News


CFSI Nonprofit Exec: Prepaid Could be ‘Anchor’ for Broad Financial Services for Changing Society (March 7, 2013)

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 […]

DTCC reports five-asset swap clearing as Dodd-Frank deadline approaches

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.

Core renewal gets BBVA picked as Model Bank

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.

EDI collaborates with Derivative Partners on independent valuation

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 […]

Card Design, Customer Experience Key to Reducing GPR Churn (March 6, 2013)

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 […]

Ex-Southwest Airlines Exec Sees Industry Parallels in Prepaid Card Competition, Consolidation (March 6, 2013)

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 […]

Experts Offer Sales-Boosting Tips for Gift Card Retailers (March 6, 2013)

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 […]

LCH.Clearnet records record activity as new OTC rules take effect

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.

ConvergEx rolls out multi-legged options algos

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.

Paybefore Honors Innovation in Orlando (March 4, 2013)

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, […]

CPI Card Group Expands Secure Packaging Capabilities in U.K. (March 5, 2013)

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 […]

Giving the Millennial Generation What They Want (March 5, 2013)

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 […]

Prepaid Resources Partners with IDology to Combat Benefit Enrollment Fraud (March 5, 2013)

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. […]

eGifter Takes Social Gifting to LinkedIn (March 5, 2013)

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, […]

ECB adopts Thomson Reuters Eikon

The European Central Bank has signed a deal together with the central banks of 18 countries to adopt Thomson Reuters’ Eikon desktop for trading and market data.

Cross asset trading to the fore for FPL delegates

While changes to the OTC derivatives world grab the headlines, trading is moving to a cross asset world, largely driven by regulation and standardisation – and after a few years of pain, firms may find that they are better off as a result.

LSE/TMX to collaborate on fixed income venture

The London Stock Exchange’s FTSE Group and Canadian exchange TMX have signed an agreement to combine their fixed income index business in a new joint venture, resurrecting at least part of the cooperation originally planned under the two exchanges’ failed merger back in June 2011.

Study reveals customer motives for switching banks

A majority of consumers would prefer portable bank account numbers to make switching between banks easier, according to a new YouGov poll conducted by BT – and the reasons may surprise advocates of Banking 2.0.

Discover Launches Checking, Debit Service with Rewards Lure (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 Discover Financial Services is taking on the likes of online banking specialists Simple and Moven with Discover Cashback Checking, introducing a mainstream debit card, to be processed on its Pulse network. Initially targeting only select Discover credit card customers by invitation, Discover’s new banking service carries no monthly fees or minimum balances […]

MasterCard Inks VimpelCom Deal, Launches NFC Services in Brazil (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 MasterCard Worldwide pushed its global mobile payments strategy forward this week with announcements of diverse initiatives targeting new customers, including a strategic partnership with Amsterdam-based mobile network operator VimpelCom Ltd. to reach unbanked consumers in 18 countries with a “mobile money” service, as well as the card network’s first NFC launch in […]

PayPal Founder’s New App ‘Simplifies’ Mobile Shopping (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 A new startup from PayPal co-founder Max Levchin is aiming to improve the process of making online purchases via mobile device—an improvement he says is a boon to customers and retailers alike. Known as Affirm, the new company is the brainchild of Levchin’s tech incubator Hard, Valuable, Fun and is launching a […]

CO-OP Financial Services to Offer TMG Prepaid Cards (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 As part of a partnership established last year with The Members Group (TMG), a Des Moines, Iowa-based card processing and payment solutions provider, CO-OP Financial Services today announced it will be offering TMG’s reloadable prepaid cards to all of its client credit unions. The TMG reloadable prepaid cards are in addition to […]

AccountNow Reports Major Call Volume Shift with VoltDelta (Feb. 28, 2013)

Feb. 28, 2013 Customer service is in the news for the second time this week as prepaid card provider AccountNow Inc. reported that more than 90 percent of its call volume is now resolved in the automated system rather than via live agent. The increase follows AccountNow’s move to VoltDelta for customer service 18 months […]

Blog: New Credit Card Surcharges Could Impact Prepaid Market (February 2013)

Blog: New Credit Card Surcharges Could Impact Prepaid Market February 2013   By Lori Breitzke, E&S Consulting LLC A proposed settlement agreement in the In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation—filed in 2005 on behalf of approximately 7 million merchants alleging, among other claims, that MasterCard and Visa had separately colluded […]

Wincor Nixdorf predicts mobile cash withdrawal explosion

While most large banks in the UK offer a mobile app, some do not yet offer mobile cash withdrawal as a feature. That is likely to change soon, according to Ian Byrne, banking director UK and Ireland at ATM maker Wincor Nixdorf.

Rawbank revamps internet banking services with Clear2Pay

Kinshasa-based Rawbank has selected Clear2Pay’s e-Banking solution to revamp its online and customer loyalty strategy. Since its launch 10 years ago, Rawbank has become the largest bank by total deposits and total assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a network of branches 30+ providing a local service to retail and corporate clients. Rawbank, […]

Early warning for trading failures

Technology companies Verdande and ITRS have developed an early warning system designed to detect trading outages and system failures before they happen.

Mauritius adopts e-payment as PeX turns to BPC-HP

Payment service provider Payment Exchange has moved its Mauritius operation onto BPC Banking Technologies’ HP Integrity NonStop platform, which is designed to make it easier, faster and cheaper to launch new products.

U.S. EMV Migration Forum Sketching Plans for One-City EMV Pilot (Feb. 26, 2013)

Feb. 26, 2013 Payments industry experts eyeing the October 2015 target date for the U.S. migration to EMV card technology are contemplating plans to set up an EMV pilot in a single U.S. city to boost EMV planning and to work out the bugs in chip-card deployment. The concept, hatched by a committee within the […]

paysafecard Launches Online Shopping Account (Feb. 26, 2013)

Feb. 26, 2013 European e-voucher provider paysafecard group has launched a new service it says will simplify the process of Internet shopping for its customers. The Paybefore Award-winning firm’s new system—dubbed “my paysafecard”—enables customers to combine all of their paysafecard e-vouchers into a single account. Instead of having to enter separate 16-digit PINs for each […]

GOP Leaders Talking Tough on Interchange Fee Cap (Feb. 26, 2013)

Feb. 26. 2013 Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) today told attendees at a Credit Union National Association Government Affairs Conference in Washington, D.C., that federal lawmakers may revisit the debit interchange fee cap created by the Durbin Amendment this year, according to CUNA’s News Now. The publication also reports the Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said earlier […]

Prepaid Customer Service Takes Center Stage at Philly Fed Workshop (Feb. 26, 2013)

Feb. 26, 2013 The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a workshop last week focused on customer service in the prepaid card industry. Susan Herbst-Murphy, a senior industry specialist at the PCC, says the center was eager to learn more about customer service issues in light of the Treasury’s mandate […]