Robert McKinley, Senior Analyst/Editor Robert McKinley, with 33 years experience covering payment cards and payment systems, is Senior Analyst/Editor for CardFlash and other payments-related publications. He is the retired founder and chief executive of RAM Research, CardWeb and CardTrak. McKinley served as an expert witness in 100+ litigations including two multi-$billion trials, testified before the U.S. Congress, chaired multiple payments conferences, hired as consultant by Fortune 100 companies and several overseas financial institutions. Full Bio: www.rbm4.com

Chase Sapphire Preferred and Bravo Media Host Tasting Event

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Chase Sapphire Preferred travel rewards card and Bravo Media announce public ticket sales for the “Top Chef Duels” Premiere Tasting Event being held in New York City on Monday, August 4. Fans will be able to purchase a limited number of tickets for this exclusive event for $100 per ticket beginning Monday, July 14 at 2 p.m.ET through the City Harvest website at www.cityharvest.org/events/topchefduels. All proceeds from public ticket sales will benefit City Harvest, the world’s first food rescue organization dedicated to helping feed the more than two million New Yorkers facing hunger each year. The Premiere Tasting Event celebrates the series premiere of “Top Chef Duels” on Wednesday, August 6 at 10pm ET/PT on Bravo. As part of the presenting partnership, Chase Sapphire offers cardmembers VIP tickets to the event on the Ultimate RewardsSM website. The unique VIP experience includes early entrance, an exclusive screening of a clip of Episode One and a meet-and-greet with “Top Chef Duels” judges and contestants.

MEPS Deploys TNSLink for Wireless ATM Services

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Transaction Network Services (TNS) will deploy wireless ATMs for Malaysian Electronic Payment System Sdn Bhd (MEPS). MEPS launched Malaysia’s first non-bank ATM late last year and has ambitious growth plans to roll out the technology across the country, which will see 500 ATMs live by the end of this year and continuous steady growth year on year to 1,580 by 2018 as MEPS rolls out nationwide coverage. TNS will provide its TNSLink solution to handle secure, high-speed transaction transport and ATM communications utilizing advanced encryption algorithms and a PCI DSS certified backbone network.MEPS ATMs support the Malaysian government’s Economic Transformation Programme and Bank Negara Malaysia’s e-Payment Agenda by offering more than just cash withdrawals and balance enquiries. Customers can complete real-time interbank transfers, as well as make credit card and loan repayments.

Citibank Q2/14

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Citibank’s U.S. bank credit card profits increased substantially from one-year ago driven by record low delinquency and charge-offs coupled with rising purchase dollar volume and higher net credit margin. Citi’s U.S. retail credit card profits of $430 million were likewise up year-on-year. Citi’s total delinquency rate for U.S. bank credit cards, as a percentage of EOP outstandings, declined 20 basis points from the prior quarter to 1.67% and dipped 14 bps from the year ago quarter.

Diebold Names VP Global Services

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Diebold has named Sal Mahbouba VP, global services. To lead the company’s global services portfolio, infrastructure and service technology teams, Mahbouba has held various leadership positions at several global high-tech and service-oriented companies where he has been responsible for all aspects of a global services business including supply chain management, forward and reverse logistics, and break-fix repair. During his more than 10 year career with Oracle, Mahbouba was responsible for the conceptualization, development and implementation of consistent business practice, process optimization and solution architecture. More recently, he spent five years at Avaya, Inc. during which time he drove profitable growth and market expansion.

Powa Launches POS Software Program

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Powa Technolgies completed its Alpha program and rollout of its advanced PowaPOS Software Developer Program to independent software vendors (ISVs) globally. The PowaPOS Software Developer Program features the PowaPOS SDK and online Developer Portal that, together, simplify app integration with PowaPOS point-of-sale hardware and services, including PowaTag, the company’s fast-growing mobile commerce solution that has more than 500 brand partners around the world. PowaTag’s global expansion was recently enhanced with the acquisition of Hong Kong-based MPayMe. The PowaPOS SDK works seamlessly with existing smartphone and tablet applications. A consistent set of APIs work across iOS, Android and Windows operating systems and drives the PowaPOS T-Series hardware and the PowaPIN EMV-enabled card reader. Standard interfaces are provided for the T-Series’ unique integration of tilting/swiveling tablet mount, high-speed printer, 2D barcode scanner, encrypting magnetic stripe reader, EMV-compliant smartcard reader, secure PIN-entry keypad, and cash drawer.

Tablet Banking

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Tablet banking is predicted to rise to 138 million users in five years. A new Javelin reports says tablets are becoming the primary device used for a variety of mobile banking tasks. In fact, about 1 in 3 consumers point to tablets as the mobile device he or she primarily uses to email the financial institution. While FIs have worked diligently to finesse mobile banking for smartphone users, but they are less prepared for tablet bankers.

ACI Announces Latest Online Banking Platform Client

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ACI announced Webster Bank, a leading regional bank in the Northeast, has selected the company to host its online banking platform. With $21 billion in assets, Webster Bank provides a variety of business, institutional and consumer financial services through its 166 banking centers and 311 ATMs, as well as via phone, mobile and online banking. In order to serve clients’ online banking needs more effectively, improve usability and bring new features to market faster, Webster is moving to ACI’s hosted platform from an in-house system. Webster selected ACI’s industry-leading online banking platform, Universal Online Banker. Webster’s application will run in ACI’s secure and fully compliant data center, which hosts banking and payment solutions for more than 4,000 financial institutions, retailers, and billers.

uPaid and eCard

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MasterCard today announced the launch of MasterPass™, its global digital service in Poland. uPaid will be the first partner to leverage the MasterPass platform to enable its digital uPaid wallet. MasterPass will replace and enhance the MasterCard® Mobile platform, which has been present in Poland for three years. uPaid will automatically switch its current users of MasterCard Mobile over to the uPaid wallet. MasterCard www.mastercard.com,is a technology company in the global payments industry.

Customers Bank Mobile App Makes Available P2P mTransfer

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Customers Bank announced the release of version 4.0 of their mobile app, CB Access. This keeps Customers Bank at the forefront of mobile banking, said Warren Taylor, Executive Vice President and President of Community Banking at Customers Bank. Upgrades include Trusteer Mobile Security, P2P Money Transfer Service, and Spanish Content options. Trusteer is an IBM company which will provide a significant layer of mobile security free of charge for customers to protect them while they bank, surf or shop using their mobile device.

Sr Pago mPOS LandsSeed funding

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Sr. Pago (Señor Pago) mPOS services closed a seed round of $1 million in funding after last month’s launch of the Sr. Pago Card System. This service combines a smartphone credit card reader with a debit card that can be reloaded with payments accepted through the card reader. Provided in conjunction with MasterCard and Te Creemos, the Sr. Pago Card System is offered to individuals and small businesses in Mexico that have been underserved by existing banking services. The Sr. Pago Card System provides a secure, chip-based debit card, a chip card reader that connects to any smartphone or tablet, and an app for managing transactions. This enables individuals and small businesses to accept credit card payment for the services they provide, transfer that money to a MasterCard debit card, and then make purchases with the card at MasterCard’s worldwide acceptance.