The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the U.S. increased 0.3% in January to 99.5 (2004 = 100), following no change in December, and a 0.9 percent increase in November. Continuing to fluctuate on a monthly basis, the LEI six-month average growth rate has been relatively stable in recent months, suggesting a ensuing resilient economy…
BlueSnap released BuyNow2, the next generation of hosted checkout pages that make it easy for merchants to sell their products in 180 countries, serving up localized pages in 29 languages, with 60 currencies and 110 payment types on any device. Unlike other payment solutions that place the burden of development on merchants, the pre-configured BuyNow2 checkout provides dynamically localized pages, A/B testing capabilities and instant PCI compliance, helping merchants serve customers and easily convert more shoppers to buyers worldwide.
The NFC Forum will hold a special event for software developers on March 21 in from all industries to discover where NFC technology and the “Internet of Things” are headed in 2014. The “Spotlight for Developers” brings together top names in mobile devices, consumer electronics, software, and wireless technology. The event showcases NFC integration in innovative new products, services, vertical markets, and software, leading to valuable new opportunities for developers. Presenters are leading authorities on smartphone platforms, including Android™, Blackberry® 10 OS, and Windows Phone. NFC in Action – a look at how NFC technology is currently improving the lives of consumers — and the bottom lines of businesses — across several industries, such as air travel & transportation, consumer electronics, and health care.
TSYS announced that it has increased its stake in its Central Payment Joint Venture (CPay) from 60 percent to 75 percent. Central Payment founders Matt and Zach Hyman have committed to lead the company as Co-Managing Directors for an additional three years. Central Payment is a direct merchant acquirer servicing small- to medium-sized merchants through an Independent Sales Agent (ISA) model. Founded in 2005, Central Payment focuses on merchants in the restaurant, personal services and retail sectors. In 2012, Central Payment was named one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States by Inc. magazine for the fourth consecutive year.
ABnote, a leading global card manufacturer and provider of NFC and Trusted Service Manager (TSM) based solutions, announced it will integrate its existing TSM service with SimplyTapp’s Host Card Emulation (HCE) platform, creating the payment industry’s broadest offering of secure, cloud-based NFC solutions. The combined service will be hosted securely within ABnote’s certified global network of data centers, and will support both standard Secure Element (SE) cloud implementations and token based solutions. This service represents the first of its kind, allowing traditional retailers and financial institutions to compete through innovation with companies such as PayPal and Stripe. The combined HCE offering will be launched on April 1, 2014. The solution represents a two for one solution for financial institutions and retailers’ closed loop, decoupled debit, and open loop p payments. This will allow them to move into a more secure model than magnetic stripe, and at the same time satisfy mobile payment initiatives; all while leveraging existing infrastructure.
Fiserv announced that Sussex Bank has selected the Premier(R) bank platform from Fiserv and a wide array of additional solutions. To meet increasing consumer demand for 24/7 financial services, Sussex Bank selected several self-service digital solutions, including solutions for mobile banking, remote check capture, payments and online banking. Popmoney(R) from Fiserv will enable Sussex Bank’s customers to send and receive person-to-person or social payments, while Mobile Source Capture(TM) will facilitate secure check deposits from consumers and small businesses using a smartphone camera. In addition to Premier, Business Analytics, Director, Business Process Manager, Popmoney and Mobile Source Capture, the bank selected the following innovative Fiserv solutions: Accel(TM) payments network, Business Continuity Services for disaster recovery, Branch Source Capture(TM) for check capture, CheckFree(R) RXP(R) and CheckFree(R) Small Business for bill payment and presentment, Data Vaulting(TM) for automated data backup and storage, Integrated Teller for real-time customer and account information, Mobiliti(TM) for mobile banking, Retail Online(TM) and Business Online(TM) for online banking, TransferNow(R) for online funds transfer, and WireXchange(R) for wire transfers.
Thanks to MyBank, the customers of Zurich Connect in Italy can now pay their insurance premiums via online and mobile banking safely and simply through their bank.
MyBank will allow to all the holders of a current account opened within many banks now enabled to acquirer via online their insurance premiums on Zurich Connect site with just a couple of clicks. By offering MyBank on its website, the online insurer provides its customers in Italy with a convenient and secure payment method based on the online banking environment they know and trust. The cooperation between Banca Sella, that offers MyBank payment option throughout GestPay Payment Gateway, and the Italian online company Zuritel, owner of Zurich Connect brand, (http://www.zurich-connect.it/), has made possible for the largest insurance company in Italy to offer payments via MyBank.
BPC Banking Technologies Open System payment solutions joined the Asian Bankers Association (ABA) as an Associate Member. BPC’s membership was confirmed during the recent ABA Annual General Meeting in recognition of the company’s strong commitment to the financial services market in Asia Pacific. BPC Banking Technologies has been operating in the AP region since 2006 and has helped to transform the payments infrastructures for 14 organizations in 11 countries. BPC’s sophisticated payments solution – SmartVista – provides comprehensive support for a wide range of products, from classic card products to more advanced solutions including supporting microfinance in remote locations and biometric ID by fingerprints. The solution also supports mobile payments, card, ATM/POS and merchant management, as well as advanced fraud prevention and loyalty programs. By virtue of its flexibility, SmartVista can be deployed in a number of configurations ranging from supporting the terminals network of a single organization to operating as a sophisticated nation-wide switch. To support its business growth, BPC has opened a network of six offices across the region, covering sales, R&D, implementation and support.
The world’s first exchange platform taking card payments for digital currencies including Bitcoin launches in the UK. In a move promising to revolutionise how digital currency is acquired and used, BinaryFund will also dramatically change how the nation’s online retailers, investors and finance professionals take payments, approach currency exchange, and debit customer accounts. It will also smooth the path to widespread digital currency adoption at economic level. The formal launch of BinaryFund marks a number of notable firsts at commercial, financial, FX and tech circles, making it one of the most significant unveilings of the year to date. As well as being technically remarkable, BinaryFund.com offers Britain’s business infrastructure the chance to set the standard in digital currency transactions. The platform has developed a robust, reliable and accessible merchant tool system that will allow business users to accept payments in digital currencies such as Bitcoin while still providing the convenience and security that comes from being able to deposit the funds in Pounds Sterling, Euros or American Dollars at bank account level.
Fime waas selected by Gemalto to test compliance of its customised dual-interface payment product prior to launch into the Taiwanese market. The newly-issued product, FISC II ATM, meets security standards set by Taiwanese certification body, The Bankers Association of the Republic of China (BAROC) and offers both contact and contactless payment capabilities to issuing banks in the country. Gemalto worked with FIME Asia as the advanced testing specialist, in collaboration with security evaluation laboratory, CEA/Leti. Collectively, the testing partners are accredited by BAROC to perform the security evaluation of smartcard-based payment instruments to Security requirements of BAROC for financial chip card approval and implementation version 2.0. Additionally, Gemalto selected FIME Asia and CEA/Leti to confirm compliance to the Taiwanese payment system, People’s Bank of China, as well as international payment systems such as MasterCard and Visa.