The number of UK consumers who switched their current account during the last month increased by 11% compared to the same period last year, giving hope to the UK Payments Council that its new seven-day account switching service which launched on 16 September may be beginning to work.
Banco Itaú Suisse, the Swiss business of Latin American bank Itaú Unibanco, has chosen a private banking business system from software vendor ERI as part of a drive to make the Swiss unit a central hub for the Group’s European private banking business.
The average bank now typically views web portals such as Google as the biggest threat to its business, according to a new report by French retail banking association Efma and business IT firm Infosys. Yet banks also report rising levels of innovation within their firms.
Chattanooga, Tenn.-based prepaid processor and program manager TransCard announced that CEO Craig Fuller has been named CEO of the Year in the North America division by Finance Monthly.
Transaction Network Services has hired Lisa Shipley as head of global strategy for the Reston, Va.-based company’s payments division.
Telefónica Digital has hired Pilar Aurrecoechea as digital financial services director, reporting to Vivek Dev, CEO of digital services.
Ned Horsted has been awarded the U.S. Recruiting Network, South Dakota Top Producer for Q3 2013.
Austria-based paysafecard.com Wertkarten AG, provider of digital prepaid online payment solutions, has appointed Michael Pirker to the newly created position head of business development, and Michaela Unger has been appointed public relations and communication manager.
Mercator Advisory Group recently announced several company appointments.
Green Dot Corp. has named Grace Wang chief financial officer. She will report to CEO Steve Streit, and will assume her new role Nov. 18, 2013.
Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based financial services technology provider, has hired Matt Wilcox as managing director, marketing strategy and innovation, digital payments.
CO-OP Financial Services, a Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based credit union service organization, has named Lois Hansen vice president, product development.
CashStar Inc., a Portland, Maine-based provider of digital gifting technology and Paybefore Award-winner, recently announced that Ben Kaplan has been named president and CEO.
Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit institution founded last year to promote Bitcoin use, has elected Meyer (Micky) Malka and Elizabeth T. Ploshay to its board.
Program manager Access Prepaid Worldwide, a MasterCard company, has appointed Rajeev Kumar regional director and general manager for the Middle East and Africa.
MasterCard’s MasterPass digital wallet service will become available to thousands of e-commerce merchants across 17 countries in Europe and Asia beginning next month, through a partnership with Paris-based payments provider Worldline.
The global push toward NFC-based transit payments continues—this time in Rio de Janeiro, the site of a new pilot program enabling transit riders to tap mobile smartphones to pay on trains, buses and ferries.
U.K.-based e-loan provider Wonga Group has struck a deal to acquire German online payments provider BillPay. The deal, financial terms of which were not disclosed, will create what Wonga called “one of Europe’s leading digital finance and payment systems businesses.” In addition to its home country of Germany, BillPay also operates its PayPal-like service in […]
American Express cardholders traveling by taxi in New York City now are able to pay their fares using membership reward points. The technology enabling this payment method began rolling out today to the more than 7,000 VeriFone Systems in-taxi devices. When customers reach their destination and choose to pay with credit, they will be prompted […]
Payments processor and program manager TransCard will release a new prepaid travel card branded by Pan Am Brands, a division of Pan American World Airways. The card will feature the iconic name and logo of Pan Am, one of the largest international air carriers in the U.S. between 1927 and 1991. “We are excited to […]
Swift has completed network acceptance testing for its connectivity service for T2S, the EU project to reform Europe’s post-trade infrastructure.
The constantly changing tide of national, European and global regulatory change is making life difficult for Britain’s building societies and banks to keep pace, according to Mark Smith, head of ALM at Yorkshire Building Society.
Large retail banks sometimes find it hard to change because they have assimilated many smaller banks through acquisition, each of which is running on a payments engine that has different features and may be very old. That can make it difficult to offer new services, but there is a solution according to Paul Thomalla, head of EMEA at US-based payments and technology firm ACI Worldwide.
Geopolitical shifts and increasing protectionism among nations will mean that the universal banking model is no longer sustainable – and there is little that anyone can do, according to Bill Michael, EMA head of financial services at KPMG. “The future shape of banking is beyond the control of boards, individual regulators or countries alone,” Michael […]
The UK Payments Council’s seven-day account switching service has been attacked as a “complete waste of time” by participants at a panel discussion in London on Wednesday – an allegation that was vigorously denied by representatives of the Council and the UK retail banking sector.
Sell-side only block trading network Squawker has completed its pan-European rollout, connecting 70 sell-side firms to the new venue, which promises ‘algorithm-free’ trading in 13 European countries.
China’s giant retail payments operator Alibaba Group this week announced plans to expand its Alipay online payment service to Taiwan and simultaneously unveiled key upgrades to Alipay’s digital wallet, significantly increasing customers’ options for online and offline purchases.
Commuters in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area starting this week have a new way to pay for fares on buses, trains and streetcars serviced by the Utah Transit Authority. The UTA, in partnership with Atlanta-based InComm, have launched the FAREPAY card, a contactless, closed-loop card that can be loaded with funds from $5 to […]
U.S.-based digital currency exchange Kraken is set to be released into Europe. San Francisco’s Payward—the company behind Kraken, which exited beta last month—has inked a deal with Fidor Bank, a German financial services provider that combines traditional banking with Internet-based payments. Under terms of the deal, Kraken will become Fidor’s “exclusive digital currency trading platform” […]
Western Union is set to launch a new reloadable prepaid card in Italy in partnership with Lottomatica, a gaming technology solutions company that provides payment, reload and e-money services. The deal brings Western Union’s Paybefore Award-winning MyWU Prepaid Card to Italy, where it is targeted to serve more than 4 million migrant workers who can […]
Spanish operator group Telefónica has teamed with local bank CaixaBank to set up a company offering consumer financing for mobile handsets and devices.
Square Inc. is wading into the crowded U.S. P2P field this week with Square Cash, taking a somewhat unique debit card-based approach versus competitors by enabling Visa and MasterCard debit cardholders to send funds to each other free of charge via email.
Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), a London-based provider of global prepaid solutions, announced that its cardholders throughout Europe now can load their prepaid cards using the Ukash e-money service. Ukash codes can be purchased with cash from thousands of retail outlets, and the 19-digit code can be used to transfer funds by logging into the cardholder’s […]
With the Isis digital wallet set to launch nationwide later this year, the companies behind the wallet are hoping a special launch promotion will sweeten the proposition for consumer adoption.
Joint Electronic Teller Services Limited (JETCO), along with its 30 member banks, announced plans to build a mobile payment platform that uses NFC technology.
A system disruption last weekend enabled public assistance recipients in 17 states to make purchases using Electronic Benefits Transfer cards with no spending limits. Xerox, one of three companies that operate the payment system for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), said a routine test of a backup generator on Saturday caused the company’s EBT […]
The public is ready to adopt mobile payments in many aspects of their lives, but service providers need to have a defined role in the ecosystem and an understanding of how they interact with other players and the consumer.
Polish IT specialist Comarch has launched a mobile business banking solution aimed at banks that want to give corporates, SMEs and micro business customers a mobile offering.
In the latest setback to the Bitcoin craze, Dwolla announced it will phase out all Bitcoin-related operations by the end of this month, citing “uncertainty and confusion” around the virtual currency. Bitcoin accounted for only 0.1 percent of its merchants, according to Dwolla, which specializes in P2P transactions. The move comes on the heels of […]
Oct. 15, 2013 Several companies in the prepaid and emerging payments industry recently have received investor funding, including CardFlight, Carta Solutions Holding Corp., Gyft Inc., Leaf and Tabbedout. CardFlight, a New York-based firm that enables developers to integrate in-person card payments into their own apps, has raised $1.6 million in seed-round funding, led by New […]
