More than 125,000 online gambling accounts were created in less than a month, according to New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement. As one of three states where online gambling is now legal, the Garden State presents significant opportunity for digital wallet providers.
From smartwatches to voice-recognition capabilities, 2014 promises to be mobile’s best year yet. And these and other mobile trends will influence payments and financial services innovation.
The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing next week on safeguarding consumers’ financial information in the wake of recent data breaches at several major U.S. retailers.
The Basel principles for effective risk management offer a chance to transform information management that should not be missed.
There are two sides to every coin, but with Bitcoin those sides simply could not be farther apart. Its promise is extraordinary: for those afraid of inflation, it is gold redux, while for those who hate exchange rates, it is a way to pay internationally. For merchants it is a way of avoiding high transaction fees and for former Presidential hopeful Ron Paul, it is the destruction of the US Dollar.
While there are now a dozen ways to build and maintain relationships with customers, many organizations often still treat these channels as separate silos, creating a disjointed customer care experience. By sharing data across channels, you’re more likely to have less frustrated, more loyal customers.
How employees are using their accounts can have a dramatic impact on an employer’s overall HSA strategy and benefit plan. As we approach the 10th anniversary of the enabling legislation for HSAs, the industry, employers and brokers/agents all have the opportunity to move HSAs forward with the use of insightful reporting and analytical tools.
2014 is shaping up to be a big year for e-money and those players with the ability to spot opportunities (think loyalty and mobile), and the agility to react to them, will increase market share and thrive.
A ruling from the circuit court could be issued within the next 30 to 60 days.
According to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, innovative mobile banking features can help underserved consumers obtain safe, secure and convenient options that foster financial inclusion.
In the latest development of the ongoing credit card interchange fee dispute between merchants and Visa and MasterCard, the National Retail Federation (NRF) has appealed a $5.7 billion settlement with the payment card networks.
Paybefore chats with First Data’s Ben Love to get some insight into the company’s recent moves, as well as the future of payments.
The financial services sector may be heavily regulated, but it is poorly standardised. A British Standards Institute-led initiative to drive more adoption of voluntary standards could reap considerable benefits for the industry.
Following the tumultuous change that came in the wake of the subprime crisis, capital markets firms have yet to regain a strong foothold but 2014 is showing increasing evidence of a shift to a higher gear.
San Francisco startup offers merchants a data-driven business insights platform that does the heavy lifting for them.
To kick off 2014, we asked payments industry thought leaders in the U.S. and Europe to reflect on the year that turned out not to be the “Year of NFC” and to look ahead at what will dominate prepaid and emerging payments for the next 12 months. We also asked them what the industry’s New Year’s resolutions should be.
Industry thought leaders weigh in on priorities for 2014.
When he can’t sleep at 2 a.m., Mark Schatz, managing director of Stored Value Solutions, will get up and run eight miles. Akin to a phoenix, running invokes renewed clarity that supports his mission in managing one of the companies that gave birth to the closed-loop gift card industry.
Now that you’re back in the office and once again glued to your computer screen, you’ll continue receiving the industry news, insights and analysis you’ve come to expect from Paybefore. But it won’t exactly be business as usual for Paybefore this year.
To attract the key millennial demographic, banks must look to prepaid and mobile.
Of any industry, the financial services sector might be the most contradictory when it comes to loyalty program effectiveness.
In a recent press release, the CFPB called on financial institutions to “voluntarily” disclose to the public its financial product marketing agreements made with colleges and universities.
As we approach year-end, the Canadian federal government has introduced three items of significance to federally regulated financial institutions (FRFIs).
With regulators agreeing that “higher expectations” must be met by G-SIFIs for risk data aggregation and reporting by 2016, firms are now under huge pressure to provide data strategies and implementation plans and end denial about any shortcomings.
Bank of America is working with Facebook’s Open Compute project on a radical revamp of its systems. David Reilly, head of its Technology Infrastructure unit, tells Banking Technology why Software Defined.Infrastructures are the way ahead.
The technology that banks offer clients can be thought of as a true gift, enabling improvements that can reduce risk, increase efficiency and ultimately put firms on a surer footing. And it is the most advanced and newest platforms which grab everyone’s attention.
Moving to improve and clarify payroll card industry practices, MasterCard today released new standards requiring all employers and payroll card providers involved in offering MasterCard-branded payroll cards to meet specific protocols for consumer choice and transparency
With new arrivals from big names including FATCA, MiFID, Dodd-Frank and the AIFMD, 2014 is set to be another eventful year in the regulatory space. So what are our Top 10 predictions?
With no fewer than 70,000 pages of regulation, and some record fines, 2013 will be a year to remember (or possibly to forget) for many financial services professionals
Basel III has transformed liquidity risk management departments into glorified regulatory functions, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent. As if this good news was not enough to be getting on with, the research house also inevitably concludes that banks will have to change their risk data, models, appetite, organisational and analytics frameworks too.
The data management aspects of compliance can run into tens of thousands of man-hours per institution, each year. Firms have to adapt and find new techniques to manage this increasing burden.
Former SunGard chief executive Cris Conde writes about the importance of training in firms’ governance, risk management and compliance strategies and why they should treat it as an investment.
A new role for CIOs in the banking sector was highlighted at the recent Gartner Symposium: to maintain their future relevance and position, they need to be seen as consultants in the technology space, not just providers.
If ever there was a prize for solving a first world problem, creating the ability to buy a coffee for a friend or acquaintance by sending a tweet would be Nobel- worthy. But if the goal is to keep Starbucks in the conversation around the office (and sell more coffee), this should work.
Consumer expectations of mobile banking and prepaid are escalating rapidly, and the industry needs to respond aggressively, and think differently. As consumers demand more from their financial services providers, putting the mobile channel first in your strategy is key.
Is there an industry more obsessed with fads than banking?. Maybe it’s because it is such a follow-the-leader industry. Perhaps it’s because banking is a very me-too business with few (if any) real brand distinctions. Or is it simply that senior management is so obsessed with the needs of shareholders.
On Nov. 27, the bitcoin was trading at a record $1,000. While some applaud its decentralized nature, others, including regulators, have become wary of its potential effects. We asked two analysts to square off with Viewpoints on the pros and cons of the volatile virtual currency.
Bitcoin (and the tsunami that has ensued) has been characterized as the next stage in the revolution of payments—more precisely, of money.
If Bitcoin manages to become wildly successful, it’s likely that several similar currencies will appear alongside it. The focus of hackers all across the globe will then surely turn to these anonymous stores of virtual value rather than to traditional account-based payments.
Enlightened buy-side firms are facing the challenges of high-touch regulation, fragmented liquidity and ongoing cost pressures head on and developing new business models and approaches at every stage of their workflow.
