Payroll employment was up 217,000 in May for an unchanged unemployment rate of 6.3 from the previous month figure. This comes after a 0.4 percentage point drop in April. The number of unemployed persons was unchanged in May at 9.8 million. The unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons declined by 1.2 percentage points…
American Express this afternoon announces a new partnership with Uber and a first-of-its-kind technology integration into the Uber iOS app that allows U.S. Card Members enrolled in the Membership Rewards program to choose to earn 2x points or use points for Uber rides. This is the first time that consumers can use loyalty reward points seamlessly in-app and in real time for on-demand transportation in this way.
A deal to ink a new Diners Club International franchise in Switzerland has been realized. Discover Financial Services’ Diners Club International unit and Cornèr Bank, via its payment card division Cornèrcard, signed an agreement to form a new Diners Club International franchise in Switzerland.
JCB International Co., Ltd. and Redeban Multicolor S.A. (“RBM”), the largest merchant acquirer in Colombia, are pleased to announce that they have signed a License Agreement for building a JCB card acceptance network in Colombia. With this arrangement, JCB cards will be accepted at all 200,000 RBM merchants throughout Colombia starting in early 2015.
DFC Global Corp international diversified financial services company serving primarily unbanked and under-banked consumers announced at the Company’s special meeting of stockholders a majority of the outstanding shares of DFC Global common stock voted to approve the acquisition of DFC Global by an affiliate of Lone Star Funds (“Lone Star”). Houlihan Lokey Capital, Inc. is acting as financial advisor to DFC Global in connection with the transaction. Pepper Hamilton LLP is acting as DFC Global’s legal advisor. Jefferies LLC is acting as lead financial advisor to Lone Star Funds and Credit Suisse Securities (USA), LLC is acting as financial advisor. Jefferies Finance LLC and Credit Suisse AG are providing debt financing commitments for the acquisition.
Venmo has developed a way to tip a favorite artist, or donating to a good cause, or other money that enables people to continue doing what matters. The new Venmo Button is a new way to accept tips, donations, and other optional payments. It’s trivial to embed on a web site, and receiving payments is just as frictionless as you’d expect from Venmo.
Lake Michigan Credit Union (LMCU) is partnering VerifyValid electronically-delivered check payments (eChecks). This lets members to quickly and easily receive, manage and deposit VerifyValid eChecks directly into their accounts.
eChecks combine the speed and convenience of electronic payments with the safety, familiarity, and information of paper checks, and can be sent from any computer, tablet or iOS phone. eChecks are currently used by individuals and businesses, such as Grand Valley State University, one of West Michigan’s largest employers, to pay many of its vendors. Additionally, the rate of eCheck usage is increasing nationally through partnerships between VerifyValid and Deluxe Corporation. Financial institutions can offer the VerifyValid eLockbox technology using no new equipment, no software installation, and requires no maintenance or service calls. LMCU can add it to a member’s account in minutes.
Green Dot Corporation supports Visa’s recently announced designation for consumer reloadable prepaid products in the U.S. The new designation is aimed at simplifying fees, improving consumer protections and creating opportunities for cardholders to improve their financial health. Green Dot Corporation is the largest provider of reloadable prepaid debit cards in America with its products sold in more than 90,000 retail locations nationwide.To qualify for the new Visa prepaid designation, prepaid programs must meet a set of standards outlined by Visa that relate to simplified fees and transparent disclosures as well as superior consumer protections.
Monitise banking technology partnered Kredi Bank to offer Nuvo ‘branchless banking’ service with mobile commerce capabilities. This allows customers to open accounts and complete all their transactions via mobile and internet banking, Nuvo enables consumers to manage their money and take advantage of mobile shopping and commerce services in their own time and from anywhere. Account features include competitive interest rates, free account transactions and money transfers, and perks such as Yapı Kredi’s World Gold or Play Card loyalty programs. In addition to delivering banking convenience, Nuvo offers exclusive shopping benefits to its users, including discounts and reduced delivery costs. Nuvo is currently available on iOS and Android, in both Turkish and English.
Volante announced the release of its latest ISO 20022 Accelerator; the SADC Payments IS0 20022 Conversion Pack. The pack is designed to help firms comply with the new harmonized local payments infrastructure being created within the Southern African Region. The SADC Payments Conversion Pack contains a range of software modules that provides all SADC rules and message components in pre-built cartridges. The combination of pre-built components plus Volante’s proven ISO 20022 payments processing software enables any bank to convert to a SADC payments processing environment quickly and efficiently. With Volante ISO 20022 product, firms are able to insulate themselves from changes to future standards as well as leverage the technology for use in other business areas with global and regional ISO 20022 projects.