]
Reforms to the UK’s retail banking industry will help bring greater competition and consumer choice – but more needs to be done, according to delegates at the Westminster Business Forum on the future of retail banking in London this week.
Barclays has appointed Shaygan Kheradpir to the new role of chief operations and technology officer.He will join the executive committee of Barclays and report directly to group chief executive Antony Jenkins.
US bank USAA Bank has adopted a mobile virtual assistant called Nina, developed by Nuance Communications, which lets customers interact with their bank account in novel ways that simulate a conversation with a real human.
The Basel Committee is planning to start checking on firms’ risk data aggregation plans from early 2013 but awareness surrounding the issues remains low.
There are “major discrepancies” in firms’ readiness for the implementation of Target2-Securities that leave “significant gaps” in the industry’s plans, according to new research carried out by Celent and Swift.
March 7, 2013 Earvin “Magic” Johnson is no stranger to winning—whether on the basketball court or in the board room. During his Hall-of-Fame career with the Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA legend racked up five championships and three league MVP awards, but his accomplishments as a businessman might be just as impressive. His Magic Johnson […]
March 7, 2013 During a Tuesday session entitled GPR: A Destination or Journey?, panelists at Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., discussed whether GPR cards should be a stepping stone to a bank account and other products or if they are sufficient financial tools in their own right. The consensus seemed to be that moving everyone […]
March 7, 2013 On the final day of Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., this week, First Data’s Michael Hursta, vice president, prepaid category manager, discussed consumer research that reveals some challenges and opportunities with taking closed-loop gift cards into international markets. In Latin America, First Data looked at five countries—Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Chile and […]
March 7, 2013 “Banklike” card products, such as American Express Co.’s Bluebird, Chase Liquid and Green Dot’s GoBank, that target underserved customers who are disproportionately “young and mobile” are just the tip of the iceberg of innovative new products emerging to serve a changing society, according to Rachel Schneider, senior vice president for insight and analytics for […]
As the deadline for mandatory swaps reporting approaches for more and more asset types, US post-trade services utility the DTCC has announced that swaps dealers are now submitting OTC derivatives trade information for all five major asset classes into its US swaps data repository, DDR.
With the January 2014 deadline looming on the horizon, financial organisations are realising that fast action is needed, and needed now, in order to be able to meet the first FATCA deadline for new account on-boarding.
BBVA Compass, the US operation of the Spanish banking group, has been singled out as Model Bank of the Year in the latest report from international financial research and consultancy firm Celent.
Reference and corporate actions data specialist Exchange Data International has struck a deal with with Derivative Partners, a provider of risk management and valuation services of structured products, to provide valuations for a range of structured products and complex derivative instruments. The current service covers result sets combining various asset classes including equity, indices, FX […]
Capital markets are broken because liquidity is fragmented and there is no way for the sell-side to pool its liquidity – but that will soon change, according to Christopher Gregory, co-founder and chief executive at start up trading venue Squawker.
March 6, 2013 Visa Europe is deepening its relationship with Monitise plc with a new deal to expand mobile payments and mobile commerce services to 3,000 European banks across 36 countries and a commitment to increase Visa Europe’s existing stake in London-based banking and mobile payments provider Monitise, the companies announced today. Visa Europe will […]
March 6, 2013 As GPR card providers seek to develop long-term cardholder relationships, a panel of industry experts at the Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., discussed strategies of dealing with one of the prepaid industry’s biggest hurdles—reducing customer churn. The lifespan of a typical GPR card is a short one; cards distributed online average […]
March 6, 2013 The prepaid card industry may appear to have little in common with the airline industry, but prepaid card marketers could learn a few lessons from Southwest Airlines about surviving turbulent times and transforming commodity-like financial services products into unique and successful brands, Southwest’s former top executive told attendees during a keynote session […]
March 6, 2013 Visibility, replenishment and store associate awareness are three keys to energizing a retailer’s gift card category, according to Colleen Dorwart, senior manager of gift card services at Cabela’s Inc. Dorwart, who was part of a panel discussion this week at Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., also stressed frequent conference calls between […]
Clearing house LCH. Clearnet has cleared $22 trillion notional of interest rate derivatives through its SwapClear service for buy-side clients, as market participants put in place the final preparations for the Dodd-Frank clearing deadline on 11 March.
Trading technology company ConvergEx Group has released a new suite of algorithms designed to capitalise on growing interest among market participants in multi-legged options trading strategies.
Bank of America has introduced a new credit card that rewards customers with up to £100 annually for responsibly managing their monthly credit card payments.
March 4, 2013 Paybefore celebrated 72 programs in 23 categories, naming for the first time Best-in-Category honorees at the 7th Annual Paybefore Awards Ceremony, which capped off the first day of Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla. This year—for the very first time—there was a sixth judge, consisting of the votes of visitors to Paybefore.com, […]
March 5, 2013 As competitive pressure drives prepaid card pricing and fees steadily downward, prepaid marketers must become savvier about managing portfolios on a holistic basis rather than as low-cost standalone products, a panel of industry executives suggested during a panel discussion on the future of prepaid cards on March 4 at the Prepaid Expo […]
March 5, 2013 The prepaid card industry as it matures is reaching a broader range of consumers at all age and income levels, and competition is forcing prepaid products to become more innovative, said Beth Horowitz, Discover senior vice president, on March 4 at Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla. Mainstream consumer groups steadily adopting […]
March, 5, 2013 CPI Card Group, a Littleton, Colo.-based card producer, has expanded capabilities at its Petersfield facility in the U.K. to support demand for secure prepaid card packaging, the company announced yesterday. The new capabilities, which include gift card packaging for distribution within an open- or closed-loop environment, add to the existing products and […]
March 5, 2013 Tracking their finances, saving time and money, avoiding risk and maintaining close relationships with their parents are some of the hallmarks of older “Millennials,” the generation born between 1982 and 2005, according to Neil Howe, founding partner and president, LifeCourse Associates, a consulting company focused on the attributes of generations. Howe, a […]
March 5, 2013 Prepaid Resources, a New York City-based technology specialist for the prepaid and banking industry, has announced a partnership with Atlanta-based technology provider IDology to incorporate advanced identity verification and prescreening solutions within Prepaid Resources’ FraudGuard security services. Fraud Guard protects against unauthorized direct-deposit enrollments using Prepaid Resources’ BenefitsDirect Direct Deposit Management application. […]
March 5, 2013 GroupGifting.com, the developers of the eGifter Web and mobile social gifting app, debuted its integration with LinkedIn at the Prepaid Expo USA in Orlando, Fla., yesterday. The new feature enables consumers to send eGift cards to their LinkedIn Connections. “Social gifting in a business context is now a reality,” said Tyler Roye, […]
