News


Industry Views: 2015 Game-Changers, Priorities for 2016

To kick off the New Year, we asked payments industry thought leaders to tell us what happened in 2015 that will most influence payments in 2016 and to discuss their hottest priorities for the next 12 months. Responses run the gamut from a combined Visa/Visa Europe to compliance, wearables and the impact of Chase Pay.

Orange, Groupama Banque Developing Mobile Bank (Jan. 5, 2016)

Orange’s new partnership with Groupama enables the French telco to offer banking services with the launch of Orange Bank while beefing up Groupama’s online banking business. The partnership also could lead to Orange acquiring a 65 percent stake in Groupama Banque.

U.K. Banks Offer Accounts with No Frills—or Fees (Jan. 5, 2016)

Prepaid could have a new competitor in the U.K. with several banks there opening their doors to consumers who weren’t previously eligible for accounts due to poor credit histories. The so-called “basic accounts” are being offered as of Jan. 1, by nine major banks, after an agreement in late 2014 between the U.K. government and the country’s banking industry that was part of a larger push by British authorities to expand financial access for the underbanked.

Retail Gets Late Gift with Post-Christmas Rush (Jan. 4, 2016)

The 2015 holiday shopping season ended on a high note with a post-Christmas shopping surge fueled by a friendly calendar and shoppers looking to redeem gift cards in stores and online. Sales figures were higher than many observers expected after a somewhat sluggish start to the season—especially in the brick-and-mortar sector, which saw store visits plummet as consumers opted to do their holiday shopping on the Web.

Will Mike Tyson Bitcoin Wallet Be Champ or Knocked Out? (Jan. 4, 2016)

Will the recently launched Mike Tyson Digital Wallet for bitcoin users be crowned the champ when other celebrity-endorsed payments products have failed to take hold? Bitcoin Direct is banking on Tyson’s endorsement of its digital wallet to become as synonymous as former boxing champ George Foreman and his grill.

Walmart Adds MasterPass for Online, Mobile Checkout (Jan. 4, 2016)

Hot on the heels of its December Walmart Pay launch, retail giant Walmart is taking additional steps to speed up payments for shoppers. MasterCard announced today that Walmart will accept MasterPass in 2016 across its domestic online properties. The partnership suggests that even as retailers launch proprietary ways to pay, giving consumers more payment options will win out over exclusivity.

P2P: Poised for Growth?

With tech giants investing in P2P payments—and millennials driving usage—a promising niche may finally be ready for the mainstream.

People on the Move: Mary McLeod, CFPB

The CFPB has announced that Mary McLeod will join the bureau as general counsel, upon the departure of Meredith Fuchs, current general counsel and acting deputy director, in early 2016.

IFINTEC Finance Technologies Conference and Exhibition

IFINTEC Finance Technologies Conference and Exhibition will be held on 12-13 April 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. IFINTEC is a dedicated conference focusing on banking solutions and finance technologies. IFINTEC is one of the biggest events in EMEA region in its category. Banking Technology, Finance Technology, Core Banking, Retail Banking, Universal Banking, Commercial Banking, Branchless Banking, […]

As Threats Evolve, Cybersecurity Spending Surges (Dec. 22, 2015)

Global spending on cybersecurity will top $75 billion worldwide this year, 4.7 percent higher than 2014—and by 2020, the global cybersecurity market is projected to be worth $170 billion. The surge in spending is being driven by companies seeking to fortify their systems against the ever-evolving threat of data breaches and other cyberattacks. Government security initiatives and new legislation also have contributed to the upswing.

China Welcomes Apple, Samsung; Australia Says ‘Yes’ to Android Pay, ‘No’ to Apple Pay (Dec. 21, 2015)

Chinese consumers soon will have a sizable selection of m-wallets to choose from as the country is becoming awash with big players in the m-wallet space. Both, Apple and Samsung Electronics, late last week announced deals with China UnionPay. Meanwhile, the road continues to be rocky for Apple in Australia, where banks have agreed to work with Android Pay, but not Apple Pay.

Viewpoint: Prepaid Regulations Should Go on a New Year’s Diet

The CFPB needs to return to its original plans on prepaid regulations and put its proposed rules on a New Year’s diet. By issuing rules focusing solely on disclosure, the CFPB could issue guidance earlier in 2016 that would help consumers, prevent access disruptions, and potentially reduce the size of the landfill needed to for the mountains of noncompliant cards and marketing materials.

GPS Integrates Testing Platform from Iliad (Dec. 17, 2015)

Global Processing Services (GPS) has a new testing ground for its payments solutions, now that the Dubai-based processor has licensed the T3 test platform from Iliad Solutions Ltd. to provide functional and load testing capabilities for GPS’s prepaid and debit products.

R3 to involve non-banks in distributed ledger plans in 2016

R3, the bank-led consortium developing the use of distributed ledger technology in financial services, has added 12 new banks as it looks at how to extend its activities to work with buy-side and non-bank institutions in the New Year.

Dunkin’ Donuts Mobile App Integrates Apple Pay (Dec. 15, 2015)

Users of the popular Dunkin’ Donuts payment and loyalty app now can use Apple Pay to purchase, gift or reload virtual Dunkin’ Donuts Cards to fuel the retailer’s mobile app. The integration began on Dec. 7, in time for the holiday gifting season and adds another use case for Apple Pay.

UnionPay Debuts Mobile Wallet in China with Deep Partnership Roster (Dec. 15, 2015)

China-based payments giant UnionPay has launched QuickPass, a mobile payments service with more than 20 bank partners and acceptance at more than 10,000 retail locations. That deep roster of launch partners could help state-run UnionPay compete with privatelyheld players in the Chinese m-payments sector, most notably Alibaba and Tencent.