Essential parts of the UK retail banking sector lack effective competition and do not meet the needs of personal consumers or SMEs, according to government body the Competition and Markets Authority, which is now planning to launch a full investigation that could last 18 months.
Green Dot Corp., a Pasadena, Calif.-based provider of prepaid debit card products and reloading services, is discontinuing the MoneyPak PIN method of reloading cards, moving fully to the card swipe reload process, according to a written statement provided yesterday at a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
The CFPB wants to expand its Consumer Complaint Database to enable consumers to provide a narrative with their complaints about financial services.
The battle for space at the online checkout counter continues as Visa Inc. unveils a new service to enable e-merchants to add a one-click purchase button to shopping Websites and apps.
The merchant plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Board of Governors have been granted another extension to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
Current account holders in the UK are switching between banks more often than before – but with some customers struggling to see the difference between banks, more needs to be done to make switching worthwhile.
Chuck Harris has been named senior executive vice president of TSYS, and he will take over the reins of TSYS-owned GPR and payroll card provider NetSpend, effective July 31, as CEO Dan Henry is leaving the company after serving in the executive role since 2008.
eBay Inc.’s Braintree payments unit has unveiled a new software development kit (SDK), marking Braintree’s first major upgrade since being acquired by eBay in an $800 million deal last year.
Chinese postal network China Post will make a major investment toward building a mobile and online payment service.
Consumer spending eased off a bit in June, but remained on an overall path of growth, according to data from First Data Corp.’s latest SpendTrend report.
Surprising changes in customer behaviour suggests that banks need to revisit their approach to branch banking and digital services, according to a new study by Accenture.
Milan-based payment processing specialist SIA says that a migration of its systems to the Red Hat Linux environment has led to a 270% reduction in processing times.
Forty percent of mobile wallet users are using mobile as their primary form of payment—and mobile-specific offers and rewards could be the key to converting the remainder, a new report suggests.
With the Canadian government planning to phase out paper checks by 2016 for federal benefits recipients, half of Canadians who are unwilling to use direct deposit would be willing to try receiving their benefits on a reloadable prepaid card, according to a public opinion report released earlier this year and commissioned by the Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC).
cadooz GmbH, a provider of vouchers, rewards and incentives, announced a deal to distribute gift cards and voucher codes for Spotify, the digital music streaming service, to business customers in 25 European countries.
Swedish mPOS provider iZettle has added €5 million (US$6.8 million) to its coffers, after the latest investment in the company’s Series C round of funding.
It is often said that market data in Europe is too expensive, but it would be unfair to blame that solely on the exchanges, according to Christiane Baumgarten, vice president, market data and services at Deutsche Börse (right). With the consolidated tape mandated by MiFID II due by 2016, market data is at the centre of the European Commission’s plans for a better trading environment in Europe.
MiFID II could cause serious problems for banks, brokers and other market participants in the run up to the January 2017 implementation, according to executives attending a meeting chaired by the European Securities Markets Authority in Paris earlier this week.
First Data is going all in to the booming gambling and casino industry with a suite of payment features to streamline the flow of money for U.S.-based online and offline gambling operations from casinos to racetracks, lotteries and poker.
Gift cards are popular with U.S. consumers, but there’s still room for growth, as many consumers are uninformed about or uncomfortable with mobile gift cards and e-codes, according to research by the Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA), a trade association of closed-loop gift card retailers.
i2c Inc. has opened a Singapore office to address the growing market for prepaid products and mobile financial services in the Asia Pacific region.
David Sear, the former chief executive of the Weve mobile network e-commerce joint venture, has been appointed as group chief commercial officer at Skrill Group.
Allied Payment Network, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based provider of online bill payment services to the financial industry, announced that Joe Bellavance has joined the company as its vice president of credit union services.
Mobey Forum, the international bank-led trade association devoted to advancing mobile payments, announced that Jordi Guaus, head of mobile payments at CaixaBank, has been elected to serve as chairman of the board.
Paybefore Award-winning processor and program manager StoreFinancial has announced that the Dell Advantage ePromotional card was awarded for “Best Prepaid & Payments Innovation” at the Third Annual PX Prepaid & Payments Awards.
Skrill Group has appointed David Clarke chief financial officer.
Visa Europe has appointed Greg Sheppard head of prepaid, and Peter Bayley, executive director, risk management, has been named to the global board of directors for the Merchant Risk Council, a global forum for e-commerce fraud and payments professionals.
Analyst firm Juniper Research reckons more people will be using mobile apps for banking than web-based options by 2019, as the 800 million people who used their phones for banking more than doubles to 1.75 billion in five years.
PayPal is slashing the time needed for businesses to receive PayPal funds in their bank accounts.
Isis, the NFC-based mobile payment initiative backed by AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, announced it will rebrand its mobile wallet to distance the company from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a jihadist militant group that often goes by the acronym ISIS.
Calling it a transition year, U.K.-based Monitise announced today its full year revenue for 2014 will fall short of expected growth because of a change to its business model.
Banks are continuing to spend money on branches, but they are dramatically changing their role to become centres for sale-oriented advice rather than service-oriented transactions, driven by the rapid growth of digital banking.
The IRS has announced new procedures, effective January 2015, limiting the number of tax refunds electronically deposited into a financial account or prepaid card account to three, in an effort to combat fraud and identity theft.
A Brazilian fraud ring has absconded with US$3.75 billion in two years using malware to penetrate Boleto payments from individual consumers and companies, and redirecting those payments to fraudulent accounts, according to a report by security solutions provider RSA Research Group.
The European Banking Authority is urging EU financial institutions to avoid buying, holding or selling digital currencies, like Bitcoin, until regulations for the decentralized currencies are in place.
Trading technology specialist Cinnober has big plans for BOAT, the trade reporting service it acquired from Markit on 1 July – including new asset classes, a new focus on banks and brokers, and a renewed push at data quality.
The EU has set a date for the introduction of MiFID II, the long-awaited legislation from the European Commission which was recently approved by the European Parliament. The decision follows years of consultation and negotiation, but serious reservations remain about how transparency will be applied to non-equity markets.
Visa and MasterCard may be able to dodge paying massive security deposits to continue operating in Russia, under new legislation that took effect July 1.
Payza announced this week that its online payment processing and eWallet services now are available to U.S. residents and businesses.
Paybefore Award-winning online voucher provider paysafecard.com Wertkarten AG has expanded this week into Peru and Uruguay, two Latin American countries the company says are ripe for prepaid online payments growth.
