Wal-Mart May Benefit From SunTrust Acquisition
Wal-MartÆs move into the US banking industry is expected to grow once SunTrust Bank takes over its partner, National Bank of Commerce, even if Wal-Mart denies any plans to enter the business. Bankers ...
End-To-End E-Payment Solutions Give Best ROI
Online payments solutions for B2B trade are available in several guises, but those that are handled 100 per cent online in a closing of the payments loop are most likely to be profitable, according to...
Prepaid Top-Up Options To Diversify Through 2007
Most prepaid wireless account recharging occurs at retailersÆ POS terminals today, but ATMs will take a greater share of the top-up pie as prepaid wireless and card products gain traction with the you...
EMV Cards Set To Assuage Cardholders' Fears
Almost nine in ten UK cardholders are uncomfortable when their card temporarily vanishes from view in restaurants, bars and gas stations, with 57 per cent of hotel guests having similar concerns. Chip...
Restaurant Waiters Risk Conviction To Skim Cards
Credit card skimming is a federal crime in the US with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, or USD 250,000 in fines for each device or credit card number that is compromised. Despite the risk, resta...
EPN, SwiftNet Tempting Banks With New Services
As payments-processing commoditizes, the New York-based ACH, Electronic Payments Network is aiming to diversify into fraud detection and centralized OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] screening. ...
Banks' IT Spending To Reflect Business Goals
As US banks move to align their business and IT strategies, Datamonitor has predicted IT spending by US banks to total USD 37.8 billion by 2006, up from USD 33.5 billion in 2003. BanksÆ need to offset...
US Gift Card Processors Eyeing European Market
US gift card and loyalty transaction processors see great potential for hosting gift card schemes in Europe, with Givex Corporation, for one, the latest to expand into the UK gift card market. Existin...
Overseas Money Transfers Possible At Grocers
International remitters living in the US can send money abroad from their local grocery store with the Poni PIN card from American Cash Exchange, which is offered as the first POS-based foreign money ...
ABN AMRO Merchant Services Gets Into Prepaid
ABN Amro Merchant Services, a transaction processor that is partly owned by National Processing Co, is to offer its merchants a line of prepaid products in partnership with prepaid solutions firm, EWI...
Banks, Carriers Can Synergize In Prepaid Top-Up
Prepaid wireless top-up services give banks a conduit to a market which the Global Mobile Forecast-Baskerville research group predicts to exceed USD 100 billion per year globally in the next few years...
Major UK Retailers Now Gearing For Chip and PIN
By end-2004, UK card association, APACS, is aiming to chip-enable 42 million credit and debit cards, and to date, one in three cardholders hold a chip and PIN card, according to APACSÆ latest æbaromet...
Nigeria's Banks Keen To Promote E-Payments
NigeriaÆs banks are working with the Central Bank to move the national e-payments system forward in an endeavor to reduce the amount of cash in circulation outside the banking system and improve effic...
GCC Banks Plan A Gulf-Wide Payments System
Central banks in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are to set up a national e-payments gateway for inter-bank settlements under the auspices of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)....
Japan's CardNet To Route Card Data Via Internet
JapanÆs CardNet, operated by Japan Card Network Co, is to use the Internet to enable retailers to send credit card data to the credit card companies for processing, in place of current ISDN (integrate...
Banks Can Use Check 21 To 'Regain Payments'
Check 21 will act as a ætipping pointÆ for banks to ôpave their own way back to a position of preeminence in paymentsö while speeding the elimination of paper from the payments system, according to so...
EU Banks Choosing Step2 As A Common Platform
Six of the ten new EU countries affirmed their readiness to join the Step2 euro payments system shortly after accession on May 1, with 19 banks in line to join as indirect participants, according to E...
ACH Debit Cards Increase Banks' Security Fears
A Bank of America executive, Jonathan Wilk, has criticized moves by retailers like Wal-Mart and Safeway to issue payment cards that use customersÆ checking account and routing numbers to clear transac...
Retailers Protesting At China UnionPay's Charges
By end-2004, China expects to have over 700 million bankcards in circulation, with Visa recently reporting domestic issuers to have dispensed about 2.08 million of its cards in Q1, 2004. At end-Septem...
A Quarter Of UK Retailers Will Miss EMV Deadline
Six months before the UKÆs EMV-readiness deadline of January 1 2005, over one-quarter of retailers are still unconvinced about the business case for chip and PIN-based payments, according to a new sur...