Amazon eyes PayPal’s crown with Alexa payments platform
E-commerce titan could be taking on Visa, Mastercard and PayPal.
Visa
Uber gives drivers a lift with Visa Debit Card
But it also faces tax problems in Denmark.
Coinbase customers bugged by overcharging caper
And a blame game with Visa begins.
Visa buys payments firm Fraedom
Fraedom has been a Visa partner for nearly ten years.
Visa pilots new biometric payment card
With Mountain America Credit Union and Bank of Cyprus for a new EMV dual-interface card.
Startupbootcamp launches Scale innovation programme for start-ups
Startupbootcamp has unveiled the launch of Startupbootcamp Scale, an innovation programme for growth stage start-ups in emerging markets.
Payments round-up: 4 December 2017
Betas, big numbers and the big match. Our latest payments round-up features Emma Technologies, Yolt, and Visa and the football World Cup in 2018.
Spafinder Improves Gifting Options ahead of Holidays
Spafinder, a marketing, gifting, incentives and rewards brand owned by Blackhawk Network, has unveiled new gift card technology, expanded distribution and additional partner services to make giving the gift of spa and beauty experiences easier for consumers and businesses.
Earnings Roundup: Amex, BofA, Blackhawk, Visa
It was a busy week for second- and fiscal third-quarter earnings reports, with American Express, Bank of America and Visa all beating Wall Street expectations, and Blackhawk Network, which also beat analyst predictions, talking international growth, double-digit digital gift card sales and new partner Target set to roll out in Q3.
mVisa Takes on M-PESA with Free Domestic Mobile Money Transfers
Move over M-PESA, customers of a Visa-led bank partnership in Kenya will be able to send money to each other domestically without paying transaction fees using mVisa, and the payments network has added additional in-store merchant acceptance for the QR-code-based payment method.
Investment Roundup: Visa Buys Stake in Klarna; Revolut, Tango Land Financing
Investors continue to show strong interest in fintech-based payments services providers, as Visa acquires an equity share in fast-growing Swedish e-commerce specialist Klarna, and startups Revolut and Tango Card land significant financing rounds.
Payscout Launches Virtual Reality Commerce with Visa’s Help
Retail payments have taken another step into the future. Payment processor Payscout has launched a virtual reality system that employs Visa Checkout and enables consumers to examine products before ordering them for delivery to shoppers’ homes.
Visa Bolsters Transaction Security
Visa is beefing up its Verified by Visa authentication service. The payments network said it’s upgrading its back-end to support 3-D Secure 2.0. The 3-D Secure messaging protocol was invented by the network more than 15 years ago and has become an industry standard for online authentication.
BitPay’s Visa-Branded Prepaid Card for Bitcoin Reaches Global Scale
BitPay, a 2017 Pay Award winner, said this week that it has released its BitPay Visa Prepaid Debit Card in 131 countries. The card “makes it possible for users to convert bitcoin into a spendable dollar, euro or pound balance” on the card in a matter of minutes, the company said.
The View from Finovate
Payments compete for attention with “RegTech” while an overall lull in disruption suggests that fintech could be in the eye of a storm.
Vacation Savings Plan, Prepaid Card Help Employees Get Away
It’s vacation season, and employers have a new tool to encourage employees to take much-needed time off and come back more productive. 401Play is offering what it calls a vacation savings account program with a companion Capital Prepaid Services’ BlazePays Visa Prepaid Card to help employees save for vacation.
Startup Enters Teen Market Touting Budgeting Tools, Parental Controls, Charitable Giving
Current, a startup comprised of a small team of New York-based fintech entrepreneurs, has launched a prepaid card program and mobile app for kids and parents that goes beyond dispensing allowances
U.S. Credit Cards Gain Ground on Debit, Prepaid, Nilson Says
The U.S. purchase volume of credit, debit and prepaid cards increased 7 percent in 2016 compared with last year, according to The Nilson Report. That purchase volume hit $5.648 trillion last year, with the volume from American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa credit cards increasing 8 percent year over over to reach a combined $3.059 trillion—the first time that figure has topped $3 trillion.
U.S. EMV Hits Milestone: 1 Billion Visa Chip Transactions in March
U.S. EMV use has hit a milestone. Visa said that for the first time, the number of Visa chip card transactions topped 1 billion last month, a 330 percent increase from March 2016. The announcement comes as the payment network reported a 42 percent overall increase in processed transactions in its 2017 fiscal second quarter.
Blackhawk Beefs up Specialty Gift Cards with Grocer Albertsons
Blackhawk Network has launched a gift card program with grocery chain Albertsons that promises to give shoppers more options for “spring and summer holidays” such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Blackhawk said. The program focuses on category gift cards that run via the Visa payment network.
SCOTUS Won’t Revive Settlement in Interchange Case
A legal battle between merchants and payment networks over interchange fees that has been raging for more than a decade will continue now that the Supreme Court has declined to restore a $5.7 billion settlement agreement that was tossed out by a lower court.
Proposed M-Wallet Rules Don’t Hinder Samsung Pay Launch
While the Indian government works toward a digital economy, the Reserve Bank of India is soliciting feedback through March 31 on guidelines for prepaid payment instruments that could adversely affect issuers of prepaid products, including mobile wallets.
Bots and Biometrics: The Mobile World Congress Shows the Future of Payments
Bots, biometrics and wristbands stood out as examples of payments innovation this week at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Judging by the product releases and displays, the future promises to involve more use of fingerprints in payments, and technology that allows quick purchasing from social media.
Mogo’s New Prepaid Product Taps into Growing Canadian Market
Mogo, a Canada-based fintech firm, has launched what it describes as the country’s first prepaid digital spending account managed through a mobile app. The debut of the Mogo Spending Account and the Mogo Platinum Prepaid Visa comes amid robust growth in prepaid transactions in Canada.
Trend Watch 2017: Payments Year in Review
Paybefore’s first-ever payments year-in-review report, sponsored by The Bancorp, is available now. Offering an in-depth look at key trends and the Top 10 payments stories from 2016 that will continue to shape the industry in 2017 and beyond, this must-have resource examines everything influencing the industry from the CFPB and Uber to Brexit and Trump and much more.
Ingo Money and Visa push B2C push payments
Ingo Money is teaming up with Visa again, this time to enable corporations, merchants, financial institutions and governments to make payments directly to more than 4 billion consumer prepaid, debit and credit cards, and mobile wallet accounts.
Visa patent blacklists devices used for fraud
Visa has been granted a patent that could help in a big way by identifying and “blacklisting” a device that’s been used to perpetrate fraud.
Visa Promises Quicker EMV Transactions
Visa releases a “Quick Chip for EMV” software upgrade that will enable consumers to remove their chip cards from payment terminals in two seconds or less.
