PayTech


InComm Joins MCX Fold (Sept. 30, 2014)

Prepaid product and technology provider InComm has partnered with Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), the retailer-led consortium that recently unveiled its new mobile payments network, CurrentC.

Across the spectrum: ISO 20022 perspectives

The original concept of the ISO 20022 was to create a repository of data used in financial messaging to communicate business information of any type – and to be able to add any types of data that might arise in the future. There has been a lot of focus on the use of the standard in payments and securities messaging roles, this has obscured its current and potential use in other areas.

Work as one to rise above geopolitics, industry urged

The financial industry must work with regulators, market infrastructures and among itself to address the major issues it faces says Jamie Forese, co-president of Citi and chief executive of Citi Institutional Clients Group, during the opening plenary address at Sibos in Boston: “Perhaps the most important issue on which we must work together is encouraging regulators to build a coherent, consistent and unified regime of global financial regulation. We can’t build it ourselves; our role must be as advocates and as advocates we need to speak with one clear and consistent voice.”

Collaboration and utilities key to FMI success

Collaboration between international financial market infrastructures (FMIs) and the development of industry utilities will be a key factor in removing systemic risk and reducing costs for industry participants.

T2S competition is an opportunity, says Benito

The competition that will be introduced by the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) Target2-Securities (T2S) project among CSDs is an “opportunity” said Jesús Benito, chief executive at Iberclear. In simplifying the post-trade infrastructure of Europe, T2S is prompting new competitive forces, market entrants, challenges and even creating new words.

Regulation overkill won’t prevent another crisis

More than two-thirds of delegates who attended the Demystifying Regulators and Regulation session yesterday said they had to file reports with six or more regulatory agencies and of those, a third report to north of 11 agencies.

Reports focus on global payments growth

Growth is returning to the payments industry and new market entrants are poised to take a share of that growth away from banks, according to a clutch of payments-focused white papers released at Sibos today.

Misys launches tool to integrate corporate to bank relationships

Misys has launched the Misys FusionBanking Corporate FrontOffice, which it said integrates the corporate to bank relationship more fully. It provides banks with a tool that can aid client onboarding and functionality while enabling end use treasury customers to get commercial lending data, trade finance and payment information – and prices – out of their bank much more easily.

Banks have a role to play in crypto currencies

When a new payment system such as Bitcoin arises it tends to be successful “in areas where a need is not being met”, Gottfried Leibbrandt, Swift chief executive told delegates yesterday. He said his fascination with Bitcoin – “both a currency and an innovation” – had not changed in the past 12 months.

Big data is getting bigger, say delegates

Data loads at financial institutions are expected to increase significantly, according to a poll of delegates attending yesterday’s technology forum session on big data.

Sepa Consultancy develops Simulator

Sepa Consultancy has launched the Intraday Liquidity Simulator, a liquidity dashboard solution that provides a timeline of events, outcomes and actions in multiple currencies.

BNP launches Liquidity Access

BNP Paribas Securities Services has launched Liquidity Access, a solution designed to help banks and broker dealers manage and monitor their liquid assets. The launch comes as various regulations, including Basel III and Dodd Frank, require market participants to hold more liquid assets, closely monitor their liquidity ratios and anticipate the evolution of their liquidity positions. Intraday liquidity management and reporting is likely to be a hot topic this week as the January 2015 deadline for Basel intraday liquidity reporting looms.

A guiding light

Building a single regional market is a goal for many groups of nations; however Europe’s development of a single settlement platform is the only effort to come to fruition.

Next out of the block

Forget Bitcoin, cryptographic payments networks will be the real game-changer, according to many people working in the payments world.

The high cost of failure

Data in all its forms and access to it in real time is becoming ever more critical as financial institutions seek to manage myriad risks.

The long arm of the law

Crypto and virtual currencies have garnered plenty of headlines in the past couple of years. Now financial regulators around the world are turning the spotlight on these instruments and attempting to bring them into the legal fold.

EU Lawmakers Propose Tighter Regulations for Mobile Wallets (Sept. 29, 2014)

The Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the European Union law-making body, has recommended tightening regulations regarding customer authentication and protection of sensitive payment data related to mobile wallets, according to its recently released proposal of the revised Payment Services Directive.

Bitcoin: Currency or Commodity? (Sept. 29, 2014)

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission will hold a public meeting next week to discuss Bitcoin and the CFTC’s jurisdiction regarding derivatives contracts that reference the decentralized digital currency.

Changing the world

Change is a theme at this year’s Sibos. But what type of change? A cross-section of delegates discuss what they think will be the main disruptive forces in their part of the business.

A city that commands attention

One of the most attractive cities in the US, Boston is also steeped in history: get your walking shoes on and explore the many historical and culinary delights of the Sibos 2014 host city.

Access all new areas

While mobile commerce and payments have been slow to take off in Western countries, the developing world has been stealing a march with innovative services and products.

Silver linings

In early September, cloud computing stories finally became interesting as an apparent hacking attack on Apple’s iCloud released hundreds of photos of ‘celebrities’ in the nude. It was a perfect story for the mainstream media, combining celebrities with nudity and a bit of unintelligible (to them at least) technology thrown in for good measure. Among […]

Blackhawk Network Acquiring Parago for $290M (Sept. 25, 2014)

Blackhawk Network (NASDAQ: HAWK and HAWKB) today announced it’s acquiring Dallas-based consumer incentives firm Parago Inc., continuing an acquisition streak that’s advancing the prepaid and payments network’s reach into new markets within the corporate and consumer incentive space.

Clinkle a Clunker? (Sept. 25, 2014)

After three years in “stealth mode”—and $30 million in venture funding—once-hot mobile payments startup Clinkle has finally launched, but with a drastically scaled back platform.