Dec. 17, 2012 Colorado-based card producer CPI Card Group was selected by Portuguese retail firm Sonae to design and manufacture gift cards available at Sonae’s Continente supermarket locations throughout the country. The cards will be sold at special free-standing displays rather than at points of sale—one of the first gift card lines in Portugal to […]
Dec. 17, 2012 QSecure Inc., a Los Altos, Calif.-based developer of dynamic payment card technology, has announced its digital wallet, Imago, which consists of a smartphone app to manage payment, gift and loyalty cards, and the powered ImagoCard that holds the data of those cards and can be swiped at the point of sale like […]
December 2012 Smart Packaging Solutions, a smart card technology provider based in France, has appointed Alex Chung chief representative, greater China and South East Asia. Chung, who has experience within the smart card industry, will be in charge of expanding SPS business in the Chinese market and ensuring SPS local presence in Southeast Asia. Most […]
Dec. 13, 2012 The latest blow in the continuing court battle over interchange fees charged to merchants for accepting Visa and MasterCard credit cards was struck this week, when an appeals court declined a request by Home Depot to expedite the retailer’s appeal of a $7.25 billion settlement proposed in July. The agreement—which received preliminary […]
Dec. 13, 2012 MasterCard Worldwide’s new stake in mobile wallet back-end technology expert C-SAM Inc. is the latest in a series of moves aimed to make it easy for consumers to pay with a minimum of steps through any channel. MasterCard did not disclose the terms of its deal with C-SAM, but calls it a […]
Dec. 13, 2012 PayPal Inc. has been pushing hard into brick-and-mortar retail this year—and now the online payment giant is giving users yet another reason to get into stores. The company—in partnership with third-party distributor and technology provider InComm—has unveiled its new PayPal My Cash Card, which enables users to fund their PayPal accounts via […]
Dec. 11, 2012 HSBC’s record $1.9 billion payout to settle allegations that it violated U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) rules suggests that the government is getting better at spotting and punishing organizations that try to skirt regulations, legal experts say. U.K.-based HSBC Holdings plc today said it reached a deferred-prosecution agreement with the U.S. government following […]
Dec. 11, 2012 Prepaid services provider InComm has reached a deal to acquire a majority stake in Adility Inc., a platform for “online-to-offline” commerce, which InComm will integrate into its existing in-store POS infrastructure in a bid to help retailers generate retail sales using virtual prepaid cards and coupons. Adility enables retailers and brands to […]
Dec. 10, 2012 Apple Inc.’s Passbook mobile wallet app gradually is gaining momentum with merchants and card issuers integrating with the mobile wallet app. And while Apple continues to remain mum about plans to add NFC to its handsets, where Apple is going with its proliferating number of other payments-related patents is anyone’s guess. Apple […]
Dec. 10, 2012 Small merchants that accept Square Wallet are hoping to get a holiday sales boost from Square Inc.’s introduction this week of digital gift cards. San Mateo-based Square’s latest offering enables smartphone users to purchase a gift card from 250,000 merchants participating in Square Wallet, and pay using any card. Consumers buying Square […]
December 2012 By Adam Perrotta, Assistant Editor Prepaid providers are setting their sights on Africa, where large underbanked populations, emerging economies and advancing technology are combining to offer what many industry players see as a golden opportunity—and not just for outside companies looking to enter the market. African banks and other local firms also […]
Once considered too difficult and unreliable to be viable, video banking can now help banks increase engagement with the retail customer while cutting costs, according to Gene Pranger, chief executive and founder at uGenius, a provider of personal transaction technologies.
Back in May, I chaired the 2012 Future of Mobile Banking conference held in London, writes Karl Rieder, delivery manager, GFT. At the event, I expressed my disappointment with the state of mobile banking (and with my own bank, in particular).
Mobile and NFC payment technologies have been on the rise in recent years. But with many merchants and retail outlets still reluctant to invest in the new technologies, and with the rise of fraud in existing solutions, industry participants are divided over how and whether the technology will ever gain widespread acceptance in developed markets.
An avid but long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan, Rick Fletcher knows the meaning of passion and persistence—two qualities that have served him well on his path to professional success.
Dec. 4, 2012 Spain’s La Caixa bank this month begins an aggressive push to distribute contactless payment stickers to 200,000 of its customers in Barcelona, aiming to become a model city for mobile contactless payments by the end of February when Barcelona hosts the annual Mobile World Congress trade show. Though such NFC-based stickers lack […]
Dec. 4, 2012 In time for the holiday season, CVS/pharmacy stores are promoting a gift card exchange through a partnership with Plastic Jungle. CVS customers with a smartphone scan a QR code in the store that launches their mobile Web browsers and takes them to cvsgiftcard.plasticjungle.com. To exchange their cards, consumers enter the card number and […]
Dec. 4, 2012 Amsterdam-based digital payment security provider Gemalto has achieved a milestone in its UpTeq NFC payment system for mobile SIM cards, landing certifications from payment card networks American Express, MasterCard and Visa, making UpTeq the first SIM to earn certification from all three networks, according to Gemalto. Unveiled last February, the UpTeq NFC […]
