The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau nailed of the nation’s two largest debt buyers and collectors for using deceptive tactics to collect bad debts. The Bureau found that Encore Capital Group and Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA) bought debts that were potentially inaccurate, lacking documentation, or unenforceable.
CardWeb.com’s CardExecs database of payments industry movers and shakers today features Stephen Pair, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer of BitPay.
One of the top U.S. secured credit cards has beefed-up its website to provide better cardholder education. The Capital One (COF) OpenSky Secured Visa Credit Card new site debits this week.
Anyone worth their salt in the payments arena is aware of the patent troll threats. Dubious patents to extract fees from banks, credit card companies, financial institutions and other payment technology providers are a constant threat.
Fintech Innovation LabLeading-edge mobility, data analytics and credit risk solutions were among the six technology innovations demonstrated for top financial services, venture capital and technology executives at the fourth annual FinTech Innovation Lab Demo Day in New York. The Lab is a 12-week mentoring program created by Accenture (ACN) and the Partnership Fund for New York City and supported by more than a dozen of the world’s leading financial institutions to promote financial services technology (“fintech”) innovation and high tech job growth in New York City. This year’s entrepreneurs were chosen by chief technology officers from 15 participating financial institutions. The companies included Enigma, Kasisto, LMRKTS, pymetrics, RevolutionCredit and Standard Treasury. The group has spent the last 12 weeks receiving high level mentoring, product and business development advice and exposure to senior financial industry, technology and venture capital executives. The 18 previous alumni companies have raised a total of more than $76 million in financing after participating in the program since 2010.
VeriFone Systems, Inc. announced today that taxi passengers in Philadelphia can now use Way2ride to quickly, easily and securely pay for taxi rides with a tap of their smartphones. Way2ride makes the taxi experience faster and easier for passengers in Philadelphia by enabling them to tap and pay for cab fares in 1,400 of the 1,600 taxi cabs currently operating in the city. VeriFone Systems, Inc. is the global leader in secure electronic payment solutions providing expertise, solutions and services that add value to the point of sale with merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems for the financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare vertical markets.
JetPay hired Michael J. McGovern as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. McGovern began his career in a corporate setting as a tax accountant then as director of operations at Management Assistance Inc., a computer manufacturing and leasing company. With his experience at the Federal Reserve, Mr. McGovern joined American Express where he eventually was responsible for application project management. McGovern, in a long and distinguished career with CoreStates rose from Vice President of cash management services, to Senior Vice President of data Processing Systems, and, ultimately, to Executive Vice President of Domestic and International Operations – a position in which he remained for 12 years.
TD Bank Group, Aimia Inc.and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce today completed the previously announced transaction under which TD acquired approximately 50% of the existing Aeroplan credit card portfolio from CIBC. The portion of CIBC’s Aeroplan credit card portfolio acquired by TD primarily includes accounts held by customers who do not have an existing retail banking relationship with CIBC. Also as previously announced, TD will become the primary issuer of Aeroplan Visa credit cards on January 1, 2014.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took its first enforcement action against a payday lender by ordering Cash America International, Inc. to refund consumers for robo-signing court documents in debt collection lawsuits. The CFPB also found that Cash America – one of the largest short-term, small-dollar lenders in the country – violated the Military Lending Act by illegally overcharging servicemembers and their families. Cash America will pay up to $14 million in refunds to consumers and it will pay a $5 million fine for these violations and for destroying records in advance of the Bureau’s examination.
VeriFone Systems has been awarded a comprehensive managed payment services contract by Réseau Clubs Bouygues Telecom, the consumer retail affiliate of Bouygues Telecom, one of France’s largest fixed-mobile operators. VeriFone will provide its managed services software”PAYware Wynid”as well as helpdesk support, gateway services and VX 820 advanced PIN acceptance devices that support all types of electronic transactions. VeriFone’s VX 820 PIN pads will help Réseau Clubs Bouygues Telecom engage customers and drive revenues by delivering targeted promotional and branding messages to customers during checkout through the devices’ color touch screen. PAYware Wynid will consolidate and route all electronic payments made at each of Réseau Clubs Bouygues Telecom’s 400 retail stores through a single gateway that utilizes VeriFone’s encryption and tokenization services and is hosted in a PCI DSS validated hosting center.
Intellicheck Mobilisa identity solutions and wireless security systems launched an Android version of barZapp ID-checking mobile app. With it, smartphones can be used to check an ID card. An introductory version is available in the Google App Store for $1.99 and offers users 10 scans per day once a free account has been created at this link. Unlimited scans are available for a paid subscription of $9.95 per month for the barZapp Pro version. barZapp for Android requires Android Version 2.3.3 or higher. With this launch, barZapp is now available on both the Google and Apple App Stores. With barZapp, users can aim their smartphone’s camera at the barcode on a driver’s license to instantly read and verify the encoded information and display the results”including the bearer’s name, date of birth, ID expiration and ID number.
American Express Company appointed Jeffrey C. Campbell executive VP and CFO to lead Finance organization and represent American Express to investors, lenders and rating agencies. To sit on the Operating Committee, as well, Campbell joins American Express from McKesson Corporation, where he was executive vice president and chief financial officer of the largest health care services company in the United States. Before joining McKesson, Mr. Campbell served as chief financial officer of AMR Corporation and its subsidiary, American Airlines, where he helped the business successfully navigate significant financial challenges. Prior to this he was a CPA with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells. He is a member of the board of directors of Hexcel Corporation and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He holds an A.B. degree in Economics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.