All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
Barclays outage: ‘The cleaner did it!’
Thecollapse ofBarclays’ payments system this weekend could have been caused by something as simple as “a cleaner pulling out the wrong plug”, according to an industry expert.
Santander withdraws from FPS joint venture
Banco Santader has completed its exit from its joint processing venture in Brazil,Fidelity Processadora e Servicos (FPS). The bank, which has its own credit card processing unit, has been rationalising its business in Brazil since acquiring ABN AMRO’s operations in the country and mergingit with its existingoperations there. Santander’swithdrawal from the partnershipmeans Banco Bradescos ownership of the joint venture has increased to 49 percent while FIS,a US-based processor,maintained its 51 percent share.
Citi first to use MasterCard inControl
Citi and MasterCard Worldwide will implement the first ever consumer application in the US of MasterCard inControl in late 2010. The service provides cardholders with the ability to monitor their spending by receiving real-time information about their accounts, allows them to set spending limits and ensures card security through alerts regarding attempted purchases. We believe that MasterCard incontrol will help enhance our cardholders experience, through increased transparency, greater spending confidence, and more secure and efficient financial management, said Ed Garofalo, Executive Vice President of Citi cards.
Comment: Ruth Wandhöfer
European payments integration in the form of the Single Euro Payments Area is slowly but gradually advancing. Building on the core initial deliverables, in the form of the SEPA credit transfer and direct debit schemes (and not forgetting the SEPA cards framework), increasing attention is now being given to various aspects of what is sometimes referred to as the e-SEPA agenda, including the role that innovative payment channels such as the mobile have to play.
MAS blasts DBS after IT meltdown
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) claims that “inadequate management” and the lack of “a robust technology risk management framework” caused DBS Banks service outage of its online and branch banking systems last month. As directed by MAS, DBS and its outsourcing vendor IBM conducted an investigation into the causes of the breakdown that occurred on 5 July this year
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Cards unit helps Target to profit hike
A steep reduction in bad debt led to impressive results during the second quarter in the credit card business of US retailer Target. The credit card segment of the company saw profit jump to $149m compared with $63m during the second quarter of last year
Subprime lending ‘business as usual’
As Canadian card issuer Home Trust resumes its normal lending practice since the economic crisis began, the migration to EMV (Chip and PIN) with a view to combating fraud is its new focus.
Advent, Bain buy RBS WorldPay for $2.7bn
Private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital are set to acquire Royal Bank of Scotlands (RBS) card and online payment services arm, RBS WorldPay, for £2.025 billion($2.7 billion). Paying the price for its state bail out in 2008, 83 percent state-owned RBS has adhered to orders from European regulators to sell off some of its assets. The news of the sale follows Spanish bank Santanders purchase of 318 RBS branches for £1.65bn this week.
Small retailers’ latent demand for gift cards
Merchant acquirers will be able to offer store-branded prepaid gift cards tosmall retailers through a RetailCardShop solution designed by card customisationbusiness Serverside. It will take advantage of what Tom Elgar, co-founder and CTO ofServerside, described as “a latent demand” among smaller shops for own-branded prepaid products
MASTERCARD AND TELEFÓNICA SIGN CREDIT CO-BRAND DEAL
Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica has signed a multi-year credit co-brand agreement with MasterCard Worldwide targeting its mobile phone customers and the unbanked in Latin America