Square launches outside North America
First market outside US and Canada for m-payments provider Read more ...

Banks told to monetise the mobile
FIs failing to appreciate revenue potential of channel, says industry group
Read more ...

Contactless adoption at “critical point” in Europe
Spain, Poland and UK at the forefront, figures indicate Read more ...

France now the Europe card fraud capital
Fraud map shows changing landscape Read more ...

Mobile card payments firm launches in Russia
Company now operates in 11 European markets Read more ...

Vasco buys authentication provider
Acquisition of online banking specialist Read more ...

Square starts email transfer service
Offering to rival new Google system Read more ...

M&S hit by contactless claims
Money taken off wrong cards, according to some customers Read more ...

Mobile transit ticketing platform in Italy
Processor and telco partner with three transport providers Read more ...

China UnionPay joins EMV group
Network takes equal stake in industry body Read more ...

What will be the Mobile NFC killer apps?
They may not be for payments, executives agree Read more ...

TSYS mourns loss of executive
Europe MD passes away Read more ...

BNP Paribas launches digital bank across Europe
Digital operation in four countries Read more ...

First travel partner joins merchant m-payments group
Airline brings number of members to more than 30 Read more ...

Acquiring agreement extends Mongolia acceptance
All merchants to be able to accept network’s cards Read more ...

Pressure on terminal manufacturers as merchant requirements change
VeriFone’s CEO and CFO have left, a class action is being threatened by investors, and its share price has had a rocky ride following a profit warning. Read more ...

PCI Compliance – What every card-accepting call centre should know
The buck for payment card security stops with the merchant, but many businesses are unaware they will be the ones receiving the fine even if the breach occurs at a third party. Article by Rob Crutchington, director of payments solutions company Encoded. Read more ...

Exclusive: Payment start-up captivates audience with no fee proposition
London launch on March 20 for m-payments offering Read more ...

Can UK Payment Council mobile scheme succeed?
Can the UK Payment Council's proposed m-payments scheme succeed against stiff competition perceived as more cutting edge and efficient? Closer connectivity is vital, says Eddie Wiseman, director of financial services EMEA at Equinix. Read more ...

Payments, processing and partnerships – the new era of acquiring
Acquirers are under increasing scrutiny and pressure from merchants. Changing needs such as the increasing use of mobile devices by consumers are causing a payments shake-up. Where does this leave acquirers, asks Bernhard Lachenmeier, head of products and marketing, SIX Payment Services. Read more ...

How is the prepaid business doing?
Growth predicted for 2013
Nearly 100 processors on a growing list
Industry "yet to realise its potential"
Regulation is a moving target
Buoyant prepaid luncheon vouchers market Read more ...

Retailers to play a major role in payments “within five years”
Merchants will almost certainly be running m-payment networks of their own and will challenge the existing ecosystem, says Michael Kuemmerle, group executive, Mobile Security at Giesecke & Devrient. Read more ...

PayPal – In defence of a non-NFC approach
“I don’t want to rubbish NFC but….”

PayPal's Patrick Gauthier says the reality of the technology has yet to match the hype

Read more ...

Why banks should learn from Apple
New whitepaper from TSYS recommends a multi-channel approach

Banks should learn from the Apple example and employ both a Bank 1.0 (face to face) and a Bank 2.0 (online) approach in order to meet evolving customer expectations. Read more ...

Amex calls for mobile standards
Networks should act as "leaders" to ensure interoperability

American Express has sent out a strong message asking for common standards and ubiquity in mobile payments and especially in mobile wallets, to protect investment in existing networks.
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A Sixpack for Payments (Part 1)
The EC can achieve its Europe 2020 objectives of opening up the payments business to competition from outside the banking sector by looking at six key areas, argues Leon Dhaene, a payment consultant and member of the EC Payment Market Expert Group.
Read more ...

Contactless Payments - Winning Gold?
In 2007 the UK Payments Council agreed that credit and debit cards would include contactless technology. Despite this, contactless is yet to go mainstream. Could the Olympics be a turning point?

Article by Ben Snowman, Jens Baumgarten, Georg Wuebker of Simon-Kucher & Partners.
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More questions than answers as the industry looks to the future
“If you are not in mobile, you won’t be in payments”

If there was one clear message from this week’s Future of Cards and Payments conference, it is that there is a lack of a clear pathway to tomorrow.
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A long hot summer for European payments?
Card & Payments World reported on May 8 that emotions were high and tempers frayed during the European Commission’s digital payments conference in Brussels. The EC wants to bring order to what it sees as a chaotic and malfunctioning payments landscape – if necessary with regulation.

In this first of a series of articles, Leon Dhaene, a member of the EC Payment Systems Market Expert Group and a consultant to many of the interested parties, gives us his take on what happened at the meeting that is going to be instrumental in shaping the future of European payments. Read more ...

Has customer control made banks vulnerable?

An interview on the future payment risk challenges for banks was clearly going to be interesting. Especially as India-based Sriram Natarajan has 21 years’ experience working for among others Amex, HSBC and GE Money. What was unexpected and hugely thought provoking was his take on how enabling the customer to choose how they access their accounts has in itself made banks vulnerable. Read more ...

Contactless hack raises question of trust

Media stories are nothing new but can scare already nervous customers

The recent publicity over the hacking of personal details on Barclaycard contactless cards has highlighted the issue of customer trust in the technology. Read more ...

Preoccupied banks forgetting about their customers
Banks and service providers are preoccupied with discussions about new technology and products, bonuses, fee structures, buyouts and mergers. Aren’t they forgetting someone? Article by Jonathan Marcus of Peppers & Rogers. Read more ...

The rocky road to EMV: Why the US may finally be giving in
The US currently accounts for 47% of global payment card fraud. This and other factors may belatedly be convincing the country of the need for Chip, says Guy Weber, risk manager at SIX Card Solutions. Read more ...

"Don’t wait too long before committing to NFC” warns MasterCard’s Lambert
Unprecedented change raises stakes for banks
The card and payments business is currently facing massive uncertainty and nowhere is this being experienced more acutely than in the processing and acquiring business.
Read more ...

Mobile and the future of plastic
With numerous mobile and NFC payments initiatives taking place around the world – from Isis and the Google Wallet in the US to France’s NFC city rollouts - we ask industry players what the future holds for the plastic card. Read more ...

Making sense of major changes
Comprehensive round-up and analysis of the latest mergers, acquisitions, deals and changes in the global card and payments industry over the last year. Who bought who, when, for how much, and what does it mean for the industry? Read more ...

Mobile wallet offerings go head to head
Significant recent moves in m-payments as major players such as Google, PayPal and Isis line up their mobile wallet offerings against those that are being planned by the payment networks and banks
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Where to put the NFC secure element?
While some claim it does not matter where the NFC secure element is located - in the handset, SIM or microSD card - there are others who say the lack of standardisation is a barrier to widespread deployment of NFC payments.
Read more ...

Russia leads Europe in m-payments usage
Emerging payments report
MasterCard Worldwide has revealed the findings of its ‘Tech Nation’ poll, revealing which European countries are leading the way with new payment technologies such as mobile and contactless.
Read more ...

SEPA - It's complicated!
SEPA was described as an “unstoppable train” by Narinda Viguier, head of strategy and interbank relations, global transactions division for Credit Agricole. But how will the Eurozone debt crisis affect payments market harmonisation? Bob Lyddon, MD of IBOS Banking Association, gives his views. Read more ...

Special NFC report: NXP takes advantage of dominant NFC position
Supplying 65% of NFC chips in NFC enabled terminals, chip manufacturer NXP has a strategically important position in the development of the secure mobile communications protocol. It was a joint developer of NFC in 2002 and has been an active member of the NFC Forum since them. Read more ...

Explaining the mobile business case to security and risk professionals
Visa Europe’s Security Summit this month took the unusual step of beginning by explaining the business case for mobile. This was probably a huge surprise for the audience of fraud and security professionals, but it achieved the enviable goal of putting into context the massive amount of technology change that is taking place.
Read more ...

Five days at EFMA and some significant messages later
Annich McIntosh reports from five days in a Paris hotel basement in a heatwave.
After much thought about the major messages to share with Card & Payments World readers after a gruelling five days with EFMA, it is clear what has to be the first on the list – that the people attending the Wednesday to Friday Cards and Payments summit ought to have been in the Monday and Tuesday Mobile Payments conference. Read more ...

EMV or NFC? Major investment behind both make future for payments uncertain
In the US, SCTN is excited about the possibilities EMV chip cards and contactless payments will bring.
In Japan, Sharp is this month launching an NFC tablet primarily aimed at retailers who wish to read and write to customer loyalty and employee ID card. Read more ...

Greek bank success in a troubled market
It is the stuff of loyalty dreams. The points redeemed from the loyalty scheme of a European bank exceeds the number of points issued, even though the number of points being issued has gone up. The result of this of course, means 100% redemption - and it has been achieved by a bank in Greece. Read more ...

Payback drives India ambitions
Analysis of Indian loyalty sector
Payback aims to double presence in highly competitive loyalty market through deal with country's biggest retailer Read more ...

Blurring of terms bodes well for contactless payments
Mobile payments, contactless payments, NFC, POS acceptance, P2P transfers – its all becoming the same thing
Read more ...

Virtualized Credentials: Has the Access Control Market Reached a Tipping Point?
NFC phones are just one of the new form factors driving fundamental changes in the way that secure identity is delivered. Article by Dr. Tam Hulusi, senior vice president at HID Global Read more ...

Ikea calls for central processing and rejects cards at any price
Ikea never claims to be anything other than it is – cheap basic furniture at the lowest possible price, and it expects card payment costs to follow the same principle.
The powerful Swedish company is now calling for the card cost structure for retailers to become more transparent, with different cost levels for different services. Read more ...

Acquiring: Increasing role as gateway between consumer and device
Acquirers are seldom in the card industry spotlight, unless it is to do with a data security breach. Historically it has been the card issuers that have made the headlines, but behind the scenes the role of the card acquirer is increasing in importance. With mobile payments on the horizon, the acquirer as a gate- way will grow in importance, but there are challenges.
Read more ...

Changing debit reward models in uncertain market
With the Durbin Amendment threatening debit income, US banks are targeting card rewards at new and growing markets
Read more ...

Reputation and trust are key decision influencers
Reputation and trust issues were both hugely influential factors in Barclaycard's decision to cancel its contract with card insurance company CPP along with sales of their identity theft product.
The data breach at Epsilon is also causing reputational havoc for major US brands.
Read more ...

Lateral thinking creates new solution to PCI compliance cost problem
Complaints from retailers about the growing and relentless cost of achieving PCI DSS compliance are growing, driven by recessionary pressures
Read more ...

Why did EasyJet partner with Nectar?
What is the benefit to Nectar of partnering with EasyJet?
Card World put these, and a whole load more questions to James Frost, marketing director of Nectar, and Paul Simmons, director, UK market at EasyJet Read more ...

Still searching for a silver bullet for PCI DSS Compliance?
Everyone still storing or handling cardholder data has a challenge ahead to manage their business through cost implications, technology deadline dates, changes to the PCI DSS standard and increased pressure from brands, fraudsters and their own management.  Read more ...

Special report: Rise in card skimming at the POS challenges industry
PCI security standards for card terminals
Mobile is the next big PCI challenge
Best practice advice from card bodies Read more ...

Awards honour acquirers for taking cards to the next step
Niklaus Santschi wins industry personality award Read more ...

Amex Zync works hard to appeal to Gen Y
Financial coaching and advice
New features and services offered to young customers via Quarterlife Project
Using social media and rewards
Rewards for green living Read more ...

Ikea call for central processing to lower cost of card payments
“Expensive solutions to all kinds of problems are a sign of mediocrity”

Ikea would like central, cross border European processing, and lower card fees. Martin Weiderstrand, Manager EU Affairs and advisor payment cards for Ikea explains his frustrations with the current system and warns that the lack of homogeneity and competition may lead to unwanted consequences.
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Innovation from an unusual issuer
Profile of private bank Duncan Lawrie which is pioneering a combined debit and credit card on the UK market for its 2,000 customers. The product recently won Best New Debit Card Product of the Year at the Card and Payments Awards. Read more ...

The Card & Payments Awards winners announced
Air of palpable optimism among 1,360 attendees at UK industry event
Four awards for Bank of America
WorldPay CEO gets Industry Personality of the Year prize
Read more ...

Ownership of security keys remains stumbling block to NFC rollouts
Latest Card World report on the fast-moving mobile payments market Read more ...

The long, winding road to SEPA
The path to the Single Euro Payments Area has been slow and tortuous, so it was refreshing to hear the ECB’s Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell list her New Year resolutions with a view to giving it some impetus. But is the payment industry ready to deliver against these goals? Read more ...

Special report into Citi Cards in the US
Citi introduces thank you credit cards
Customer feedback shapes offering
Two button smart card in Citi pilot
Default lowest in 22 months Read more ...

Everyday payments in the digital world – a break from tradition?
A new era in payments is dawning with consumers switching to “pay now” products post-credit crisis. Traditional payments providers are playing catch-up with a new generation of digital transactions providers - how can they win? Read more ...