Virgin Money
CardWeb.com’s CardData database of Company Profiles today features Virgin Money.
Accenture Mobile Wallet
The Accenture Mobile Wallet platform has been cited in the “Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a White-label Mobile Wallet Platform,” scoring the highest overall technology assessment ranking in the report.
Target Breach Fallout
The Target breach set off a $70 billion IT security spending spree among major companies hoping to avoid similar catastrophes, 2014 has so far seen more customer data stolen than in any previous year.
Minnesota Twins Protest Credit Card Fees
The Minnesota Twins are suing Visa and MasterCard, alleging the associations gouge fan ticket purchases when they use their credit card. Alleging unfair, uncompetitive “swipe fees” hurt small merchants, cost jobs and raise the price of everything and can run as high as 4% of a purchase, the Team asserts these fees add up fast to around $50 billion a year for the banks, with profit margins of thousands of percent. Every merchant large and small in the country has to pay these fees because Visa and MasterCard control the vast majority of the market for credit and debit cards, according to the team. The Twins had joined thousands of merchants and service companies in suing Visa and MasterCard in a class-action lawsuit. But like many other companies, they dropped out and have now filed their own suit to end the anti-competitive abuses of the credit-card industry.
Eckoh Patents CallGuard Payments
Eckoh secure payment products and customer service solutions has been granted a patent (No. 2478916) for the transaction security method and system that underpins its CallGuard product.The patent was filed in 2010 by Veritape, a leading secure payment solutions company acquired by Eckoh in June 2013. Both Eckoh and Veritape have specialised in developing card payment solutions to assist companies in making ‘card-not-present’ transactions more secure, particularly those made over the phone through a contact centre. CallGuard, installed on customers’ sites, has proven its success in the market with deployments across the globe. Many companies such as outsourced contact centre providers have adopted the simple plug-and-play solution that prevents sensitive customer cardholder data from reaching call recordings and contact centre agents.
Tsys Mexico supports Multos smartcard platform
Multos International announces that Total System Services de México (TSYS), one of the largest financial services provider for credit/debit card issuers, will use its MULTOS chip card technology solutions in their latest EMV services offering to support banks and financial institutions. The new product launch includes support for a full range of technology options from SDA to DDA/CDA and dual interface, utilising MULTOS technology with payment applications from Multos International, approved by the major payment brands. TSYS solutions simplify the entire process for their issuer customers providing them guidance along the full cycle from product planning to final production.
RBS beefs up global transaction services team
The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS) announced the appointment of five new senior hires to its Global Transaction Services team, further strengthening its capabilities and enhancing the service it provides to clients. Helen Mason joins as Head of Bank Partnerships, consolidating the Bank’s approach to and management of partner banking arrangements across Global Transaction Services. Mason has over 20 years experience within global transaction banking organisations and joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), where she has been leading the commercial cards business within GTS EMEA. Mason reports to Berndt. Waud also joins from JP Morgan. He was at the bank for over 12 years, most recently as executive director and team leader for Northern Europe. Waud reports to Blake. Stuart Lawson and Maha el Dimachki both join the GTS Cash Product team as Managing Directors.
TSYS & Virgin Money Ink Payment Agreement
TSYS reached a long-term agreement to provide consumer credit processing services along with value-added capabilities for Virgin Money customers within the United Kingdom. Virgin Money selected TSYS’ market leading TS2® platform to support its UK cards portfolio. TSYS will provide a flexible and reliable card processing solution for Virgin Money with value-added capabilities being provided through various partners, including TSYS Managed Services EMEA.
Africa’s First Travel Rewards Program
AfrAsia Bank and MasterCard introduce Africa’s first travel rewards program offering real time booking on over 450 airlines and at 200,000 hotels to its World and Titanium MasterCard cardholders. In collaboration with Infinia Services & Solutions and MasterCard, this travel rewards program enables cardholders to earn XtraMiles whenever they swipe their World or Titanium MasterCard…
Alfa-Bank Deploys BPC mNFC Payments
BPC Banking Technologies Open System e-payment solutions for the global financial industry and Alfa-Bank launched an innovative, contactless payment service based on NFC technology for Russian telecom operator Beeline. This new service, using MasterCard PayPass Mobile, enables customers to quickly and securely pay for purchases with their mobile phone. The new solution is available for use on a wide range of handsets and is currently being pilot-tested for the Bank’s customers. Powered by SmartVista, which underpins the Bank’s entire payment processing operations, this new solution was developed very quickly and is seamlessly integrated for smooth and risk free operation.
Visa Annual Cardholder Expenditure Exceeds EUR1T on Debit Cards
Annual spend on Visa debit cards across Europe has exceeded €1trillion for an annual increase of 8.8%, reports payments technology company Visa Europe. Total spend by Visa cardholders grew by 8.0% to €1.3 trillion. This was underpinned by a 16% growth in e-commerce, the fastest growing part of the Visa Europe business. Online spending on Visa cards in Europe topped €200 billion (€202bn) for the first time and accounts for more than 20% of Visa Europe’s processed business. €1 in every €6.75 spent in Europe is on a Visa card, a figure that rises to £1 in every £3 in the UK. Growth was also strong in other core areas of the Visa Europe business, with spending on commercial cards increasing by 17.6% and on prepaid cards by 18.3%. In the UK, total spend increased by 6.1% to £407bn with spend on debit cards increasing by 7.1% to £360bn. E-commerce grew by 11.5% to £96bn, representing almost a quarter of total spend. Contactless transactions in Europe quadrupled in 2012 and Visa Europe expects to repeat this growth in 2013.
Clear2Pay and Fime partner on US EMV Migration
Clear2Pay next generation payment solutions and FIME consulting and market integration testing services for smart devices and secure chip-based applications extended their partnership to support US financial institutions and processors with a swift and reliable migration to the EMV standard. Globally, a significant number of countries have already adopted the technology and many more are in different stages of their migration. With the recent American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa EMV mandates and timelines, the United States’ EMV migration project now looks certain.