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.
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.
It’s unclear whether the prepaid industry will have the CFPB’s proposed rules for GPR cards by Dec. 31, or if the wait will extend into 2014.
Olympic boxer José Carlos Ramirez is lending his name and image to a new prepaid card from Global Payout Inc. The JC Ramirez Prepaid Discover Card has no minimum balance fees and offers instant account alerts via text message or email as well as a special security feature that enables a cardholder to turn the […]
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.
Bitcoin has been making news on a regular basis recently as lawmakers and businesses around the globe deal with the virtual currency’s rapid rise. The past few days have added to the frenzy with a flurry of developments that could help shape Bitcoin’s future. Late last week, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) indicated it could […]
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.
Payroll card industry participants should brace for more potential negative news as lawmakers and plaintiffs’ attorneys around the U.S. continue fishing for outlier examples of payroll card abuse, observers say. The industry’s antennae shot up earlier this week when Pennsylvania lawmakers followed through on an earlier promise and proposed legislation to ban payroll cards. Separately, […]
U.S. Bank, lead bank of U.S. Bancorp and one of the first big banks to roll out a prepaid GPR card, this week has launched the Visa-branded U.S. Bank Contour Card. “General purpose reloadable cards appeal to a broad demographic, from customers who have bank accounts and want to segregate certain types of spending to […]
The U.S. travel industry has a new inroad into the world’s top-spending travel market, now that UATP—a travel payment network owned by a consortium of airlines—is working with Chinese cross-border payment provider Alipay. The pact enables American airlines, hotels and other travel businesses to connect to the more than 800 million Chinese account holders on […]
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.
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.
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.
Issuers or program managers that focus marketing efforts on the savings that can be achieved through HSAs could increase account take-up and improve the profitability for those accounts at the same time.
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.
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.
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.
Borrowers of short-term and payday loans use up to an average of 36 percent of their periodic wages to pay back those loans—far more than they typically can afford, according to a new report from The Pew Charitable Trusts, which calls on regulators to make such loans safer and more transparent. “Payday Lending in America: […]
Mobile payments are spreading fast in Brazil, with nearly half of the country’s consumers having made a purchase on a tablet device between May and June 2013, while almost 30 percent did so via a mobile phone, according to a new study. The research, conducted by Mobi.life on behalf of Brazilian mobile payments company Pagtel, […]
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) late last week issued a fact sheet on Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act, offering guidance to help financial institutions understand permissible use of information sharing related to AML and counter-terrorist financing efforts. The fact sheet highlights the benefits of sharing information, which organizations are eligible to participate […]
The high double-digit growth numbers in prepaid fall to single digits as the industry faces regulatory uncertainty and a sluggish economic recovery.
Just over a year since launching the Bluebird prepaid card with American Express, retail giant Walmart is expanding its suite of prepaid products, adding six new cards to its Paybefore Award-winning line of GPR cards—all issued by Green Dot Corp.’s Green Dot Bank. Four of the new cards will be under Walmart’s own MoneyCard brand. The […]
Payroll cards are coming under fire again, after lawmakers in Pennsylvania last week proposed a ban on all payroll cards and a new lawsuit filed in federal court in California alleges payroll card abuses by a major U.S. apparel maker. The moves suggest more challenges ahead for payroll card companies, which came under attack earlier […]
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’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.
Jon Sarvis has been named CEO of TMG Financial Services (TMGFS), a Des Moines, Iowa-based payments solutions provider.
ProPay, a merchant services provider and TSYS company, recently was recognized as the top online payment service by merchants participating in the EcommerceBytes awards survey.
Payveris, a Wethersfield, Conn.-based online and mobile payments company, has expanded its executive leadership team with the addition of industry veterans Rich Pelikan and Mickey Goldwasser.
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.
Growth of the open- and closed-loop prepaid card markets will be slower than previous years as the industry weathers a stubbornly sluggish economy and regulatory uncertainty, according to Mercator Advisory Group. Total loads on open-loop cards, which include GPR, payroll, open-loop gift and unemployment benefits, will drop from a previously forecasted 21 percent compound annual […]
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).
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, […]
Clear and effective legislation could result in a beneficial change for business. An unclear and ineffective one would result in another obstacle to a “further integrated and efficient European payments market,” which the commission has set as the first objective the Payments Package should achieve.
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.
First Data Corp., an Atlanta-based payments processor, has acquired Perka, provider of a mobile marketing and consumer loyalty platform enabling small to midsize merchants to better engage with customers through location-based smartphone apps. Perka will continue to operate autonomously as an entrepreneurial company led by its current management and product development team, according to an […]
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 […]
Workers are highly motivated by rewards and inventive programs provided by their employers, with nearly three-quarters of employees saying they would put in extra effort to earn rewards, according to a new study from U.K. payment provider Ixaris. The company’s 2013 Study of Rewards and Incentives polled 4,800 workers in the U.S., U.S., Canada, France […]
Cloud computing company SAP has signed a deal with Citibank for a major new cloud platform that promises to simplify corporate to bank connectivity for some of the world’s largest banks, Banking Technology has learned.
PayPal on Oct. 25 announced a new partnership with Kenya’s Equity Bank to link local merchants with the global online marketplace. Kenya’s e-commerce operators for the first time will be able to hold proceeds from online sales in a local bank account where they may receive payments in 26 different currencies, which are automatically converted […]
Two House Democrats have proposed measures to crack down on money laundering by deterring the use of shell corporations and giving regulators the authority to hold bank executives accountable for misconduct taking place on their watch. The first bill, proposed by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), would strengthen the government’s ability to charge individuals with violations […]
