All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
Collaborating for prepaid success
A growing number of prepaid players are discovering that joining forces with each other is helping them to reach out to prepaid consumer markets with greater speed and better results. Migrant remittance solutions are playing a major role in driving adoption in the unbanked market.
Canada’s card scheme feels the heat
Interac, the Canadian national debit and ATM scheme, is looking at strategies to fendoff competition from Visa and MasterCard including a possible IPO.
Vouching for success
Ukash is a brand you have likely never heard of but maybe you should. The global voucher paymentssolution is a cash loading facility with over 25,000 acceptance points in Europe. CI’s Roy Driver caught up with CEO Mark Chirnside on Ukash’s current products and global plans, and its zero-breakage model.
Region round-up
Standard Chartered Bank India has announced the launch of a joint credit and debit card product..Alfa Bank, Russias fourth-largest bank, is to launch a card personalisation product in its domestic market the first of its kind in the country..
Broadening the appeal of prepaid
In this months guest article, Paul Bartholomew-Keen, business leader of Prepaid Europe at MasterCard,outlines how the flexibility of prepaid payment solutions widens their appeal to segments not traditionallyviewed as target markets, and how prepaid stakeholders need to take a long-term view to ensure success.
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News Briefs
NEWS BRIEFS: CompaniesMasterCard settles with Amex: MasterCard is to pay American Express (Amex) $1.8 billion to settle a claim it had illegally blocked Amex from the US bank-issued card business…Contactless PaymentsUK to keep time with PayPass: MasterCard is to market the UK’s first watch equipped with its PayPass contactless payment technology…Payment Proessing BPC shines in Gartner ratings: Research company Gartner had high praise for Russian technology dveloper BPC Banking Technologies in its latest MarketScope for Multiregional Card Management Software study conducted in July…Remittances Migrant remittances under pressure: The US economic slowdown is having a negative impact on the US to Latin America migrant remittance market, reveals research by teh inter-American Development Bank (IADB)… Security Lloyds TSB selects IdenTrust: UK bank Lloyds TSB has selected US identity verification security company IdenTrust to provide digital identity and digital signing services for its corporate banking customers using the BACSTEL-IP payment network…
Barclaycard ‘to partner with BA’
Barclaycard has signed a major partnership agreement with British Airways allowing it to provide credit cards to British Airways Executive Club customers, Cards International has learned.The agreement strengthens the issuers existing agreement with British Airways in Germany and will be launched in relevant markets later this year. Initial details are sketchy but a source familiar with the deal said it did not include the UK, where British Airways already works with American Express, and is not thought to impact British Airways other working relationships like its partnership with JPMorgan Chase in the US.
First Data and EUFISERV join forces
The announcement of a joint venture between the electronic payments processing giant and the banking network is a reflection of the changing European payments market in light of SEPA. Truong Mellor reports on how this deal will alter the playing field. Electronic payments processing giant First Data has announced a joint undertaking with pan-European banking network EUFISERV. Based in Brussels, EUFISERV is comprised of fifteen shareholders, including twelve European banks and banking organisations, and provides interbank switching of point of sale (POS) and ATM transactions, including authorisation, clearing, settlement and value-added services to payment card issuers, acquirers and payment schemes.
The profitability challenge
Debit cards, although increasingly popular with consumers in developed card markets, pose something of a quandary for issuers. How can issuers use debit cards to generate profit when consumers expect them to be free? Victoria Conroy reports.In the era of rising electronic payment, debit cards have taken on ever greater importance for issuers, card networks and consumers. Over the past decade, there has been a huge increase in developed card markets of debit card transactions and an increase in the average values spent on the cards, most notably in the worlds two largest card markets, the US and the UK.
News Digest
Electronic Payments International: News Digest-Amazon.com woos online merchants…Western Union goes mobile…HSBC enters Mexican remittance market…Fiserv expands AT&T e-billing reach…No place to hide for US merchants…