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 […]
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 […]
While digital payments have become commonplace for paying bills and making purchases, person-to-person payments still have much unlocked potential for electronic payment providers, according to a new report from financial services technology provider Fiserv. In its 2013 “How Americans Pay Each Other” survey, the Brookfield, Wisc.-based company polled 2,533 Americans on how they made payments. […]
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.
Citi has expanded its electronic bank account management service to 55 countries, in a move that the bank says will help corporate treasurers to better manage risk. The bank also expanded its cross-border WorldLink payment service into new emerging markets.
Google Wallet’s latest makeover—a revised mobile app pushing merchant offers through more channels that’s available now for the first time to Apple Inc.’s iPhone users—means millions more consumers may give it a try.
New head of prepaid speaks on his multifaceted career, his view on prepaid and why living in the Bay Area gives him a unique perspective on payments.
This week in Las Vegas more than 4,500 attendees gathered for the second annual Money2020 conference. Companies across the payments value chain took the opportunity to showcase their latest partnerships, technology or programs with a deluge of announcements charting the future of money.
PayPal added another key piece to its POS strategy this week with the introduction of Payment Code, a QR code-based approach enabling consumers to pay by scanning the PayPal mobile app at checkout.
Turkey’s large unbanked population, relatively industry-friendly regulatory environment and growing popularity of payment cards, including prepaid and contactless, has made it an attractive and expanding market.
Prepaid processor i2c Inc. has been chosen to provide processing services for The Approved Card from Suze Orman MasterCard. Redwood City, Calif.-based i2c will bolster the card with new features, including an integrated communications engine that responds in real-time to cardholders’ behavior with personalized messages to help them better manage their finances. “Of the platforms […]
Online retail titan Amazon is making a major foray into electronic payments, unveiling a new service that enables e-commerce merchants to let customers pay with the cards saved in their Amazon accounts. Dubbed Login and Pay with Amazon, the feature gives participating retailers access to Amazon’s 215 million active account holders, who can make purchases […]
The U.K. government has decided to create a new regulatory body for retail payment systems that will be charged with ensuring a level playing field in the noncash payments market by promoting modernization, innovation and meeting the needs of consumers—all of which might otherwise be stifled by a lack of competition, according to Her Majesty’s […]
Coming to the US to tell an audience of payments specialists about how the UK has transformed its national infrastructure over the past five years with the introduction of an effectively real-time payment system might have been considered a rough assignment – what can the Brits teach the wider world, particularly the US, about payments […]
Don Kingsborough, vice president of retail and prepaid products at PayPal, had a clear message for Money2020 delegates in Las Vegas yesterday: “The future is actually now.”
Amex, home of that object of envy, the Black Card, is expanding in an unexpected direction – to provide services to the unbanked and underbanked.
The overwhelming majority of US consumers would not use a mobile wallet, according to a survey carried out by consultancy Consult Hyperion during September.
There comes a tipping point when market readiness, social behaviour and technology combine to create a sudden, ubiquitous change of behaviour. For mobile payments the tipping point may have arrived – but will there be a dominant solution?
The US leads the world in card fraud, at least in part because it has lagged in the adoption of the EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) Chip & PIN standard, and continues to use signatures for verification. One result, said Carolyn Balfany, group head for US product delivery at MasterCard Worldwide, during Money2020 in Las […]
A group of like-minded companies came together this summer to address the recent melee in payroll cards. The work is far from over, but their activity points to the power of pooling resources and relationships for real progress and impact.
Bitcoin is here to stay and will continue to grow, according to experts speaking on separate panels at Money2020 in Las Vegas.
Innovative and mobile-centric financial services are taking center stage this week at Money2020, which has drawn more than 4,500 attendees to Las Vegas.
American Express today announced a relaunch of its Serve prepaid account, packing the card with a raft of new features and benefits, including free cash-reload services at CVS and 7-Eleven stores nationwide, plus online bill payment and money management tools, for $1 a month.
Some of the heaviest hitters in e-commerce, banking and tech have joined together to enhance customers’ experience with card-linked offers. The newly formed CardLinx Association counts among its ranks a number of big names, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Discover, Facebook, First Data Corp., LivingSocial, MasterCard and Microsoft Corp. Announced this week at the […]
Economies around the world are making the move away from cash, and the shift largely is being driven by new technologies, government initiative and consumer preference, according to a new report by MasterCard Advisors. Among the countries the report describes as the most “cashless” are: Belgium, where 93 percent of total consumer spending in 2011 […]
MasterCard and Visa separately have launched prepaid cards this week in Myanmar and Ghana, respectively. CB Bank is rolling out a prepaid travel card for citizens of the Southeast Asian country called the CB Bank EASI Travel Prepaid MasterCard card. The financial institution says the reloadable prepaid card is the first of its kind in […]
What do Monty Python star Michael Palin, a municipal cemetery, the rock band Def Leppard and a long-running debate in the press room at Sibos have in common? The answer is Sheffield, Palin’s home town, which has for some years now been an also ran in the choice of the next venue for Swift’s annual travelling circus.
The explosion of innovation in financial service products is driving a growing reliance on third parties to help process and distribute products that, in turn, is making third-party oversight a key priority integrated with daily operations, according to top prepaid card industry experts at preliminary sessions during Money2020 in Las Vegas on Oct. 6. Because […]
GPR and payroll cards—two of the fastest-growing segments in prepaid—continue to expand as a new GPR program and a new payroll card partnership were unveiled today. In separate announcements, InComm and tax preparer Jackson Hewitt said they’re working together on a new GPR program, while The Bancorp Inc. said it will issue payroll cards to TFG Card Solutions’ […]
When Isis, backed by AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Verizon, was announced nearly three years ago, Sprint was notably missing from the group of top U.S. telcos involved in the mobile wallet project.
As the federal government shutdown drags on, the payments industry could begin to feel some impacts of the inaction, according to industry observers. And while those effects currently are relatively limited, the coming Congressional battle over the debt ceiling could have serious implications—especially for recipients of Social Security benefits via the Treasury Department’s Direct Express […]
Contact Solutions LLC today announced a new mobile platform to help cardholders access customer service when they want it and easily switch between self-service and a live agent.
PayPal is belatedly paying some attention to design: in its early days, the company didn’t have designers, so the Pay with PayPal button wasn’t very consistent – sellers could tinker with it and even modify the colour. That’s changing, John Muller, vice president and general counsel, told Money 2020.
Basic security mechanisms in payment and banking systems are poorly applied and are out-gunned by the resources available to cybercriminals, a session at the Money2020 event in Las Vegas was told.
The credit card industry has largely cleaned up its act in the four years since sweeping new federal rules took effect, though some concerns remain, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concluded this week. The CFPB’s 102-page report on the impact of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act) passed in 2009 found […]
MasterCard and parking services provider Parkeon have announced the launch of a couponing platform that delivers offers from local retailers to consumers as they’re paying for parking. The system is being billed as the first of its kind and will be launched as a pilot next week in Rockville Center, N.Y., with a full-scale rollout […]
Crowdfunding—a term used for a group of people pooling their money, typically through Websites, to support projects—is being used to help finance everything from films to NFC-enabled jewelry.
Australian debit card system eftpos has contracted Jacksonville, Fla.-based FIS to build out a new centralized payments hub.
A new survey suggests most consumers don’t want mobile wallets, but many were skeptical about the Internet, at first.
