The start of a New Year also brings a new EU law into effect that’s intended to stop companies from undercutting their competition by setting up in low-tax countries. However, the law also could increase the tax on purchases of digital content like mobile applications, music downloads and e-books.
Bookmark our 2014 year in review for easy reference as you make plans and set strategy for the New Year.
Drivers soon will be able to pay with Apple Pay when filling up at Chevron stations, now that the fuel chain has announced plans to integrate the contactless payment system into its pumps.
The payments industry has two dates quickly approaching regarding NPRMs and their respective comment periods, which already have begun.
Digital and alternative currencies, including Bitcoin, can now be used for transactions in California, following the implementation of bill AB129 on 1 January 2015. The new bill is a step forward for cryptocurrencies which have faced tough opposition and scrutiny from global regulators. However, serious doubts about the safety of digital currencies have been voiced by banks.
With much of the holiday revelry come and gone, the payments industry must refocus on two important NPRMs and their respective comment periods, which already have begun.
Dublin-based 3V Transaction Services Ltd., which specializes in issuing, processing and management of prepaid card programs, will be the foundation of a new issuing division of SafeCharge, which acquired the technology provider for €14.5 million (US$17.4 million).
As you get back to business in 2015, bookmark this catalog of the biggest stories from the past 12 months as well as insights into the future of payments in the New Year.
The big four high street banks lost ground in the current account market in the first year of the UK Payments Council’s current account switching service, mainly through poor customer service. But the guarantee did not accelerate the pace of account switching, according to an independent survey of bank customers.
This quick reference guide provides a snapshot of our interviews with the Movers and Shakers of 2014, including key insight into what’s ahead for payments in the New Year.
The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is expected to publish tomorrow its NPRM in the Federal Register that would create a certification program to replace the temporary certification program in place now for access to the Death Master File (DMF).
Seven of every 10 shoppers plan to buy gift cards this holiday season and, among them, 92 percent of shoppers plan to spend either the same amount or more on gift cards than they spent last year, according to an interim holiday spending report by Stored Value Solutions (SVS).
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Japanese telecom and Internet firm Softbank are in the midst of preliminary talks to work together, instead of compete, to capture a sizable chunk of India’s consumer Internet market, according to a report.
Mike Cahill has returned to carrier billing specialist Boku Inc. as chief technology officer.
Littleton, Colo.-based card producer CPI Card Group has received the Center of Excellence award for the second consecutive year at the Smart Card Alliance’s annual member meeting.
Fiserv Inc., a global provider of financial services technology solutions, has received awards in two categories at the Banking Technology Awards, held in London.
The Members Group (TMG) has announced the addition of several directors, each of whom brings extensive financial services experience to the Des Moines, Iowa-based payments processor.
The CFPB’s NPRM on prepaid accounts is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow.
The N.J. General Assembly last week approved by a vote of 73-1 the ZIP code repeal bill (A-3480), which eliminates the collection of consumer ZIP code information for gift cards at the POS.
The mobile payments piece of Starbucks’ partnership with Square has ended.
Industry experts earlier this year predicted abundant M&A activity in the payments industry, and they are being proved correct right to the very end of 2014.
Firms that excel at data analytics also achieve better financial results according a study by EY. High-growth companies are twice as likely to focus on data and analytics in revenue-generating areas such as marketing and sales,
Members of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and European Union Council negotiators yesterday agreed to cap the interchange fees on cross-border and domestic card-based payments, ensuring uniform rules across the EU.
Store openings on Thanksgiving Day and the typical headline-seeking weekend deals by retailers helped somewhat during the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season this year.
Transit systems throughout the world continue to adopt electronic payment systems—the latest among them Toronto and Indonesian province Jakarta.
The European Securities and Markets Authority says that crowdfunding platforms are incentivised to operate in a way that they fall outside existing regulations, which is holding back their growth and increasing risks for investors.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has made a series of internal promotions in its EMEA Global Transaction Services team.
The CFPB is calling for greater transparency from colleges and financial institutions when they enter agreements to offer prepaid or debit products to students.
First Data Inc. and Verifone are helping U.S. merchants reduce their exposure to large-scale consumer payment data breaches and expedite merchant acceptance of EMV-enabled credit and debit cards.
Apple in recent weeks has become somewhat more accommodating to consumers who use PayPal or Google Wallet. For example, consumers in the U.S. and U.K. now may use PayPal when making purchases on Apple’s online store.
NCR Corp. today announced the NCR Silver POS system now includes a feature enabling merchants to easily add LevelUp, the mobile payments and loyalty network, to customer payment options.
Widespread use of fingerprint authentication for financial transactions on mobile devices could start taking off from early next year as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Google, Samsung, Lenovo, Microsoft, Alipay and others adopt a new authentication standard through their joint project, the FIDO Alliance, which has just published its specifications and launched its first server.
American Express has launched a research pilot to study what marketing tactics and behavioral triggers can convince cardholders to save using its Serve prepaid account software platform.
The growth in consumer popularity of mobile bill pay features continues unabated as 27 million U.S. households with access to the Internet are paying at least one bill from their phones, an increase of nearly 70 percent compared with 2013, according to The Seventh Annual Billing Household Survey from Fiserv.
Paybefore Award-winning Rȇv Worldwide is continuing its focus on multicurrency travel cards with its latest launch in India.
If Maxwell the talking pig can show a police officer his proof of Geico insurance on a smartphone, why not a driver’s license?
The US is finally adopting EMV after an eventful 12 months in which barriers have been overcome. Merchant reluctance is diminishing, good progress is being made, and the ‘EMV train’ is now picking up speed, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent.
The London Stock Exchange has set out plans to add EuroCCP as a third clearer for its main market from March 2015, joining LCH.Clearnet and Switzerland’s SIX x-Clear.
Overall holiday sales figures may be a mixed bag so far this year, but gift card sales for the season are on track to hit news sales peaks in the U.S. and the U.K., aided by an uptick in online sales, plus growing popularity for digital gift cards, new data suggest.
The financially underserved market in the U.S. generated approximately $103 billion in fee and interest revenue in 2013, based on consumer usage volume of $1.3 trillion in financial products and services, according to a new study from the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) and Core Innovation Capital.
