Chinese software industry’s largest exporter by volume, Wondershare, has chosen Worldpay for its complete payments infrastructure. The move will help Wondershare to improve payment acceptance in its priority markets, underpinning its ambitious global expansion plans.
CardWeb.com’s CardData Reports today features the Mercator Advisory Group’s latest research, An Introduction to Peer-to-Peer Lending: A European Perspective.
P2P (person-to-person lending) lending volumes are equivalent to only a small fraction of the lending undertaken by traditional financial institutions, but P2P lending platforms can be viewed as an interesting development but not a competitive threat to traditional lenders. However, the emergence of P2P lending is a valuable new source of financing in the post-2008 global economic and financial world and has the potential to close the credit gap.
San Jose-based ThreatMetrix unveiled several risks and preventative strategies for small and medium businesses (SMBs) protect against data breaches.
MasterCard announced today that, over a one year period ending December 2013, it has grown its contactless footprint in Europe by expanding the number of countries where contactless cards are accepted: contactless is now available in 63 countries worldwide, and in 34 countries in Europe including 7 new countries in 2013: Azerbaijan, Finland, Ireland, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and the Netherlands. MasterCard® and Maestro® contactless cards or devices have been issued by more than 220 financial institutions in Europe and can be used at almost 2 million merchant locations worldwide, representing more than a 180% year-on-year increase.
Visa appointed Michael Ross Global Head of Human Resources to oversee all human resources functions in the organization. He will focus on talent management, staffing, compensation and employee relations, as well as developing effective retention, diversity and performance management strategies. Ross joins Visa from HP where he was the Chief Talent and Rewards Officer after having worked in Merrill Lynch’s Human Resources Division in New York and London. He was also Managing Director of Compensation & Benefits at Morgan Stanley.
John Partridge will step down as Visa’s president March 31, 2013. Partridge leads the company’s technology, emerging product, processing and client services functions. Additionally, he spear-headed the integration of recent acquisitions, including CyberSource, PlaySpan and Fundamo. He will work closely with Visa’s Chief Executive Officer, Charles W. Scharf, on a transition. Partridge made several significant contributions to the company’s success and positioned Visa for future growth. This after having served as chief operating officer of Visa and efforts to transform Visa from a membership association owned by financial institutions into a global, publicly traded company.
Visa and NetHope, a consortium of 37 humanitarian organizations, announced the Visa Innovation Grants program to help modernize humanitarian aid payments. Through this, Visa is making available $500,000 in grants to humanitarian and development nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to increase the speed, security and long-term impact of aid through the innovation and adoption of electronic payments. An Expert Advisory Committee of distinguished leaders with public and private sector experience will assist in the review of applications, which includes Nabeeha Mujeeb Kazi, Managing Director, Humanitas Global Development; Nick Maunder, Humanitarian and Development Consultant; Eric Nee, Managing Editor, Stanford Social Innovation Review; and Sarah Rotman, Financial Sector Specialist, CGAP
Visa and Chexar launched a network platform to digitize traditional banking services for consumers, allowing Visa prepaid users to deposit paper checks to their reloadable Visa prepaid card using their mobile device by snapping a photo of a paper check. Powered by Chexar’s technology, including its remote deposit capture platform, the service provides Visa cardholders with immediate access to funds on their Visa prepaid card, enhancing convenience and security and reducing costs for consumers. Prepaid cardholders with RushCard, AccountNow and Plastyc, as well as select FSV Payment Systems cardholders, will be able to enroll their Visa prepaid card, and immediately begin making remote deposits. As consumers move between devices and deposit channels, their prepaid account now moves seamlessly with them and works reliably from any device.
Presented by LoyaltyOne and Visa, the 3rd Annual COLLOQUY Loyalty Awards- loyalty awards decided by members of the loyalty industry- announced its recipients. Among them is American Express, selected by the panel for its “Digital Loyalty Innovation.” American Express won for a suite of digital innovations, including its first mobile redemption service, a loyalty experience for the iPad, barcode scanning and price comparisons. From November 2011 to March 2012, mobile/tablet redeemers increased by 117 percent and point redemption, as a share of overall redemption, rose 300 percent. COLLOQUY launched the awards in 2010 to salute the most innovative loyalty initiatives in the industry and, through its more than 45,000 subscribers- select the winning initiatives across 10 industry categories.
Neiman Marcus partnered Visa to test a new Neiman Marcus mobile offers “nmbuzz” program to connect fashion-minded shoppers to real-time offers. To deliver offers, up-to-the-minute fashion news from Neiman Marcus experts, and insider updates on sneak previews and designer appearances directly to the mobile phones of Neiman Marcus customers who enroll their eligible Visa account in nmbuzz, the “nmbuzz” solution lets customers enroll with their eligible Visa account and mobile phone number. Then shoppers simply use that Visa account as they normally would.
International travelers spent an additional US$716.7 million on their Visa accounts while in the United Kingdom during the second week of the London 2012 Olympic Games (July 30 – August 5), bringing the total spend on Visa accounts in the United Kingdom to more than $1.4 billion. While the biggest Visa spenders still hail from the United States, Visa account holders from Russia – one of the top 15 contributors to the London 2012 Olympic Games – have increased travel spend on their Visa accounts by more than 30 percent for the second week in a row. The top 10 contributors to the overall spend throughout the United Kingdom on Visa accounts by country/territory during the second week of the Olympics include United States ($91.0 million); Japan ($47.4 million); and France ($44.5 million). The bottom three include Germany ($33.3 million); Canada ($25.3 million ); and Sweden ($23.9 million).