Sandra Braunstein, director of the division of consumer and community affairs, will retire April 1, 2014, after nearly 27 years with the Federal Reserve Board, including 10 years as the director of the division.
Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based financial services technology provider, recently announced that Mobiliti from Fiserv received the highest score for a customizable solution in the Javelin Strategy & Research 2013-2014 Mobile Banking Vendor Scorecard.
Mozido LLC, a startup that focuses on cloud-based, white-label mobile payments services for banks and merchants, announced that Ric Duques has been named the company’s chairman of the board.
The NFC Forum, a nonprofit industry association that advances the use of near field communication technology, has announced two newly elected vice chairmen of its board of directors, Trevor Pavey of Broadcom Corp., and Alexander Rensink of NXP Semiconductors.
National Gift Card Corp.—an Elgin, Ill.-based marketer and supplier of gift cards for use in loyalty, incentive and rewards programs—has named Lizz Wheeler vice president of business development.
Law firm Stinson Leonard Street LLP officially launched, completing a merger between Stinson Morrison Hecker and Leonard, Street and Deinard that was initially announced Sept. 23, 2013.
TSYS, a Columbus, Ga.-based processor, has been recognized as one of America’s most community-minded companies in The Civic 50, an annual initiative that identifies and recognizes companies for their commitment to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business.
WEX Inc., a provider of corporate payment solutions, has named Melissa D. Smith CEO.
Starbucks Corp. is introducing its gift cards in China, the company announced today, as it begins a significant expansion of its stores in the burgeoning gift card market.
The National Retail Federation formally has appealed a $5.7 billion settlement with MasterCard and Visa over credit card interchange fees, opening the next phase of a long-running legal dispute between merchants and the payment card networks.
Several of India’s largest Bitcoin exchanges have shuttered after the country’s central bank issued a statement last week warning of the risks of virtual currencies.
As the fallout continues from a data breach at Target retail stores that may have exposed millions of shoppers’ financial information, politicians and business groups are lobbying lawmakers to investigate the matter and crack down on security weaknesses that could lead to similar incidents.
Could 2014 bring a wave of m-POS consolidation? That trend springs to mind as details emerge about the sale of m-POS startup GoPago, a rising star launched in 2009 that secured a $25 million investment from JPMorgan Chase & Co. less than a year ago.
The European Central Bank has created a new board, replacing the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Council, the ECB says will encourage development of an “integrated, innovative and competitive market” for retail payments in euro currency in the European Union.
Now that you’re back in the office and once again glued to your computer screen, you’ll continue receiving the industry news, insights and analysis you’ve come to expect from Paybefore. But it won’t exactly be business as usual for Paybefore this year.
Most folks this week are concentrating on tracking down last-second gifts or holiday dinner menu items. Not U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). He is, again, looking to “rein in hidden fees and strengthen financial protections offered by prepaid card companies” with new legislation announced today.
PayPal’s acquisition this week of StackMob, which provides a mobile payments development platform, is the latest in a series of deals bringing in top talent and new technology to enhance payment options PayPal offers to its diverse array of customers.
Gift cards are a hot item on millennials’ wishlists this year.
Reinforcing Bitcoin’s reputation for volatility, the value of the digital currency nosedived more than 35 percent Wednesday following word that BTC China, one of the country’s largest Bitcoin exchanges, was forced to stop accepting deposits in the Chinese currency renminbi.
A breach of data that may have exposed the financial information of 40 million shoppers at Target stores highlights the urgency of bolstering payment card security measures and adopting EMV chip technology, according to industry observers.
MasterCard has teamed up with mobile payment solutions provider eServGlobal and Belgacom’s carrier services unit BICS to extend the capabilities of their international mobile remittance platform HomeSend. The three firms have set up a joint venture which uses the HomeSend platform, in which MasterCard will have a controlling share.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has signed a multi-year agreement with Earthport to “significantly expand Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s low value clearing capabilities globally, and to advance the efficiency of its high volume, low value payments”.
2014 looks to be a good year for fraudsters as government and law enforcement struggle to come to terms with the issues and the continuing spread of mobile continues to offer them poorly-protected targets.
To attract the key millennial demographic, banks must look to prepaid and mobile.
Of any industry, the financial services sector might be the most contradictory when it comes to loyalty program effectiveness.
In a recent press release, the CFPB called on financial institutions to “voluntarily” disclose to the public its financial product marketing agreements made with colleges and universities.
As we approach year-end, the Canadian federal government has introduced three items of significance to federally regulated financial institutions (FRFIs).
With regulators agreeing that “higher expectations” must be met by G-SIFIs for risk data aggregation and reporting by 2016, firms are now under huge pressure to provide data strategies and implementation plans and end denial about any shortcomings.
Electronic gifting provider Loop Commerce has landed funding from PayPal Inc., with the payment giant making a Series A investment in the San Francisco-based startup.
Blackhawk Network has inked a deal with Coinstar that will give consumers the option of receiving Blackhawk e-gifts in return for change cashed in at Coinstar’s coin-counting kiosks.
Amazon may have purchased San Francisco-based GoPago Inc., a mobile payment startup whose technology enables merchants to process card payments so consumers can order and pay ahead with a smartphone, skipping lines at the checkout, according reports from several media outlets.
La Caixa, the Barcelona, Spain-based financial institution, has announced the launch of an NFC-based mobile payments service in partnership with Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange and Visa Europe.
Bank of America is working with Facebook’s Open Compute project on a radical revamp of its systems. David Reilly, head of its Technology Infrastructure unit, tells Banking Technology why Software Defined.Infrastructures are the way ahead.
The International Organisation of Securities Commissions has set out its final recommendations on the integrity and efficiency of markets, calling for regulators to think deeply about the effects of their regulation and keep monitoring the markets regularly to ensure that changes are taken into account.
A years-long court battle over interchange fees has reached another milestone, but appears to be far from settled.
Blackhawk Network Inc., a global prepaid payment network, last Friday announced its first commercial agreement in Africa, which will enable it to offer iTunes Gift Cards in South Africa through a partnership with Johannesburg-based distributor Opengate, a subsidiary of Value+Nettwork.
Vodafone Germany last Friday began its German launch of a mobile wallet with the integrated Vodafone SmartPass Visa payment application.
One month after going live throughout the U.S., the Isis mobile wallet has added Wells Fargo to its roster of bank partners, enabling holders of the bank’s Visa consumer credit cards to load their cards onto the NFC-based wallet.
The technology that banks offer clients can be thought of as a true gift, enabling improvements that can reduce risk, increase efficiency and ultimately put firms on a surer footing. And it is the most advanced and newest platforms which grab everyone’s attention.
Moving to improve and clarify payroll card industry practices, MasterCard today released new standards requiring all employers and payroll card providers involved in offering MasterCard-branded payroll cards to meet specific protocols for consumer choice and transparency
