For U.S. retail credit card ABS, all major collateral metrics posted month-over-month improvements during the June collection period. Late payments more than 60 days fell for the fifth consecutive month while chargeoffs decreased again and reached levels not seen since the end of 2008; late stage delinquent balances, associated with borrowers who have missed at…
Discover announced the winners of its “Discover Works of Art, Acts of Charity” card design contest. Grand prize winner Marcus David Martinez was awarded $5,000 for his “Aviators” patriotic-themed artwork; Rainna Langley received $2,500 for her card design; and third place recipient, Danielle Kasony was awarded $1,000 for her card design. Having provided artists the opportunity to participate in the card design creative process, the contest allowed contestants to submit designs from June 21-July 4 which exemplified the American spirit or were inspired by the United States. Discover is donating over $35,000 to Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization, which provides emergency financial and other assistance to American military service members, wounded warriors and their families.
Visa payment processing will be taking steps to increase the mobile credit card security as it continues its push for a prominent place in the mobile payments market. Visa will be adopting dual interface chip technology in the United States which will help build the necessary groundwork for the mobile payment network. Cards that feature the new technology will feature an EMV chip with a gold chip on the front of the card, which will contain information that is specific to the EMV chip. The cards work on a dynamic authentication system so that even if hackers steal and compromise the mobile payment data, they won’t be able to use counterfeit cards at a point of sale.
Liaison Technologies cloud-based integration, data management and data security services and solutions announced its “Liaison Protect” Format Preserving Tokenization and key management solutions has passed a PA-DSS audit, underscoring Liaison’s continuing leadership in data security. The Liaison products are among the few non-payment application tokenization solutions to go through a PA-DSS audit to prove their high level of security. Verizon completed all PA-DSS validations and determined that Liaison Protect Token Manager and Liaison Protect Key Manager have achieved full validation with the Payment Application Data Security Standard.
Western Union and The Pantry convenience store chain forged agreements to offer the Western Union “goCASH” service, an in-lane money-transfer service from Western Union. The goCASHSM service will let consumers pay for a domestic or global money transfer while shopping at more than 1,650 Kangaroo Express stores across 13 states. The Pantry agreement builds upon Western Union’s go-to-market strategy and complements Western Union’s consumer experience. Consumers can select any of three principal amounts ranging from $50; $100; and $200, and the goCASHSM package can be purchased for both domestic and international money transfers.
Mutual of Omaha Bank signed a card issuing agreement with TMG Financial Services (TMGFS), a credit card agent-issuer headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, allowing it to offer its clients consumer and business rewards MasterCard products. Mutual of Omaha Bank continues to strengthen its banking offerings by expanding into new markets and launching additional products. The also Bank focuses on building financial relationships with businesses and individuals using the best talent and technology in the market. TMG Financial Services is a top 100 credit card agent-issuing company dedicated to providing a collaborative solution focusing on credit, debit, ATM and prepaid processing solutions.
Bridge Bank has deployed FIS’ Integrated Banking Services (IBS) core banking platform. Bridge Bank has grown to more than $1 billion in assets, with offices nationwide and chose IBS for its strong commercial functionality, scalability and flexibility. The bank also deployed FIS’ eBanking, TrustDesk® and ACH processing in addition to IBS, which integrates easily with a wide range of solutions. The IBS platform’s comprehensive capabilities provide financial institutions with innovative technology and IBS is the leading outsourced retail and commercial banking solution among mid-tier banks in the U.S. In addition to the core, FIS eBanking platform provides Bridge Bank with reliable, secure online banking.
PSCU Financial Services is one of the first in the credit union industry to offer plastics that incorporate both EMV chip and PIN technology. The CUSO worked closely with Andrews Federal Credit Union to launch the new card, which is now available to all PSCU Financial Services’ member-owners. EMV integrated circuit cards are widely used in Europe and other regions because this technology offers higher security than magnetic stripe. EMV cards that offer PIN approval are preferred by international travelers because they offer the convenience of use at unattended kiosks and ATMs.
Travelex Global Business Payments, the world’s leading cross-border payments specialist, and LendingTools.com (“LT”), the premier third-party service provider to correspondent financial institutions, announced a partnership to facilitate international electronic payments solutions, on a customized online platform. The relationship enables correspondent financial institutions using LT’s Private Correspondent Gateway to provide cost-effective, reliable and timely international payment services to their members and customers through the Travelex GEO global clearing network. Mutual customers will be able to provide all correspondent banking services, including international payments, in a single, secure and intuitive online system with their custom brand.
eBay announced it completed its acquisition of Zong, provider of payments through mobile carrier billing, for total consideration of approximately $240 million. Zong leverages connections with more than 250 mobile network operators around the world, offering localized, secure and easy-to-use payments for digital goods and services in 21 languages and 45 countries. Consumers simply enter their mobile phone numbers, which Zong then verifies and clears the payment on the customer’s existing wireless service account.
Monday, August 15th is the one year anniversary of the implementation of Reg E – opt-in for debit card & ATM overdrafts, meanwhile depositories have maintained the price for an overdraft transaction at a national median of $28 since the summer of 2010, according to Moebs $ervices. The study also found that Wall Street Banks lowered the price of an overdraft (OD) transaction to $34 in 2011, down from $35 in 2010. NSF return fees increased to $28 in 2011 up from $27 in 2010. In 2010 financial institutions had to comply with Reg E, which required them to get approval from consumers before covering a debit card or ATM overdraft. The Moebs study found over 77 percent of consumers opted in to allow their financial institution to overdraw their checking account when funds were not available for a transaction. The study also found that other overdraft services are fading.
ValidSoft subsidiary of Elephant Talk Communications can now detect fraud faster and more accurately. With this, it uses real-time, high-precision Proximity Correlation Logic that operates at high speed within the transaction authorization, invisibly to the consumer. The ValidSoft platform is powerful enough to support up to 400,000 lookups per second. By correlating the cardholder’s mobile phone with the origination of an ATM or POS transaction, ValidSoft determines if the cardholder is in proximity to the transaction. With respect to privacy, ValidSoft operates an anonymous, encrypted service for which it received the prestigious European Privacy Seal (EuroPriSe).