Mayer Brown LLP, a legal services organization advising clients in the Americas, Asia and Europe, announced that a consumer financial services group of partners has joined the firm, representing an addition to its global financial services regulatory and enforcement practice.
National Gift Card Corp. (NGC), a provider of B2B incentive and loyalty gift cards, has appointed Eric Thiegs president.
President Barack Obama announced he will nominate Robert O. Carr, chairman and CEO of Heartland Payment Systems Inc. to a key post on the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.
The Prepaid International Forum (PIF), the London-based nonprofit trade association for the prepaid sector, welcomed four new members to its board of directors and announced the reappointment of three existing members.
Columbus, Ga.-based payments processor TSYS has announced that Pamela A. Joseph will join the company as president and chief operating officer effective May 1, 2016.
For retailers that haven’t yet implemented EMV terminals, gift card acquisition fraud is on the rise, according to the National Retail Federation. But how big is the problem and what does it mean for legitimate buyers of the popular products?
Almost 50% of retail banks worldwide believe the rise of digital will bring an end to branch-based banking, according to a study by Temenos. “Retail Banking: In Tech We Trust”, the third annual study of retail banks produced in association with the Economist Intelligence Unit, reveals that banks perceive the threat from tech companies operating […]
Nasdaq has bought International Securities Exchange (ISE), operator of three US equity options exchanges, and ISE’s holding company US Exchange Holdings, from Deutsche Börse for $1.1 billion. The agreement excludes ownership interest in Bats Global Market and in Digital Asset Holdings, which will continue to be owned by Deutsche Börse. Carsten Kengeter, CEO of Deutsche […]
Europe is the largest single market in the world and an attractive proposition for most payments businesses looking to expand, but you do need to look at the different options available and determine the best route to market for your own firm.
The CFPB’s new no-action letter policy is designed to alleviate regulatory uncertainty for innovative financial services businesses, but asking for one could be a double-edged sword.
This suit between a retailer and its insurance carrier highlights the importance of ensuring that any insurance coverage meant to account for costs and assessments stemming from a data breach is adequate.
FinCEN’s virtual currency guidance creates different AML standards for virtual currency and traditional funds, but with a slight modification the agency can “re-level” the playing field without compromising its AML policy goals.
Meredith Fuchs joins at least 45 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees who have left the bureau for the private sector since 2011.
Gift card provider SVM has bought 1to1 Card, whose prepaid program management services cover incentive, loyalty, rebate, payroll and general purpose loyalty cards.
American Express could be exploring a way to enable its cardholders to pay with loyalty points on e-commerce sites or mobile wallets, according to a recently released patent application.
Equiniti Group has completed the purchase of Risk Factor and KYCnet. The acquisitions are part of Equiniti’s strategy of buying specialist technology platforms to provide regulation driven services for its clients. Last year it bought Transglobal Payment Solutions, while back in 2012 it acquired investment system supplier Peterevans. It also purchased a UK-based lending software […]
Standard Chartered has launched its “Bank on an iPad” sales and service tool in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Called Retail Workbench, it is a digital tablet-based sales-and-service tool that “brings the bank” to clients. It is integrated with the bank’s back-end infrastructure, and will allow sales staff to open an account for a […]
UK payments provider Tuxedo has launched a “live load” payments technology platform, which removes the need to prepay. The vendor says it is the world’s first. The platform is based upon a single, partner-issued Visa or MasterCard, which is linked to customers’ existing payment sources via Tuxedo’s own platform. The platform is PCIDSS (Payment Card […]
BBVA has acquired Finnish online-only payments and banking services provider Holvi, as it seeks to expand its portfolio of digital businesses. Holvi will continue to be run as a standalone business, and Spain-based BBVA says there will be a “two-way flow of knowledge, ideas and support” between both parties. Teppo Paavola, chief development officer and […]
Make a note, 5th September 2017 has been unveiled as the industry target for the US to move from a T+3 to a T+2 settlement cycle. The decision on this has been reached by the US T+2 Industry Steering Committee (T+2 ISC), organised by The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and co-chaired by the […]
Ulster Bank and KPMG have launched the “world’s largest free business accelerator” for entrepreneurs – Entrepreneurial Spark – in Belfast in Northern Ireland. The new hub, or “Hatchery”, can host up to 80 businesses and early stage entrepreneurs. Also involved in the launch were Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest (all three are part […]
Harvest Capital Strategies has escalated its criticism of Green Dot Corp. and reiterated its call for the ouster of Green Dot CEO Steve Streit. In a letter sent to Green Dot’s board of directors last week, Harvest blasted what it called Green Dot’s failure to respond adequately a previous letter Harvest sent the company in January, in which the hedge fund manager outlined concerns with Green Dot’s performance and called for the removal of Streit and other two board members.
Despite some claims from the banking industry that small banks may be at a competitive disadvantage in a post-Durbin Amendment interchange environment, a new Philadelphia Fed report suggests that banks with less than $10 billion in assets have not suffered from the Durbin Amendment, which capped debit card interchange for larger financial institutions.
Google’s new Hands Free shopping test enables consumers to pay with smartphones but make purchases via digital photos of their faces. It represents the newest frontier for mobile payments.
Canada’s first mobile wallet suretap has announced its discontinuing its prepaid MasterCard program effective at the end of April. What’s staying is the wallet’s capability of loading credit and gift cards for payment and a loyalty program, which enables consumers to integrate more than 20 loyalty programs with the wallet.
NCR Corporation (NCR) has customised the first ever financial kiosk solution in Taiwan for E.Sun Bank. Called E.Sun iPayment Kiosk, it includes bill payment, statement printing and notes exchange. The bank also selected NCR Aptra Connections software to run on the kiosk and purchased NCR SelfServ ATMs to provide personalised ATM transactions. The E.Sun iPayment […]
Who, what, where, when of the fintech industry today – this excellent infographics pulls together plenty of useful data, from top specialists, unicorns and start-ups to geographies and M&As. Created by Savvy Beaver and Call Levels.
MasterCard could be buying the UK’s payments infrastructure, VocaLink, in a £1-billion acquisition, according to Sky News. Following the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) telling banks last month that they should sell their stake in VocaLink to “help increase innovation and competition”, MasterCard is reportedly in talk with those banks. According to David Bannister, financial services […]
Lloyds Banking Group has created an in-house digital analytics team in the UK. This was in “partnership” with ASI (Advanced Skills Institute) and Google. However, the Lloyds’ team does not include any staff from Google. The bank tested Google’s big data platform technologies and analytics on non-personal behavioural data using a “secure” Lloyds account on […]
US payments start-up Dwolla has been fined $100,000 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for its data security. Data security issues included: “Use appropriate measures to identify reasonably foreseeable security risks; ensure that employees who have access to or handle consumer information received adequate training and guidance about security risks; use encryption technologies to […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! D+H Corporation bullish on payments software business Do you hear it? That’s the sound of optimistic noises. ICE pours cold water on Deutsche Börse and LSE merger bid ICE ICE maybe, ICE ICE maybe. Out of Africa for […]
Google has built a pilot app, allowing payments in stores “completely hands-free”. The app, wait for it, is called Hands Free. Pali Bhat, senior director, product management at Google, says in a blog post: “Imagine if you could rush through a drive-thru without reaching for your wallet, or pick up a hot dog at the […]
Nasdaq will replace Australian Securities Exchange’s (ASX) existing equities and equity options clearing technology platforms. ASX says it wants to consolidate its number of post-trade platforms and this latest deal forms a “significant element” of its tech revamp programme outlined in February 2015. Tim Thurman, CIO at ASX, says: “While we have announced that ASX […]
Sweden’s Baymarkets has taken over the support, maintenance and development of SIX x-clear’s Clara clearing system. Baymarkets says the addition of Clara to its product set will “complement” its integrated Edge platform, and creates a complete end-to-end solution. The Swedish company adds that the current team, who were developing and maintaining Clara to date, will […]
The CFPB has hit online payments provider Dwolla with an enforcement action over what the agency describes as misleading claims the company made about customers’ data security and the risks of using Dwolla’s online system. The action is the CFPB’s first enforcement related to a data security issue, the agency said.
Wirecard Technologies GmbH has been busy, launching a new Visa-branded prepaid/credit product in Germany today, following recent acquisitions in Romania and Brazil. Today the company released mycard2go prepaid card, which is the first Visa Simply One combined card that enables acceptance at merchants that take Visa credit and V PAY debit cards.
Square Inc. has added a new feature to its Square Cash P2P money transfer service that enables users to store funds within their Square Cash accounts—a move that means the service can fulfill some of the functions of a mobile wallet.
A Turkish man pled guilty Tuesday in a federal court in Brooklyn to planning and leading cyber-attacks that swiped $55 million from ATMs around the world.
Korea Exchange (KRX), the securities exchange operator in South Korea, plans to launch a platform powered by blockchain to liven up the off-board trading market. According to The Korean Times, KRX has started “preliminary steps” to introduce the new platform connecting sellers and buyers to trade securities directly. “Though many steps remain before the system’s […]
Dutch state-owned bank, ABN Amro, is partnering with US-based First Data for payments and will offer services through its joint venture European Merchant Services (EMS). EMS has been processing credit card and debit card payments for businesses for over 25 years, and ABN Amro says entrepreneurs and small business owners will be able to add […]
