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Scott Berinato writes an article for CIO titled "How Online Criminals Make Themselves Tough to Find, Near Impossible to Nab". According to Berinato, "computer crime has shifted from a game of disruption to one of access. The hacker’s focus has shifted too, from developing destructive payloads to circumventing detection."
Jim Bruene blogs about his upcoming Online Banking Report issue on the topic of Social Personal Finance. Jim says it will include "a detailed look at Wesabe and Lending Club, which is catering entirely to Facebook users, and what banks should do to compete and/or partner with this new type of financial provider."
The Financial Services Technology Consortium has posted some of the presentations from its recent Annual Conference to its website.
In a new post-FFIEC implementation article titled "What Banks Tell Online Customers About Their Security", Sarah D. Scalet writes for CIO Magazine writes about what she earlier called "creative" authentication. She writes about her experiences calling Citibank, Chase, and Bank of America and asking the call center reps about her concerns about online security.
MasterCard has filed with the SEC a copy of its presentations from today's MasterCard Investment Community Day. MasterCard has also posted the presentation materials (PDF) and related product information (PDF) to its web site.
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
On Thursday, May 31, MasterCard's Investment Community Day presentations begin at 9 AM Eastern time. The event is scheduled to run for 3 hours and 45 minutes. A replay is to be available after the event.
Transcepta has announced an Internet-based electronic invoicing community that brings trading partners together – a place where buyers and vendors find common ground to process invoices free from the everyday constraints of paper and rigid computing systems. » Continue Reading
Bonna De La Cruz writes for the Gannett News Service about the cashless, contactless society ahead - asking "what's the fate of the Salvation Army's familiar red kettles and the tip jars that performers depend on?"
Unisys has announced it will design and help implement a new electronic check and image processing system in a consulting, software and hardware agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, acting on behalf of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks. » Continue Reading
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
Avivah Litan from Gartner is out with a new note titled "New PCI Security Standards Council Needs More Power". From the abstract: "The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council's newly elected Board of Advisors will help to improve stakeholder communication. But the advisors need voting power and expanded authority to resolve problems."
Barclaycard in the UK is celebrating the upcoming 10th anniversary of its Connect Card, the UK's first debit card. According to Barclays, "June 3rd, 1987 was the day that Barclays revolutionised the nation’s spending habits by putting the UK’s first debit card, the Barclays Connect card, into the purses and wallets of people up and down the country. The new cards caught on immediately and just nine months after the launch Barclays issued its millionth card." » Continue Reading
MasterCard has announced the results of a study titled "Women in the Financial Marketplace" conducted as part of the Yankelovich MONITOR 2006/07 study. The study, commissioned by MasterCard Worldwide, found that debit card usage by women has more than doubled since 2003, growing from 20 percent to 43 percent - with women now representing 61 percent of the most frequent debit card users. » Continue Reading
Wachovia has announced that, less than a year since its re-entry into the credit card business, it has reached one million credit card customers in its portfolio. » Continue Reading
HSBC Bank USA has announced HSBC Direct’s Online Payment Account, a new Online Payment Account product that offers instant fund transfers to and from the HSBC Direct Online Savings Account (OSA) and pays a current yield of 2.50% APY. According to HSBC, "this account allows customers to leave funds in the high-yield OSA longer, and fluidly manage their money so that they can maximize the value of every dollar, every day. Customers can also earn interest on money in the Online Payment Account used for everyday expenses, and then promptly move anything they do not spend back into high-yield savings, getting the most earning power from both." » Continue Reading
Aneace Haddad of Welcome Real-time blogs about a potential unintended consequence of SEPA - that the elimination of national debit card monopolies could lead to a spiraling up of interchange fees as brands compete for issuance by banks. Haddad says "now that banks finally have a choice, it will be irresistible for them to choose the brand that offers the highest interchange. The old European national debit brands have never had to deal with this before."
The Reserve Bank of Australia has a paper titled "Reform of Australia’s Payments System: Issues for the 2007/08 Review" (PDF) that begins the formal process of consultation for the Bank’s review of the payments system reforms of recent years in Australia. According to the RBA, "the paper sets out details on the timing and scope of the review and provides a summary of the reforms and their rationale. The paper also raises a number of specific issues on which the Bank is seeking comment from interested parties." More in this story by Katherine Jimenez in The Australian.
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
We spoke last week with Matt Sexstone, head of business development in Capital One's Merchant Client Services unit about their plans to challenge the status quo in the merchant co-brand market. Based on our discussion, Capital One "gets it" with respect to merchants seeking new payments solutions that drive incremental sales and customer loyalty - and has begun offering a unique approach that seems well suited to major retail merchants. Read on for details. » Continue Reading
Kim Leonard reports for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about what some businesses in the Pittsburgh area feel about payment card interchange fees. Leonard reports that "as merchants have watched interchange fees rise from an average 1.5 percent to around 2 percent in the past five years or so, they've tried to enlist consumers, courts and political leaders in their campaign for changes."
Bonna de la Cruz writes for the Gannett News Service reports on how cards are displacing cash for purchase payments - reporting that "in the amount of time it takes to reach into your wallet, you could wave a credit card in front of a sensor and be halfway to the exit."
Paul Nussbaum writes for the Philadelphia Enquirer about the increasing use of smart cards by transit agencies in major cities around the US - including the upcoming launch of smart cards by Philadelphia's PATCO. Nussbaum reports that "Washington, Boston, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle and Houston are among the regions moving to transit smart cards, with plans to eventually enable the cards to pay for parking, coffee, newspapers and other sundries of the commuting life."
Paul Nussbaum writes for the Philadelphia Enquirer about Gemalto North America's card plant in Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania, calling it the "biggest manufacturer of transit "smart cards" in the United States."
Loren Steffy, business columnist for the Houston Chronicle, writes about his observations on the use of credit in America from watching the movie Maxed Out, "a documentary about consumer debt by filmmaker James D. Scurlock that will be released on DVD in early June."
Rob Walker writes for the Boston Globe about "skins" for credit cards - introduced by a company named CreditCovers - that contain "special designs that consumers can stick over the fronts of their cards, theoretically transforming them from mere financial tools to emblems of identity and potential conversation starters."
Miles Brignall reports for The Guardian that Barclaycard in the UK is considering imposing fees on cardholders who don't use their Barclaycards "enough". Lloyds TSB began a similar practice earlier this year.
George Chen reports for Reuters from Shanghai about plans by China's Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to double its credit card issuance this year to 20 million cards. "Beijing is encouraging officials to use credit cards to pay for goods and services as a way to reduce corruption, as they can help it to trace transaction records, government and regulatory sources have said."
In an article titled 'A Highly Charged Relationship - Americans Can't Do Without Their Credit Cards, But the Card Companies Are Another Matter", Washington Post writer Kathleen Day says that "while Americans love the convenience of plastic, they often hate the credit card issuer. Credit card complaints outstrip all other bank-related grievances filed with federal regulators in recent years."
Wendy Pollack writes for The Informed Reader at the Wall St. Journal Online reports that in Iraq "at least one bank, the Trade Bank of Iraq, has begun offering credit cards — so far, it has issued 15,000 of them."
Shift4 Corporation has announced new technology for current and legacy point-of-sale (POS) systems that, when used with Shift4's $$$ ON THE NET(r) gateway, removes all useable personal credit card data at the POS terminal, in back-office data storage and during all data transport. » Continue Reading
Reuters India reports that "electronic transactions in India are set to double in the next three years with the Reserve Bank of India, the banking system, aggregators and merchants pulling out all stops to promote it."
Tim Landis reports for the Springfield, Illinois Journal Register about a local restaurant's data breach resulting in reissuance of a number of debit cards. The comments at the bottom of the story reflect some of the consumer frustrations associated with this kind of event.
American Express has announced that IndyMac Bank, the nation’s second largest independent mortgage lender, will be among the first to offer this Express Rewards Mortgage program to borrowers seeking eligible prime loans. » Continue Reading
Card Technology reports on comments by Bank of America's John Suchanec regarding the bank's recent trial of contactless mobile phone-based payments - saying the results "failed to inspire".
Lending Club, a Sunnyvale, California-based startup, has launched a new person-to-person lending service on the social networking service FaceBook. From the company's web site: "Lending Club is an online lending community where people can borrow and lend money, bypass the banks, and get better rates. By working together, members can borrow money more easily and at a better rate than they would get from a bank, or invest in a pool of loans at higher rates than those served by savings accounts or CDs." Lending Club is using the recently introduced Facebook Platform for integration into Facebook. Read more on the Lending Club blog.
Consumer Action has announced the release of its 2007 Credit Card Survey (PDF) - saying it reveals new details about a range of credit card industry practices. » Continue Reading
The law firm of Perkins Coie reports on the more than 100 class action lawsuits that have been filed in federal court since December 2006 against a broad spectrum of retailers alleging violations of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act ("FACTA") of 2003 (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.). "The suits allege these companies "willfully" violated FACTA by generating electronic customer credit or debit card receipts containing prohibited information, and seek awards of what some courts have described as "annihilating" statutory damages in the $100 million to $1 billion range, plus punitive damages and attorneys’ fees."
Mercator Advisory Group has announced a teleconference titled "U.S. Mobile Banking and Payments: Finding the Seams, Accelerating the Pace" - scheduled for Friday, June 1, beginning at 1 PM Eastern.
Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report that "evaluates the changes that have occurred in the Debit Reward marketplace in the last year by comparing the state of the debit reward programs at the top fifty debit card issuers (in annual card holder spending) today as compared to more than a year ago." » Continue Reading
APACS has highlighted this week as the 10th anniversary of online banking in the UK, calling it a significant milestone in the evolution of UK banking and payments. "Over the last ten years online banking has become increasingly popular and the number of people using the service has risen five fold in the last six years alone. In 2006 there were a record 18.1 million Britons banking online and for the first time the number of adults using internet banking exceeded those using telephone banking. Today, half of all internet users in the UK bank online." » Continue Reading
MasterCard has announced that it will host an investment community meeting on May 31, 2007 at the Company's headquarters. Members of MasterCard's senior management team will provide updates on the company's operational, business and product initiatives. A live web cast of the formal presentations beginning at 9:00 AM EDT will be available on the Investor Relations section of MasterCard's website. A replay of the event will be available approximately one day later and will be archived for 90 days.
We're fans of Google's Patent search service and its fast and easy searches of issued US patents. Google recently added a "Download PDF" option to the service that allows you to quickly save a copy of a patent that you've found of interest. Here's an example: US Patent 6,341,724 titled "Cardless Payment System".
Forrester has published a new report about how Wells Fargo's Internet Services Group "used Web site metrics, customer survey data, and internal search information to develop a home page steeped in analytics, not opinions. Forrester sat down with Stephanie Smith, senior vice president and head of online sales and marketing, and Brett Pitts, manager of the ISG's Web channel management to discuss the Web site launch and its results to date."
Robin Sidel reports for the Wall St. Journal that Citigroup is "replacing thousands of Visa-branded American Airlines credit cards with new account numbers and cards that carry the American Express logo." Some cardholders aren't happy about the change.
The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), an independent industry standards body providing management of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (DSS) on a global basis, has announced the results of elections for the PCI SSC Board of Advisors. The Board of Advisors will represent the current roster of nearly 200 PCI SSC Participating Organizations and provide feedback to the ongoing enhancement of security standards managed by the Council. » Continue Reading
John Quain reports for the New York Times about how banks are enabling their customers to use their cell phones for basic banking functions.
Arcot is holding a seminar in New York on Wednesday, June 6, titled "Taking the eFraud Out of eBanking - Preventing Identity Fraud in Financial Services".
Helen Mirza writes an article titled "Gift Cards – Facts and Cautions Regarding a Widely Used Financial Product" (PDF) for the May 2007 issue of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Profitwise News and View periodical.
Canadian Tire and MasterCard Canada have announced that all of Canadian Tire Retail's 468 stores will be ready to accept MasterCard chip cards by the end of 2008. Canadian Tire is setting up its software, point-of-sale systems, and retail processes to be chip-ready as MasterCard issuers gear up to introduce chip cards across the Canadian market. » Continue Reading
Update: See Jim Bruene's report on the first Mobile Commerce Summit.
Crone Consulting,LLC, American Banker and CardTechnology have announced a Mobile Commerce Summit to be June 18-19, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV.
The Federal Reserve Board has issued for public comment proposed amendments to Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) that are intended to improve the effectiveness of the disclosures consumers receive in connection with credit card accounts and other revolving credit plans by ensuring that information is provided in a timely manner and in a form that is readily understandable. » Continue Reading
Metavante yesterday filed an S-4 Registration Statement with the SEC as part of the previously announced plan to separate Marshall & Ilsley’s banking business and Metavante’s business into two separate, publicly-traded companies.
American Express has announced that its cardholders will be able to pay monthly home mortgage payments on its cards. Amex said that "American Home Mortgage Corp. will be the first lender to offer this Express Rewards Mortgage program for eligible prime loans." The program also provides Amex's Membership Rewards, cash back, airline or hotel points or other types of rewards affiliated with their card for the mortgage payments. Cardholders must pay a one-time fee of $395 to the lender for enrollment in the Express Rewards Mortgage program at the time of mortgage closing. » Continue Reading
NOVA Information Systems has announced a data security compliance program to help "Level 4" merchants comply with the Payment Card Industry Data security Standard (PCI DSS). According to the PCI DSS, Level 4 merchants are defined by processing fewer than 20,000 e-commerce transactions and/or fewer than 1 million Visa or MasterCard transactions annually. NOVA currently processes for more than 850,000 merchants in North America, most of which meet the Level 4 criteria. » Continue Reading
We've long been intrigued with Wesabe, a Berkeley, California-based personal financial management startup, since they launched. They've got a loyal group of users and the management team uses their feedback endlessly to improve their service. For some insights into what's happening at Wesabe, view the LunchMeet's interview with Wesabe's Jason Knight, CEO, and Marc Hedlund, chief product officer.
First Data Corp. announced this morning that it had not received any other bids for the company other than the original bid from KKR.
Bank of America has announced the completion of the rollout of its secure Mobile Banking service -- enabling more than 20 million Online Banking customers to manage their personal finances 'on the go.' Consumers across the country now can use their cell phones and smartphones to check account balances, pay bills and transfer money. » Continue Reading
MasterCard has announced its fifth annual Global Risk Management Symposium, bringing together more than 250 senior security professionals from financial services, law enforcement and other related industries in Huntington Beach, Calif., May 22-24. According to MasterCard, "the symposium is a three-day conference focused on exploring the security techniques, technologies and best practices for preventing and mitigating payment card fraud." » Continue Reading
Toys “R” Us has announced a new online service that allows customers to purchase gift cards directly from its web site and also allows shoppers the ability to create personalized gift cards. » Continue Reading
IP Commerce has announced that it will offer payment services powered by PayPal including an email invoicing solution in PASS Commerce Center and a Sales Ticker, as part of the PASS Gadget which can be placed in the Windows Vista sidebar. According to the companies, "small businesses using PASS Commerce Center and services will benefit from improved cash flow, visibility into their financial standing, best practice security measures that reduce fraud and identity theft, and the ability to extend greater flexibility of payment options to their customers." » Continue Reading
Aaron Tan reports for ZDNet Asia from a mobile financial services conference in Singapore - saying that "while security concerns may encumber the adoption of mobile financial services, industry players agree they have to prep themselves for greater demand for such services in future."
JupiterResearch has announced a new report titled "Payment Preferences Online: Managing the Generation Gap Between Mature and Young Adults" that found that younger consumers (those under 35 years of age) are evolving very different payment and content consumption habits from adults over 35. In particular, "JupiterResearch found that younger adults are driving much of the usage of PayPal and debit cards for online purchases, product preferences which are helping to drive the marked differences in payment habits that exist between younger adults and baby boomers." » Continue Reading
Telsecure Group has announced securePay, calling it "a new transaction security system to foil internet, mail and telephone card fraud." Telsecure says it is partnering with Sybase365 and Ingenico. » Continue Reading
Paul Craig writes for The News-Review from Roseburg, Oregon about how "a check won’t buy a Big Mac. It can’t necessarily be used to purchase a bagel, either." He also reports that "paying with cards is not only faster than writing a check, it actually leads to quicker service than using cash, since all a teller has to do is scan the card."
Seeking Alpha posts an article reviewing the latest SEC 10-12B/A filing re: Morgan Stanley's plan to spinout its Discover Financial Services unit later this year.
EverBank has announced it will acquire NetBank's direct banking and small business financing divisions and mortgage servicing portfolio - a transaction that will increase Everbank's assets to approximately $7 billion, its deposits to approximately $6 billion, and its customer base to over 550,000. » Continue Reading
Julie Creswell writes for the New York Times about three women and how unusual property transactions in their Atlanta neighborhood caused them to focus on the problem of mortage fraud.
Liz Pulliam-Weston writes for MSN Money about bank fees - saying that "the banking industry collects more than $50 billion a year in various service charges, more than twice the total of a decade ago. It's time we pushed back."
Earlier this week, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., introduced legislation to "stop some of the most egregious credit card practices that unfairly deepen or prolong credit card debt held by consumers. The Stop Unfair Practices in Credit Cards Act (PDF) follows an investigation and hearing by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which Levin chairs and on which McCaskill serves."
In his floor statement introducing the bill, Sen. Levin said that the bill "would stop credit card companies from charging interest on debt that is paid on time. It would crack down on abusive fees, including repeated late fees and over-the-limit fees, as well as fees to pay your bill. It would also prohibit the charging of interest on those fees. It would establish guidelines on interest rate increases, including a cap on penalty interest rate hikes at no more than seven percent. And it would require that increased interest rates apply only to future credit card debt, and not to debt already incurred." » Continue Reading
Wells Fargo has announced the launch of Returned Item & Deposit Details, an enhancement to its Wells Fargo Business Online Banking service. According to the bank, "with this rollout, Wells Fargo is one of the first major U.S. financial institutions to offer small- to mid-sized business customers access to electronic images of returned items, as well as an array of other electronic images, including cleared checks and deposited checks - as part of its online banking service." » Continue Reading
Wayne Heilman writes for the Colorado Springs Gazette about debit card cash reward programs offered by credit unions and provided by Rainbow Rewards USA Inc.
USA Today's Christine Dugas writes about all manner of rewards cards available to consumers today - noting that "some rewards cards can be misleading, especially if you neglect to study the fine print."
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Wells Fargo has announced its CEO Mobile service to a select group of customers, saying it has become "the first major U.S. financial services company to offer mobile service for businesses." » Continue Reading
Celent has published a new report titled "US Mobile Banking: Beyond the Buzz" concluding that "mobile banking is here to stay and will grow significantly faster than online banking." » Continue Reading
Evolution Benefits and The Bancorp Bank have announced an agreement to "provide an integrated solution combining The Bancorp Bank’s health savings accounts and EB’s prepaid benefits card known as Benny to support advanced consumer-directed healthcare programs. The companies’ integrated product will be available in early June." » Continue Reading
Brink’s U.S. and Metavante have announced the launch of Metavante’s Sendpoint distributed image capture service to Brinks’ cash vaults across the country. Metavante’s Sendpoint service provides for the remote image capture and image exchange of deposits and payments received from Brink's Vaults, accelerating deposit capture from receipt through posting and presentment. » Continue Reading
Virgin USA has announced that it has acquired a majority stake in CircleLending, Inc., a financial services company that "pioneered the business of managing loans between relatives and friends." » Continue Reading
Acxiom has announced that it has "entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Silver Lake, the leading investment firm focused on large-scale investments in technology-driven growth industries, and ValueAct Capital, one of the largest investment firms that makes strategic block and control investments in public and private companies. Silver Lake and ValueAct Capital will acquire 100 percent of the outstanding equity interests in the company in an all-cash transaction valued at $3.0 billion, including the assumption of approximately $756 million of debt." » Continue Reading
Alliance Data Systems Corporation has announced that it has "entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Blackstone Capital Partners V L.P., an affiliate of The Blackstone Group, in a transaction valued at approximately $7.8 billion, including the assumption of certain debt. Under the terms of the agreement, Blackstone will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Alliance Data for $81.75 per share in cash. The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 30 percent over Alliance Data's closing share price of $62.96 on May 16, 2007." » Continue Reading
Dan Fost writes for the San Francisco Chronicle about the latest technology for payments that he saw at this week's CardTech/SecureTech show in San Francisco. "Allen Weinberg, a managing partner at Glenbrook Partners, a payments industry consultant in Menlo Park, said new payment methods are already showing up in places like McDonald's and 7-Eleven. He described a friend who, despite being a "mileage hound" who charged nearly every purchase to earn frequent-flier points, was reluctant to pay for his bag of burgers at McDonald's with his Visa card. Then Weinberg tapped his wallet on the reader, it beeped, and the transaction was done. "He said, 'I would do that,' " Weinberg said. "The overriding theme is speed and convenience."
Consumer Action and American Express have announced plans to expand their jointly developed credit card education program called "Credit Cards: What You Need to Know." The program is centered on a training module with a curriculum and educational brochures, translated into five languages, that are distributed to the more than 9,000 community-based organizations within Consumer Action's network to educate consumers about how to best choose and use credit cards. » Continue Reading
Aetna has announced it is "working with Medical Funding Services (MFS) to introduce expanded electronic options to simplify billing and reimbursement. MFS will offer its financial services and related electronic payment solutions to network health care providers in select markets. These include an online solution that combines the health plan and patient portions of a medical bill into a single payment to health care providers." » Continue Reading