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No, not PayPal Mobile - PayPal Radio. Jason Miner, a long-time PayPal employee, is starting a new streaming radio show premiering live at eBay Live 2006 on Tuesday June 13th.
A friend writes: "Does this mean we can look forward to Bill Me Later Radio? Why not Visa Radio with individual shows devoted to the various card products? Maybe they can even get issuers to act as sponsors?" How about MasterCard TV? Now, wouldn't that be priceless?
Fair Isaac has announced the release of Falcon One for Online Access, a real-time, multi-factor authentication solution that the company says "uses industry-leading fraud analytics to provide maximum online fraud detection with minimal customer impact." » Continue Reading
The Federal Reserve Banks have announced changes to their check operations as consumers and businesses continue the shift from using paper checks toward electronic payments. » Continue Reading
Obopay has announced that it will enable a new phone payment option for online retailers and BREW mobile application providers that provides merchants an easy and low-cost way to process mobile payment transactions and enables consumers to easily initiate purchases from their mobile phones with a simple touch of the keypad. » Continue Reading
Metavante has announced that its healthcare benefit debit card, the MBI Benefits Card, is the first and only card and authorization system in the payments industry to authorize healthcare purchases against a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) maximum in real time at the individual and family level. » Continue Reading
The "unbanked" and financially underserved population is making its mark in the economy in a market segment that now exceeds $10 billion, according to data compiled by Phoenix ESP Payments Research Group. Phoenix reports that although this below-the-radar group may not be using credit cards to make purchases, many are turning to pre-paid cards instead, fueling an opportunity for financial services firms and retailers. » Continue Reading
In the UK, HMV and Digital Rum have announced a new mobile service that enables music, film fans and gamers to Txt2Buy CDs, DVDs and Games directly from their mobile phones. "The new Txt2Buy service allows consumers to respond immediately to HMV adverts appearing in the national and lifestyle press, using their credit/debit cards to buy products 'on the move' in a simple three step process over the mobile internet." » Continue Reading
Barbara Hagenbaugh reports for USA TODAY on why some gasoline retailers are again offering discounts for payment in cash vs. cards.
The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) has announced the conclusion of phase I of its Better Mutual Authentication (BMA) Project, part of an on-going effort to secure access to customer accounts and combat fraud across the financial services industry. » Continue Reading
Visa International is showcasing how its government partnerships have significantly contributed to the realization of economic development goals for emerging and industrialized nations around the world at the 8th annual Visa International Government Services Conference in Buenos Aires. » Continue Reading
As mentioned in an American Banker story last week, GE Consumer Finance has announced a relationship with eBay Inc. and PayPal Inc. to launch the new PayPal Plus MasterCard, a credit card offering both rewards and extended purchase protection for purchases made via the PayPal Web site. » Continue Reading
Visa USA has announced the appointment of Robert Hackney to its board of directors. Hackney is president of Card Services For Credit Unions, Inc. (CSCU), the largest credit union card processing association in the United States, serving 3,500 members. In addition to his general board responsibilities, Hackney will also serve on the board's Audit and Risk Committee. » Continue Reading
Helio, a new mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) launched earlier this month by SK Telecom and Earthlink, includes new "gifting" and "begging" features for its subscribers to gift a purchased music video, game or other content from their Helio handset to another Helio subscriber. Begging does the opposite, allowing a subscriber to request a gift from another subscriber. Helio's got a blog called Helio Mag where the company talks about its service and what's cool.
Edgar, Dunn & Company's May Insight newsletter features an article by Tanya Martin and Manika Aggarwal titled "Assessing SEPA: Understanding the Strategic Implications for Key Stakeholders in the Cards Business" (PDF). In the article, they question whether the EU/EPC might be "paving the way" for larger payments players (including non-European players such as First Data or Citibank) to dominate the market by "leveling the playing field" with the SEPA principles.
Kiosk Marketplace links to a white paper from Source Technologies (PDF) about in-person bill payments using kiosks.
General Electric Company Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt has announced a US$250 million investment in infrastructure and healthcare projects in India and said that GE intends to dramatically expand its industrial and financial presence in the country. » Continue Reading
Varya Taylor writes for the Bank of Canada Review's Spring 2006 issue about the trends in retail payments (PDF) in Canada based upon a survey commissioned by the Bank of Canada. The article particularly focuses on cash and consumer attitudes towards the use and holdings of cash by the public. There's a wonderful graphic (Chart 11) on page 32 of the article that shows Canadian consumer preferences for payment methods (cash, debit, credit) for various transaction amounts.
A couple of weeks ago, PayPal's Jeff Jordan hosted an online Town Hall meeting, one of a series that eBay holds monthly. The transcript (PDF) and audio from that meeting are now available on the eBay web site. Here's an interesting quote from the transcript by PayPal's Dana Stalder in response to a question about PayPal's merchant pricing: "PayPal is 100% committed to being the lowest cost solution for eBay sellers and for any online merchant, period." Read the transcript - it's interesting and fun!
MasterCard has announced that Travelocity has made MasterCard SecureCode available on its consumer website, Travelocity.com. » Continue Reading
CRM Today reports on The 2006 State of Retailing Online, the ninth annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research of 174 retailers. According to the report 2006 online sales (including travel) are expected to rise 20 percent to $211.4 billion while sales excluding travel will reach $138 billion. Last year, online sales reportedly rose 25 percent to $176.4 billion (including travel) and, excluding travel, online retail sales rose 28 percent to $113.6 billion.
Sandra Block writes for USA Today on what consumers can do to manage the costs of currency conversion when traveling overseas and using bank cards.
As part of a series on identity theft titled "Stolen Lives - A Breeding Groud", New York Times writers John Leland and Tom Zeller Jr. report on a wave of identity theft in the Scottsdale and Phoenix area - reporting that big part of the problem is that "In recent years banks have campaigned energetically to extend more credit to more people with fewer hassles, and retailers and consumers have embraced instant, near-anonymous access to credit."
Martin H. Bosworth writes for ConsumerAffairs.com about MasterCard's recent IPO with a perspective about how it has shifted risk from MasterCard's original bank owners to the public investors who now own shares in the company.
Don't blame us for that headline! It comes from The Telegraph in the UK where Edward Simkins reports on a new cash replacement contactless card called sQuid scheduled to be launched early next year.
Bob Tedeschi writes for the New York Times about how online bill payment is booming - with online payments (currently 35 percent of bills are paid online) expected to pass those paid by check (currently 37 percent) in the next year according to a Harris poll commissioned by CheckFree.
George Lekakis and Bruce Brammall report for Australia's The Advertiser about credit card interest rate increases following an increase in the official rate by the Reserve Bank of Australia - and questions why the National Australia Bank chose to raise rates more that three times the official rate rise. "This behaviour suggests that some banks are using credit card customers to claw back revenue they lost as a result of the RBA's recent clampdown on bank interchange fees."
The Financial Express reports on NGPay, a GPRS-based mobile payments application developed by Jigrahak Mobility Solutions.
Jim Flynn writes for the Colorado Springs Gazette about the cardholder agreement between card issuers and cardholders - and some recent changes to the cardholder agreement for one of his cards from MBNA America Bank, N.A. Despite the changes, "MBNA has assured me that I am still a valued customer, and that this is reflected in the terms of my amended cardholder agreement."
Ed Perkins reports for the Chicago Tribune on new bank buys "Choices" credit card program included as part of the United Airlines/Chase Bank "Mileage Plus Visa Card" and says it's "stingier than several of its more prominent rivals."
Rich Smith of Motley Fool weighs in with his analysis of MasterCard's IPO and prospects. Our favorite quote from this article: "unless, of course, you're still using a checkbook -- which is, like, so 20th century."
Terence Roche of Cornerstone Advisors writes for their weekly Gonzo Banker newsletter about online account opening by banks and identifies several issues of strategy and delivery that need to be addressed.
Visa USA CEO John Philip Coghlan gave a keynote speech earlier this week at the Card Forum Conference. The text of his prepared remarks (PDF) is available online. He discussed three industry imperatives from his point of view: preserving trust, listening to the marketplace and innovating.
VeriSign held its annual analyst day yesterday and the presentation slides (PDF) and webcast are available online. [Editor's note: VeriSign's analyst day presentation slides are in an "HD" wide screen format - first time I've seen that format used in this kind of setting!]
At the meeting, VeriSign announced that Charles Schwab has selected VeriSign to deploy both its Identity Protection (VIP) Fraud Detection and Authentication Services to secure client login and transaction information. Additionally, Charles Schwab plans to become an anchor tenant of the VIP Fraud Intelligence and Shared Authentication Network. The VIP Shared Authentication Network is already supported by PayPal, eBay and Yahoo! » Continue Reading
The Wall St. Journal's Heard on the Street column this morning looks at MasterCard's IPO yesterday - suggesting that "investors will need to gird themselves for some bumps in its financial performance for the rest of 2006" and pointing out that the company "already has warned that it may lose money this year." MasterCard yesterday made a 424B4 filing with the SEC containing the final prospectus for the IPO.
Fiona Walsh reports for The Guardian that credit losses at Barclaycard, Britain's biggest credit card company, could exceed £1.5bn this year, up more than 40% from a record £1.1bn last year.
Payment processor TSYS held its annual analyst day yesterday in New York City. The presentation slides (PDF) and audio from the presentations are available online. Included are comprehensive sections on TSYS's role in the merchant acquiring business and its international businesses. TSYS also announced yesterday that it had signed Wachovia for its re-entry into the credit card business.
Joe Bel Bruno, AP Business Writer, reports on MasterCard's debut day on the New York Stock Exchange where its shares rose $7, or almost 18 percent, to close at $46.
Last week, David Evans of Market Platform Dynamics gave a keynote at Card Forum titled "Gen X and Y: Path to the Future or Distinction Without a Difference" (PDF). Based upon his proprietary research, he appears skeptical about the whether they'll want to use their mobile phones to make purchases and suggests concerns about security may keep them from trying contactless devices. He also says that with respect to issuers being challenged by receivables growth, "young people today revolve much less than young people a decade ago."
Glenbrook partner Carol Coye Benson spoke today with Mary Anne Keegan, SVP Marketing & Communications of the newly formed Early Warning Services, LLC, to learn more about the company announced earlier this week. » Continue Reading
TSYS and Wachovia have announced a long term agreement for TSYS to provide core-processing and other related services in support of Wachovia's re-entry into the consumer credit-card line of business. » Continue Reading
As part of a bigger strategic relationship between eBay and Yahoo! announced this morning, Yahoo! has announced that is has selected PayPal to become the "exclusive third-party provider of its online wallet -- allowing customers to pay for Yahoo! services from bank accounts, credit cards or balances associated with their PayPal accounts." » Continue Reading
Barclays has announced it is launching a "new online anti-fraud initiative and becoming the first bank to offer free anti-virus software to its customers. Customers will also be offered an innovative text message service notifying them of new payees on their online account, helping to cut occurrences of fraud attacks." » Continue Reading
Daniel Wolfe writes for the American Banker (subscription required) about PayPal's new PayPal Plus MasterCard issued by GE Consumer Finance. » Continue Reading
Robin Sidel writes for the Wall St. Journal about the difficulties credit card issuers are experiencing as consumers are continuing to pay off bigger portions of their outstanding credit card loans.
MasterCard Incorporated has announced that its "initial public offering of 61,520,912 shares of its Class A common stock has been priced at $39.00 per share. The shares will begin trading tomorrow on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "MA." The company will retain $650 million of the proceeds of the sale, with the remainder used to redeem shares held by current shareholders." » Continue Reading
TransUnion has announced Turnkey Triggers, "a new service that assists marketers in reaching prospective customers within hours of learning about changes to their credit profile that may predict newfound responsiveness to a targeted firm offer." » Continue Reading
Japan and South Korea lead the world in adopting contactless payment solutions. Both countries have implemented nationwide services on a commercial scale. According to Senior ABI Research analyst Andy Bae, "Small payment transactions are a major goal for Japanese and South Korean credit card companies. To spot new opportunities and increase revenue, mobile operators and card issuers must continually assess their positions in the value chain." » Continue Reading
Viewpointe has announced that all of its owner banks (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase & Co., SunTrust, U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo) are actively in production with ImageShare and Pointe2Pointe services. These five financial institutions clear approximately 2.5 billion checks amongst themselves. » Continue Reading
Experian Consumer Direct has announced the results of a nationwide study on consumer debt that shows consumers have increased their debt by more than 12 percent over the past two years. Minimum monthly payment obligations also increased by 10 percent during the same time period. » Continue Reading
AP Business Writer Joe Bel Bruno reports on MasterCard's planned initial public offering scheduled for this Thursday.
Five of the nation’s leading retail banks, Bank of America, BB&T Corporation, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo together with First Data have announced they have agreed to form Early Warning Services, LLC, to bring together the fraud prevention expertise of the owners with the intellectual property and assets of Primary Payment Systems (PPS) and IDLogix. PPS and IDLogix are subsidiaries of First Data specializing in fraud prevention technologies. » Continue Reading
Earlier today, MasterCard filed with the SEC Amendment No. 8 to its S-1 Registration Statement.
BitPass has announced an agreement with Entercom, one of the five largest radio broadcasting companies in the US, to enable subscription access to online broadcast content. » Continue Reading
Debitman has announced the closing of an $8.7 Million Series B Financing from investors including HSBC Retail Services, a U.S. business unit of HSBC -North America, Cardinal Venture Capital and Selby Venture Partners. The company also announced it has received a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approving the company's patent for a system that enables the use of interoperable merchant-branded consumer debit cards. » Continue Reading
The Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) has released the results of its semi-annual survey dedicated to measuring the American public's confidence in the security of the nation's digital infrastructure. » Continue Reading
Payment experts at Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG) suggest that by mid-year, bankruptcies should settle back to 2004 levels, thus significantly lower than the 2005 experience. So much for the good news. The firm is also convinced that overall bad debt levels are unlikely to decline simply because of stricter bankruptcy tests. » Continue Reading
The Allegiant Group has announced a strategic alliance with Loyalty Lab for Allegiant to provide program development, management and marketing expertise to Loyalty Lab clients and Loyalty Lab to provide its CRM platform to Allegiant's loyalty clients. » Continue Reading
Marilyn Geewax reports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about comments made at a financial services conference in New York yesterday by Jane Thompson, head of financial services for Wal-Mart.
In an article titled 'The Virtual Moneylender", Farhad Manjoo writes for Salon.com about Prosper.com, "a new Web site allows you to borrow money from strangers in cyberspace. It may even free you from credit card debt and the usurers at the local payday loan center."
HSBC - North America's retail services business has announced a strategic alliance with electronic payment network operator Debitman Card, Inc. to accelerate growth in Debitman's debit card platform, known as "The Retailer's Network." » Continue Reading
Transaction Network Services has announced the availability of FusionPoint Express, providing a way for legacy dial and serial point-of-sale (POS) devices to be upgraded to internet-protocol (IP) networks to major card processors, reducing the cost, complexity and duration of POS communications. » Continue Reading
NCR and Novell have announced a global agreement to offer Novell Linux Point of Service on NCR RealPOS retail point-of-sale (POS) terminals make it easier for retailers to deploy Linux-based POS solutions. » Continue Reading
As reported late yesterday, MasterCard today announced an exclusive debit relationship with Upromise to allow Debit MasterCard issuers to provide cardholders a new way to save for college education costs. » Continue Reading
MasterCard this morning filed with the SEC Amendment No. 7 to its Form S-1 Registration Statement.
On Track Innovations has announced that it is providing Taipei Fubon Bank a 'Tap & Go' 3-D Soccer Ball key fob solution that complies with MasterCard® PayPass and fits on a key chain for easy access. Taipei Fubon Bank is offering the new device to its customers as part of their 2006 FIFA World Cup promotion.
Visa has announced it has once again has been selected "the most trusted credit card brand" in international research conducted by Reader's Digest magazine, polling subscribers in Europe. » Continue Reading
Wausau Financial Systems has announced it has changed its trade name and logo to WAUSAU. The company will use the tagline, "Reinventing Financial Solutions" with the logo as part of its new identity. » Continue Reading
New Edge Networks has announced it is tightening privacy and security on bankcard transactions through new network interconnections to Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC. The new connections provide end-to-end compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards. » Continue Reading
AP Business Writer Eileen Alt Powell reports that MasterCard will announce Monday that "it has signed an agreement that will allow its member banks to issue debit cards linked to the Upromise college savings program." Upromise members earn rebates on purchases that are deposited into Section 529 college savings plans.
Jane Boon Pearlstine writes for the Wall St. Journal about some of her first hand experiences lending online on Prosper.com where she's made "more than 300 small loans at an average rate of about 21%." » Continue Reading
Visa International announced last week at its Visa International Global Debit Forum in Prague that its most recent figures showed that consumer debit and prepaid card usage represented 53 per cent of total Visa sales and cash volumes. Significantly, consumer debit and prepaid purchases at the point of sale - excluding cash transactions such as ATM withdrawals - totaled more than US$1.1 trillion. Visa says that this growth in purchase volume, 19 per cent year-over-year, demonstrates the growing preference for debit payments for everyday transactions. » Continue Reading
Brooke A. Masters writes for the Washington Post about how "consumers are flocking in enormous numbers to Internet-based bank accounts that pay interest rates upwards of 3.5 percent." For example, ING Direct is adding $1 billion in deposits each month. These banks use the Internet to offer accounts, insured by the FDIC, that pay far higher interest than is usually available at traditional brick-and-mortar bank branches.
Interestingly, today's San Francisco Bay to Breakers race isn't the Wells Fargo Bay to Breakers but, rather, the ING Bay to Breakers!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published its Best of Business 2006 list of Georgia companies - including profiles of several payments-related firms: CheckFree, CompuCredit, Global Payments, and Synovus.
Bruce Mohl writes for the Boston Globe that "Verizon Communications Inc. has begun reporting to the nation's three credit bureaus which Massachusetts customers pay their bills on time and which ones don't, a practice a company spokesman described as ''a free gift to the public." Apparently "Verizon is the first telecommunications company to submit monthly payment data."
Kirstin Cole reports for WCBS-TV in New York about using mobiile payments to transfer money among friends using Text-Pay-Me, Obopay, or PayPal Mobile.
Freelancer Linda Stern writes for Reuters suggesting "here's something that might get all those puzzled people on the hit TV dramas "Lost" and "24" really scratching their heads: Make them decipher the mail that credit card companies send out." She also reminds us about comments made by then-comptroller of the currency John Hawke, Jr. two years ago warning banks about potential supervisory action if they engaged in deceptive practices- she reports that no actions have been taken.
Jenny Holland reports for BrandWeek about a public-private partnership with Florida announced by MasterCard on Friday that will allow the "storm-tossed state to use MasterCard’s signature tagline as part of a print campaign that encourages Floridians to be prepared for hurricanes." » Continue Reading
Kristin Davis writes for Kiplinger Magazine about the "dual personality" of debit cards - how they can be used either as signature-based or PIN-based. "Signature-based purchases are far more profitable for banks, which get a slice of the 1.5%-to-1.9% interchange fee that merchants pay to process transactions over the Visa and MasterCard networks."
The latest Nilson Report has arrived featuring an in-depth look at the PIN and signature-based debit card brand, issuer, and shared EFT network market shares (subscription only). Among other feature articles, this issue also has an interesting article discussing American Express' healthcare cards.
The mainstream press headline writers are having a ball writing titles for their stories about MasterCard's upcoming IPO. This time, the story's from Justin Grant writing for Reuters. The offering is scheduled to launch next Wednesday, May 24th and it couldn't come soon enough -- given these corny headlines!
The Association for Financial Professionals has published a new guide titled "A Corporate Guide to Card Payments and the Role of Interchange" designed to "educate organizations about the card acceptance process and help them proactively manage and reduce transaction processing expenses." » Continue Reading
There's been some interest expressed by some of our Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp alumni for an update, in particular, on many of the things happening in the emerging payments space - especially around mobile payments, prepaid/stored value, and contactless/Near Field Communications, etc. In addition, we've had requests wanting to get an updated perspective on what's happening with the world of payment security as well. » Continue Reading
Earlier this week, American Express CEO Ken Chenault spoke at the UBS Global Financial Services Conference in New York - along with a number of other bank and financial services company CEO's. Chenault's presentation (PDF) and prepared remarks (PDF) are available online on the American Express web site. » Continue Reading