Worldwide


Deutsche Bank hires Salesforce chief scientist for new data role

JP Rangaswami has been appointed as chief data officer at Deutsche Bank, a newly-created role in which he will “play a key role in standardising the bank’s processes, tools and governance around information and in supporting its digital strategy”.

CARTES Paris Showcases Payments Industry’s Diversification (Nov. 6, 2014)

Attendees at the 29th gathering of CARTES concluding today in Paris noticed the event’s growing emphasis on mobile payments, as well as another striking feature of the show—drawing 20,000 attendees from 140 countries—is the diversity of products and business models mobile payments support.

Banks should go digital says Monitise

The time is right for a new breed of digital-only banks to enter the market and steal away share from the established players, according to a new report by Monitise.

Banking on a holistic approach to combating financial crime

Fraud and financial crime are growing substantially in their nature and complexity as we continue to evolve into an ever more connected world. New technologies, particularly the spread of mobile devices, have opened up different avenues of attack for technically sophisticated and well organised gangs of fraudsters and criminals. The social and economic costs of organised crime in the UK alone are estimated to be £24bn, of which £8.9bn are associated with fraud.

Don’t neglect social media and tablets, banks warned

Banks will be judged on how well they provide mobile services and social media interaction in the coming years. Instead of being just another channel, these forms will be the first point of contact for customers, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent.

Ripple protocol integrated into risk management system from Yantra

Yantra Financial Technologies, an electronic payment systems developer, has integrated its latest system for risk scoring of payments with the Ripple real-time settlement protocol. The integration means that institutions using the Ripple protocol can analyse transactions in seconds, including what other payments the customer recently made and potential concerns regarding a specific transaction. Risk levels can be assigned to certain transactions based on pre-determined criteria.

Prepaid Accounts Topic of Next Week’s CFPB Hearing (Nov. 3, 2014)

After a somewhat vague notice of its next field hearing, the CFPB updated its blog to specify that “prepaid accounts” will be the topic of the hearing, scheduled for 11 a.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 13, in Wilmington, Del.—an exact location has not been given.

U.K. Consumers Prefer Buying, Giving Physical Gift Cards (Nov. 3, 2014)

As more aspects of life leave the physical world and enter the digital one, the majority of U.K. consumers still prefer buying and giving physical gift cards, rather than buying and sending them electronically, according to a recent survey by global gift card provider and program manager Stored Value Solutions (SVS).

The Network Effect: Ingo Money Acquires Fuze

Ingo Money, known for its mobile check deposit capture technology and Good Funds Network, is planning to acquire Fuze Network, a payments technology company that enables loads to more than 1 billion bank-issued cards at thousands of retail locations.

Currency Cloud and XE.com plan “transparent” FX service

Currency site XE.com and money transfer business Currency Cloud plan to launch a new international payments service called XE Money Transfers before the end of this year, which they claim will make foreign exchange transactions more transparent.

Financial Services for the non-wealthy

The hypothesis that seems to be gaining ground is that banks have a wider responsibility in society. If we believe that, then part of their responsibility must clearly be to provide banking products and services that serve the financial needs of the less affulent.

People on the Move: Arthur Levitt, BitPay and Vaurum

Bitcoin payment processor BitPay and Bitcoin exchange Vaurum announced that Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will serve as adviser to both enterprises.

People on the Move: Safdar Khan, MasterCard

MasterCard has appointed Safdar Khan to lead its growing Islamic payments business in Southeast Asia, and he will be promoted to the role of group country manager for Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

People on the Move: Marion King, RBS

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has hired Marion King as director of payments. She will begin her role with the Edinburgh-based company in early 2015.

Blog: One Apple Pay User Takes a Bite

Those of us immersed in payments may have a unique perspective on Apple Pay, but what about other folks? I asked one self-proclaimed Apple “fan boy” to give the mobile wallet a test drive.