All articles by EPI editorial
EPI editorial
Fiserv goes mobile
Premier Mobile Banking (PMB), a mobile banking platform specifically targeting community banks, has been launched by US financial services technology vendor Fiserv This technology was specifically developed for our community bank clients to help them expand their offerings and compete effectively against even their largest competitors, said Tom Cypher, president and CEO of Fiservs Information Technology unit
UK’s TheTrainline gets smart
The UKs largest independent online rail ticket retailer, TheTrainline, has taken its first step towards the introduction of smartcards as an alternative to paper tickets with the announcement of Trainline Smart TheTrainline predicts that Trainline Smart, which will be the subject of a pilot programme later this year, will account for up to half of all rail ticket sales by 2012, the year London is to host the Olympic Games Terming Trainline Smart a massive step towards integrated national smart ticketing, TheTrainlines director of sales and distribution, Adrian Watts, said as train operating companies begin to install smart-enabled readers, only one card will be needed when travelling UK-wide by rail, bus and London Underground.
MoneyGram rescued from the brink by consortium offer
Staring disaster in the face, US global money transfer specialist MoneyGram International is grabbing at a financial lifeline being thrown to it by a consortium led by investment bank Goldman Sachs and private equity firm Thomas H Lee Partners.
Consumer concern rising about mobile payment security
Spurred by the advent of internet-enabled devices and diligent marketing by financial and other service providers, mobile devices are set to become increasingly pervasive in the world of electronic payments But with any transaction platform comes the threat of fraud and even in the mobile world it is a cause of concern among consumers, reveals a study commissioned by internet security company McAfee The study, which canvassed consumers in the US, the UK and Japan, revealed that 72 percent of respondents are concerned about the security of current and future mobile services such as payments, multimedia downloads and ticketing.
Amazon opts for Bill Me Later
Bill Me Laters claim that its solution is the first new payment method since credit cards to be so broadly available in the US has been reinforced by the decision by online retailing giant Amazon.com to make its service available on its website We are pleased to make the convenience of Bill Me Later available to our tens of millions of Amazon customers. Indicative of the potential user base Amazon represents, in its 2006 financial year it reported total North American sales of $5.87 billion. An attraction of Bill Me Later is that it enables customers to undertake online purchases without disclosing their credit card information.
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Euronet still stalking troubled MoneyGram
Negotiation via the mail remains the order of the day in Euronet Worldwides bid to acquire US money transfer specialist MoneyGram International. The saga began in early November 2007 when the global ATM operator and payment transaction companys chairman and CEO Michael Brown corresponded with his counterpart at MoneyGram, Philip Milne, proposing a business combination. Milnes reply was curt: The board has asked me to inform you that MoneyGram is not for sale and, accordingly, there is no reason for us to meet to discuss your letters.
Inside Contactless forges ahead
Nokia Growth Partners, the private equity and venture capital management unit of mobile device manufacturer Nokia, joins Visa International and seven major global private equity and venture capital firms that have already invested in Inside.Investor enthusiasm for Inside is understandable given the French companys decade-long history of being at the cutting edge in its area of specialisation near field communication (NFC) contactless payments
US telecommunications giant joins the mobile banking race
US telecommunications giant joins the mobile banking raceResearch company Celent believes 2007 will prove to be the year mobile banking in the US moved into the mainstream, a prediction that has taken a significant step towards realisation with the entry of AT&T, the USs largest telecommunications service provider, into the mobile banking space The payments platform will enable users to transfer funds, pay bills and view account details from 30 of AT&Ts most popular handsets, representing about 30 million devices in the US.AT&Ts service is the result of what independent telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan termed an innovative and unique partnership between AT&T, payment technology developer Firethorn Holdings, online bill-pay service provider CheckFree and banking groups SunTrust Banks and Wachovia The partnership, said Kagan, may be the tipping point to widespread adoption of mobile banking solutions by consumers.Underscoring his view, Wachovias director of emerging applications, Ilieva Ageenko, said: AT&T takes mobile financial solutions to the next level by extending the capabilities to a much broader base and provides Wachovia customers with an innovative new method of ubiquitous access to their financial information.AT&Ts strengthsExplaining AT&Ts approach, Mark Collins, vice-president, consumer data, for AT&Ts wireless unit, said that when several financial institutions were designing their own mobile banking applications to run on carrier networks, AT&T intentionally chose a different path
Postal services flex their muscles
Postal services have provided money order services for decades and play a key role in their domestic low-value remittance markets. However, the role of postal services in the international remittance market has so far been limited, something the Universal Postal Union is working hard to change. Operating 665,000 outlets, delivering 440 billion items each year and employing 5 million people, global postal services represent the worlds biggest distribution network and a marketing platform reaching billions of consumers. Not surprisingly, post offices have long been used to supply financial services.
SWIFT to revamp fees and messaging architecture
The fixed-fee option will be equivalent to 95 percent of the messaging charges paid by the customer for the previous year and will include an entitlement to increase messaging use by 50 percent in value at no additional cost.High-volume customers account for about 80 percent of all messaging traffic exchanged over SWIFT