European Central Bank seeks comment on mobile security proposals
A draft set of 14 recommendations to promote the security of mobile payments has been published by the European Central Bank for public consultation.
Mobile
Moving Money: the ATM makers’ view of the future
With the rise in mobile payments and wallets, cash is dead and so is the ATM business, right? Not according to the ATM manufacturers, who are all being remarkably sanguine.
Who Needs NFC? Google Wallet Adds Plastic Payment Card (Nov. 21, 2013)
Google Wallet is giving users a way to pay the old fashioned way, unveiling a plastic payment card that can be used instead of a smartphone to make in-store purchases.
FIS: making a mark in mobile
Financial software giant FIS is sitting in the middle of the move to mobile, with its customers serving 21 million users. Doug Brown, senior vice president, e-banking, says that’s just the beginning.
PayPal Hits the Road with Uber Deal (Nov. 19, 2013)
Add car rides to the ever-growing list of things that can be purchased with PayPal, now that the popular Uber service has begun accepting fares via the payments giant.
Isis Goes Live (Nov. 14, 2013)
Three years after its initial unveiling, the Isis digital wallet has finally rolled out nationwide but Isis faces numerous competitors and a lingering uncertainty over NFC payments.
InComm’s Mobile-Optimized Shopping Cart Boosts Gift Card Sales (Nov. 12, 2013)
Prepaid product and transaction services provider InComm is giving retailers a new way to offer gift cards to their customers via mobile device.
Telecom Italia, Visa Europe Offer Mobile Wallet to 31 Million Consumers (Nov. 12, 2013)
An agreement announced today between Telecom Italia and Visa Europe will bring mobile payments capabilities to more than 31 million Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) customers throughout Italy, enabling them to make contactless payments using certain NFC-equipped smartphones at POS terminals across Europe.
Square Scraps Monthly Pricing Option; Pogo> Hits Hong Kong (Nov. 12, 2013)
Merchants using Square for payment card transactions no longer will have the option of paying a flat monthly rate to process payments, effective Feb. 1, 2014.
Prepaid Key to NFC Rollout in France (Nov. 11, 2013)
Mobile network operator Orange is teaming with Visa Europe in a strategic partnership to roll out its Orange Cash NFC-based mobile payments in France in the latest example of a prepaid card-based approach to contactless payment.
Is Square Going Public in 2014? (Nov. 7, 2013)
San Francisco-based Square Inc.—one of many m-POS device providers, but the company with arguably the greatest name recognition—created buzz this week after a report that Square CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey might take the company public.
Two New Products to Enter Canadian Wallet Arena (Nov. 7, 2013)
Canada seems poised to become the next battleground in the mobile wallet wars with a pair of new wallets joining the fray—one from a telecom provider, and the other from a team of banks.
Blog: The $800MM Braintree Acquisition and PayPal’s Pursuit of the Emerging Digital Marketplace (November 2013)
PayPal’s pending acquisition of Braintree will broaden its scope of innovative digital commerce solutions, support its developer platform overhaul and bring P2P competitor Venmo into the fold.
Skrill goes global with mobile
Mobile payments company Skrill has launched a mobile app that it says can send money to anyone, anywhere in the world at any time. The app has several uses, including cross-border remittance payments to various countries in eastern Europe and around the world.
Mobile, Big Data and Credit Steal Show in Vegas (November 2013)
Las Vegas hosted the 21st Annual ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum last month, where industry stakeholders were abuzz about monetizing mobile and big data and, surprisingly, credit.
Bank branch “not dead” says report – but banks must be more mobile
Mobile banking may be on the rise around the world but the bank branch is not dead, according to new research by IT firm GFT Technologies.
Blackboard Tests NFC Phone-based Payments at Two Campuses (Nov. 5, 2013)
Could college campuses serve as labs for U.S. NFC payment adoption? The answer may depend on the results of pilots launched last month at two midsize universities.
m-POS Options Bubbling with Square-Staples Promo, Sprint-Vantiv Venture (Nov. 5, 2013)
Square Inc. is turning up the heat in the m-POS race with a major promotion with Staples to drive sales of its Square Stand POS solution to smaller brick-and-mortar merchants.
Citibank-Backed Mobile Wallet Launches in Hong Kong (Nov. 4, 2013)
Citibank Hong Kong and 3 Hong Kong, the mobile operation of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Ltd., have launched 3 Citi Wallet for mobile subscribers of 3 Hong Kong and Citibank Visa cardholders.
Google Wallet Pulls End-Run Around Telecoms (Nov. 4, 2013)
Google’s latest Android mobile operating system includes a new feature that could enable Google Wallet to cut out telecom providers as middlemen for NFC applications.
Starbucks Chief Exits Square’s Board; Coffee Giant Tests Digital Gratuity Feature (Oct. 31, 2013)
Starbucks, arguably the largest mobile payments operator in the world with its wildly popular closed-loop mobile app, grabbed attention late Wednesday with news that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has resigned from Square Inc.’s board after 15 months.
Mobile Payments Startup Loop Goes to School (Oct. 31, 2013)
Mobile POS payment startup LoopPay Inc. is getting out of the gate fast, inking a deal to distribute its dongle-based mobile wallet to college students through marketing and payments provider Campus Nation Network (CNN).
Report: Mobile Bill Pay Has $2.1 Trillion in Potential (Oct. 31, 2013)
More than 12.5 million Americans already are taking advantage of mobile bill payments, but the untapped potential of the market could be worth $2.1 trillion, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. That’s the total amount Javelin estimates Americans spend annually on seven essential bill types: open-loop credit cards, store-branded credit cards, […]
Global mobile money transfer to top $10 billion in 2013
The value of international money transfers made via mobile phones will exceed $10bn for the first time this year, according to Juniper Research. However, the cost and complexity of regulating cash transfer has led many service providers to focus exclusively on airtime top ups, the research firm reported.
Docomo Continues NFC Push with Global PayPass Deal (Oct. 29, 2013)
Japanese mobile telecom provider NTT Docomo is partnering with MasterCard to enable users of Docomo’s iD mobile wallet to make contactless purchases at 1.2 million MasterCard PayPass acceptance locations worldwide.
U.S. Bank to Roll Out Mobile Balance Transfer, Corporate Travel Tool (Oct. 29, 2013)
U.S. Bank next month will roll out Mobile Photo Balance Transfer, a feature from Mitek Systems enabling customers to apply for a credit card balance transfer by snapping a photo of a credit card bill with a smartphone and sending it to the bank. Standard credit card approval processes apply. The new service rounds out […]
First Bitcoin ATM to Go Live; South African Bitcoin Exchange Acquired (Oct. 28, 2013)
A coffee shop in Vancouver, British Columbia, will be home this week to what some are hailing as the world’s first Bitcoin ATM, which can exchange cash for the controversial digital currency.
Ingo Money’s MDC Service with Visa Prepaid Goes Live (Oct. 24, 2013)
Oct. 24, 2013 Mobile deposit capture took a big step toward mainstream adoption in the prepaid industry with the announcement this week that Ingo Money Inc.’s mobile deposit capture pilot with Visa, which began last year, is officially out of beta. Ingo Money’s service enables consumers to deposit checks into their Visa Prepaid card accounts by […]
Next Stop, Contactless (October 2013)
Amid big transit rollouts in Chicago and Salt Lake City, Las Vegas is getting in on the action with a new pilot program enabling transit riders to pay bus fares with a tap.
Money2020 Packs Punch with Big Numbers, Startups and Product Demos (October 2013)
Money2020 highlighted financial services technology innovation, as the biggest names from major payment companies, startups and investors convened to glimpse the future of payments.
FEXCO Acquires Mobile Payments Startup FLASHiZ (Oct. 22, 2013)
FEXCO, a provider of financial transaction processing, foreign exchange and outsourcing services based in Ireland, has acquired mobile payments and loyalty startup FLASHiZ, with BNP Paribas Personal Finance taking a minority shareholder stake in the Luxembourg-based company.
MasterCard Inks Broad MasterPass Distribution Deal with Worldline (Oct. 21, 2013)
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.
Rio Latest City to Get NFC Transit Pilot (Oct. 21, 2013)
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.
China’s Alipay Reboots Digital Wallet, Heads to Taiwan (Oct. 17, 2013)
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.
Blog: Money2020 Opens Door to Payments’ Future (October 2013)
The second annual Money2020 in Las Vegas earlier this month had a vibe unlike payment conferences of the past, and not just because of the acrobats roaming around during networking sessions.
Blog: Mobile App Permissions: Scaring Users and Haunting Developers?
Please let me use your camera. Do you mind if I browse through your contacts so I know all your family and friends, and can call or text each at my discretion? To the uninitiated, these eerie questions read like a disturbed love note from a stalker. But these are common permissions requests for many mobile apps. Could they scare off users?
‘Square Cash’ Joins Crowded P2P Field (Oct. 16, 2013)
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.
Jamba Juice to Sweeten Deal for Isis Adoption (Oct. 16, 2013)
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.
Hong Kong’s JETCO to Build M-Payment Platform Using NFC (Oct. 16, 2013)
Joint Electronic Teller Services Limited (JETCO), along with its 30 member banks, announced plans to build a mobile payment platform that uses NFC technology.
Kenyan Regulators’ Call for Interoperability Could End M-Pesa Dominance (Oct. 15, 2013)
Proposed new regulations from Kenya’s central bank could force leading telecom provider Safaricom to open its M-Pesa electronic money transfer service to other providers, possibly bringing an end to the company’s dominance of the Kenyan e-money market.
