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The Merchants Payments Coalition issued a press release today welcoming today's release of a European Union (EU) policy report that calls for closer scrutiny of competition in the European retail banking sector. » Continue Reading
Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan voted today for a one-year moratorium on applications for deposit insurance by industrial loan companies with commercial affiliations, saying that Congress should have an opportunity to consider the issue. » Continue Reading
The FDIC Board of Directors voted today to continue for one year a moratorium on applications for deposit insurance and change in control notices for industrial loan companies (ILCs) that will be owned by commercial companies. The moratorium does not apply to ILCs owned by financial companies. In addition, the Board voted to issue for public comment a proposed rule (Part 354) to strengthen the framework for consideration of applications or notices for industrial banks owned by financial companies not subject to federal consolidated bank supervision. » Continue Reading
Jacksonville, FL-based EverBank launched a new marketing campaign today promoting its FreeNet checking account. The bank said "with rumblings of a new online check-less checking account set to launch by Internationale Nederlanden Groep (ING) DIRECT within the next few weeks, Jacksonville, Fla.-based banking leader EverBank today launched a new campaign which poses a five-word question to financial consumers - "What are you waiting for?" The account offers an introductory yield of 6.01% for the first three months, calling it the "highest yield for checking in the industry" according to Frank Trotter, president of EverBank Direct.
The Global Leaders Institute will be holding Payment China 2007 on May 17-18 in Beijing.
In an article in CSO Magazine, Scott Berinato writes an "Elegy for Cash" - saying that "an inconvenient truth for card issuers and merchants is that cash is a lot safer for consumers."
Global Cash Access has provided more information about its Arriva Card, the first credit card designed for use in casinos. » Continue Reading
In a new video, the President and CEO of ING DIRECT, Arkadi Kuhlmann, has taken it upon himself to explain his outlook on saving money, how financial transactions should be as simple as buying a cup of coffee, and how ING DIRECT works to make that a reality.
Bank of America has announced that its Online Banking customers now have access to a "full range of money management tools that help them track expenses and income by category, set budget goals and monitor performance against goal for all of their financial accounts." » Continue Reading
The European Commission has published the final report of its competition inquiry into the retail banking sector - finding "a number of competition concerns in the markets for payment cards, payment systems and retail banking products. Particular indicators are large variations in merchant and interchange fees for payment cards, barriers to entry in the markets for payment systems and credit registers, obstacles to customer mobility and product tying." Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said: “The inquiry has found widespread competition barriers which unnecessarily raise the cost of retail banking services for European firms and consumers. The Commission will make full use of its powers under competition law to tackle these barriers, in the market for payment cards and elsewhere when they result from anticompetitive behaviour.” » Continue Reading
Bob Sullivan's MSNBC.com Red Tape Chronicles looks that the overdraft fees that banks charge based upon debit card use. "Many people don't realize that a carefree swipe of their debit card at a point-of-sale terminal to buy a Big Mac could result in "courtesy overdraft" fee of $30 or more."
As reported earlier this morning on Payments News, mobile payment service provider Obopay has announced its acquisition of BillMonk, calling the company "a pioneer in "social money" services." According to Obopay, the acquisition "will provide on-the-go consumers -- who want fast and easy access to their money -- with services that fit their mobile lifestyle." » Continue Reading
Edgar, Dunn & Company's latest newsletter is titled "Mobile Financial Services - Unlocking the Potential" (PDF), an article by Ginger Schmeltzer and Samee Zafar. "Only now are mobile financial products and services finally gaining traction. This is partly due to the fact that the number of mobile users is growing exponentially, but also because new technologies enabling fast and secure data access are promising to deliver greater consumer convenience and ease of use."
Eight data security companies have announced the formation of The Payment Card Industry Security Vendor Alliance – (PCI SVA). According to the group, "PCI SVA will assist members of the payment card industry and the PCI Security Standards Council -- composed of merchants, banks and point-of-sale vendors – in educating the business community on the requirements and business value of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard, a global benchmark intended to improve security throughout the entire payment card transaction process." » Continue Reading
MasterCard has announced that when the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts go head to head for the championship inside Dolphin Stadium on February 4th, "fans purchasing souvenirs or concessions will spend less time standing in line and more time catching the on-field action when they use MasterCard PayPass – a contactless payment option that reduces transaction times – installed at Dolphin Stadium prior to the start of the football season. MasterCard PayPass is also accepted at numerous other merchants throughout the Miami area." » Continue Reading
Entrust has announced the launch of a new, five dollar one-time-password (OTP) hardware security token along with news that Expedia will become the first company to deploy the new Entrust token. » Continue Reading
TransUnion’s TrueCredit.com has announced results from two surveys it recently commissioned with GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media designed to gauge distinct aspects of consumers’ current credit habits. "TrueCredit.com found that 35 percent of consumers actually report purchasing less on credit this holiday season than last year, when the same question yielded 43 percent. Similar to the 2006 survey, four in ten (43 percent) say they have the same amount of credit card debt this year as last, with 11 percent reporting they have more debt and 29 percent reporting they have less." » Continue Reading
In today's Heard on the Street column in the Wall St. Journal, Robin Sidel and Clint Riley report on one of Citigroup's financial challenges - a decline in outstandings in the Sears credit card portfolio it acquired three years ago.
Jay Fitzgerald reports for the Boston Herald on news yesterday of a class action lawsuit filed against TJX following its earlier announcement recently of breaches of customer data security - "saying the company was “negligent” for not having better computer security." More information on the lawsuit is available in this press release. TJX itself has posted on its website a letter to customers about the breach from TJX Chairman Ben Cammarata along with a video and and FAQ. TJX also reported in a filing with the SEC that Gary L. Crittenden, a member of the board of TJX, has resigned from the board. Crittenden is also Executive Vice President and CFO of American Express.
Over on the Notes from the BillMonk blog, there's news that BillMonk has been acquired by mobile payments provider Obopay. "When we first talked to the Obopay team it was clear to us that they care deeply about making it easier to deal with money. Given that BillMonk’s goal is to make money painless between friends, the match couldn’t have been better."
Michael Arrington writes on his TechCrunch blog about mobile payments provider KushCash - asking them how they plan to compete with PayPal Mobile, among others.
At its Spring 2007 Plenary and Members' Meeting coming up March 13-14, 2007 in San Diego, the Mobile Payment Forum will be featuring an Innovative Mobile Payments Technology Showcase on Tuesday, March 13, that highlights "emerging, cutting-edge mobile solution providers from a diversified cross-section of the mobile payment value chain" and will be open to non-members. Richard Crone will be keynoting the event speaking on "Mobile Payments - Strategies for a Cashless Future!". Full agenda and registration information is available online.
BB&T has announced that it has begun issuing BB&T Check Cards with the Visa Contactless feature to select clients in Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., in a pilot program. » Continue Reading
Contacless News reports on Store Logistics and Payment with NFC (StoLPaN), a consortium co-funded by the European Commission and Information Society Technologies.
Elise Castelli reports for the Federal Times on the GSA's SmartPay 2 purchasing card program - intended to replace the existing 3 million US government purchase cards provided by Bank of America, Citibank, J.P. Morgan Chase, Mellon Bank and U.S. Bank. Bids were due into GSA on January 22 for the replacement program.
According to the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC) , two out of five identity theft victims surveyed know how their personal data was stolen, "providing valuable insight about how identity theft occurs." » Continue Reading
Purpose Money, a financial services portal owned and operated by CompuCredit Corporation, has announced the release of the Purpose Money Financial Guide, a "comprehensive, step-by-step, financial resource guide developed specifically for Spanish-speaking audiences. The Purpose Money Financial Guide offers Latinos operational knowledge of the U.S. financial system, with insider tips from financial experts, as well as practical application exercises, to help Hispanic consumers manage their finances and credit in the U.S." » Continue Reading
There was some discussion last week about PayPal's off eBay payment volumes and whether they were growing fast enough. Here's a spreadsheet containing some of PayPal's volume statistics for the last several years. You can see the nice growth of PayPal's off eBay business in the numbers - with the off eBay volume for the full year 2006 having exceeded $13 billion in payment volume.
David Lawsky and Huw Jones report for Reuters from Brussels that the European Union's antitrust chief is expected on Wednesday to rule out sweeping changes to the credit card system in the EU - saying they expect reform will stop far short of that urged by retailers.
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
Jim Bruene reports on his NetBanker 2.0 blog about Citi Mobile - scheduled to begin in February according to a statement insert that Jim received.
The Washington Post is running a Reuters story reporting that HSBC Bank USA's HSBC Direct unit plans to begin paying 6 percent APR yield on online savings accounts for "new money" beginning tomorrow. The promotion is offering the higher rate between January 29 and April 30.
Express Computer reports on PayMate India's plan to target "offline merchant sign-ups which include large chains to stand-alone retail establishments. SMS has been the platform of choice for online and remote payments so far but the company has now introduced a voice-based module keeping in mind the unique requirements of the retail industry."
CNN is carrying a Dow Jones Newswire story this morning reporting from Davos on a discussion with Bill Gates about Microsoft developing on an online payment system that will be cheaper than credit card transactions.
Annys Shin writes for the Washington Post about person-to-person lending at Prosper.com. "Instead of selling your money to a bank to see the bank sell that money to someone else at 19 percent, why can't I have some of that money?" chief executive Chris Larsen said.
The Sun's Financial Diary blog reviews comments and experiences from readers using ING Direct's Electric Orange checking account.
Liz Pulliam Weston writes for MSN Money about some of the worst practices of credit card issuers. The practices that particularly irk her include issuers being mysterious on interest rates on new accounts, reporting issues re: data issuers send to credit bureaus, late fees for payments, outrageous balance transfer and over-limit fees, and issuing multiple cards with low limits to risky borrowers (Capital One particularly).
In an article titled 'TJX cyberfraud spreads: Bank of America reissuing cards", Boston Herald general economics reporter Jay Fitzgerald provides an update on the effects of the TJX data breach - including that "Bank of America said yesterday it’s reissuing credit cards to customers hit with fraudulent charges tied to the cybertheft of data from TJX Cos."
Eric Grover of Intrepid Ventures writes a letter to the editor of the American Banker discussing what he thinks MasterCard and Visa can learn from Wal-Mart's bid to obtain an Industrial Loan Corporation charter. Speaking of the public debate about interchange, Eric writes "In an environment where their critics are mobilized, appeasement won't work. MasterCard and Visa need to relentlessly make an aggressive affirmative case in the public arena, or, like Wal-Mart, they will suffer for it."
First Data International and INICIS Co Ltd have announced a strategic alliance to offer merchant processing services to global, online merchants operating in Korea. » Continue Reading
Forrester's Catherine Graeber has published a new report titled "EBPP Forecast: 2006 To 2011" that forecasts growth in electronic bill presentment and payment. "In 2005, electronic bill payment and presentment (EBPP) adoption grew by 34%, the highest annual growth rate in four years. Robust adoption growth is expected during the next five years. as the number of EBPP users will grow by 63% to roughly 60 million households."
First Data's Star business unit is holding a webinar on the subject of "Data Breach Planning and Response: Issues, Insights & Actions" on Wednesday, February 7, 2007, at 11:00 am EST. Guest experts will include: Peter Burns - Federal Reserve Bank Of Philadelphia, Bruce Cundiff - Javelin Strategy & Research, and Beth Lynn - First Data.
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) Legislative Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Hatcher today issued the following statement based on comments from Senator Christopher Dodd (D- CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, at this morning's Hearing titled "Examining the Billing, Marketing, and Disclosure Practices of the Credit Card Industry and Their Impact on Consumers." » Continue Reading
StoreNext Retail Technologies and Pay By Touch have announced an agreement under which the two companies will market and distribute Pay By Touch’s biometric authentication and payment service to independent grocers. The companies says that their joint solution "minimizes grocers’ transaction costs while allowing shoppers to pay for purchases with the simple touch of a finger." » Continue Reading
The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing this morning on the "Billing, Marketing, and Disclosure Practices of the Credit Card Industry, and Their Impact on Consumers". The committee's web site has been updated to include the prepared testimony of the participants along with a video archive of the hearing itself. In his opening statement, committee chairman Sen. Christopher J. Dodd said that he "would like to put the credit card industry, issuing banks and card associations on notice. If you currently engage in any business practice that you would be ashamed to discuss before this Committee, I would strongly encourage you to cease and desist that practice. Irrespective of the current legality of such practices, you should take a long, hard look at how you treat your customers, both in the short term and the long term."
Mike Scott writes for the Oakland, MI Business Review about the give and take between merchants and banks with respect to the fees merchants pay for PIN-based vs. signature-based debit transactions. Separately, the Center for Responsible Lending has announced a new study titled "Debit Card Danger" (PDF) that concludes that banks are "taking advantage of the upward trend in debit card use to make high-cost overdraft loans more common and still costlier. “What banks are calling ‘bounce protection’ is starting to look more like a ‘protection racket,’” said Eric Halperin, director of CRL’s Washington office and a co-author of the report. “Banks are raking in fees from unwitting customers who would not overdraft if given a choice.”
James C. McGrath and Ann Kjos of the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia have published a conference summary report for a conference held at the bank last September. » Continue Reading
RSA has announced the findings of its fourth annual Financial Institution Consumer Online Fraud Survey. Conducted in December 2006, the online survey(1) asked 1,678 adults(2) from eight countries(3) around the world for their opinions on evolving fraud threats such as phishing, vishing and keylogging, and on the efforts of their financial institutions to strengthen remote channel banking authentication. » Continue Reading
Javelin's Bruce Cundiff offers his comments on PayPal's earnings - as announced yesterday by eBay - and the level of "off eBay" payment volume handled by PayPal (about 36%). Cundiff suggests that "PayPal needs to find another niche (be it transactional, consumer, regional, or otherwise) to prove its worth and further bump up off eBay volume."
First Data Corp. has announced it has acquired Size Technologies, a provider of loyalty, stored value and transaction marketing solutions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. » Continue Reading
Christopher Conkey reports for the Wall St. Journal on today's Senate Banking Committee hearing examining the "disclosure, marketing and billing strategies of credit card firms" - saying that "With Democrats now in control of the agenda, the microscope is being focused on how terms offered by banks and credit-card networks burden many consumers." See the Committee's web page for details on today's hearing.
Synovus Financial Corp. has joined NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association as a direct financial institution member. » Continue Reading
Visa has announced it is "making it easier for Manhattan theatregoers to speed through concession lines and get back to their seats before the start of the next act. Sandbar Concessions, the official concessionaire for The Nederlander Organization, serving the Brooks Atkinson, Gershwin, Lunt-Fontanne, Marquis, Minskoff, Nederlander, Neil Simon and Richard Rodgers Theatres, is the first in-theatre refreshment service company to accept Visa credit, debit and contactless payments." » Continue Reading
Aite Group has announced a new report titled "Top Ten Banking Trends for 2007: The Focus on Revenue" that highlights the top ten U.S. banking trends it foresees in 2007. According to Aite, "during 2006 banks devised plans for new initiatives, and they piloted technologies that were focused on revenue growth as opposed to more traditional cost-cutting measures. While operational efficiency remains crucial, those banks that are looking to strengthen their position in 2007 will put last year's plans into action, complete product rollouts, and focus on identifying new revenue streams." » Continue Reading
Andrew Kramer reports for the New York Times about a Russian hacker attack on Sweden's Nordea Bank's customers via a virus distributed via email. According to the report, "thieves using the program in Sweden defrauded 250 customers of Nordea’s online banking service over a period of 15 months."
Are you a payments professional looking for a new position? Or, are you an employer (or a recruiter) looking to hire a payments professional? Be sure to check out the new (beta!) PaymentsJobs.com website - in partnership with SimplyHired.com. Employers and recruiters can post jobs for payments professionals here.
The Google Operating System blog notes the new, larger Google Checkout buttons now being tested - much bigger than the original little green shopping cart icon in participating merchant ads.
Mercator Advisory Group has announced an update on anti-money laundering (AML) activity titled "Moving Toward The 'Total Mix'." According to Mercator, this report examines the growing FI-wide approach to AML as well as trends in compliance enforcement, suspicious activity reporting for 2006 and AML vendor consolidation. The report focuses in particular on the markets for and vendors of AML technologies addressing the small and mid-market banking segments. » Continue Reading
eBay, PayPal's parent, reported fourth quarter 2006 financial results today. PayPal's revenue for the quarter grew to $417 million, up 37% year over year and its number of user accounts grew to a total of 133 million, up 38 percent. » Continue Reading
The Massachusetts Bankers Association said today that "several banks across the Bay State have reported incidents of fraud due to the recently disclosed data breach by the TJX Companies. The fraudulent use of debit and credit card data has thus far been used to make purchases in Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana in the U.S., and Hong Kong and Sweden overseas." » Continue Reading
Vivian Wai-Yin Kwok reports for Forbes on Visa International's partnership with the Bank of China for the 2008 Olympics to be held in Beijing.
30 Second Software has announced “Digby" - describing it as "an electronic commerce service that radically simplifies the buying experience by combining rich content from name-brand retailers with an intuitive shopping process that is optimized for mobile devices." » Continue Reading
Donald P. Morgan of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has published a staff report titled "Defining and Detecting Predatory Lending" (PDF). From the abstract: "We find that in states with higher payday loan limits, less educated households and households with uncertain income are less likely to be denied credit, but are not more likely to miss a debt payment. Absent higher delinquency, the extra credit from payday lenders does not fit our definition of predatory. Nevertheless, it is expensive."
Robert Schroeder reports for MarketWatch that the US Senate Banking Committee is planning to hold a hearing this Thursday titled “Examining the Billing, Marketing, and Disclosure Practices of the Credit Card Industry, and Their Impact on Consumers.” » Continue Reading
Dave Friedlos of Computing provides some background on the recently announced Oyster-enabled Barclaycard.
ClickandBuy has announced it will "offer its full and comprehensive suite of services to BitPass merchants. ClickandBuy’s payment platform provides all different types of payments – not only micropayments, but more lucrative payments – payments such as monthly subscriptions, yearly fees and other payment structures, that can help merchants make more money online." Last week Bitpass announced it was ceasing operations. » Continue Reading
National City Global Treasury Management has announced "Corporate Remote Capture, an e-commerce solution with robust capabilities that provides the bank's business clients with a convenient, electronic way to manage check collections at their location and eliminate branch visits to make deposits." » Continue Reading
Gemalto has announced that its personalization center outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada is the first to achieve smart banking card certification from Interac, Canada’s debit and Automated Banking Machine (ABM) network. » Continue Reading
According to an NRF survey, conducted by BIGresearch, consumers have plenty left to spend on gift cards purchased for the last holiday season: shoppers said they had spent less than half of the value of their gift cards (37.3% on average) by the second week in January. » Continue Reading
The Mercator Advisory Group has published a new research report titled "Credit Card Fraud Update: Silos Versus The Balloon Effect" examining "the incidence of a range of card fraud types, such as issuer and online retailer fraud losses, as well as less well defined or publicized fraud activities." » Continue Reading
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
Aite Group has announced a new report, Biometric Payments and Rewards: A Case Study, that provides an "in-depth review of the deployment of Pay By Touch technology at a grocery store named Green Hills." According to the report, "nine months after the introduction of Pay By Touch's SmartShop loyalty and payment solution, 25% of Green Hills' sales are made via biometric payments, and 28% of those are processed over the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network." » Continue Reading
Obopay has announced that it is entering the Indian market for mobile payments and has appointed Aditya Menon as chief information and technology officer for India "as part of an international expansion to bring mobile payments to banks, carriers and consumers all over the world." » Continue Reading
Wells Fargo has announced that, starting this week, its customers in Central California can deposit cash and checks directly into ATMs without an envelope. Wells Fargo, which already has 400 Envelope-Free WebATM machines in Northern California, announced plans to add 825 more of the new machines by the end of the year. » Continue Reading
In yesterday's investor conference call talking points (PDF), American Express CFO Gary Crittenden briefly discussed the average merchant discount rate - which remained flat year over year at 2.55% - with the additional comment that while the longer term trend on the discount rate is negative due to repricing and mix changes among various merchant categories, "the rate has been buoyed more recently by the fact that in some merchant segments, repricing activities have had a positive effect in recognition of the substantial value we bring to those merchants."
DataTreasury Corporation has announced a worldwide licensing agreement with Diebold for the use of four of the company's financial transaction patents relating to "technologies involved in the electronic processing of checks and other financial instruments and include claims related to the capture, transmission, encryption, storing and retrieval of electronic images generated from these types of documents." » Continue Reading
Dave Birch blogs about recent news reports about gift cards and crime - concluding "gift cards don't rob people, people rob people."
Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan recently described how the OCC assists national bank customers with questions and complaints during a speech to banking and finance professionals and consumer advocates. » Continue Reading
Moneris Solutions has announced a new partnership with Recreation Sports Management, the creators of www.esportsdeskpro.com, to offer Web-based payments and other services to the company’s athletic leagues, organizations and team clients. » Continue Reading
Sapphire Mobile Systems has announced the live version of its Phire mobile banking and payments network which the company says is currently in trials at two major US financial institutions. The service gives banks and prepaid debit card issuers the ability to provide their customers with instant access to their accounts using the Short Message Service (SMS) - allowing consumers to check balances, transfer money between accounts and pay bills through their bank's existing bill pay system. » Continue Reading
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
TrustedID has announced what it calls "the first-ever free global service that allows consumers to check a secure database to find out if their personal information has been stolen or compromised." The new service -- StolenID Search -- is powered by "the world’s largest aggregation of stolen and compromised data and contains more than 2 million pieces of information." » Continue Reading
American Express has published its fourth quarter financial results - reporting a growth of 16% in its worldwide billed business, a 10% increase in total cards issued worldwide, and a 7% increase in average spending per card. » Continue Reading
Saying that "a society is seriously out of whack when legalized loan sharks are encouraged to close in on those who are broke and desperately ill", New York Times columnist Bob Herbert writes about the credit card industry in his column today titled "Your MasterCard or Your Life". Herbert cites a recent report by Demos and the Access Project titled "Borrowing to Stay Healthy: How Credit Card Debt Is Related to Medical Expenses" that pointed out how frequently credit cards are used for medical-related debts. He concludes by saying "we need to protect financially vulnerable patients from a credit card universe in which there are no legal limits on fees or interest, and where the abuse of customers is the norm."
Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Commercial Capture Solutions" that examines the rapid growth in check image deposits last year and the increasing use of check images for inter-bank transfers. » Continue Reading
TowerGroup has published a new research report titled "Fraud, Virus and ID Theft: Mobile Malware Stands to Create a New Beginning" - saying that as the use of mobile