The best credit card enhancement to come down the pike since rewards programs is furnishing updated credit scores to cardholders. FICO® reports its Score Open Access program has topped 200 million credit accounts in the U.S. The program enables over 100 financial institutions to provide FICO® Scores, for free, to existing customers. More than a…
Global payment cards-in force (CIF) [credit + debit] grew by 19.2% year-on-year (YOY) in the fourth quarter (4Q/16) to 4995 million. However, the figure for 4Q/16 includes 554 million for Visa Europe. (Visa added Visa Europe data as of 3Q/16.) Therefore, discounting Europe, the growth in global CIF was 6.0% YOY, adjusted, according to CardData.…
The number of Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Android Pay (OEM-Pay) users are expected to hit 100 million by summer and the top 150 million by year-end 2017. New data from UK-based Juniper Research, also found that 2015/16 were watershed years for HCE (Host Card Emulation) in terms of commercial service rollouts. Juniper estimates that…
The UK’s Competition & Markets Authority has given its blessing to the Mastercard VocaLink deal. The CMA gave final approval for the proposed set of remedies that address the competition concerns the CMA identified earlier this year. The deal is now expected to close in the coming weeks. A powerhouse in bank account-based payments, VocaLink’s…
The global Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) point of sale (POS) terminals market is now expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.9% between now and 2021. EMV standards were developed to deliver safer payment transactions between chip-based payment cards and terminals. EMV POS terminals generate a dynamic code for every transaction, making it almost…
A key “blockchain” technologies event is slated for this summer in Berlin and is expected to draw in excess of 1,500 attendees. Blockchain Expo in the Estrel, Berlin will happen June 1st and 2nd. There will 50+ exhibitors. About 45 speakers have been confirmed as of today, including Paul Kammerer, Specialist Corporate Strategy, Commerzbank AG.…