All articles by EPI editorial
EPI editorial
Visa hit for anti-competitive action
Visa hit for anti-competitive action. Expressing, in the strongest terms, its abhorrence of restrictive business practices in the electronic payments industry, the EC has imposed a 10.2 million ($14.5 million) fine on Visa Europe. The fine was a sequel to a complaint against Visa Europe made by US investment bank Morgan Stanley in March 2000, following Visas refusal to admit UK-based Morgan Stanley Bank as a member.The payment cards industry plays a key role in the creation and functioning of the single market for payments, said Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition.
Ingenico drops bid for Hypercom
A trans-Atlantic battle of wills between two POS payments technology vendors, Ingenico in France and Hypercom in the US, has ended with Ingenico retracting its tentative offer to buy Hypercom for $330 million in cash. Ingenicos offer valued Hypercom at about 50 percent more than its current market capitalisation.Termination of Ingenicos acquisitive approach to Hypercom came after the latter announced that it had executed a share offer for French electronic systems developer Thaless e-Transactions unit, a provider of card payment solutions in France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Belgium and Sweden. The deal with Thales, announced in December 2007, is worth about $150 million.
Heavyweights join forces to speed up adoption of NFC
An alliance aimed at accelerating the adoption of near field communications (NFC) for contactless payments has been forged by the European Payments Council (EPC) and the GSM Association (GSMA). Two highly influential bodies, the EPC represents 8,000 banks in the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area and Switzerland while the GSMA is the global representative of 750 mobile phone operators. In a joint release the EPC and GSMA said they envisage that cross-industry cooperation will enable banks to deliver better mobile payments services to their customers, supported by mobile operators infrastructure.
Funds Tech and ProCard target South Africa’s unbanked
In South Africa, this is an untested route that two prepaid debit card companies, US-based FundsTech and South Africa-based ProCard Technologies, have joined forces to embark on.The initial phase of the initiative will focus on providing prepaid cards to companies that pay workers in cash, a service that has never been made available in South Africa, ProCard CEO Martinus du Toit told EPI It is a concept that will not be difficult to sell; there is a lot of hanging fruit in that market, said du Toit.He continued that the initial goal is to have 800,000 cards being utilised by ProCards customers within the next 18 months
One Payment Alliance weighs into Asian online market
Launched in September, One Payment provides a unified online payment processing service with a single interface, a single merchant service and a single payment gateway for all three countries.No other service can provide a single access to China, Japan and Korea online payment processing service similar to our capabilities, said One Payments vice-president of sales, Eugene Lee Our service is needed by global merchants to deeply penetrate into China, Japan and Korea online consumer market to accept locally issued cards, other unique payment types and comply with local regulations. It also supports most international card brands.One Payment is the product of an alliance between three companies: ChinaPay, the online payment processing unit of Chinas only bank card organisation, China UnionPay; Inicis, a Korean credit, debit and prepaid card payments processor; and Econtext, which is a Japanese payment gateway service supplier.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Get industry leading news, data and analysis delivered to your inbox
NCR and Mshift partner in m-banking
Backing its view, NCR said more than 90 percent of respondents to a recent survey of US and Canadian consumers it had sponsored indicated they would value combining mobile devices with the internet and ATMs in order to improve their service experience.To facilitate its move into mobile banking, NCR has announced that it will integrate technology developer MShifts mobile banking technology into its internet banking platform, a strategy NCR e-commerce general manager Greg Hanson said would enable NCR to offer a highly customisable and fully mobile internet banking solution.NCR represents another major technology partner for MShift, adding to MShifts partner-list that already includes Corillian, Hewlett-Packard and Metavante Founded as a venture capital start-up in 1999, US-based MShifts primary investor is Japanese mobile content provider Mobilephone Telecommunications International.Platform-agnostic solutionNCR said its rationale for partnering with MShift was that unlike other mobile banking solutions that are often tied to a specific mobile phone carrier, the MShift application works with any mobile phone or mobile device that has internet andor text messaging capabilities.Pamela Livingston, MShifts business development director, explained to EPI that MShifts operating system detects in real time the device being used and the users screen will display according to that device.In general, said Livingston, the MShift mobile banking solution is offered in two packages: Basic and Premium
Linking mobile phones and ATMs
Over the past 18 months, US ATM manufacturer Diebold has been assembling an array of US patents on inventions it believes will significantly advance banking applications run by mobile devices by enabling customers to interact directly with their banks ATMs in ways that could change where, when and how often they bank.Diebolds new patented technology has the potential to offer myriad applications to boost the convenience and personal security factors of using an ATM, said Jim Block, Diebolds director, global advanced technology He added that the new technologies covered by the patents will allow consumers to use their mobile devices to locate and get directions to the nearest ATM, order cash withdrawals remotely, generate electronic cheques to pay for goods or services, transmit wireless payments and conduct other transactions more securely and conveniently than they do presently.
Clear2Pay gears up for Asian growth
Clear2Pay gears up for Asian growthA growing demand for its services in Asia has prompted Belgian payments technology developer Clear2Pay to establish a new South-East Asia regional headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Until now we serviced clients and delivered projects in the South-East Asian region from our existing offices in Singapore and Australia, said Warren Gardiner, Clear2Pay general manager, Asia-Pacific However, the scope and number of projects we execute in South-East Asia have drawn us into the region.Expanding on the establishment of the Kuala Lumpur headquarters, Clear2Pays chairman and CEO, Michel Akkermans said that while globally the number of payments transactions is expected to record a CAGR of 12 percent between 2004 and 2007, a CAGR of about 20 percent was expected in the Asia-Pacific region
Implementation of SEPA faces considerable hurdles
In particular, the report stressed that none of the eurozone countries assessed expects to achieve a critical mass of SEPA payment instruments before the end of 2010.Indeed, the report added, critical mass would be difficult to achieve by the end of the January 2008 to December 2011 planned migration period to SEPA unless incentives were provided by regulators to encourage corporations and public sector bodies to adopt SEPA payment instruments.Many domestically focused corporations are reluctant to work towards SEPA implementation, arguing that it should be the responsibility of banks and regulators to fulfil their business requirements, said Patrick Desmares, secretary general of EFMA
Pay by finger at Shell outlets
In a world first for a fuel retailer, Shell Oil Products US is offering customers a biometric payment option in a pilot project at pumps and convenience stores at ten filling stations in Chicago. If successful, the service could potentially be rolled out at 6,100 Shell-branded filling stations operated by the fuel company in the US. The biometric authentication system being used, supplied by payment technology developer Pay By Touch, utilises a sensor that scans a customers finger