PayTech


Q&A with Steve Montross, CPI Card Group

For card manufacturers like CPI Card Group, the U.S. transition to EMV continues to be a top priority. But broader trends like the rise of e-commerce and wearables also are shaping a business that goes well beyond plastic.

Can Blockchain Save the U.S. Postal Service?

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS), striving to overcome inefficiencies and profitability that’s historically been much more often in the red than in the black, is exploring the use of blockchain technology to improve current services, provide new services and improve operations.

Webinar: Social Media, Fraud Worries Could Boost Prepaid Growth

Consumer fraud concerns and the popularity of mobile messaging apps likely will secure prepaid a firm spot in future commerce, according to Martin Koderisch, a manager at Edgar, Dunn and Company (EDC) during a recent Webinar entitled “Prepaid Payments in the Digital Age.”

Calif. Filing Could Indicate Payments Ambitions for Rakuten

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten steadily has been expanding its presence in the U.S.—and the company’s recent filing for a money transmitter license in California could indicate ambitions for adding new financial services and P2P payments components to its U.S. platform.

PayPal files Bitcoin payment patent

PayPal has filed a US patent application for a modular payment module that accepts Bitcoin and other digital currencies. The application names Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin; and sets out the physical characteristics of the module. It says: “The module includes a chassis which has a modular device connector. A payment database in the chassis stores […]

SETL launches blockchain-powered OpenCSD platform

SETL, the institutional payment and settlement infrastructure based on blockchain, has launched its OpenCSD platform. The blockchain-powered platform, SETL’s first commercial offering, enables any market participant to commission and run a permissioned registry service for payments, settlement and clearing of cash and other “financial instruments”. It has been benchmarked to “settle billions of transactions a […]

Licence rejection sees PayPal quit Turkey

PayPal is suspending business in Turkey from 6 June as it has failed to get a new licence for its services. The US company says the decision will affect “tens of thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of consumers”. PayPal did issue two separate statements to TechCrunch. The first was very similar to the […]

Wirecard Makes Scandinavia Play with Paygoo Pact

Wirecard’s flurry of activity continues as the German payment services and technology firm joins with Norway-based program manager Paygoo to launch a reloadable prepaid MasterCard, to be distributed through one of Europe’s largest convenience store chains, Reitan Convenience.

Oman Arab Bank opts for BPC’s SmartVista for payments

Oman Arab Bank (OAB) has selected BPC Banking Technologies’ SmartVista suite for its payment business. SmartVista will replace the existing legacy platform, ACI Worldwide’s Open2. BPC says following a review and bid process, OAB selected its suite over ACI Worldwide and HPS. Fahd Amjad, GM retail banking at Oman Arab Bank, says the partnership with […]

CIMB Bank and MasterCard launch corporate cards in Malaysia

CIMB Bank, in partnership with MasterCard, has launched its Corporate Card Solutions in Malaysia, a new addition to its suite of cash management products. The solutions include the corporate card and purchasing card which offer automated processes and real-time reporting; and a new virtual card solution for supply chain requirements. Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Aziz, […]

Visa Europe contactless transactions pass 3 billion mark

Visa Europe says three billion contactless transactions were made across Europe on Visa cards and payment-enabled devices in the year to 30 April. This leap nearly triples that of the same period in the previous year. Tristan Kirchner, executive director, product management at Visa Europe, says it’s “extraordinary growth” and it’s due to the work […]

Top fintech stories this week – 27 May 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Swift hacks sees 12 more banks under attack A fast moving chain of events. High five for Apple Pay in Singapore Big banks onboard include OCBC and Standard Chartered. NYSE launches new trading tech platform, NYSE Pillar The […]

Santander UK pilots blockchain app for payments

Santander says it is the “first” UK bank to introduce blockchain for international payments through a new app. It is currently being rolled out as a staff pilot, with the intention to expand the technology “at a later date”. Sigga Sigurdardottir, head of customer and innovation at Santander, says: “The need for finance has evolved […]

Swift hacks sees 12 more banks under attack

Investigators are looking at more potential computer breaches following the three hacking incidents on Swift’s payment network, according to Bloomberg. The three attacks comprised a $101 million cyber heist in Bangladesh – the biggest cyber heist in history; Vietnam’s Tien Phong Bank stopping an attempted wire fraud; and Ecuador’s Banco del Austro losing around $9 […]

Green Dot Issues Mea Culpa, Still Working out Final Kinks

Green Dot has taken to social media to apologize for service issues that go beyond its initial reporting that balance inquiries temporarily were unavailable in certain channels, following the third wave of its processing conversion to MasterCard Payment Transaction Services.

Wells Fargo Joins the Mobile Wallet Race

Wells Fargo will launch its mobile wallet this summer, giving consumers using Android devices a new way to pay with their Wells Fargo debit and credit cards.

Payments Vets Launch ‘Innovation’ Platform for Issuers

The multibillion-dollar fintech boom often garners headlines for consumer-facing innovation. Three payments veterans—John Mitchell, Futeh Kao and Chermaine Hu—decided it was time to create some issuer-facing innovation. With their new company Episode Six, the team has launched a payments software platform that integrates with issuers’ existing processing infrastructure to enable customized new products, Mitchell tells Paybefore.

Wirecard Singapore and NETS team for terminal payment solution

Wirecard Singapore, part of Wirecard Group, and NETS (Network for Electronic Transfers {Singapore}) have partnered to provide a single terminal payment solution for Singapore government agencies. The move will enable users to use their CEPAS (Contactless e-Purse Application) cards such as NETS FlashPay, EZ-Link and concession cards on one single device. Wirecard says CEPAS cards […]

Company on the Move: The Orogen Group, Launch

Former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and independent investment fund Atairos Group are creating The Orogen Group, a New York-based company that will make controlling and other strategic investments in financial services companies and related businesses.

People on the Move: Karen Richardson, Worldpay

Global payments processor and technology provider Worldpay Group plc has appointed Karen Richardson to the company’s board of directors as an independent non-executive director and a member of the audit and nomination committees, effective July 1, 2016.

BBVA teams with Red Hat for digital banking drive

BBVA is partnering with Red Hat to speed up innovation and digital banking growth. The agreement, which turns Red Hat into a “priority partner” for BBVA, is part of a series of alliances that BBVA is aiming to forge. Earlier this year, it signed an alliance with Cisco, also allowing it to become a “priority” […]

High five for Apple Pay in Singapore

Apple Pay support is expanding beyond American Express to Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards from five of Singapore’s major banks. The big banks include POSB, DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered and UOB. This latest deal is a significant development for Apple as it now has more than 80% of the Visa and MasterCard credit […]

ANZ pilots shared ledger for payments reconciliation

Australia and New Zealand-based banking group, ANZ, is trialling a shared ledger in the reconciliation of international payments with an unnamed US bank. ANZ says it is not strictly using blockchain but the shared ledger will act in a similar way. Its objective is to reconcile cross-border payments between counterparties in real time. Nigel Dobson, […]

Kozlowski Takes Reins at The Bancorp

The board of directors of The Bancorp Inc. and The Bancorp Bank has appointed Damian Kozlowski to leadership roles with both entities. Kozlowski will become CEO of The Bancorp and president of The Bancorp Bank, effective June 1, 2016. He also will serve as director of both units. Kozlowski has served since 2010 as CEO, president and director of Modern Bank, a New York City-based private bank.

Swift strikes back over three hack attacks

Swift has unveiled a five-part plan to reinforce security across its network after three hacking incidents. The attacks comprised a $101 million cyber heist in Bangladesh; Vietnam’s Tien Phong Bank stopping an attempted wire fraud; and Ecuador’s Banco del Austro losing around $9 million. At the 14th annual European Financial Services Conference in Brussels, Swift […]

Ripple and Temenos power Deloitte’s payments project

Deloitte is pioneering an integration project combining Ripple’s protocol and Temenos’ core banking software for direct bank-to-bank settlements in real time. Deloitte says the overall objective of the Ripple integration is to enable financial institutions to send payments, either in local or foreign currency, in real time without relying on intermediary banking relationships. Ripple offers […]

Saudi Arabia’s central bank, SAMA, in major tech overhaul

Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), Saudi Arabia’s central bank, is modernising its technology with a range of new solutions from SAP and Calypso. The bank is working SAP to automate the ERP and BI functionality (with SAP’s Business Objects), and is also interested in Bank Analyzer for financial reporting, indicates the vendor. SAP is now […]

MasterCard Expands Award-Winning Aid Services

The launch of MasterCard Humanitarian Aid Solutions leverages several of the network’s existing platforms to enable recipients to access funds and other forms of aid via a single card.