The prepaid and emerging payments industry recently lost a highly respected 30-year veteran. Timothy Birk, CEO at Performance Benefits Inc., died in a car accident on April 14, 2013. Birk, 56, is survived by his wife, Sheri, her children, Brandt and Aidan, and his children, Luke, Olivia and Thomas with his first wife, LaDon. Birk […]
Mercury Payment Systems, a Durango, Colo.-based prepaid card processor, has announced that Nick Nayfack, director of product, accepted a seat on the Electronic Transactions Association’s (ETA) mobile payments committee. ETA is an international trade association for the payment processing industry. Nayfack will develop best practices in mobile commerce with industry peers to enable merchants and […]
Javelin Strategy & Research has hired Nick Holland as senior analyst of payments. He has spent the last decade focusing on the intersection of payments, mobile, retail and security, according to the company. His prior work includes Mercator Advisory Group, Pyramid Research, Aite Group and, most recently, Yankee Group’s Mobile Money Strategies practice. Holland has […]
May 2013 Javelin Strategy & Research has hired Nick Holland as senior analyst of payments. He has spent the last decade focusing on the intersection of payments, mobile, retail and security, according to the company. His prior work includes Mercator Advisory Group, Pyramid Research, Aite Group and, most recently, Yankee Group’s Mobile Money Strategies practice. […]
GoPago Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of emerging mobile payments technology, has hired Steve Elefant as chief strategy officer, and he will be in charge of strategy and ISO partnerships. Elefant has more than 25 years of experience in overall company strategy, products, end-to-end encryption, mobile, business development, and mergers and acquisitions. Most recently, he […]
Galitt, a French payments and electronic transactions consultancy, has appointed Mike Delagrange senior vice president and general manager of Galitt’s U.S. operations. He will be responsible for positioning Galitt’s success in selling EMV, NFC and TSM consulting services throughout Europe to major companies in the U.S. Delagrange has more than 20 years of conventional and […]
Joseph Hurley has been with Discover since 1985 when the then-small company with the big idea—cash-back rewards—got started. He has held positions in marketing, product management, government relations, and network products and services. From 2008-2010, Hurley was deputy president of Diners Club International, and from 2003-2008 he served as head of global client relations and vice president […]
Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based provider of financial services technology, has announced that its debit payments network, formerly known as ACCEL/Exchange, has a new name: Accel. The name reflects the network’s ability to accelerate funds transfers across retail, biller and social P2P payments, and positions the network within the Fiserv portfolio of payments capabilities to […]
American Express Co. has promoted Edward P. Gilligan to president. Gilligan has served as vice chairman of American Express since 2007, when he was named head of a B2B group responsible for the company’s global relationships with merchants, corporations and bank partners. He joined the company in 1980, and he was named business unit president […]
Allied Payment Network, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based provider of online bill payment services to the financial industry, has announced that Steve Paradine, a financial industry sales veteran with more than 25 years of experience, has joined the company as its senior vice president of sales. His previous experience includes Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), where […]
Best use of virtual or digital delivery associated with a prepaid program or payments, such as gaming, virtual currency and P2P.
In this installment of our Paybefore Awards coverage, get to know each of the winning programs in the following categories: Best Business-to-Business Prepaid Card Program Outstanding Mobile Wallet or Mobile Application Best Virtual or Digital Program Most Effective Marketing Campaign
A difficult future for the banking industry, but a potentially great one for London as a financial centre, was predicted by Sir John Gieve, chairman of VocaLink and former deputy governor of the Bank of England, speaking at the opening of Swift’s Business Forum in London today. But the industry must be careful and diplomatic if it wants to have any real say in how the future is shaped.
UnionPay’s recent expansion push has taken a major step forward now that the Shanghai-based payment card network has announced a new prepaid card to be issued by The Bancorp in the U.S. The UnionPay Travel Prepaid Card, announced yesterday in New York City, marks the first UnionPay card of any type available in the U.S. […]
London-based prepaid voucher specialist Ukash is extending the reach of its services further with a new deal announced this week with MoneyGram. The alliance will enable Ukash customers to send funds from the Ukash Website to recipients at any MoneyGram outlet worldwide. The service will launch in the U.K. later this year, with plans to […]
Several payment startups have reported funding rounds in recent days, among them are, Tango Card, ZooZ and GoCardless. Tango Card, a Seattle-based provider of a multipurpose gift card that can be used to buy closed-loop gift cards from national retailers, donate to charity or cash out remaining balances, this week announced a $4.1 million series […]
Mobile commerce in the Netherlands reached EUR560 million (US$748 million) in 2012, or 6 percent of all online spending volume during the year, according to a report from industry group Thuiswinkel. The number of Dutch consumers who made a purchase via mobile device during the second half of 2012 was 1.7 million, up a whopping […]
Giving consumers preferential customer service treatment and instant discounts for paying with their smartphones could help boost mobile payment usage, a new Accenture survey suggests. In a broad survey of 4,000 U.S. and Canadian consumers conducted online last year, half of respondents already using their smartphones for payments said they would be more likely to […]
The rising prevalence of mobile POS systems could result in up to $1.1 trillion in additional card payments per year and increase payment card acceptance by as many as 20 million merchants, according to a new report by Javelin Strategy & Research. Mobile POS systems like Square, PayPal Here, SpotPay and iZettle, which have become popular […]
Brick-and-mortar retailers are cheering the U.S. Senate’s support of proposed legislation that would prevent some online and catalog merchants from selling goods without collecting sales tax, which traditional retailers say would level the playing field as in-store, online and mobile sales channels converge. The U.S. Senate on May 6 will vote on the Marketplace Fairness […]
Cross-border shopping could become more convenient with a pair of new services from TSYS that display transactions in multiple currencies, along with the daily exchange rate, so consumers can decide which currency they prefer to pay with before making in-store or online purchases. Through a partnership with Planet Payment Inc., an international multicurrency payment processor, […]
In a move meant to embody the evolution of the company, automated retail provider Coinstar Inc. has announced plans to change its name to Outerwall Inc. The name change, which will be subject to shareholder vote in late June, reflects Coinstar’s growth “from a single coin-counting kiosk business into multiple automated retail businesses,” the Bellevue, […]
Standard Chartered has enlisted Clearstream and Euroclear to make more efficient use of collateral, as tough new financial regulations drive investor fears of an impending collateral shortfall.
The Belgian automated interbank retail payment system has been completely migrated to a new Clearing and Settlement Mechanism developed and operated by French payment processing specialist STET
KBC Bank has partnered with payment specialist Sentenial to offer the latter’s Origix Corporate payment management solution to the bank’s business clients.
Payday and deposit advance loans were in the news today, with a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and a Notice of Proposed Guidance from the FDIC each indicating that regulators soon could tighten rules governing short-term credit products. Payday and deposit advance loans can lead to a repeating cycle of indebtedness […]
The U.S. rollout this spring of MasterCard’s MasterPass may be quieter than some other product launches because it doesn’t directly target consumers, Ed Olebe, group head, wallet services, emerging payments, MasterCard, said this week at CARTES America in Las Vegas. MasterPass, unveiled earlier this year as the successor to last year’s PayPass Wallet Services and […]
Online merchants using Vindicia’s CashBox SaaS platform are now able to accept paysafecard for digital goods and services, according to paysafecard, a European-based prepaid electronic payment solution provider, with offices in in Vienna, London and New York. “Vindicia is the ideal partner . . . to help us strengthen our footprint in the U.S.,” said […]
The companies behind the Isis mobile wallet have teamed up with cashless acceptance technology provider USA Technologies (USAT) to launch a mobile payment and loyalty program for vending machines across the U.S. The partnership is an extension of USAT’s involvement in Isis’s test run in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas, where Isis users can […]
Despite its negative public perception, high-frequency trading can act as a force for good in capital markets by adding efficiencies that help investors get a better deal – but only if it is properly regulated, according to new research by technology consultancy GreySpark Partners.
Lloyds Banking Group says it is well advanced in plans for the separation of branches that it had hoped to sell to Co-op Bank in compliance with a European Commission ruling following the state aid it was given by the UK government.
The U.S. EMV migration poses many challenges, but a few issuers and merchants already getting their feet wet with chip-and-PIN conversions told attendees at CARTES America this week that U.S. consumer response to EMV cards so far is positive. The first U.S. commercial bank to roll out EMV cards to its customers in mid-2011, Santa […]
A subsidiary of Leawood, Kan.-based processor Euronet Worldwide has launched a prepaid card issuing, processing and BIN sponsorship solution in Europe. Euronet 360 Finance Ltd. now is offering electronic money and payment services under the oversight of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). By passporting its e-money license across the Single Euro Payments Area (excluding […]
Chicago-based social gifting service Boomerang has rolled out a new rewards service aimed at helping online publishers better engage and monetize their users by offering free gift card rewards to online merchants. Boomerang Rewards, an extension of the company’s recently unveiled brand platform, enables online publishers to give customers promotional gift cards to more than […]
The absence of market surveillance tools in many jurisdictions and regions is “potentially one of the more significant problems facing the markets in light of technological developments, such as the rapid speed of trade execution and increase in order volume”, says the International Organization Of Securities Commissions in its final report on surveillance.
BNP Paribas Securities Services and Swift are collaborating to enhance the bank’s collateral protection solutions for corporate, buy-side and sell-side clients. The bank has set up “Margin Project”, planning to integrate Swift’s standardised tri-party collateral messages to ensure full compliance with the upcoming regulatory requirements on OTC transaction, mitigation of counterparty risk, asset safety and […]
Standard Chartered has appointed Petter Sternby as head of southeast Asia financial institutions strategic coverage.
EMV chip-enabled card growth continued at a healthy clip worldwide last year but China and Europe led demand, according to new data the Smart Payment Association (SPA) released today at the annual CARTES America meeting in Las Vegas. EMV card production overall rose 9 percent last year to 975 million cards, up from 898 million […]
With the switch from magnetic stripe to EMV-equipped payment cards in the U.S. on the horizon, American Express said it will begin issuing corporate cards with chip-and-signature EMV technology within the first half of this year. The new cards will offer enhanced security by using advanced encryption technology that makes it more difficult for unauthorized […]
StoreFinancial Services has announced a marketing program designed to strengthen the bond between professional sports teams and their fans, as well as ties between team sponsors and their customers. With the Fan Experience Card program, which features a restricted authorization network (RAN) prepaid card that can be redeemed at any merchant inside or outside the […]
