Travelex and Austin, TX-based Rev Worldwide have unveiled the launch of The Travelex NiHao Card, a reloadable prepaid travel card in association with UnionPay International. The Nihao Card launch in Hong Kong marks the first Rev processed UnionPay card.
Nine Polish banks will commercially launch Visa cloud-based mobile contactless payment services in the first quarter. Close to 70% of Visa cards in the European market have contactless functionality, with the technology accounting for more than 40% of all Visa payments in Poland.
UK-based Spire Payments is unveiling five new devices to its SP product portfolio. SP is a forward-looking alternative to traditional payment terminal suppliers.
Spire Payments mPOS is launching two new chip and PIN mPOS device, the SPm20 and the SPm2, to complement its PosMate Smart thereby adding to its stable of innovative mPOS devices.
Payment collection specialist allpay will provide Bill Payment services to Lloyds Bank as part of the bank’s selection to the newly launched ESPO public sector banking framework. Lloyds has been selected alongside two other banks to offer a range of banking solutions as part of the framework, especially designed to help UK local authorities, central government, schools, social housing providers, police, NHS, and all other public sector organisations with their banking requirements.
Contis Group has signed Ffrees to its fully managed, integrated current account with a Visa debit card and loyalty and rewards program. Contis’ end-to-end service capabilities and next generation Visa e-money platform allows Ffrees to launch a complete reinvention of the current account, enabling families to save as they spend, avoid exorbitant bank charges and take advantage of a variety of innovative money management tools that are available via their online account facility. Since the launch of its new products in October 2013, Ffrees has attracted more than 20,000 customers to its services and continues to issue new accounts at a rate of 200 a day.
Visa announced a partnership with Borderfree international cross-border ecommerce solutions. Borderfree operates a technology and services platform that allows US retailers to transact with customers in more than 100 countries and territories and more than 60 currencies worldwide. Borderfree’s customer portfolio includes some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Bloomingdale’s, Sears, Macy’s, Gilt, Elie Tahari and Neiman Marcus, among others. Visa’s partnership with Borderfree will commence with an exciting Neiman Marcus promotion which will be rolled out in select markets in the Middle East, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. Visa has partnered with almost 40 banks in the region to exclusively offer cardholders of participating banks duty-free and free international express shipping of goods purchased in excess of US $100 through August 20, 2014.
Fico has been awarded 25 new patents, bringing its patent portfolio to 167 U.S. and foreign patents. These patents were awarded to team members of FICO Labs for inventions underlying the company’s solutions in fraud protection, cybersecurity, predictive analytics and decision management. Ten of the latest patents cover analytic innovations used by FICO’s industry-leading fraud solutions across the financial, healthcare and telecommunications industries. These technologies, many of which are used in the FICO® Falcon® Platform, help improve fraud detection, reduce false positives and improve the customer experience. FICO also received a patent for a consumer-driven secure sockets layer (SSL) modulator. This is a software system and method for executing secure commercial transactions online by enabling unique receipt message encryption to thwart “man-in-the-middle” attacks. FICO was also awarded patents for inventions related to predictive analytics.
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.
Vale Europe reduced the time and cost involved in the completion of its bank reconciliation by implementing an integrated financial management solution from m-hance. This system, m-hance Bank Management, has enabled Vale Europe Ltd to achieve greater compliance and has halved the time it takes to complete its bank reconciliation process through automating a range of manual-based procedures. After reviewing the market, Vale selected m-hance’s integrated Bank Management solution to gain a faster, more accurate and efficient means of reconciling transactions by automating manual administrative processes. The solution’s rule-based matching functionality automatically reconciles transactions within Vale’s m-hance finance system to an imported bank statement to eliminate duplication of effort and reduce errors.
MasterCard announced the appointment of Emerging Markets Payments (EMP), the leading electronic payments processing company in the Middle East and Africa region, as a Principal Member in Egypt. Through this, EMP will be able to sponsor issuers in Egypt and other African markets as Affiliates, allowing smaller issuers to offer prepaid, credit and debit cards, get access to ATMs and Point of Sale services by utilising EMP’s ability to sponsor them as Affiliates, and benefit from EMP’s technology and operations outsourcing services. The cards will offer consumers greater control over expenses and the opportunity to build the payment history.
LendProtect UK underbanked consumer data, analytics and risk scoring solutions on those who are underserved by traditional banking channels in the UK, announces today a partnership with Yodlee Interactive to launch a new service, BankLogic. BankLogic is a platform that enables lenders to seamlessly access bank account information from LendProtect — account ownership, deposits, transaction details and balances — to more accurately evaluate a borrower’s credit risk. Utilising BankLogic, lenders are able to see 90 days of their prospective customers’ banking behaviours, including all deposits and individual transactions to payees. This additional information allows lenders to more concisely evaluate risk involved in the short term loan offering, lower the risk of the loan going into default, more accurately assess affordability for the consumer and increase conversion and profitability.