Robert McKinley, Senior Analyst/Editor Robert McKinley is an analyst of the payments industry on a daily basis for 32 years covering payment cards and payment systems from both the business side and the consumer side. McKinley is the retired founder and chief executive of RAM Research, CardWeb and CardTrak. In his prior position, McKinley has participated in more than 10,000 documented news media interviews, testified as an expert witness in two separate $billion+ U.S. anti-trust trials, testified before the U.S. Congress, assisted the GAO with paymentsIMG_2006 (1).jpeg reports, chaired numerous business conferences and provided C-Suite opinion to a multitude of Fortune 500 companies. In retirement, he has continued developing and funding digital media assets as well as contributing payments related analysis/content to a broad list of online publishers, including CardFlash, CardTrak and CardData. McKinley is also a national certified mentor with the non-profit SCORE organization with a focus on assisting Fintech startups. www.robert-mckinley.com

Heartland Commen on College Debit Card Report

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Heartland Campus Solutions ECSI, a division of Heartland Payment Systems and a leading provider of solutions for over 2,000 colleges and universities, commented today on the February 2014 U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) report: “COLLEGE DEBIT CARDS: Actions Needed to Address ATM Access, Student Choice, and Transparency.” College debit and prepaid cards allow students to receive tuition refunds from federal student aid and other payments on a card. According to the GAO Report, while college cards can be convenient for students and offer cost savings and efficiencies for schools, concerns exist when it comes to fees, ATM access and neutrality. Among other findings, the GAO reports that some college debit and prepaid card providers charge fees for debit card usage, make it difficult for students to transfer funds to their own bank account, and that some schools receive payments from card providers based on the number of card accounts opened, leading to a call for increased transparency.

American Express Names Top Tech Execs

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American Express Company announces two key appointments in its global Technology organization: Brian Saluzzo, as Senior Vice President, Global Infrastructure; and Nik Sathe, as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), both reporting to Marc D. Gordon, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer. The appointments were effective in late 2013. In his new role as global head of technology infrastructure, Mr. Saluzzo oversees end-to-end product management, operational support, and infrastructure risk management, including data center, cloud, and end user technologies. He has oversight for vendor management supporting infrastructure, as well as joint oversight of the company’s IT-related supplier sourcing. He is a member of the Technology Executive Team and serves on the company’s Global Management Team. Mr. Saluzzo most recently served at Goldman Sachs as Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Technology Infrastructure, leading data strategies for the firm, including big data, storage tiering, infrastructure risk management, mobile/bring-your-own-device and workplace infrastructure design. He began his career at NCR Corporation (then a division of AT&T). He holds dual degrees in computer science and mathematics from the State University of New York’s College at Geneseo, where he remains active on the board of the Geneseo Foundation.

Evolution1 Contributes to ABA Conference for Community Bankers

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Evolution1 presence at the ABA National Conference for Community Bankers demonstrates the company’s continued leadership in the banking industry. Brantner will share how banks can drive new sources of income – while reaping the benefits of a new fee-based income revenue stream – through a diversified and expanded product and service offering that includes healthcare payment and healthcare account solutions. Attendees will learn how to add value to their commercial clients through a complete and convenient solution for offering consumer-driven healthcare accounts for their employees. Evolution1 serves financial institutions, third-party administrators, health plans, and software providers across the country, providing healthcare and other reimbursement account services to more than 90,000 employers and more than 10,000,000 consumers.

ID TECH Releases SmartPIN B100

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ID TECH is proud to announce the release of their PCI 3.x certified modular PIN entry device, the SmartPIN B100. The SmartPIN B100 is designed for outdoor unattended POS operations such as at ATMs, fuel dispensers, kiosks, vending machines, and other POS systems that accept credit and debit payments. With its robust, waterproof, and vandal preventive structure, merchants and consumers can be confident that SmartPIN B100’s tamper resistant architecture will protect any financial data from being compromised.

Enacomm Names New CMO

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Enacomm, Inc. announced the hire of seasoned marketing expert David Anderson, who will serve as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Anderson will fuel Enacomm’s continued, industry-leading innovation in the financial and prepaid industries, driving the creation and launch of new products and intelligent analytics that give companies a proactive advantage in exceeding customer expectations. David also worked with a host of financial institutions, ranging from community and mid-sized banks to national banks, investment houses and card companies. Anderson joins Enacomm’s team of subject-matter experts that has been focused on the financial industry for more than two decades and the prepaid space since 2005.

Ingenico and Samsung team on mobile payments

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Ingenico and Samsung teamed up to jointly offer an integrated mobile payment solution. Conceived on a global scale, this new alliance will enable merchants and retailers to benefit from a seamless mPayment system bringing together Samsung’s mobile devices and tablets, and Ingenico’s merchant mobile platform and card readers. Each of these elements is bulwarked by joint security and support from Ingenico and Samsung, which provide businesses a straightforward and low-risk entry into the mobile payments ecosystem. Ingenico and Samsung’s channels to market – financial institutions and telecommunications operators, respectively – will bring an end-to-end and secured mPayment to businesses of all sizes, throughout the world. It will significantly improve their business efficiency in store while capturing new sales opportunities their store walls.

Wirecard extends BLE development to vouchers and loyalty points

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At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Wirecard AG will be presenting the expansion of its Bluetooth low energy payment technology to include integrated vouchers and loyalty schemes. Bluetooth low energy (BLE) radio technology facilitates contactless data transfer at a distance of up to 10 metres. Using micro transmitters (“beacons”), BLE provides location-based services that are communicated to the point of sale for mobile marketing activities. As soon as a customer comes within the range of the beacons, retailers can take advantage of an additional communication channel and send personalised offers to the customer’s mobile device. These include discounts, special offers and loyalty schemes that are directly related to the customer’s current location within the store. BLE has already been integrated into a number of Apple, Google and Windows smartphone operating systems.

OKI Delivers First ATM Incorporating Finger Vein Authentication to Chinese Bank

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OKI announced the delivery and start of actual use of an ATM incorporating finger vein authentication technology at the Bank of Lanzhou in China (headquarters in Lanzhou city, Gansu province). This marks OKI’s first delivery of an ATM incorporating finger vein biometric authentication technology to a Chinese bank. OKI aims for expanded sales of ATMs incorporating finger vein authentication, a feature that makes forgery and identity fraud significantly more difficult. This function is especially important in the Chinese ATM market, where demand is growing for transaction safety and security. Based on OKI’s ATM-Recycler G7, cash-recycling ATM, the ATM incorporating finger vein authentication functionality delivered to the Bank of Lanzhou incorporates the finger vein authentication module co-developed by mofiria Corporation (hereinafter called as mofiria) and OKI.

U.S. CREDIT CARD VOLUME 2013

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U.S. bank credit card networks racked up $2.47 trillion in gross dollar volume (GDV) last year, an 7.7% gain over the prior year. This is the third consecutive annual decline in growth rates for U.S. credit card GDV, after gaining nearly 15% in 2011 and slightly more than 11% in 2012. Over the past five years, Visa, MasterCard, and Discover have lost market share based on credit card GDV, During this period American Express claimed a sizable gain, rising from a 19.0% market share in 2009 to 25.8% market share for 2013, largely fueled by charge cards.

Visa payWave accounts in Virtual Cloud

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Visa today announced it is offering clients new options to securely deploy mobile payment programs, including for the first time an option to host Visa payWave-enabled accounts in a secure, virtual cloud. The move expands Visa’s support for mobile payments globally and will give financial institutions greater choice in offering consumers secure ways to pay with smartphones. Visa’s support for cloud-based payments follows the introduction of a new feature in the Android mobile operating system called Host Card Emulation (HCE); HCE allows any NFC application on an Android device to emulate a smart card, letting users wave-to-pay with their smartphones, while permitting financial institutions to host payment accounts in a secure, virtual cloud.

Capital One Joins clearXchange Network

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Capital One Financial Corporation and clearXchange announced that Capital One, N. A. has joined the clearXchange network as an owner, becoming the fourth owner alongside Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo and fifth bank customer of the clearXchange network. clearXchange is the first network in the U.S. created by and for financial institutions that lets customers send person-to-person payments easily and securely with only an email address or phone number. As a member of the network, Capital One will expand its capabilities to provide customers the ability to pay anyone with a U.S. bank account without requiring sensitive account information.

MasterCard to Use HCE for NFC Payment Transactions

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MasterCard today announced it will publish a specification that leverages Host Card Emulation (HCE) for secure near field communication (NFC) payment transactions. The approach will enable consumers to easily use their MasterCard-branded cards on their NFC-enabled phones to make contactless payments. Today, there are two million contactless-enabled merchant locations in 63 countries around the world.