Spain’s postal industry leader Correso in Spain, has partnered with Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), an European issuer and program manager of physical and virtual prepaid card products, to launch the contactless Correos Prepago MasterCard card.
First Data will support its clients’ integration of Apple Pay, which is transforming mobile payments with an easy, secure and private way to pay, when it launches in the UK next month.
Compass Plus announced the migration of Global Processing Centre in Antigua, the third largest processor in the Caribbean region, to its open development payments platform, TranzAxis, in just three months.
Cybercom is empowering the WyWallet Multipay solution. WyWallet is one of Sweden’s fastest growing companies, with 1.4 million registered customers and over 1,100 affiliated retailers
Millicom international telecommunications and media company announced its Tigo operation in Tanzania has launched the world’s first mobile money service which offers users the opportunity to automatically earn a return on their balance direct to their wallet without the need for a separate registration. The service in Tanzania is called Tigo Wekeza (“Tigo Invests”), and will allow over 3.5 million Tigo Pesa users to benefit from quarterly payments based on the balance held in their account. Tigo Pesa users in Tanzania will also have the option to nominate a non-profit beneficiary, in line with their personal cultural belief.
NCR nnounced announced ING-DiBa private consumer bank with over eight installed NCR Solidcore Suite for APTRA security software. Each of ING’s 1,300 ATMs has been equipped with this comprehensive protection that prohibits the introduction of unauthorized code on ATMs and protects them from insider attacks. NCR Solidcore Suite for APTRA proactively allows only authorized code to run, rather than reacting to known attacks as they arise. Specifically, Solidcore Suite for APTRA automatically creates and updates the inventory of authorized code and protects the system’s memory so that this code cannot be modified, deleted or hijacked – the process in which malicious code replaces authorised code with itself.
IT Governance cyber security services and PCI QSA company announced that senior consultant and QSA Geraint Williams will deliver a talk at the OWASP AppSec Research 2014 conference in Cambridge in June. Williams’s presentation will examine the best practices in developing bespoke or custom written applications for use within the cardholder data environment of the PCI DSS. Geraint Williams is a PCI Qualified Security Assessor and is leading the PCI DSS and pen testing team at IT Governance.
Fime transaction provider announced its radio frequency (RF) test bench has been officially approved by the NFC Forum, a global association that advances the use of near field communication (NFC) technology. The tool validation process and approval brings official recognition that the FIME RF test bench meets the requirements defined in the NFC Forum specifications, making the tool eligible for testing devices for conformance to the functional requirements outlined by the NFC Forum.The FIME RF test bench evaluates the analog compliance of smart devices, such as mobile handsets and tablets, ensuring product compliance to the NFC Forum Analog Technical Specification. Successful product evaluation through compliance testing and NFC Forum certification allows a device manufacturer to use and display the NFC Forum Certification Mark. It is now available to mobile handset and device manufacturers at FIME’s network of global laboratories, spanning America, Asia and Europe.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed the final rules that will govern the consumer credit market which will result in changes for how payday lenders and debt management companies treat their customers. The FCA will take a tough approach to consumer credit with stronger powers to clamp down on poor practice than the previous Office of Fair Trading regime. Our supervision of firms will be hands on and we will closely monitor how providers treat their customers, in particular those operating in higher risk sectors such as credit cards, debt management and payday. We will respond quickly to any issues that are identified and there will be swift penalties for any firm or individual found not to be putting consumers’ interests first, including possible enforcement action and consumer redress. The biggest changes come for payday lenders and debt management companies, which include limiting the number of loan roll-overs to two; restricting (to two) the number of times a firm can seek repayment using a continuous payment authority (CPA); a requirement to provide information to customers on how to get free debt advice; and requiring debt management firms to pass on more money to creditors from day one of a debt management plan, and to protect client money.
Vodafone and MoneyGram announced their partnership allowing consumers to transfer funds directly from around 200 countries to the millions of users of M-Pesa. The agreement will allow consumers who visit MoneyGram’s 334,000 agents across the globe to send funds directly to M-Pesa accounts. MoneyGram customers can also transfer money to an M-Pesa user through moneygram.com or via a mobile app, available on iPhone, Android and Windows 8 phones. M-Pesa – which allows customers to pay bills and withdraw, transfer and deposit money easily – is now available in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Fiji, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania.
Optimal Payments announced that it has obtained principal membership status for merchant acquiring from MasterCard® Europe and Visa® Europe. The new merchant acquiring agreements are consistent with Optimal Payments’ strategy to strengthen and differentiate its products and follow the December 2012 announcement that principal membership had been obtained from MasterCard for card issuance. The agreements with MasterCard Europe and Visa Europe will allow Optimal Payments to directly acquire merchant accounts without the need for an acquiring bank, and process Visa and MasterCard payment transactions in the UK and the European Union for Optimal Payments’ merchants.
Swish Payments mPOS provider was granted a Financial Institution license by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). This allows Swish to operate as a licensed financial institution under the European Commission Payment Services Directive. This marks a major milestone towards Swish’s global expansion by enabling delivery of services within the European market. Swish brought the first low-cost EMV chip-and-signature solutions for mobile payment card acceptance to the Asia Pacific region. Now the company is poised to introduce compelling EMV chip-and-PIN solutions for mobile payment card acceptance in the United Kingdom and Canada in the coming months.