Hello Paisa & HomeSend
HomeSend, the international payment and money transfer hub, has launched live remittance services for Johannesburg-based Hello Paisa, a South African money transfer operator.
Premier Bank & TSYS
The Premier Bank Limited (Premier Bank), a leading commercial bank in Bangladesh, has signed inked an agreement to upgrade to PRIME 4, the latest version of TSYS’ PRIME payment solutions platform.
Financial Literacy AP
Next week is the important World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta (Apr 19-21). MasterCard released the latest findings of basic finance knowledge and skills across Asia/Pacific and discovered a stall in 12 of 16 countries with record lower scores in the latest Financial Literacy Index.
African Payment Inclusion
While payment products are quickly penetrating African consumer markets they are primarily used for income dispensing by not for payments. South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Egypt have advanced in enabling access to and driving usage of different financial products including payments, lending, long-term savings or investments, and insurance.
WU & UAE
Western Union expanded its global relationship with UAE Exchange, an international money transfer retailer, from North Africa and Middle East to securing retail presence in 16 major city centers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany & Netherlands.
Payoneer & Bank Asia
More than 500,000 Bangladeshi freelancers can now receive payments from international companies more quickly and cost-effectively thanks to partnership between Payoneer and Bank Asia.
WU & UniTeller
Western Union is hooking up with Grupo Financiero Banorte’s UniTeller network to launch international direct to bank money transfers to Mexico from the U.S.
M-Banking 2019
Mobile banking users will likely exceed online banking users for the first time by 2019. A new report predicts 1.75 billion mobile phone users will have used their devices for banking purposes by the end of 2019, compared to 800 million this year. The scale of the mobile banking challenge has been confirmed by the decreasing number of branch visits by consumers and also the closure of physical bank branches over the past 12-24 months.
JCB Bangladesh
The Bangladeshi people are getting two new credit cards. Prime Bank and JCB International have partnered to launch the first JCB card in Bangladesh. Prime Bank will now issue the JCB credit and debit card to the Bangladeshi people who can enjoy JCB’s global merchant network with over 26 million acceptance locations.
MasterCard and Premier Bank Launch Hajj card
MasterCard launched a Reloadable Hajj Prepaid Card Premier Bank Bangladesh Ltd for pilgrims and Hajj Agencies. Premier Bank Ltd is a top issuer of prepaid cards for Hajj pilgrims & Hajj Agencies in the country. It has branches across the country including all major cities like Dhaka, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Sylhet, Comilla, Rajshahi, Rangpur. MasterCard Reloadable Hajj & Travel Prepaid cardholders will enjoy some exclusive benefits while using the card. Present at the event were honorable Secretory, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Chairman, Parliamentary standing committee for Ministry of Religious Affairs, , President & General Secretary of Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB), Dr. H.B.M. Iqbal, Chairman, Premier Bank, CEO & Managing Director, Independent Director, Additional Managing Directors & Deputy Managing Director of Premier Bank, Vikas Varma, Area Head, South Asia, MasterCard, Syed Mohammad Kamal, Country Manager, Bangladesh and other senior Officials from MasterCard & Premier Bank.
JCB 2013
Currently the only international payment brand originating in Japan grew leaps and bounds last year. During 2013, the JCB card reached a milestone as it now has more than 15 million cardholders outside Japan. JCB also expects annual transaction volume to surpass $200 billion in 2014. JCB now has more than 350 issuing and acquiring partners worldwide, with card issuance in 15 countries and acceptance in 190 countries and territories. More than 23 million merchants worldwide serve JCB’s 81 million affluent cardholders. Here is an overview of JCB’s progress in 2013.
MasterCard Asia Pacific 2013
MasterCard’s Asia-Pacific-Middle East-Africa region (APMEA) is expanding rapidly with gross dollar volume rising more than 21% year-on-year and the number of cards issued growing nearly 15% year-on-year in 2013. Quarterly gross dollar volume runs about $300 billion and the number of cards issued is over 400 million. MasterCard will release fourth quarter and annual results on January 31 before the market opens.