Mastercard name dropped from branding
Preparing for when ‘card’ is no longer relevant to payments
In 1966 it was called Interbank, then in 1968 it became mastercharge. Read more ...

Big payment names join up for missguided mission
Payments provider Klarna, SaaS platform Poq and online payment platform Stripe have joined forces to provide pay-later provision to shoppers wanting to try before they buy. Read more ...

Cashless transactions now 45% of all Russia payments
Russians are finally relaxing their need for cash after decades of wanting the security of money under the mattress because of bank vulnerability to failure. Read more ...

PerfectCard to streamline reconciliation by joining the circle
Employee reward company is Ireland’s first authorised eMoney institution
PerfectCard, the FinTech provider of employee reward and corporate expense solutions, has joined Banking Circle to streamline payment reconciliation. Read more ...

Ecobank, the Pan African Bank, appoints digital payment partner
The customers of Ecobank, the Pan-African Banking Group in 33 African countries, can now transact with over 170 million mobile wallets across the continent following the appointment of a digital payment partner. Read more ...

Most banks will be made irrelevant by 2030 - Gartner
Heritage firms heading for extinction
Within 12 years time, 80% of financial firms will either go out of business or be rendered irrelevant by new competition, changing customer behaviour and advancements in technology, according to forecasts by Gartner. Read more ...

Shopping on mobiles now accounts for one quarter of spending
Continued e-commerce growth leaves British high street spending lowest in Europe
The UK now has the lowest proportion of high street spending in Europe – caused by the exponential growth in e-commerce shopping. Read more ...

Tesco latest store to remove £30 limit on mobile transactions
Tesco is set to abolish the £30 limit on Apple Pay transactions in its stores. Read more ...

Monzo reaches funding target in less than three hours
Criticism of use of overdraft facility to buy shares
Monzo proved the value of customer loyalty this month when it reached its crowdfunding target in less than three hours – by persuading customers to invest. Read more ...

Smartphone scan and pay deployed by giant electronics group
Europe’s largest consumer electronics retailer MediaMarktSaturn is deploying MishiPay’s mobile self-checkout solution in the world’s biggest electronics store in Hamburg. Read more ...

Mobile accounts for 30% of cyber weekend sales
Smartphones driving conversions

The annual Cyber e-commerce sales event achieved US$7.9m in online sales, with a third of them made by mobile payments, according to new data from Adobe. Read more ...

Fintech M&A at record levels
Multiple challenges affecting all FS companies – but technology is the greatest

A new report from international law firm Reed Smith is showing FinTech M&A at record levels, brought about by a number of factors. Read more ...

China AI investment plummets
Technology shares everywhere are suffering a bit of a wobble currently, but the news that investment in China’s AI companies is plummeting has certainly focussed attention. Read more ...

What do we think of the new Costa pay by cup?
Barclays bPay contactless in new unusual application - but does it tick the environmental box?

Costa is rolling out a re-useable coffee cup with a contactless chip in the bottom for payment. Read more ...

Gartner says 80% of heritage companies will fail to survive
Traditional companies will struggle for relevance past 2030

We don’t want to depress you, but if you are working for what are now being called “heritage” firms, Gartner says you have an 80% change of going out of business by 2030. Read more ...

Mastercard name dropped from branding
Preparing for when ‘card’ is no longer relevant to payments
In 1966 it was called Interbank, then in 1968 it became mastercharge. Read more ...

Big payment names join up for missguided mission
Payments provider Klarna, SaaS platform Poq and online payment platform Stripe have joined forces to provide pay-later provision to shoppers wanting to try before they buy. Read more ...

Cashless transactions now 45% of all Russia payments
Russians are finally relaxing their need for cash after decades of wanting the security of money under the mattress because of bank vulnerability to failure. Read more ...

PerfectCard to streamline reconciliation by joining the circle
Employee reward company is Ireland’s first authorised eMoney institution
PerfectCard, the FinTech provider of employee reward and corporate expense solutions, has joined Banking Circle to streamline payment reconciliation. Read more ...

Ecobank, the Pan African Bank, appoints digital payment partner
The customers of Ecobank, the Pan-African Banking Group in 33 African countries, can now transact with over 170 million mobile wallets across the continent following the appointment of a digital payment partner. Read more ...

Most banks will be made irrelevant by 2030 - Gartner
Heritage firms heading for extinction
Within 12 years time, 80% of financial firms will either go out of business or be rendered irrelevant by new competition, changing customer behaviour and advancements in technology, according to forecasts by Gartner. Read more ...

Shopping on mobiles now accounts for one quarter of spending
Continued e-commerce growth leaves British high street spending lowest in Europe
The UK now has the lowest proportion of high street spending in Europe – caused by the exponential growth in e-commerce shopping. Read more ...

Tesco latest store to remove £30 limit on mobile transactions
Tesco is set to abolish the £30 limit on Apple Pay transactions in its stores. Read more ...

Monzo reaches funding target in less than three hours
Criticism of use of overdraft facility to buy shares
Monzo proved the value of customer loyalty this month when it reached its crowdfunding target in less than three hours – by persuading customers to invest. Read more ...

Smartphone scan and pay deployed by giant electronics group
Europe’s largest consumer electronics retailer MediaMarktSaturn is deploying MishiPay’s mobile self-checkout solution in the world’s biggest electronics store in Hamburg. Read more ...

Mobile accounts for 30% of cyber weekend sales
Smartphones driving conversions

The annual Cyber e-commerce sales event achieved US$7.9m in online sales, with a third of them made by mobile payments, according to new data from Adobe. Read more ...

Fintech M&A at record levels
Multiple challenges affecting all FS companies – but technology is the greatest

A new report from international law firm Reed Smith is showing FinTech M&A at record levels, brought about by a number of factors. Read more ...

China AI investment plummets
Technology shares everywhere are suffering a bit of a wobble currently, but the news that investment in China’s AI companies is plummeting has certainly focussed attention. Read more ...

What do we think of the new Costa pay by cup?
Barclays bPay contactless in new unusual application - but does it tick the environmental box?

Costa is rolling out a re-useable coffee cup with a contactless chip in the bottom for payment. Read more ...

Gartner says 80% of heritage companies will fail to survive
Traditional companies will struggle for relevance past 2030

We don’t want to depress you, but if you are working for what are now being called “heritage” firms, Gartner says you have an 80% change of going out of business by 2030. Read more ...

Mastercard enables payment with rewards worldwide
Questions raised on the effect for the loyalty business case

Mastercard has thrown the proverbial cat among the pigeons with its announcement this week that it would be enabling customers to pay with loyalty reward points at any merchant on its network, worldwide. Read more ...

Carrefour Italia chooses mobile payments provider

Carrefour Italia’s iper -  market and express stores – payment by smartphone direct from a current account.   Read more ...

Commercial Bank of Ethiopia to modernise retail payments Read more ...

Payment with currency conversion benefits

Travelling is stressful. From language barriers, to long lines at the airports, to converting money to the local currency only to lose an average of 8% - there are many frustrating pain points. Read more ...

2017 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money
Report and infographic on global growth

A number of new trends in mobile money were established in 2017 – from the accelerated growth of bank-to-mobile interoperability, to the emergence of South Asia as the fastest growing region, and a raft of innovations designed to reach the most underserved.  Read more ...

Almost all shoppers now buy online at some point
Free shipping more important than fast shipping

The extraordinary finding has emerged from a study by Pitney Bowes that 94% of all global consumers now shop online at some level. Read more ...

Majority of consumers now buy goods from overseas merchants
Lack of payment choice harming long term loyalty
Domestic retailers are under increasing pressure, even if they have strong online presence, with 70% of UK consumers now buy goods from overseas merchants, compared to 53% four years ago, according to research by PPRO Group, e-payment specialists. Read more ...

Xiamen Airlines selects Ingenico to optimise global online payments

Chinese carrier Xiamen Airlines has partnered with Ingenico to provide an online payments infrastructure for the company. Read more ...

Amazon chooses Amex for small business proposition
A deal made in loyalty heaven
If the retail industry aspires to be more Amazon, those in the payments business would dearly love to be more Amex. So the news that American Express has clinched the Amazon Small Business Card is a matchmakers dream.
This is what the marriage looks like in detail: Read more ...

UnionPay remains the world’s largest card scheme
Market share again increases

UnionPay, the Chinese payment brand, has increased its share of the world market by another one percent, making it difficult to see how Visa and Mastercard will ever catch up again. Read more ...

NCR steps into payments
Deal to buy JetPay

NCR Corporation is normally associated with ATMs and car park payment. Now it is taking a step into the world of payments, with its US$184m purchase of JetPay, a provider of end-to-end payment processing and human capital management solutions. Read more ...

Will consumers make use of Open Banking?
Survey finds lack of awareness a first major stumbling block
Nine months before the deadline for Open Banking, the vast majority of UK citizens who were questioned had no idea what it was. Read more ...

Contactless beating chip & PIN at the till
Worldpay soon to lose co-CEO
The popularity of contactless is growing to such an extent in the UK, that it is now used more often than chip & PIN. According to data from processor Worldpay, June analysis shows 51% of payment transactions were contactless, rising to 52% in July. This is the first time contactless has overtaken chip & PIN. Read more ...

Payments growth to continue – but not as we know it
Regulatory complexity causing problems for technology innovation
Digital payments are experiencing a boom, driven by developing markets, and this growth is expected to continue, according to the 2018 World Payments Report, but regulatory complexity is hampering innovation. Read more ...

Why the Hyperledger Ethereum deal is important
Major blockchains announce alliance

The coming together of Hyperledger and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) to enable them to become members of each other's projects is hugely important to the future of blockchain because it is about standards. Read more ...

Retro cash deal raises eyebrows
Walmart, considered to be the world’s biggest retailer has teamed up with Paypal for a rather retro deal. Read more ...

Brex raises US$125m Series C funding
Startup corporate credit fard provider plans rewards programme Read more ...

Crypto currencies used to launder US$88.6m, says report
Criminals becoming "early adopters" of new technology
Various stages of cybercrime explained
A Wall Street Journal investigation has uncovered that $88.6 million in illicit funds have been transacted through 46 cryptocurrency exchanges. The WSJ reported that $9 million of the suspect funds went through crypto exchange ShapeShift. Read more ...

Stripe raises US$245 million for next step
Investment to be used for international expansion
Stripe, the startup whose seven lines of code enable online payments for millions of businesses, raised $245 million in an investment round led by Tiger Global Management. Read more ...

Fave and Grab combine to grow
Fave and Grab, two of the leading online to offline (o2o) platforms in Southeast Asia, have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate growth for both platforms across the region. The partnership combines the strengths of Fave’s broad merchant network as well as its FaveDeals platform, with Grab’s large user base and growing ecosystem.  Read more ...

Tesco Bank suffers first FCA cyber-crime fine
Reputation damage to group inevitable

Tesco bank has been fined £16.4 million penalty for cyber hacking that occurred two years ago. This is the first cyber fine issued by the FCA in the UK. For Tesco, it is a massive hit for its reputation as a trusted retailer and will have implications for the whole organisation and even its loyalty programme membership. Read more ...

GPS appoints card services and global strategy VP
Former allpay exec joins issuer processor
Read more ...

Real-time payment system growth 'surges' worldwide
40 programmes now live Read more ...

Visa at 60 – but Diners came first
"Fresno drop" leads to first widespread card fraud

Visa is celebrating its 60th birthday today, but it is worth remembering that this was not the start of the payment card story. Read more ...

Visa, Mastercard finally settle Walmart case for $6.2bn – 13 years on
Largest ever all-cash antitrust settlement ever
It was 2005 that a group of merchants, led by Wal-Mart, first went to court to argue that card payment fees were unfair. Read more ...

Finally a bank prepared to prove their own identity
Barclays commitment to beating scammers
Well done for Barclays for being the first bank taking responsibility for proving their identity.  Read more ...

Patent claims could cost UK payments industry millions
Patents cover entire architrecture and operating system and are device agnostic

An entrepreneur who filed patents ten years ago covering EPOS with screens has begun action to determine his ownership of this intellectual property. If he is successful, the UK card payments industry could face claims for many millions of pounds. Read more ...

Report into Equifax breach highlights key areas of concern
145.5 million US and 15.2 million UK records were compromised - official
Failures in detection, segmentation and data governance have all been blamed for the massive 2017 Equifax breach. Read more ...

Cost of card acceptance leaps by 39%
BRC calls on UK government and regulator to step in
Cash use fell a further 1% last year and now accounts for just 22% of purchases
The British Retail Consortium says its members are suffering from the trend towards card payments and away from cash. Read more ...

Lloyds glitch shows up faults in disaster recovery
Lack of customer communication with social media lethargy hampers response
New report highlights poor communication amongst banks
Can lessons be learnt from other sectors? Read more ...

All Visa Australia cardholders to be offered rewards link-up
Visa has announced a partnership  to roll out an instant rewards loyalty scheme including cashback, to all Visa cardholders across Australia. Read more ...

Google in Mastercard deal to access offline spending
Companies insist data is anonymised
Google has apparently bought Mastercard credit card data in the US to help it track users' offline spending in stores. It highlights the issue of consumers choosing to use recent privacy regulation to go “dark” and refuse to share their data. Read more ...

Alternative payment methods outnumbering traditional in most markets
Data from APAC, Global
Full list of alternative payment methods

Alternative payment methods such as mobile and digital wallets are steadily displacing traditional payment methods such as cards, bank transfers and cash/cheques in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) e-commerce market, finds leading data and analytics company GlobalData. Read more ...

Special Report:
Blockchain continues to gain ground in payments
Union Bank, Liechtenstein announcement
Crypo from Thailand Central Bank
Cryptocurrency cashback from Revolut
North Korean hack exchange with “first” MacOS Malware Read more ...

EU agrees Strong Customer Authentication rules
Uncertainties remain
One in four transactions will be affected
The European Union has finally has new requirements for strong customer authentication which will apply across the region from September 14, 2019. Read more ...