News


NetSpend Squares Off with FTC over Prepaid Card Access

The Federal Trade Commission has charged NetSpend with deceiving cardholders and denying or delaying their access to funds, but the prepaid provider says any delays stem from federal regulations and that consumers are not being deceived.

Vantiv Will Buy U.S. Subsidiary of Moneris

Vantiv, which sells payment processing services and technology, said that it will pay $425 million to buy U.S.-based merchant acquirer Moneris Solutions Inc. from Moneris Solutions Corp., which is headquartered in Canada.

V-Key teams with Ant Financial for mobile payments

V-Key, a Singapore-based digital security firm, and Ant Financial have teamed up for mobile payments. Under the partnership, V-Key will provide its virtual software solution, V-OS, for Ant Financial to help secure transactions on AliExpress, one of Alibaba Group’s retail ecommerce platforms. (Ant Financial is an affiliate company of Alibaba Group). V-Key will also provide […]

DBS unveils Singapore innovation lab

DBS has launched its Singapore innovation lab – DBS Asia X (or DAX) – as it looks to speed up change in its organisation. Neal Cross, chief innovation officer at DBS Bank, says the bank is “not known for taking huge risks or making massive pivots” but now it wants to “inculcate start-up mindsets”. DAX […]

ANZ launches innovation lab in Singapore

Australia and New Zealand-based banking group, ANZ, has launched an innovation lab, called ANZ BlueSpace, in Singapore as it looks to work with fintech participants from industry, academia and government. ANZ will tap into Singapore’s “thriving fintech community” and develop capabilities for its institutional customers. David Green, ANZ CEO Singapore and head of South East […]

Copenhagen Fintech opens doors

Copenhagen Fintech, a collaborative venture between the Danish Bankers Association, Financial Services Union Denmark, and the City of Copenhagen, has officially opened for business.

31 banks and credit unions in Australia to get Apple Pay

Cuscal, a major payments provider to Australia’s credit unions and smaller banks, has signed a deal with Apple to bring Apple Pay to its customers. The service will be available to nearly four million Australians that bank with 31 entities (which work with Cuscal).

R3 and ten member banks develop KYC service proof-of-concept

The R3 consortium and ten of its member banks have developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a know your customer (KYC) registry “that addresses the challenges associated with satisfying KYC requirements and allows identities to be managed by their owners”.

Fintech start-ups in Europe to get up to €1.6bn in funding from EIF

The European Commission (EC) has pledged up to €400 million to the European Investment Fund’s (EIF) new fund-of-funds – for the money to be spent on start-ups in Europe, including in the fintech space. The EC will also look for three times more investment from institutional investors to make up to €1.6 billion available.

Citi Pay on Way as Bank Is Latest to M-Wallet Fray

The recent surge of bank-backed mobile wallets continues, with Citi the latest financial institution to announce it’s getting into the game. The bank on Nov. 10 unveiled its Citi Pay app, which will enable customers to make online and mobile purchases using their Citi card accounts via Mastercard’s Masterpass digital payments service.

Nordea fully automates processing of Swift MT798 messaging

Nordea has announced it now can handle the Swift MT798 messaging in a fully automated manner. MT798 facilitates corporate-to-bank (C2B) and bank-to-corporate (B2C) communication for the processing of documentary credits and guarantees.

People on the Move: Jay Arbabha, CPI Card Group

Card fulfillment and manufacturing specialist CPI Card Group has appointed Jay Arbabha as chief technology officer, responsible for leading the development of CPI’s technology strategy and IT operations.

Company on the Move: Locke Lord LLP, Chambers UK Rankings 

The recently published Chambers UK 2017 legal ratings recognized several Locke Lord LLP lawyers as leading practitioners in their respective practice areas and recognized two of the firm’s U.K. practice areas for excellence.

People on the Move: Morris Morgan, OCC

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has named Morris Morgan as the agency’s senior deputy comptroller for large bank supervision.

Tesco Bank resumes full service, refunds £2.5m to 9,000 customers

Tesco Bank has refunded £2.5 million to 9,000 customers who had money stolen from their accounts by fraudsters over the weekend. It has also resumed “normal services” following the temporary suspension of online transactions from current accounts .

Cinnober sets up real-time clearing subsidiary, looks for CEO

Swedish trading technology specialist Cinnober is spinning off its real-time clearing business into a separate subsidiary. Cinnober currently provides this service – known as “client clearing” – to large international banks and is keen to grow the business.

Industry Views: What Trump’s Win Means for Payments

With a victory that took the pollsters by surprise, Trump’s win sent the markets plummeting overnight. Although reports suggest markets are steadying, what’s in store for the U.S. payments and financial services industry in the wake of this election?

Mobile-only bank Pepper gears up for launch in Israel

Israel’s Bank Leumi is gearing up for the launch of its new digital banking subsidiary, Pepper. It is expected to open its virtual doors for business before the end of 2016. The tech is provided by Temenos.

Wirecard, GPS Team up to Provide New Prepaid Account for Consumers

Fintech companies and challenger banks in the U.K. have a new tool for targeting consumers without traditional banking relationships. Prepaid card issuer Wirecard Card Solutions Ltd., a subsidiary of Wirecard AG, is working with payments processor GPS and Bottomline Technologies to support a digital banking solution called “U,” which was designed by U.K. program manager FFF Ltd.