• ANZ has introduced the first mobile banking
service in Vietnam…
• India’s ICICI Bank has launched a branch-free
banking operation…
• Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank (AUB) has
launched a new Platinum credit card…
• American Express has signed an agreement with
Travel Security…
• The State of Alaska has renewed its contract
with JPMorgan for paperless distribution…
Asia-Pacific• Citi has announced the
launch of a combined contactless Octopus travel and credit card in
Hong Kong. The new card is also integrated with the Octopus rewards
scheme, which enables cardholders to collect and spend points given
by participating retailers. Additionally, users can earn cash
rebates through credit card spending which will be credited for
Octopus usage. The Hong Kong launch comes after Citi’s involvement
in similar schemes with the Delhi Mass Rapid Transit System, the
Singapore Mass Rapid Transit System and the New York City
Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
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• Transaction processor Fidelity National Information
Services has announced it will be selling its Australian
retail lending unit Certegy Australia to consumer finance company
Flexigroup for A$31.4 million ($30.3 million) in cash and other
considerations. Flexigroup will manage the collection of customer
accounts receivable outstanding on the sale closing date, which is
expected to net Fidelity a further A$160 million in cash over the
next 18 months. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth
quarter of 2008.
• ANZ has introduced the first mobile banking
service in Vietnam. This follows the news that the bank has been
given authorisation to incorporate a wholly-owned retail bank in
the country. The service is initially available for customers in
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. As well as introducing the mobile
banking service, ANZ intends to open four new branches by the end
of 2008, with further branch expansion planned beyond that.
• India’s ICICI Bank has launched a branch-free
banking operation. The internet-based scheme is the first of its
kind in India, according to the bank. Customers who join the bank
will see zero charges and automatic sweeping of account balances
into higher-interest fixed deposit accounts. A prepaid Visa card
will be issued to subscribers for online purchases and utility bill
payments.
• Citi cardholders in the Philippines will now be able to use
the Citi Mobile service, which allows for SMS
texting to authorise payments for deliveries and services on their
credit cards. Users can also top up prepaid mobile phones, buy
internet access time and pay utility bills using their credit cards
via their mobile phones. Citi has made significant investments in
mobile banking and has embarked on a number of initiatives
including the establishment of a joint venture with South Korea’s
SK Telecom, which is currently developing a mobile banking platform
that will be compatible with Google’s new Android system. The bank
chose the Philippines as the first place to launch the Citi Mobile
service because the country is known as the unofficial ‘text
capital’ of the world.
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By GlobalData• Singapore’s DBS Bank has announced it will be
adopting a financial crime surveillance system from Actimize that
will observe transactions and analyse potentially suspicious
patterns across all its Asia-Pacific operations. The system will be
deployed by Unisys, who says that the risk management platform and
surveillance system will help DBS detect potential fraud,
misconduct, money laundering and terrorism financing activities.
The system can be adapted to the bank’s varying needs in different
markets.
• Bank of China has installed Diebold Opteva
ATMs around key competition venues and facilities in Beijing for
the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Diebold will also arrange service
resources during the games to ensure the steady operation of the
machines, and will also ramp up the operating hours for its
customer service centres in the region and all the other local
service points to 24 hours each day during the event.
• US card network Discover has unveiled a new
IT facility in China to support its data analysis and modelling
operations. Based in Shanghai’s Huangpu District, the new operation
will house a staff of 45 analysts, a number that Discover say will
be doubled by next year. The company is already active in the
Chinese market, having a long-term agreement with domestic cards
stalwart China UnionPay in place already. This deal gives Discover
cardholders access to China UnionPay’s merchant locations and ATMs
across the mainland, and also allows China UnionPay cardholders
access to ATMs and POS terminals at retail locations across the US
on Discover’s Pulse network.
• Citibank has unveiled its Citi PremierMiles
Platinum Visa Card in Hong Kong, a card designed for frequent
travellers that offers upgraded travel-related privileges, reward
points with no expiration date as well as free access to selected
airport lounges at Hong Kong Airport.
“As over 10 percent of the total card spending of our Platinum
Card is travel-related, we believe travel is a focus and a
lifestyle pursuit for Hong Kong people, and a conventional
mileage-earning programme no longer fulfills their needs,” said
Neil Gardner, director of cards business at Citibank’s Global
Consumer Group. “Citi PremierMiles allows cardholders to redeem
their rewards points for travel-related offers.”
• Online auction site eBay has shelved plans to
force Australian customers to use the PayPal service to make
payments on the site following widespread opposition. The company
says it has withdrawn its notification to the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) made in April this year
about removing other payment methods from the site.
The move was met with hostility from both the Australian Bankers
Association as well as the Reserve Bank of Australia. In order to
“stop any further confusion and disruption among the eBay
community” the firm has dropped the plans altogether, but has
maintained that all sellers must offer PayPal as one of their
payment options.
• New York Life International, the overseas arm
of New York Life Insurance Company, has launched a co-branded card
with Citibank in Taiwan, the country’s first
co-branded insurance card. The Citibank New York Life Platinum Card
provides cardholders with a 1.1 percent discount for insurance
premiums and reward points that can be redeemed to pay for
insurance bills. Citibank’s co-brand credit card portfolio is one
of the most comprehensive in Taiwan offering benefits in the
following areas: travel, aviation, entertainment, dining and
shopping.
• DBS Bank has announced the opening of its
representative office in Hanoi, Vietnam. The office will be at the
forefront the bank’s development of the wholesale banking business.
DBS has also recently organised an operational risk management
workshop for banking and media representatives in Vietnam.
“Since receiving our representative office licence in March, we
have expanded our trade finance related activities significantly,
and will look for further opportunities and penetrate the banking
sector over time,” said Dr Wong Yit Fan, chief representative of
DBS Bank at the Hanoi Representative Office.
Europe, Middle East, Africa• Money transfer specialist
ARY SpeedRemit has joined forces with prepaid
provider Krores to launch a new remittance card
product in the Middle East’s Gulf region. The ARY Krores card has
been designed to facilitate secure and easy money transfers for
Gulf expatriates and their families back home. The card comes in a
set of two for the sender and the recipient, and will only be
available to expats hailing from India and Philippines initially.
However, the scheme will gradually expand to other countries.
• Visa Europe has announced a five-year managed
services contract with BT to migrate its transaction network onto
BT’s 21CN Global network, thereby greatly enhancing the card
network’s processing capability. This will see Visa Europe move
onto an efficient internet protocol (IP) network. The new agreement
will help Visa Europe improve operations through the use of a
single supplier and a flexible network, making further upgrades and
developments easier to undertake. The company not only provides
cross-border inter-bank switching, but is also the principal
domestic processor in 16 European markets.
• Citi Handlowy has staked its claim as the
leader in the prepaid market in Poland. As of 30 June there were
already 400,000 active prepaid cards in circulation.
“Whenever I can, I emphasise the immense variety of possible
uses of prepaid cards,” said Piotr Lipinski, cards products head at
Citi Handlowy. “In our day-to-day work we look for solutions that
would perfectly suit our clients’ needs – this is, for example, how
the first medical prepaid card in the Polish market was created,
which is the best example of our innovative approach.”
Citi Handlowy offers its customers personalised and
non-personalised prepaid cards as well as cards with and without
PIN codes assigned to them.
• Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank (AUB) has
launched a new Platinum credit card which specifically caters to
the requirements of premium customers with a host of unique
membership benefits. Cardholders are offered access to over 500 VIP
lounges across the globe while also enjoying significant discounts
at major international hotel chains and car rental companies.
The AUB Platinum Credit Card also provides a complimentary
travel concierge service for travel bookings, airport pick-up and
drop-off services, as well as complimentary travel insurance. As an
introductory offer, the bank is giving free business class return
tickets to any Gulf Co-operation Council country to the first 100
cardholders who receive the card.
• European payment processor Equens has been
transformed into a Societas Europaea and become Equens SE. This
legal form is in line with Equens’ ambitions and positioning as a
major player within the European payments market.
The new company is the result of the legal mergers of Equens
Netherlands and Equens Germany into the holding company of Equens,
followed by the conversion into a Societas Europaea. Equens says
that the SE conversion will lead to cost savings at operative
level.
Equens director Dr Götz Möller said: “We are glad that we have
taken the next step towards achieving our European ambition. It is
a logical move after the successful operative integration of the –
until now – separate legal entities in Germany and the
Netherlands.
“This new legal form is in line with our European strategy to
further improve our strong position through internal optimisation,
as well as national and international partnerships, in order to
further reduce the costs per transaction. With an explicit growth
strategy, Equens aims to maintain a top position in the European
payments industry.”
• The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is piloting
MasterCard’s PayPass contactless payments technology in London
black cabs. The scheme will enable customers to pay for fares of
£10 ($20) or less by tapping their MasterCard PayPass card against
specially equipped payment readers in 25 London-based cabs.
The terminals can also be used for normal card transactions of
over £10. According to the bank, around 50 percent of people carry
less than £10 on them, and would use cabs more often if they could
pay for them using a contactless card.
• Turkey’s Bank Asya has unveiled a
multi-application chip and PIN card that combines the functionality
of MasterCard’s EMV OneSmart features with an integrated municipal
toll and transit application. The new Asyacard DIT also employs
PayPass contactless technology. Cardholders can use their cards for
the tolls on motorways and bridges, including the two bridges over
the Bosporus Straight in Istanbul that connects Europe and
Asia.
• Capital One has launched a new low-rate
credit card in the UK targeted at consumers who have an excellent
credit rating. The card offers no balance transfer fees and an APR
of 8.5 percent variable on balance transfers and purchases.
Cardholders will also benefit from Capital One’s identity theft
assistance, which includes a free identity alert service that will
alert them by email if someone applies for credit in their name,
two free credit reports per year and a free named adviser to
provide help at every stage of the recovery and resolution process
should they become a victim of identity theft.
• Middle East and North Africa-based banking giant
Emirates NBD has announced that it has commenced
the integration of its network of ATMs. This will result in one
aligned platform and additional services across the network of 474
ATMs owned by the banking group.
The network is comprised of 234 Emirates Bank ATMs, 60 Emirates
Islamic Bank ATMs and 180 National Bank of Dubai ATMs. Customers of
the three banks will soon be able to use any of the machines
belonging to the integrated network to perform various banking and
payment transactions that will be available across this
channel.
• Middle East card solution provider Network
International has announced it has signed a joint venture
agreement with smart card provider Oberthur
Technologies to create a cards security and
personalisation bureau, with the aim of bringing sophisticated card
security and personalisation technology to the Middle East and
North Africa region.
• The majority of consumers with loyalty schemes linked to cards
are not claiming their rewards, according to new research from UK
supermarket chain Sainsbury’s.
The main reason for the rewards going unclaimed is that the
financial value is too small – the view of 42 percent of people
with credit cards that offer loyalty schemes. Just over one quarter
of respondents felt the redemption process takes too long, while 24
percent said it was too difficult to redeem the
rewards.
Latin America
• In April 2008 Brazilians spent BRL29.1 billion ($18.23 billion)
on their credit, debit, store and private-label cards,
ABECS (Associação Brasileira das Empresas de
Cartões de Crédito/the Brazilian Association of Credit Card and
Service Companies) says. This represented a 24 percent increase on
April 2007. ABECS also says the total number of cards in issue rose
by 55 million year-on-year to 465 million in April 2008. The total
credit outstanding on Brazilian payment cards rose by 49 percent
year-on-year to BRL53.3 billion in April 2008, ABECS adds.
• Brazilian bank lending to business and consumers rose by 2.6
percent in May 2008 to BRL1.04 trillion ($649 billion) from April
2008, Banco Central do Brasil says. On an annual
basis, bank lending rose by 32.4 percent. Bloomberg reports the
growth was due to higher demand from consumers to buy cars and home
appliances on credit. It quotes Banco Santander analysts Boris
Molina and Henrique Navarro as saying Brazilian consumer appetite
for credit remains unabated.
• The Mexican banking association ABM
(Asociacion de Bancos de Mexico) says the number of ATMs in Mexico
rose by 14 percent in the year to 30 June to 31,000. There are now
around 425,000 point of sale terminals in Mexico, ABM says. In
March 2008, there were 52 million debit cards in issue in Mexico
and 25.4 million credit cards.
• American Express has signed an agreement with
Travel Security, a subsidiary of Chilean financial
services firm Grupo Security, under which Travel Security will join
Amex’s travel services network. Grupo Security owns Chile’s Banco
Security. Amex has a network of 2,200 travel services offices
worldwide. Guillermo Correa, Travel Security’s’ executive
president, says the deal with Amex will help Travel Security
strengthen its presence in the corporate travel sector.
• A study carried out for MasterCard by
researchers at the UK’s Loughborough University says that access to
credit and to other financial products by the low-income segment in
Latin America is vital, not just to facilitate the purchase of
consumer goods, but also for the economic survival of the
region.
The study found low levels of usage of banking services in the
six countries it surveyed: Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia,
Venezuela and Mexico. In Mexico City, only 50 percent of the
population has access to basic financial services, and in 74
percent of the Mexican cities outside Mexico City there are no bank
branches. This means 22 percent of the Mexican population has no
access to a bank branch. In Argentina, 64 percent of the population
lacks any banking products. Cash is still the predominant payment
method in the countries surveyed for the report.
• In May 2008, credit card lending by Mexican banks totalled
MXN213.6 billion ($20.75 billion), Banco Central de
México says. This represented a 0.6 percent fall from the
MXN214.2 billion in credit card lending in April 2008, and a 25.1
percent fall from MXN238.7 billion in May 2007.
• US consultancy First Annapolis says Argentine
credit card receivables have grown from ARS2.3 billion ($763
million) at the end of 2003 to ARS11 billion in 2007. There are now
17 million credit cards in issue in Argentina, compared to 10.4
million in 2001. The Argentine government has figured prominently
in the recent expansion of the electronic payments industry.
Industry professionals view the 2001 introduction of a
value-added tax (VAT) rebate directly credited to the consumer on
debit card transactions and the 2003 launch of a similar rebate for
credit card transactions as important stimulants of greater card
usage. Consumers receive a five-point reduction in the country’s
base 21 percent VAT rate for debit card transactions and a 3-point
reduction for credit card transactions.
• Purchases made with Banco do Brasil (BB)
cards rose by 28.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2008,
the bank says. Total BB card billings in June 2008 were BRL5
billion ($622 million), while total billings for the first half of
2008 were BRL29 billion. BB says its share of the overall Brazilian
payment card market rose from 15.9 percent in the first half of
2007 to 16.5 percent as at 30 June 2008. In the first six months of
2008, BB issued 2.9 million new credit and debit cards. It
currently has 71 million credit and debit cards in issue.
• Western Union has renewed its agent contract
with Banco do Brasil for a further five years. The
money transfer firm’s agent relationship with BB dates back to
1997. The deal means that Western Union has a network of 5,400 BB
agent locations in Brazil.
• Banco de Chile, which merged with
Citibank Chile in January 2008, says that in the
first quarter of 2008, its total net fee and commission income rose
by 9.8 percent year-on-year to CLP47 billion ($93.5 million). The
rise was due to a 19.2 percent increase in the number of checking
account holders and a 48.7 percent increase in the number of
debtors (borrowers) during the previous 12 months, primarily
Citibank customers.
• Latinia, a Spanish mobile banking software
supplier, has launched a sales office in Mexico to promote its
mobile banking platform. According to a survey by Latinia, 55
percent of Mexican banks lack a strategy for m-banking, despite the
fact that there are 90 million cell phones in Mexico. Latinia
already has clients in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as
Banco Popular and Banco Santander in Puerto Rico.
• Brazilian MasterCard and Diners Card acquirer
Redecard has signed an agreement with the
Brazilian College of Notaries (Colégio Notarial do
Brasil – Conselho Federal). The deal means Brazilian solicitors
will be able to accept payment by MasterCard credit and debit card
and Diners Card.
• US third-party transaction processor
TransferOrbit is to use
FonWallet’s technology to process money transfers
from booths located at Mexican dances and concerts promoted by
TU-DNRO (pronounced Tu-Dinero, ‘your money’) in
the US. California-based FonWallet’s technology allows consumers to
pay cash for a money transfer, and then use their cellphone to
transfer the funds to a third party. Tu-Dnro has given
TransferOrbit an exclusive contract to process money transfers at
its events. The transfers will be handled at the Tu-Dnro booths by
agents which are approved TransferOrbit partners.
• UK mobile payments firm Upaid Systems has
launched RechargeBrazil.com (recargabrasil.com), a bilingual
English/Portuguese website which enables people living in the US to
top up cell phones belonging to their friends and family in Brazil.
In the US, traditional prepaid top-up services require subscribers
to buy airtime at a participating store. RechargeBrazil.com uses
PayPal’s network to transfer prepaid cellphone credits to consumers
who hold accounts with Brazilian mobile companies such as Vivo,
Claro, TIM, Telefonica and Embratel.
North America
• Revolving US consumer credit, which includes credit card
borrowing, rose by a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.1 percent
in May 2008 to $961.8 billion, the Federal
Reserve’s monthly G19 report says. In April 2008,
revolving credit fell by 0.5 percent to $956.2 billion.
• There are 106 million underbanked individuals living in 40
million US households, a study by the Center for Financial
Services Innovation says. Some 60 percent of the
underbanked are white, and 63 percent own their own home. Around 51
percent of the underbanked do not have a bank account, and yet 25
perce9nt (of the underbanked survey respondents) have a prime
credit score. The mean household income in the underbanked sector
is $47,500. The report uses the term ‘underbanked’ to denote both
people with no checking or savings accounts as well as people with
limited banking facilities
• Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat, New York) and Senator Herb
Kohl (Democrat, Wisconsin) plan to introduce a bill in the US
Senate that would ban debit cards linked to 401(k) retirement
savings accounts, Reuters reports. The news agency says several
companies are planning to launch cards enabling people to withdraw
funds from 401(k) accounts, which are employee-contributed defined
contributions retirement plans.
• Canadian senior citizens are losing C$6.42 million ($6.36
million) a year to identity thieves, Capital One
Canada says. The issuer has teamed up with Ontario-based
SeniorBusters to launch an education campaign to
warn Canadian seniors about fraud. Capital One is providing funding
for SeniorBusters, which is staffed by retired volunteers.
SeniorBusters is part of PhoneBusters, a Canadian anti-fraud call
centre which is jointly run by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,
the Ontario Provincial Police, and the Competition Bureau
Canada.
• Phillip Steitz has been named chief information officer at
Barclaycard US, Barclays’ US credit card arm. He
most recently served as senior vice-president and chief technology
officer at American Express.
• Canada’s CIBC is offering monthly Aeroplan
rewards miles to new and existing holders of its unlimited chequing
account. To qualify for the miles, customers need to set up either
one recurring direct deposit or three different recurring
pre-authorised debits on their account. They can earn further miles
by applying for an Aerogold Visa credit card. Customers can earn
enough miles for two short flights by doing all of the above, CIBC
says.
• Chase is allowing customers of its Freedom
credit card to use rewards points to reduce their balance. The
statement credit feature allows customers to spend their reward
like currency, says Chase Card Services general manager Joe Venuti.
Customers earn rewards of 3 percent on some everyday spend
categories and 1 percent on all other purchases.
• Rebate management company DataMatrix
Promotions is adding the Chase Rebate card to its range of
rebate payment options available to merchants. The Chase Rebate
card, a prepaid Visa debit card, is offered by DataMatrix as a
cost-saving alternative to retailers mailing paper rebate checks to
customers. The cards can be branded with the rebating merchant’s
logo. DataMatrix Promotions is owned by Giltedge InfoTech
Services.
• TNS Smart Network, a Canadian white-label-ATM
processor, says it now has 12,000 ATMs on its network. The ATMs are
owned by independent sales organisations (ISOs) and independent ATM
deployers.
• Credit Union 24 (CU24), a US credit
union-owned POS terminal and ATM network operator, has renewed a
deal it originally signed with US surcharge-free ATM network
Allpoint Network in December 2007. The multi-year
deal enables CU24’s members to offer their customers surcharge-free
access to nearly 50,000 ATMs across the US. Allpoint, which is
owned by Cardtronics, is supplying access to the
32,000 ATMs in its network, with the remainder of the ATMs in the
deal being surcharge-free ATMs from CU 24.
• The State of Alaska has renewed its contract
with JPMorgan for paperless distribution of
benefit payments via prepaid debit cards to 23,000 families in
Alaska. JPMorgan has provided processing and electronic payment
services for the Alaska Quest Card for more than a decade. Quest is
used to pay food stamps and temporary assistance to benefit
recipients. Alaska has also used the JPMorgan Direct Payment card
since 2004 to deliver child support benefits.
• Six credit unions have signed contracts with Fifth
Third Processing Solutions for services such as gateway
access, debit card processing and ATM driving. The credit unions
are based in Colorado, Texas, Tennessee and Missouri. Fifth Third
is the preferred ATM and debit card processor of the National
Association of Federal Credit Unions Services. The processor is
owned by Cincinnati, Ohio-based Fifth Third Bancorp.
• Atlanta, Georgia-based processor Global
Payments is offering special services to Canada’s Chinese
language-speaking merchants. The company is using the support
services it already provides to merchants in the Asia-Pacific
region to offer its Chinese-Canadian customers the choice of
technical and customer care in Mandarin and Cantonese.
• New York-based processor Planet Payment has
launched a mobile commerce payment system in the US. ‘Payment Buy
Voice’ enables merchants to accept credit card payments from any
mobile or landline phone, instead of having to install dedicated
phone lines. The service authenticates merchants via PINs and
passwords and includes common fraud control features.
• US and Hong Kong-based credit rating agency
TransUnion has created a scoring system based on
consumers’ predicted behaviour. The Payment Behaviour Score breaks
consumers into segments based on their risk and affordability
level. It then helps issuers to design credit card programmes and
offers for each segment. TransUnion has also launched Personal Loan
Score, a first credit scoring tool designed to help businesses
reduce delinquency of unsecured loans.
• Visa is cutting interchange rates for
transactions involving US automated fuel dispensers and gas
stations. Interchange for Visa Check Card consumer debit cards and
Visa consumer prepaid cards was capped at $0.95 per transaction
from 18 July. Interchange for Visa credit card fuel transactions
has been restructured into a single, lower rate across all consumer
credit card transactions, taking effect from October 2008.
In April 2007, MasterCard announced a cap on US consumer credit
and debit card fuel purchases costing $50 or more. This autumn,
Visa will implement real-time clearing for US fuel transactions.
This means purchases will be processed immediately, instead of at
the day’s end.
