All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
Giving credit to Islamic payment cards
In this extract, the report describes how Islamic Sharia-compliant payment cards work, with examples of successful products from Islamic financial service providers. Sharia-compliant credit cards are almost unheard of in Europe and the US, but since their introduction five years ago in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, their presence has rapidly become widespread.
Region Round-up
Asia-Pacific Region Roundup: NAB and VISA in contactless push…Western union to launch mobile remittance service in Malaysia…Interac allows China UnionPay ATM access…Gemalto opens card personalisation centre in Indonesia…NuMobile partners with Alternet…Sierra Leone mobile money service…launches…Santander and Elavon form UK merchant services partnership…Barlcays to buy Citi’s Portuguese credit cards…Tesco Personal Finance becomes Tesco Bank…RePay International enters into partnership with PaySquare…(Read more)
News Digest
CONTACTLESS PAYMENTSIndian railways choose the contactless routeIn potentially one of the biggest contactless payments deployments yet the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), Indias Ministry of Railways technology division, has selected NXP Semiconductors MIFARE DESFire solution to power contactless smart cards for automatic fare collection.Full-scale deployment of contactless ticketing follows completion of a pilot project undertaken by the CRIS using NXPs MIFARE Classic contactless solution in Chennai.Some 500,000 contactless cards were issued during this project.In the full-scale deployment of contactless ticketing cards due to commence in September this year, fare collection will be facilitated by an automatic ticket vending machine (ATVM) system developed by the CRIS.Initially ATVMs will be installed in five major Indian cities: New Delhi, Secunderabad, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Pune.Manufacture of the contactless cards is being undertaken by Indian payment card manufacturing specialist Siepmanns Card Systems.Commenting on the development, Ashok Chandak, NXP Semiconductors senior director, global sales and marketing for India, said: We see a significant growth in the use of contactless smart card technology in transport systems in India.One of the worlds most intensively used railways, Indias system extends over almost 7,000 stations and transports some 18 million passengers daily
Visa and MasterCard find ways to ride out the recession
Visa Incs results for its fiscal third quarter 2009 ending 30 June showed net income on an adjusted basis of $744 million, a jump of 73 percent excluding the sale of its stake in VisaNet do Brasil, adjusted net quarterly income was $507 million.The worlds largest payment network continues to take a scythe to operating costs and expenses, with total operating expenses coming in at $804 million, a fall of 9 percent compared to the year-ago period Personnel expenses fell to $262 million compared to $310 million in the year-ago period, while advertising, marketing and promotion expenses totalled $229 million compared to $271 million.Mixed results for credit and debitAlthough payment volume declines appear to be stabilising in some areas, Visas results were impacted by foreign currency fluctuations relative to the US dollar
M&A activity makes a tentative return
CIs dealwatch, a new monthly feature, will keep track of the deals taking place in the industry.The start of the global credit crunch in 2007 has had many devastating effects withdrawal of funding and bank lending, company closures and bankruptcies, job losses and rising credit losses
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Region Round-up
REMITTANCESRemittance Payment Card introduced In BangladeshThe National Credit and Commerce (NCC) Bank of Bangladesh has launched a foreign remittance payment card, known as mBridge, which will enable beneficiaries of remittances to withdraw their money from both the NCC Bank and 250 rural outlets of TMSS, a non-governmental organisation, across the country The card can also be used to make purchases at Visa-affiliated merchants.Remittances by Bangladeshi expatriates stood at over $886 million in July 2009, marking an eight percent growth over the month of July last year, central bank officials said
An evolving corporate marketplace
In this months guest article, Matthew Lanford, head of prepaid at MasterCard Europe, examines how the current economic environment and the need for cost control are combining to elevate prepaid as an ideal tool for corporates and institutions in areas such as payroll and expenses.My previous contribution to CI saw me examine the dynamics shaping the prepaid industrys engagement with consumers and assess the passing of prepaid into the payments mainstream, amid the emergence of a new generation of European consumers willing to embrace prepaid as everyday money
Nigeria drives African card growth
Having just completed the migration to EMV, Nigeria stands at the forefront of Africas burgeoning cards and payments industry Issuers in the country are now trying to capitalise on technology innovation by rolling out increasingly sophisticated offerings and embarking on intensive consumer education, as Victoria Conroy reports In a cash-dominated country where only around 18 million of the 146 million-strong population are classed as banked, and where payment infrastructure is sparse, it would be easy to assume that promoting cards and electronic payments would be an uphill struggle
KBW spots light at the end of the tunnel
The tough economic climate in the US and recent card-related legislation is placing a myriad of pressures on card issuers In a good newsbad news scenario, a pair of leading financial analysts has announced that while the weak economy would cause credit card issuers to report weak payment volumes and high charge-off losses in the second quarter of 2009, the industry may also be nearing the bottom of the recessionary trough.According to a pair of reports by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysts Sanjay Sakhrani and Steven Kwok, new card regulations are putting tremendous pressure on issuers, but there is now some visibility for issuers on whats needed to be done to remain in the credit-issuing business profitably.The analysts assume a rather distressing 11 percent unemployment rate this year, which will generate a corresponding increase in charge-offs, depressing earnings for the second quarter and through the remainder of the year
Amex, Capital One divided over charge-offs
Another quarter, another dire set of results for US issuers as profits are wiped out by credit losses, government repayments and one-off charges However, American Express and Capital One are taking opposing views as to where charge-off rates may be headed, as Victoria Conroy reports American Express (Amex) and Capital One have posted their latest quarterly results, and neither set makes particularly encouraging reading