All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
Prepaid Financial Services launches Camden “Payments Card”
Prepaid Financial Services and the London Borough of Camden have launched a prepaid card for social care and support.This forms the initial phase of the Direct Payment project, an initiative analysing how effectively the use of prepaid cards can streamline the payments procedure for people in social care.We believe that prepaid cards have the potential to offer an easy-to-use way for customers to access and manage their funds, and an efficient way for the Council to provide and monitor direct payments, said John Stansfield of Camden Council.
Twitpay attracts significant investment
Twitpay, a provider of payment systems solutions for social media, has attracted significant investment from venture capital firm TomorrowVentures and financial products provider CompuCredit Holdings Corporation.The company is seeking to expand and capitalise on the potential increase in payments made through mobile and tablet PC applications.We are very excited about our investment in Twitpay, said Court Coursey, managing partner, TomorrowVentures. The convergence of social media and mobile payments will drive tremendous opportunities in the social media value chain. We believe that Twitpay, with its sophisticated payments platform and mobile wallet technology, is positioned to be the dominant player in this segment.
MasterCard announces Q4 2010 results
MasterCard claims its debit portfolio is the next SEPA frontier for Europe as it announces 300m Maestro-branded cards are now in issuance across Europe in its Q4 2010 results. Purchase volume across MasterCards portfolio was $168bn, growing 13% from Q3 2010. Additionally, European cardholders made more than 2.1bn transactions during the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 13.7%
Inside Secure develops biometric NFC solution
Semiconductor solutions provider Inside Secure has implemented biometric on-card matching capabilities for its SecuRead near-field communication (NFC) solution. The solution claims to enable manufacturers of mobile NFC devices to provide enhanced, two-factor security and great personal privacy for a variety of mobile applications. Inside Secures biometric technology will make its debut on the TazCard the NFC e-wallet from contactless products and solutions provider TazTag. The solution is based on advanced fingerprint identification software from biometric technology provider Neurotechnology.
Charge Anywhere launches in Nigeria
Mobile payment solutions provider Charge Anywhere has partnered payment processing provider G-Pay to enable its launch in Nigeria.The service is tentatively entering the African market, with a pilot being the initial phase of deployment. The service aims to demonstrate prepaid utility bill applications and will run on mobile phones and GPRS wireless POS terminals.
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Visa Europe partners Monitise
Visa Europe has teamed up with mobile money solutions provider Monitise to develop and supply mobile payments services for its member banks across Europe.The agreement is claimed to leverage Visas European inter-bank processing platform and accelerate the development and commercialisation of large scale mobile payments and services.
MasterCard co-brands debit card in Nigeria
MasterCard Worldwide and InterSwitch have announced they will offer a new co-branded debit card – the Mastercard Verve.Nigeria’s electronic transaction switching and payment processing company InterSwitch, launched the Verve chip and PIN card in Nigeria back in 2009. This collaboration between the two parties is aimed at encouraging debit card use in Nigeria whilst creating wider acceptance of the cards home and abroad by utilising the MasterCard brand.
eWise launches payo mobile app
The launch of the mobile app from online financial management solutions provider eWise is touted to be the biggest positive technological advancement since the introduction of the ATM.Hot-on-the-heels of the launch of eWise payo, Finnovate 2011 has provided the platform for the arrival of its mobile application.
More than a hole in the wall?
As card and processing technology develops, the potential for adding new and useful functions to ATMs is increasing. But do people really want more functionality from cash machines? Louise Naughton looks at the scope for development but asks whether it might be wiser to keep things simple.
The future voice of biometrics
With a growing number of financial institutions deploying the technology and conducting extensive studies and pilot schemes, voice biometrics finally appears set to fulfil its potential as a fraud reduction mechanism, writes Paul Golden.Biometrics is a collective term for a number of different technologies that can be used to automatically confirm a persons identity. They do this by comparing their physical or behavioural characteristics in real time against enrolled computer records.The number of uses it is being put to is, staggering from airport security to transaction verification.