Financial crime: compliance and failure
Banks worldwide have been struggling in the battle against financial crime. Recent high-profile examples demonstrate that the rate of anti-money laundering compliance enforcement is continuing to rise.
Worldwide
Flat outlook for salaries in financial services
Salaries for staff in London’s financial services sector are expected to remain flat, particularly among contract and temporary staff, according to the annual survey carried out by Morgan McKinley – but nearly a third of staff expect pay rises of 10%.
Squawker prepares for March debut with SIX Financial Information
Squawker, the start-up block trading venue headed by Christopher Gregory, has moved one step closer to its goal of providing a pan-European mid-point matching service for banks and brokers, following a deal between it and Switzerland’s SIX Financial Information this week.
Citi Launches Card Reader in India for Mobile Merchants (Jan. 21, 2013)
Jan. 21, 2013 As the U.S. and Western European markets for mobile card readers grow ever-more crowded, Citigroup is aiming to take a leadership position in mobile merchant acceptance in India. The bank this week announced what it describes as India’s first nationally distributed dongle, enabling merchants to accept credit and debit cards with a […]
WorldPay, Discover Expand Partnership for In-Store Payments (Jan. 21, 2013)
Jan. 21, 2013 Payment acquirer WorldPay US has struck a deal with Discover Financial Services that will enable WorldPay’s customers to accept PayPal in-store payments beginning this spring. Discover and PayPal announced an agreement last August under which PayPal account holders will be able to make payments at brick-and-mortar stores that accept Discover, using a […]
RBS to Leverage MasterCard’s Conferma Partnership for Corporate Travel Card Services (Jan. 21, 2013)
Jan. 21, 2013 Edinburgh-based RBS Group and MasterCard Worldwide today announced that RBS will be the first bank enabling its global commercial card customers to integrate MasterCard’s inControl platform with U.K.-based Conferma, which provides corporate travel booking and related services for companies around the world. The service grew out of a partnership MasterCard formed in […]
BillFloat, payleven Land Nearly $30 Million in Funding (Jan. 21, 2013)
Jan. 21, 2013 A pair of payment startups have received cash infusions from investors totaling nearly $30 million. San Francisco-based BillFloat, which provides small-dollar loans to customers for electronic bill payments, landed $21 million from Investor Growth Capital (IGC), with participation from Bronze Investments and previous BillFoat investors Venrock, FirstRound Capital and Baseline Ventures. As […]
Fed’s Triennial Payments Study Will Include Fraud Info for First Time (Jan. 21, 2013)
Jan. 21, 2013 The Federal Reserve’s Retail Payments Office (RPO) last week announced it will be conducting its triennial study to determine the current volume and composition of electronic and check payments in the United States, with new attention on fraud metrics. “While the Federal Reserve’s 2013 Payments Study will continue to build upon trend […]
Clearstream allies with Belgium’s Belfius
German central securities depository Clearstream has partnered with Belgian bank and insurance firm Belfius, to develop a new collateral service for bilateral trades, focusing on OTC derivatives and aimed at corporates and medium-sized banks.
ID theft drives fraud to new levels in UK
Identity theft soared during 2012, accounting for half of all financial fraud in the UK. This drove the level of account takeover frauds up by 53% during the year, according to CIFAS, the UK Fraud Prevention Service.
Nasdaq OMX expands and regroups technology business
Nasdaq OMX is to combine its market technology and corporate solutions businesses, in a move that it says will help the firm provide more transparency to customers and a stronger business proposition.
Headcount cull claims investment bankers
As job cuts continue to bite at some of the world’s largest banks and financial institutions, new figures from Bloomberg Industries reveal the scale of the cull driven by lacklustre macroeconomic performance in Europe, a declining stock market and tightening financial regulation.
Acleda Bank fuels Cambodian expansion with Temenos tools
Cambodia’s Acleda Bank has embarked on a massive programme of expansion in a bid to reach unbanked customers in the country, drawing on core banking technology provided by Swiss banking software company Temenos.
Swift’s Innotribe Challenge 2013 opens for entries
Swift has opened its Innotribe Startup Challenge 2013 for entries. The year-round competition is intended to introduce financial industry decision makers and early-stage investors to the “innovations and emerging companies that are poised to transform the industry”.
International clearers form ‘Liquidity Alliance’
An alliance between central securities depositories in Germany, Spain, Brazil, South Africa and Australia aims to tackle the expected global shortfall in collateral arising from tough new financial regulation.
Trendy techs top CIO priority lists for 2013 says Gartner study
Faced with flatlining IT budgets, global CIOs must better exploit the business potential of technology to achieve results – currently they realise only 43% of that potential says Gartner. Top of the priority list is what the research firm calls ‘digital technologies’. In this it includes mobile, analytics, Big Data, social media networking and cloud, […]
Fightin’ talk: the regulatory backlash begins …
Far from coming out of a post-crisis period of grieving and re-learning how to engage with the wider world, the financial services industry looks like it is returning to its old belligerent self.
VocaLink boosts strategy and business development with new trio
VocaLink, the international payment provider, has made three senior appointments in its strategy & business development division. Nick Millar joins as strategy and customer insight director, Jim Wadsworth as product development director and Phil Harrison as commercial director, alternative payments.
Settlement Reached in Florida AG Prepaid Investigation (Jan. 17, 2013)
Jan. 17, 2013 A group of prepaid card providers has reached a settlement in a Florida investigation over fee disclosures and what the state’s Attorney General said were misleading claims regarding credit. The investigation was launched in early 2009 into business practices of AccountNow, First Data, Green Dot, NetSpend and UniRush Financial Services, all of […]
Visa Joins Five Indian Banks and TSYS for Saral Money Launch (Jan. 17, 2013)
Jan. 17, 2013 Saral Money, a project India’s government launched in late 2012 to gradually extend basic financial services to India’s 400 million unbanked consumers, is gaining momentum through the participation of Visa Inc., five major Indian banks and payments processor TSYS, which is providing biometric technology to authenticate users who sign up for the […]
U.K. Mobile Payments System Set to Launch Next Year (Jan. 17, 2013)
Jan. 17, 2012 An industry-wide mobile payments service set to launch next year in the U.K. will enable users to send mobile payments using just their phone numbers and a password. Eight of the nation’s major banks, including Barclays, HSBC and RBS, have signed on to the program, which is being guided by the U.K. […]
Social Money’s SmartyPig Adds ‘OneClick’ Service to Purchase-Planning Tool (Jan. 17, 2013)
Jan. 17, 2013 Social Money Services is enhancing its SmartyPig tools enabling consumers to save for specific purchases with SmartyPig OneClick, which links to specific items on a consumer’s wish list from any e-commerce Website. Participants who set up a SmartyPig account can click on images of items they want to buy without leaving that […]
Earnings Roundup: eBay, U.S. Bancorp, JPMorgan Chase (Jan. 17, 2013)
Jan. 17, 2013 PayPal parent company eBay, JP Morgan Chase and U.S. Bancorp recently released fourth-quarter financial results. eBay Inc. reported net revenue of $4 billion for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2012, a 17.6 percent increase compared with $3.4 billion during the same period a year earlier. The San Jose, Calif.-based company also […]
Banks boost ICAP’s Traiana with $36 million investment
Interdealer broker ICAP has raised $36 million through the sale of a 12% stake in its Traiana post-trade processing and risk management business to a consortium of banks – Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Nomura, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Payments Council pushes mobile payments back another year
The UK Payments Council has announced that the introduction of its planned Mobile Payments Service has been pushed back until “spring 2014” – a year after its previously expected introduction, and two years after Barclays broke from the rest of the UK banks and launched its Pingit service. The delay comes despite commitments from financial […]
Defaqto hires Patrick Gale as non-exec chairman
Financial research company Defaqto has appointed Patrick Gale as its new non-executive chairman. Gale replaces Rupert Pennant-Rea, who served as chairman for six years.
Prepaid Regulation Could Have Adverse Effects, Says Study (Jan. 15, 2013)
Jan. 15, 2013 Competition in the network branded prepaid card market has led to lower costs and better functionality for card users, says a new working paper from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The well-functioning market, combined with a lack of evidence that consumers are making errors when choosing a prepaid card, means […]
NCR Adds PayPal to Mobile Payment Menu for Restaurants, Retailers (Jan. 15, 2013)
Jan. 15, 2013 NCR Corp., eager to expand use of its mobile apps for restaurants and retailers, this week announced an agreement with PayPal Inc. designed to make it easier for consumers to manage their bills and pay for food using their smartphones when dining out. Duluth, Ga.-based NCR plans to integrate PayPal alongside credit […]
MasterCard Continues Africa Push with Equity Bank Partnership (Jan. 15, 2013)
Jan. 15, 2013 MasterCard has inked a deal with Kenya’s Equity Bank to issue new debit and prepaid cards over the next 18 months. The 5 million new cards will be equipped with PayPass contactless technology and EMV chips, and are set to roll out initially in Kenya, followed by Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and South […]
TransCard Buys HQ Gift Cards, Expanding Reach to Malls and Casinos (Jan. 15, 2013)
Jan. 15, 2013 Chattanooga, Tenn.-based processor and program manager TransCard this week said it has acquired HQ Gift Cards, the nation’s largest program manager of mall-based prepaid and gift cards, as part of a broader expansion push. Gardena, Calif.-based HQ, founded in 2000 and acquired in 2006 by Ceridian Stored Value Solutions, manages gift and […]
Managing PEX Cards Goes Mobile (Jan. 15, 2013)
Jan. 15, 2013 PEX Card, a New York City-based provider of the Visa-branded PEX Card prepaid expense-management card for small and midsize businesses, has launched PEX Mobile, a suite of iOS and Android applications enabling PEX Card administrators to perform day-to-day cash management and expense control functions using a smartphone. “PEX Card administrators often play […]
Savvis Deal Strengthens Mozido’s Cloud Infrastructure, Hosted IT Offerings (Jan. 15, 2013)
Jan. 15, 2013 Mozido LLC, an Austin, Texas-based startup providing cloud-based, white-label mobile payments services for banks and merchants, has signed a multiyear deal for access to the cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions of Savvis, a subsidiary of telecom CenturyLink. “By leveraging Savvis’ leading cloud and hosting infrastructure, we will enable customers in the […]
The irresistible rise of digital banking
The banking industry, integral to our commercial and personal lives, has always evolved with the times to embrace new challenges and consumer attitudes. Technology plays an obvious and increasingly important role in this evolution.
Boots on the Ground (January 2013)
January 2013 Experts on five markets—Brazil, France, Italy, Middle East and Russia—discuss how prepaid is developing where they’re doing business, as providers and consultants. By Loraine DeBonis, Editor-in-Chief Paybefore: How widely has prepaid been adopted in Brazil beyond the meal voucher market? Neissan Monadjem: The food voucher programs along with the mobile prepaid “card” vertical represent 80 […]
Social media trading goes live on DCM
Online trading service DCM Capital has released a trading platform with a social media sentiment feed, allowing traders to incorporate information from channels such as twitter and Facebook into their trading decisions.
Vienna bourse debuts high-speed data
Vienna Stock Exchange has started a new low-latency market data service that it says will provide better, faster market data for investors interested in trading Vienna, Prague and Ljubljana.
Misys markets “competitive advantages” for trade finance
Banking software provider Misys has incorporated global processing into its trade finance solution, TI Plus, in a move that the firm says will help banks gain a competitive advantage through improved customer service and reduced costs.
Viewpoint: Consolidation and Asset Extension
By Lee Britton, Prepaid Financial Services One of the great things about getting old is hearing new phrases defining old concepts. Chances are, by the time 2013 has been and gone, you’ll have come across the above phrase, specifically around payments or technology. But first, it’s important to recognize two apparently irreconcilable differences: What someone […]
MCX Will Start with Cloud/Barcode (Jan. 14, 2013)
Jan. 14, 2013 MCX executives and member merchants revealed a few more details about their plans for mobile payments during a panel at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & EXPO in New York City today, including that its initial mobile payments solution will be primarily barcode- and cloud-based. The coalition of merchants, which announced formation […]
Medagate Rolls Out ‘Dual-Network’ Healthcare Card (Jan. 14, 2013)
Jan. 14, 2013 Restricted-spend healthcare payment provider Medagate, a wholly owned subsidiary of InComm, has announced the launch of what the company calls the first dual-network healthcare spending card. The MasterCard-branded Dual Value Health Card enables employers and health plans to offer members a healthcare funding account, such as a health savings account (HSA) or […]
