All articles by EPI editorial
EPI editorial
Hypercom notches up successes in Central and Eastern Europe
US POS payments technology vendor Hypercom Corporation has notched up a notable success in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) with the deployment of a national Hypercom systems-based electronic payment network in the Czech Republic According to Hypercom the network, called HyperNET, is already being used by three of the top five Czech merchant acquirers, enabling cross-bank transactions in 183 cities and towns and enabling more than 2.5 million cardholder transactions per month
Xiring prospers in booming security market
Backing its optimism, Xiring noted that by the end of 2007 10 million consumers in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK had been equipped with authentication solutions and predicted that by 2010 the number would reach 60 million. Reflecting robust demand, Xiring reported sales of 23.8 million ($35 million) in 2007, an 86 percent increase compared with 2006 and up from 6.3 million in 2005
US processor lands in hot water
In a statement, the FTC and the attorneys general said they had charged YMA with violating federal and state laws by debiting or attempting to debit consumers bank accounts on behalf of numerous fraudulent telemarketers and internet-based merchants.The complainants explained that the merchants designed schemes to extract money from consumers bank accounts by inducing them, through misrepresentations and omissions related to marketing of products or services, to provide the merchant with the consumers personal bank account information The merchants then transmitted the bank account information to YMA, which processed debits to the consumers bank accounts.Between June 2004 and March 2006, the complainants allege, YMA processed more than $200 million in debits and attempted debits to consumers bank accounts; more than $69 million of the attempted debits were returned or rejected by consumers or their banks for various reasons, indicating the lack of consumer authorisation, the complainants allege
Mobile payments giant in the making
Money transfer service provider Western Union and mobile phone operator body the GSM Association (GSMA) have teamed up to create what could potentially become the worlds most significant mobile payments service. The objective is to create an affordable service that will enable consumers to send and receive low-denomination, high-frequency money transfers using their mobile phones, opening up what GSMA CEO Rob Conway termed a potentially vast market for financial services. He continued that mobile networks now cover more than 80 percent of the worlds population and 3 billion people have a mobile phone. This creates an unprecedented opportunity to extend the benefits of financial services to the majority of the worlds families for the first time, he said.
Credit card crunch hits the UK
Credit card crunch hits the UKTightening monetary conditions hitting UK banks have resulted in a sharp rise in the number of applications for credit cards being rejected, reveals a study by financial product comparison company MoneyExpert.In the six months to September 2007, 3.27 million people 9 percent of all applicants had their request for credit cards rejected.The rejection rate was up 17 percent compared with the six months to March when about 2.7 million applications were rejected, said MoneyExpert
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Get industry leading news, data and analysis delivered to your inbox
MasterCard launches commercial payments platform
Key features of Payment Manager include buyer-initiated purchasing card straight-through processing, a single interface for all payment processing needs and an internet portal for payment status and reporting integration.Financial service providers can adopt and rebrand Payment Gateway as a stand-alone offering or integrate it into their current product offerings; Wells Fargo opted for the latter.By integrating the MasterCard Payment Gateway, we extend the capabilities of our Payment Manager product so that it addresses the entire spectrum of needs our corporate customers face when managing their business-to-business payments life cycle, said Mary Mazzochi, senior vice-president and manager of Wells Fargos commercial card product line.Our customers can save money by breaking down the silos that traditionally exist across payments infrastructures and taking advantage of a streamlined total payables solution
Visa times accounts payable automation solution to perfection
As the threat of economic recession looms businesses have become more conscious than ever of the need to control operating costs Against this background, the launch by Visa of its Visa Accounts Payable Automation (VAPA) business-to-business (B2B) service could hardly have been better timed Already the subject of a pilot programme in conjunction with the US sixth largest commercial bank, US Bank, VAPA is designed to assist large and mid-sized businesses reduce costs associated with accounts payable processes, expense management and purchasing.
Online billpay scales new heights
Internet banking and online bill payments have enjoyed robust growth in the US in recent years with more growth to come, indicates a survey undertaken by CheckFree.
US payments industry’s costly burden
If legislators have their way, online casino-style gambling in the US will cease on 1 December 2009 with the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) Passed in 2006, the Act has since been subject to a study into applicable regulations by two federal bodies. Under regulations published by the US Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve Board (Fed), implementation and enforcement of the online gambling ban will rest heavily on the payments industry
Slowly breaking the cheque habit
Though France boasts one of the worlds highest levels of non-cash payments, adoption of electronic payments in the fullest sense has been hampered by an exceptionally high use of cheques.