All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
Controlling cost with corporate cards
Corporate payment solutions are now seeing an accelerated uplift in demand, according to Steve Abrams, global product group executive for commercial products at MasterCard Worldwide. CI: Commercialcorporate cards have been one of the few bright spots for card issuers and networks over the last few years in terms of growth levels, but how are they being affected given the current economic environment?
Visa pulls Heartland and RBS WorldPay from PCI compliance list
Heartland Payment Systems and RBS WorldPay, the two payment processing organisations that were victims of recent high-profile data breaches, have been removed from Visas list of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant entities. PCI DSS is a set of requirements developed by the major global payment card networks Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and Japans JCB that obligates organisations to take specific steps to secure cardholder data.
RBS turns to Gemalto for EMV credit card switch in Asia-Pacific
UK banking group Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is withering under an onslaught of negative publicity in its home UK market, and questions have been asked about its business strategy going forward, particularly in the emerging markets where for the past few years RBS has been engaged in an aggressive expansion campaign. But in the cards arena at least, RBS looks to be committed to staying the course in the Asia-Pacific region for the long term with the announcement that it has selected European smart card manufacturer Gemalto to carry out the migration from magnetic stripe credit cards to the EMV standard across three markets: Indonesia, Taiwan and India.
Region Round-up
Card issuance growthChinese banks increased credit card issuance in 2008 Chinese banks issued 300.4 million new cards in 2008, of which 142.3 million were credit cards, according to data from the central bank, the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC)
UK issuers fumble in the dark
The UK banking landscape is very different to how it looked just a year ago
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Merchants pile on the pressure
The heated rhetoric surrounding US credit card interchange fees escalated even further recently as legal representatives for the National Retail Federation (NRF), one of the largest merchant groups in the country, told a national gathering of state attorneys that hefty interchange fees have changed the credit card industry in much the same way lucrative origination fees changed the home mortgage industry and contributed to the current recession.
Fitch warns of record defaults to come
With unemployment at a record high, US issuers are bracing themselves for an acceleration in credit card defaults and delinquencies in the months to come, and a combination of factors is also exerting pressure on gross yields As the US economy continues to deteriorate, the stress on cardholders is growing, with consumers falling further behind on their credit card bills, setting the stage for record default rates in the months ahead, according to global credit ratings agency Fitch.
Capital One slashes dividend by 87% in move to preserve capital
Capital One, the former credit card monoline turned full-service bank, has announced it will slash the companys quarterly dividend by 87 percent from $0.375 per share to $0.05 per share from the second quarter of 2009. Capital One estimates the dividend reduction will preserve more than $500 million in capital on an annual basis, money it badly needs as it struggles to stay afloat amid a rising wave of credit losses in the US.
Shell launches fuel e-payment card
A tie-up between global payment processor First Data and fuel giant Shell is aiming to convert card-wary consumers to a new type of fuel card that acts as an electronic cheque and applies discounts on fuel purchases in real-time directly at the point of sale
Australian payments reform has only just started, says RBA
In a speech made at the Cards & Payments Australasia 2009 Conference on 24 March, Reserve Bank assistant governor Philip Lowe said the RBAs scrutiny of online payments is being driven by what it sees as a lack of consumer choice, and warned the payment industry to get its act together or risk the RBA stepping in.