« February 2008 | Main | April 2008 »
Citi Cards and Firethorn Holdings, a Qualcomm company, have announced a 'strategic relationship to enable Citi credit cardmembers to easily and securely access real-time account information anytime, anywhere on their wireless handsets. The new service is expected to be available to Citi credit card customers across the U.S. by the third quarter this year.' » Continue Reading
In an article titled 'Making Appointments for Doctor or Dinner', Bob Tedeschi writes for his weekly E-Commerce Report in the New York Times about new services that enable small businesses and service providers to allow customers to schedule their services online. HourTown, one of the new breed of online calendar services that Tedeschi discusses in his article, was started by a good friend of ours, Ryan Donahue.
Students of the US regulatory structure as it relates to financial services will find the Department of the Treasury's just released Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Structure of interest. The document contains the history of the current regime along with recommendations for a wide ranging set of changes to better accommodate the current realities and future prospects. The Blueprint was introduced earlier today in a speech by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
The March 2008 edition of the First Annapolis Navigator is now available. This month's feature article is 'Acquirer Portfolio Mix and Growth Performance in a Recession.' Other articles include: 'Leaving a Paper Trail – The Changing Landscape in Commercial Payments', 'Movement from Mobile Banking Towards Mobile Payments', and 'Spain: European Banks Make In-Roads with Credit Cards'. You must register with First Annapolis to request the Navigator.
CompUSA has announced that it is now accepting PayPal as a way to pay for purchases made on the CompUSA.com website. "CompUSA is the latest in the Systemax family of brands to offer PayPal. PayPal is currently accepted in North America at TigerDirect.com, TigerDirect.ca and now CompUSA." More from Mary Anne Gillespie on The PayPal Blog. » Continue Reading
Sara Silver reports for the Wall St. Journal on plans by Western Union, RadioShack, and Affinity Mobile's Trumpet Mobile to introduce a new service that 'lets people send money through their cellphones.' Silver says that 'to use the service, people will have to go to one of RadioShack's more than 4,000 stores and sign up for a Trumpet pre-paid phone - a cellphone where customers pay in advance for minutes to be used over a fixed period of time. Customers can then load up to $200 onto their phones for transfer via Western Union's network either within the U.S. or internationally.' Earlier this month, Kimberly Johnson reported on Affinity Mobile for the Denver Post.
Nearly 90 percent of Americans say they feel safe online despite the rising tide of spyware, phishing and other badware threatening Internet users, according to a new poll sponsored by StopBadware.org, a consumer protection initiative aimed at combating dangerous software. » Continue Reading
The MIT Media Laboratory and Bank of America have announced 'the creation of the Center for Future Banking, a five-year collaboration to which Bank of America has committed $3-5 million annually. The new research center, which will be located at the Media Lab on the MIT campus, will serve as an innovation engine that will seek to transform the ways banking will be conducted in a world of rapidly changing social, economic, and information landscapes.' » Continue Reading
Bank of America has announced the availability of MLB banking - described as 'an exclusive new suite of personal banking products for fans of all 30 Major League Baseball Clubs. MLB banking is the only nationwide portfolio of Club-specific checks, MasterCard check cards and credit cards that are complemented by special rewards for fans of America's National Pastime.' » Continue Reading
In a press release this morning, Shell said 'don't be surprised if you see drivers smiling as they fill up at Shell-branded gasoline stations this summer. They'll likely be taking advantage of an "Earn 25 Cents per Gallon" second quarter promotion designed to reward new Shell Gasoline Card consumer account holders for their gasoline purchases.' » Continue Reading
Vindicia, has announced that it has added a fraud screening module to its integrated billing and fraud management offerings, Vindicia CashBox and Vindicia ChargeGuard, that 'enables online merchants to adopt sophisticated commerce models to build revenue, and optimize their false positive and customer acquisition rates while continuing to prudently manage occurrences of true fraud.' » Continue Reading
Vikram Pandit, Citi's Chief Executive Officer, has announced what Citi is calling 'a comprehensive reorganization of Citi's structure to achieve greater client focus and connectivity, global product excellence, and clear accountability.' Citi has reorganized its consumer group into two global businesses – Consumer Banking and Global Cards. Teresa A. 'Terri' Dial has been named Global Head of Consumer Strategy and CEO of Consumer Banking in North America. Citi has also consolidated its United States and international credit card businesses into a single global business led by Steven Freiberg, CEO of Global Cards. » Continue Reading
Dave Birch writes on the Digital Money Forum blog about what he's learning about business cases for NFC. Dave says that "retail e-payment strategy is, in the long run, mobile payment strategy which is, in the short run, contactless payment strategy."
The New Yorker's regular financial columnist, James Surowiecki, writes this week about the US bankruptcy laws - suggesting that the changes to US consumer bankruptcy law made in 2005 'ended up making the economy less dynamic and less flexible.' Surowiecki mentions a recent paper 
by John Armour and Douglas Cumming that 'found a close correlation between the nature of a country’s bankruptcy laws and its rate of self-employment.'
Chockstone has announced SingleSwipe, calling it 'a new identification program that allows credit and debit card companies and merchants to tie merchant loyalty programs to a customer's existing credit or debit card.' » Continue Reading
Robin Sidel reports for the Wall St. Journal on American Express' plans to discontinue its 'Express Pay' contactless keyfob. An Amex spokesman says that they've found their customers prefer to use contactless in the traditional card form factor, not in a keyfob.
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
In an article titled 'Data Theft Carried Out On Network Thought Secure', Joseph Pereira writes for the Wall St. Journal about the recently reported payment card data breach at the Hannaford Bros. and Sweetbay grocery chains.
On the Credit Slips blog, Adam Levitin reacts to yesterday's Wall St. Journal editorial about the Credit Card Fair Fee Act. His stepping off point is the editorial's reference to the recent US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit court decision in the Kendall v. Visa U.S.A. litigation . Levitin concludes: "Like with WSJ, I’m all for a market solution to excessively high interchange fees. But I’m doubtful that the market will solve the problem if left solely to its own devices. Court or legislative intervention is necessary."
Jim Bruene has announced the final starting lineup of 40 financial technology startups for the upcoming FinovateStartup conference to be held on April 29 in San Francisco. If you register by Monday, March 31, you can save $100. We'll be attending FinovateStartup ourselves and look forward to seeing you there!
In an article titled 'Fiserv Is Largely Immune To Banking's Plagues', Jack Willoughby writes for Barron's this weekend that Fiserv may be among the 'companies whose earnings are likely to rise this year.'
In an article titled 'Advanced tactic targeted grocer', Ross Kerber writes for the Boston Globe about how the data breach disclosed earlier this month by Hannaford Bros. Co. actually occurred. In a letter to Massachusetts officials, the company reported that malware had been installed on servers in each of its 300 stores. "The malware intercepted the "track 2" data stored on the magnetic stripe of payment cards as customers used them at the checkout counter." Hannaford had been certified as PCI compliant in late February. In 2005, Hannaford was featured for its migration to a Linux-based in-store POS environment.
The Wall St. Journal has an editorial this morning about the Credit Card Fair Fee Act introduced by House Democrat John Conyers of Michigan and Republican Chris Cannon of Utah. 'The Conyers-Cannon bill requires that any credit card company with more than 20% of the credit and debit market -- Visa has about 50% and MasterCard 25% -- negotiate for 90 days with a coalition of retailers on a mutually acceptable fee. (The retailers would gain an antitrust exemption for these deliberations.) If the parties can't agree, a three-person panel of "electronic payment judges" will "determine rates and terms" which shall be binding. That sounds like a price-control regime.'
Separately, today's New York Times editorial page had an editorial titled 'Plastic Card Tricks' saying that 'Washington needs to change the way these companies [credit card issuers] do business to ensure that consumers are treated fairly.' Further: 'Congress needs to address numerous unfair practices, including interest rates that skyrocket for no apparent reason and due dates that suddenly shift — forward — so that an unwary consumer pays late.'
Edmund L. Andrews reports for the New York Times on plans by the US Treasury Department to announce a 'Blueprint for Financial Regulatory Reform' (see executive summary) on Monday. According to the Times, Treasury will propose 'that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.' » Continue Reading
Over on the Credit Slips blog, Adam Levitin writes about his own recent experience attempting to dispute a charge on his credit card resulting from a merchant error.
Forrester has published a new report titled 'Customer Relationship Snapshot: Credit Card Providers' by Bruce D. Temkin based on a survey of nearly 5,000 US consumers. » Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission has announced that TJX has agreed to settle charges that it engaged in practices that, taken together, failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security for sensitive consumer information. The settlements will require that TJX implement comprehensive information security programs and obtain audits by independent third-party security professionals every other year for 20 years. Full details available here. » Continue Reading
Obopay has announced the launch of its instant money transfer service in India through an alliance between wholly-owned subsidiary Obopay India and YES BANK, an Indian private sector bank. » Continue Reading
Transcard, a provider of prepaid debit card solutions branded with Discover Network, MasterCard and STAR associations, has announced 'the introduction of Transcard Mobile, one of the industry’s first applications built specifically for payroll card members. This new platform enables Transcard payroll card members, a majority of which have text-enabled cell phones, to access full account activity and functions via their cell phones.' » Continue Reading
American Express and GE Money have announced that they have 'entered into an agreement for American Express to purchase Corporate Payment Services, GE’s commercial card and corporate purchasing business unit, for $1.1 billion in cash. The sale, which is subject to customary closing conditions and certain regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed by the end of the month.' » Continue Reading
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
JupiterResearch has published results of a new national survey of 2,706 consumers sponsored by eBillme finding that "while fraud protection and security are the most important factors for online shoppers, 68% of online shoppers who pay with a credit card do not know their liability coverage." » Continue Reading
From their press release: 'The European Commission has decided to open formal antitrust proceedings against Visa Europe Limited in relation to its multilateral interchange fees (MIF) for cross-border point of sale transactions within the EEA using Visa branded consumer payment cards, and the 'Honour-All-Cards-Rule' as it applies to these transactions. The proceedings will seek to establish whether these practices constitute infringements of Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement, which forbid restrictive business practices such as price fixing.' » Continue Reading
In the UK, EAT, Commidea Ltd and Barclaycard Business have announced that EAT, a sandwich, soup and coffee shop, has become the first retailer in the UK to introduce a fully integrated contactless payment system. Using Commidea’s Ocius Chip & PIN solution with contactless technology, Eat will now be able to process both Visa (Paywave) and MasterCard (Paypass) contactless transactions for its customers using Barclaycard Business as their merchant acquirer. » Continue Reading
Bill Me Later, has announced that 'Continental Airlines is offering customers that pay with Bill Me Later $20 off the total price of their airfare. The discount is available to new Bill Me Later customers that purchase tickets at continental.com or by calling Continental reservations at 1-800-523-3273 through April 23. In addition, customers that pay using Bill Me Later can take advantage of special promotional financing offers including no payments for 90 days and no payments for six months on purchases of $1500 or more.' » Continue Reading
Discover Financial Services has announced the launch of the Discover Insurance Center, 'an easy-to-use Web site that offers consumers auto, homeowner’s, and term life insurance, as well as home warranty plans from trusted, reputable providers.' » Continue Reading
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
The Federal Reserve’s 2007 study of the composition of the check market released today shows that nearly 50 percent of checks written are consumer-to-business checks.
» Continue Reading
The IHL Group has released a new study finding that 'the PC-based electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) market in Europe/Middle East/Africa experienced a 4 percent shipment increase in 2007 and continues to show strong growth potential in 2008. Taking advantage of normal cyclical upgrades in Western Europe and enjoying strong oil revenues in Russia and the Middle East, the region is poised to remain strong even while shipments slow in North America.' » Continue Reading
USA Technologies and ViVOtech have announced entering into an agreement by which ViVOtech would provide 25,000 contactless/magstripe card readers for USAT’s ePort technology. » Continue Reading
Denver-based PaySimple has announced a new blog where it says 'small business owners looking for ways to streamline their billings and collections process, find news about electronic payment industry trends, get insights on marketing and teambuilding in a small company, or simply looking for a place to connect with other small business owners.' » Continue Reading
The second session of Glenbrook's new Roundtable on Emerging Payments is now open for registration! This roundtable, being held May 7th in Mountain View, CA, is titled "Cross-Border eCommerce: Pot of Gold and Rainbow of Fraud" and will be taught by Glenbrook Partners Allen Weinberg and Russ Jones. It will be a half day session (morning through lunch). Online registration for this roundtable is now open. For more information, see the Glenbrook Payments Education website, or send an email to bootcamp@glenbrook.com.
AccountNow has announced several new services: the addition of the iAdvance Line of Credit from MetaBank, the elimination of upfront fees for new accounts with direct deposit, and the debut of Money 411, an online financial resource center. » Continue Reading
Our sister website, PaymentsJobs.com, has several new job postings:
If you've got current openings for payments professionals, be sure to post your requirements on PaymentsJobs.com! Featured postings on PaymentsJobs.com cost $200 for a 30-day listing.
A reminder that the Airline Payment Summit is coming up in Toronto, Ontario on April 9-10, 2008. "As airline yields come under downward pressure, Airline Payment Summit (APS) will examine leading-edge low-cost payment solutions within the landscape of traditional forms of payments such as credit cards."
Northwest Airlines has announced that it is "offering cash back into customer PayPal accounts when they purchase a ticket at www.nwa.com using PayPal for payment. PayPal is offering $50 USD cash back into customer PayPal accounts when they purchase tickets of $250 or more by March 27, 2008. Travel must take place between April 1 and June 14, 2008, and tickets must be purchased at www.nwa.com." » Continue Reading
Congressman Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, gave a speech today to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in which he call for a number of "new policy options" to help deal with current issues. Among them, was the notion of a new Financial Service System Risk Regulation (perhaps the Federal Reserve with additional powers) that "has the capacity and power to assess risk across financial markets regardless of corporate form and to intervene when appropriate."
The archive of Pay By Touch-related stories here on Payments News begins over four years ago. It's interesting to scroll back (read from the bottom up) and look at the various partnerships, financings, trials, etc. that Pay By Touch announced along the way prior to shuttering its biometrics payment service at 11:59 PM last night. » Continue Reading
For some time, Amazon.com has offered merchants Fulfillment by Amazon - where they could have Amazon hold their goods for shipment at Amazon's fulfillment centers. Now, Amazon's introduced a new Fulfillment Web Service that enables merchants to programmatically manage their inventories, replenishment and shipment activities using FBA. "Products that are fulfilled by Amazon qualify for all of Amazon's buyer shipping and customer promotions (such as free Super Saver shipping and Amazon Prime) and Amazon takes care of customer service and returns." More on the Amazon Web Services blog.
Discover Financial Services is holding a financial community briefing in New York City this morning. A webcast is underway and the presentation slides are available online in an 8-K filing with the SEC.
Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad and paybox have announced they are partnering to launch new a mobile banking and mobile payment solution for the Malaysian market. » Continue Reading
At its annual meeting today, Starbucks announced several new initiatives including adding a new rewards feature for registered users of its Starbucks Card. Starbucks says that currently one in seven customers uses the Starbucks Card to pay. » Continue Reading
We've received the following announcement from Pay By Touch: "Solidus Networks, Inc., dba Pay By Touch, regretfully announced today that it will no longer process biometric transactions on behalf of its merchant customers and consumer membership base, as 11:59:59pm March 19, 2008." » Continue Reading
Dave Birch writes on the Digital Money Blog about a presentation given by Julian Niblett of Boots, one of the UK's largest retailers, at the New Payments Channels conference in London. Interestingly, Boots studied where in their stores contactless made economic sense, and where it didn't. But, perhaps even more interesting were Niblett's comments on the costs of cash acceptance vs. the cost of cards.
The Financial Services Technology Consortium has announced a new Mobile Banking and Payments Project. The first phase will "identify and document technology-based opportunities for banks in the mobile arena." The project proposal is available online.
Discover Financial Services reported first quarter financial results this morning - with sales volume up 5% and US card managed loans up 2%. Discover reported managed credit card net chargeoffs of 4.37%, up 52 basis points from the prior calendar quarter. A transcript of Discover's earnings call today is available online. Discover will be holding an investor day meeting in New York City tomorrow, Thursday, March 20.
Wells Fargo has announced the Wells Fargo vSafe service, calling it "the first online storage solution from a financial institution that lets retail banking customers store and organize copies of important materials, such as financial statements, loan and tax documents, wills, passports, and birth, marriage and death certificates." » Continue Reading
Visa Inc. began trading this morning on the New York Stock Exchange - stock symbol V - in early trading the shares traded up over 30 percent from the $44 offering price. Visa has added a new Investor Relations section to its corporate web site. Visa Inc.'s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Joseph W. Saunders, made a statement following the launch of trading: "This is an exciting and historic day for Visa. It marks the culmination of a more than two-year process that led to our global reorganization and our becoming a public company." » Continue Reading
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago will host its eighth payments conference entitled “Payments Fraud: Perception versus Reality” on June 5-6, 2008 at the Chicago Fed. The conference, which will highlight threats to the security of the payments system and explore solutions to those challenges, will cover such topics as:
The planned conference agenda is available online. Early registration ends March 28. Registration details here.
We have received news of the following recent management changes:
Visa Inc. announced today that it has priced the initial public offering of 406,000,000 shares of Class A common stock at $44 per share. Visa's shares will begin trading on March 19, 2008, on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "V". Visa expects net proceeds from the offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, to be approximately $17.3 billion. » Continue Reading
The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's Cash Unit has established a Payments Advisory Council "to study and analyze payments trends with an eye toward anticipating consumer behavior." Their first Payments Advisory Council report is now available - surveying nine merchants about the payment options they accept and the trends they're seeing in terms of consumer preferences.
The Smart Card Alliance’s first annual Payments Councils Summit held recently in Salt Lake City, Utah, reviewed the growth of contactless financial and transit payment markets in the US. » Continue Reading
Quova has announced a partnership with Guardian Analytics to help protect online financial accounts from fraud and identity theft. "Under the partnership, Guardian Analytics has integrated Quova’s IP geolocation data into its FraudMAP solution. Providing online channel risk management, FraudMAP delivers fraud detection, forensics and ongoing risk monitoring based on strong analytics and predictive models of individual behavior. The unique solution was built from the ground up to automatically detect new online fraud threats in real time without requiring rules development or algorithm training." » Continue Reading
The PayItGreen Alliance says it is "asking consumers to turn off paper bills and statements and make payments electronically. The Alliance, comprised of leaders in the financial and consumer billing industries, was formed in 2007 to educate consumers about the positive environmental impact of choosing electronic bills, statements and payments over paper alternatives. The Alliance has named April as PayItGreen Month to launch this initiative." » Continue Reading
Obopay has announced that "customers can now use their existing bank accounts to send and receive money via their mobile phone. With Obopay's mobile money transfer, non- customers can pick up payments without signing up for Obopay. These innovations make it easier than ever for any bank customer to conveniently send and receive payments from their mobile phones." » Continue Reading
Metavante has announced that it will process and settle transactions for NACHA’s Secure Vault Payments, an automated clearing house (ACH)-based Internet payments system that allows consumers to conduct e-commerce and bill payment transactions without sharing personal or account information online. » Continue Reading
Cornerstone Advisors has released "Cornerstone Report 2007: Benchmarks and Best Practices for Mid-Size Banks" urging "bankers to recognize how misaligned the industry has become and implores individual banks to break out of a "current closed loop that will go nowhere."" » Continue Reading
Yodlee has announced an agreement with Vodafone UK for it to exclusively re-sell Yodlee’s mobile banking solution. "Yodlee Mobile, which will be individually branded for each UK financial institution, provides customers with easy, secure access and proactive monitoring across multiple financial accounts (banking, investments, bills, credit cards, etc). Access is available through a mobile WAP browser as well as two-way text messages, and alerts can be received on email as well as through text. Two major UK financial institutions have already signed up for the Vodafone/Yodlee Mobile Banking solution, and will launch by year end." » Continue Reading