« November 2011 | Main | January 2012 »
This is the last post of the year for Payments News. We'll be back on January 3rd, 2012 with daily coverage of interesting developments in the world of payments. Thank you for your support in 2011 and best wishes to you and your family this holiday season.
- Russ
eBay has announced that it has acquired BillSAFE, a payment-upon-invoice payment provider in Germany.
By combining BillSAFE with PayPal, which serves more than 15 million accounts in Germany, PayPal believes the addition of BILLSAFE will provide a comprehensive payment service for merchants and consumers. BillSAFE works with merchants of all sizes in Germany, giving them a simple and secure way to let shoppers purchase using an invoice. Customers simply select the item they want to buy, and then they receive an invoice for payment after the item is received.
The BillSAFE website is at www.billsafe.de.
Linkable Networks has announced that consumers can now experience Linkables on-the-go via a new partnership with mphoria, an emerging mobile and social merchandising platform. The company also announced that CardStar will be the first mobile app to feature Linkables.
“Going mobile couldn’t come at a better time, fresh off the launch of our Linkables platform and with growing consumer demand for savings throughout the shopping experience,” said Tom Burgess, CEO of Linkable Networks. “Consumers are increasingly using their smartphones to shop and adopting mobile platforms to seek out savings. Our partnership with mphoria and CardStar will enable those savvy shoppers to experience modern digital coupons at their fingertips and link them to their existing credit or debit card. Shoppers should be on the lookout for the Linkables logo in mobile ads to add new savings to their digital wallets.”
On the web:
On the wires:
Note: Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners. Throughout the day, as we spot interesting developments, this post is updated.
mopay announced its product extension into broadband billing. "This new alternative billing channel available on the mopay payments platform enables online merchants to charge purchases directly to consumers’ Internet service provider accounts. Two of the top-five mopay customers already use mopay broadband billing in their payments portfolios and have seen significant increase in business volume since its launch."
Procter & Gamble and Mobeam have announced a partnership to bring the "first-ever fully mobile couponing system to market. The innovation, created by Mobeam of California, makes electronic coupons presented on a phone or other mobile device scannable, so shoppers need only their phones/handhelds, not a stack of coupons, at check out."
On the web:
On the wires:
Note: Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners. Throughout the day, as we spot interesting developments, this post is updated.
Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness takes a look back at payments in 2011.
At Glenbrook, we thrive on thinking about how payments are evolving and how these changes will affect us in the years ahead. In this look back at the important payments themes of 2011, we share a summary of some of our best thinking over the course of 2011 from our PaymentsViews.com web site.
As part of its GoPayment mobile payment offering, Intuit has announced the launch of the Intuit GoPayment Prepaid Visa Card.
“The GoPayment Card adds new value to those using GoPayment. In addition to helping them get paid, we’re helping them make payments,” said Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division. “This is just the beginning. Intuit will roll out new, innovative features for GoPayment that help users make payments in a variety of ways.”
Several new positions for payments professionals have recently been posted to Glenbrook's payments industry job board in the last 30 days:
Latinia, a Spanish messaging vendor, has announced a ‘tweet banking’ notification product.
Latinia strictly proposes the use of Twitter as an alert [communications] channel, via direct messages (DM), where the convenience of the clients prevails, being able to choose which channel to use to receive status of their accounts, cash withdrawals, etc., whether via SMS, push-notes or Twitter. In Latinia we have called it ‘tweet banking’. To this respect, Latinia has introduced the latest innovation of its infrastructure product LIMSP during this past year, after the implementation of push notifications, working on opening to new asynchronous channels on its service delivery product line-up.
On the web:
On the wires:
Note: Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners. Throughout the day, as we spot interesting developments, this post is updated.
VeriFone and NBC Owned Television Stations have announced a significant long-term strategic and advertising sales agreement.
This new partnership, effective January 1, 2012, will deliver audiences across the country access to NBCUniversal’s award-winning news, information and entertainment programming in more than 12,000 taxi cabs as well as at thousands of gas stations and other digital out-of-home platforms in the future. The agreement will also provide advertisers unmatched capabilities to engage consumers interactively through e-commerce, couponing and microsites.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is considering tightening its current rules that permit merchant surcharging on Visa and MasterCard products.
The proposed variation will allow scheme rules to limit surcharges to a reasonable cost of acceptance, while still ensuring that merchants cannot be prevented from fully recovering their costs. The need for this change arises because in recent years some surcharging practices that potentially compromise price signals, such as surcharging in excess of card acceptance costs, have become more widespread. The Board believes that the proposed variation will improve the efficiency of the payments system by providing better price signals to cardholders.
Comments are due back by Feb 10, 2012.
EMVCo has announced publication of a white paper providing an update on its work to securely standardise contactless mobile payments (CMP).
Patricia Partelow, EMVCo Executive Committee Chair, comments: “EMVCo recognises the great potential of using a mobile handset to initiate a payment. At the same time, we acknowledge that this creates new challenges for the payments market that must be resolved to implement a secure, efficient and sustainable infrastructure. EMVCo has been working over the last few years to ensure that its specifications and testing processes meet the requirements of this emerging payment environment and the development of this white paper delivers a full update on the activity. The document also aims to enhance the understanding of EMV technology among CMP industry stakeholders.”
The white paper is free to download from EMVCo’s website.
On the web:
On the wires:
Note: Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners. Throughout the day, as we spot interesting developments, this post is updated.
Chase has unveiled a revised summary guide for Chase Total Checking that makes its terms and conditions easier to understand for consumers. Chase collaborated with the Pew Health Group’s Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project to develop a simple disclosure form.
““Our research shows the median length of the checking account disclosures at the nation’s ten largest banks is 111 pages. This volume of highly technical information makes it difficult for consumers to know how their checking account operates,” said Susan Weinstock, director of Pew’s Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project. “We applaud Chase for being the first large bank to adopt our model disclosure box and are urging other financial institutions to do the same.”
Chase’s new disclosure form can be found at www.chase.com/clearbanking. The Pew Health Group also issued a related announcement.
Swipely announced that it "is expanding to the Boston area to help more than 150 area retailers turn credit card transactions into interactions. Swipely gives these new merchant members a hassle-free way to understand, retain and engage customers with loyalty rewards and personalized offers without coupons or keychain cards. The system works with the credit and debit cards more than 90 percent of consumers already carry, and with existing point of sale systems most retailers already use."
Discover Financial Services has reported financial results for the fourth quarter 2011. The company said Discover card sales volume grew 8% from the prior year to $25.0 billion. The increase was driven by growth in spending from both new and existing customers. Credit card loans increased, ending the quarter at $46.6 billion, up $1.5 billion or 3% from the prior year. The delinquency rate for credit card loans over 30 days past due continued to improve, declining to 2.39%. The credit card net charge-off rate declined to 3.24%.
PXTMoney has announced the launch of a mobile payment app that lets consumers "forget the plastic" and instantly load money from PayPal, credit or debit/checking accounts onto their phone. Consumers make payments by using their phone number and PIN.
Whenever you sign up a friend, you earn $1. Every time your friend purchases something using PXTMoney, you get a percentage of that purchase. That money can add up over time, giving you spending money and even tuition money. This offer is ongoing, all a part of using new mobile money.
The initial launch is targeted at local merchants in Brookline, MA. More info can be found at www.pxtmoney.com.
On the web:
On the wires:
Note: Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners. Throughout the day, as we spot interesting developments, this post is updated.
Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Russ Jones blogs about the parallels between Square and PayPal.
We’re in the midst of another disruption cycle on the acquiring side of the card payments business in the US. You can almost feel it happening. And, if you’re paying close attention to the data, you can see it happening. If you’re not – if you’re into incumbent thinking – you’re not seeing what’s happening.
PayByPhone has announced "one of the largest deployments of near field communications (NFC) payment solutions in the world. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which selected the PayByPhone mobile payment system for parking, is currently adding NFC-enabled stickers to the city’s 30,800 parking spaces to give drivers the option to pay for parking with NFC-enabled mobile phones in addition to mobile apps and mobile web for regular phones."
Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson blogs about her recent experience at the annual conference of the 'Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion' at U.C. Irvine.
IMTFI is building a network of researchers, often from smaller universities in the developing countries, who are doing a wide range of projects. It won’t surprise anyone to hear that a lot of the research revolves around the use of mobile phones for financial services. Mobile wallets are, in a variety of different configurations, providing access to bank account-like features (savings, transfers) to previously unbanked people.
On the web:
On the wires:
Note: Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners. Throughout the day, as we spot interesting developments, this post is updated.
The Boston Fed has published a Public Policy Discussion Paper entitled "Account-to-Account Electronic Money Transfers: Recent Developments in the United States".
The paper analyzes the emerging decentralized market in which A2A money transfers are becoming available in the United States and compares it with the A2A market in other countries. The paper constructs analytical examples to explain and evaluate the structure of the emerging U.S. market and discusses possible policy actions that may enhance the use of A2A money transfers in the United States.
Fiserv announced the results of a survey of the mobile banking and payment plans of top-tier financial institutions.
The in-depth survey, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Fiserv in September 2011, evaluated the plans of 10 banks and credit unions that in total hold more than one-third of all U.S. deposit accounts. The results revealed that these financial institutions are moving beyond the basics to deliver increasingly sophisticated mobile capabilities. Transactional services such as remote deposit capture and mobile person-to-person payments will account for the bulk of mobile investment in 2012. However, despite a nearly unanimous commitment to expand overall mobile functionality, institutions remain split on plans to support mobile point-of-sale payments.
A white paper detailing the survey results can be downloaded from the Fiserv website.
A study recently published by SecurityMetrics shows 71% of merchants who entered the study were found to store unencrypted payment card data in 2011, which is an increase of 8% since 2010.
"There's so much going on in the security industry that it's sometimes difficult to target the most important things," said SecurityMetrics CEO Brad Caldwell. "We think these findings are a game changer for the security industry, and will help focus priorities on the bigger problem plaguing merchants today. After all, criminals can't steal card data merchants don't have."
LightSpeed has announced 'Show & Tell" support for the iPad, which "allows retailers to offer a next-level personalized selling experience combined with inventory scanning, wireless payments and the powerful retail workflows of LightSpeed, all on the world's most popular tablet." The LightSpeed website has more details and nice screen shots.
PaymentOne has announced the results of a recent survey that found "4 out of 5 consumers would spend more online if offered an easier and more secure way to pay. The survey also found that by a margin of almost 4 to 1, consumers believe direct carrier billed mobile payments are more secure than using credit and debit cards for online digital purchases."
Contacts:
Compilation Copyright © 2002 - 2013 Glenbrook Partners LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use Privacy Policy RSS Feed 
Follow Payments News on Twitter for Real-Time Updates
