Visa Europe will offer Visa debit, credit and reloadable prepaid cardholders access to Apple Pay, a new service that looks set to transform mobile payments with an easy, secure and private way to pay when it launches in the UK this July.
Sionic Mobile has ankled Spencer White as Chief Operating Officer and EVP Business Development. With more than 25 years experience, White co-founded Softcard (the AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile mobile wallet joint venture – formerly Isis) whose technology was recently purchased by Google.
Atlanta-based Vanco Payment Solutions relaunched with new branding and a new website that amplifies its position as a top provider of specialized payment solutions for faith-based, nonprofit, and professional services organizations. The company processes over 13.1 billion in electronic payments annually for more than 30,000 clients.
Klarna payment provider has appointed Jon Kamaluddin to its Board of Directors. Jon Kamaluddin was international director at ASOS from 2009 to 2013 after having spent five years as CFO. In his role as international director, Kamaluddin led ASOS global expansion, including the U.S., Russia, China, Germany, and Australia, which helped ASOS grow its overseas sales to almost 60 per cent of its overall sales. He also served as a member of ASOS Board of Directors. Klarna’s Checkout service allows consumers to make online purchases using only their e-mail address and postcode, with no unnecessary pre-registration or credit cards needed. The Company also allows retailers to experience checkout conversion rates of up to 80%.
Seamless teams with The PCMS Group to expand in the US and UK. PCMS is a key point of sales provider for top tier retailers in the US and the UK. The Seamless mobile payment solution SEQR has since the launch in Sweden in 2012, been exported to three international markets: Romania, Finland and Belgium. Through the SEQR app, the user simply scans or taps a QR-code/NFC at check-out and approves the purchase by entering a PIN code. Seamless handles more than 3.1 billion transactions annually through 525,000 active sales outlets in 30 countries.
Seamless and The PCMS Group have signed a collaborative agreement to further strengthen SEQR’s presence in the UK and the US. The agreement between PCMS and Seamless is a key component for big retailers in the UK and the US waiting to activate SEQR. PCMS is a key point of sales provider for top tier retailers so this he agreement opens up PCMS large client base on both markets. THis partnership sees payment solutions for all devices across their many sales channels.
Veracity Payment announced its acquisition of Vanco Services electronic payment solutions to faith-based organizations, healthcare organizations, financial institutions, nonprofits, schools, municipalities and other entities.
As part of the acquisition, Veracity and Vanco will be rebranded as “Vanco Payment Solutions.” Vanco processes both credit card and ACH transactions on its robust payment platform. The platform not only supports Vanco’s own proprietary suite of online, mobile, in-person and batch payment solutions, it also provides the back office credit card, debit card and ACH processing for more than 60 different software companies via web services integrations. In addition, Vanco systems enable the end-to-end electronic transfer and posting of consumer bill payments initiated anywhere on the nation’s highly fragmented network of online banking sites – payments that would otherwise be sent by check and require manual intervention. The two organizations now serve a combined total of more than 38,000 clients nationwide and process more than $11 billion in electronic payments. They also collectively support over 200 client partners that include financial institutions, affinity and trade associations, professional services and independent software vendors/developers.
Fiserv, Inc.today announced that TD Bank has expanded its online money movement options through the addition of the Popmoney personal payment service* and TransferNow online funds transfer service. TD Bank online banking customers now have more ways to easily and securely send, receive and transfer money directly from their bank accounts. Popmoney enables customers to send money to almost anyone they know or owe using the recipient’s name and email address or mobile phone number, eliminating the hassles of cash or checks.
Hack The High Street was hosted by Birdback, a card-linking and retail technology startup, in partnership with Vendorcom and was sponsored by American Express. Each retailer highlighted some of the latest innovations taking place within their verticals and some challenges they are facing as retailers with high street presence. These included topics around the importance of sustainability, improving customer experience in-store, improving click and collect and the retail experience as a whole. Following the keynotes 15 teams were formed, which worked tirelessly through the weekend to build their products from the ground up and present before a panel of judges. The team from American Express was awarded first place for its interactive advertising product that would work based on facial recognition and adjusted its content and message depending on the viewers’ physical distant from the advertisement.
PayPal launched its “Galactic” initiative that addresses the issues to help make universal space payments a reality. PayPal Galactic brings together leaders in the scientific community, including the SETI Institute and Space Tourism Society, to prepare and support the future of space commerce. It will take place June 27 at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Spearheaded by PayPal, working with the SETI Institute, the initiative aims to bring together leaders in the space industry to work on the big questions around the commercialization of space. Questions include what will our standard currency look like in a truly cash-free interplanetary society? How will the banking systems have to adapt? How will risk and fraud management systems need to evolve? And what regulations will we have to conform with?
Visa Europe and Streamline further implemented contactless payment through their partnership with Boots UK stores, following an initial launch with over 600 Boots UK stores deploying the contactless payment. Expanding to the Republic of Ireland, the contactless technology provided by Visa Europe and Streamline allows customers to simply tap the reader with their contactless enabled card when making payments of up to £20. Payments are made in less than a second.
Barclaycard launched its Barclaycard “Cashback” and Barclaycard “Freedom Rewards” cards. The “Cashback” card gives customers four times more cashback on their five biggest monthly purchases, with no tiers or thresholds. Customers earn 2% on their five biggest monthly purchases and 0.5% on everything else. When customers take the card out they receive a welcome bonus, giving them the opportunity to earn 6% cashback on their five biggest purchases each month for the first three months. The Barclaycard “Freedom Rewards” card lets customers collect points on everything they buy on the card. They can redeem points at around 70 reward partners including retail giants, online favourites, restaurants and fun family days out.