All articles by Charles Davis
Charles Davis
Zenius bridges mobile NFC gap
An up-and-coming payments technology vendor has created a way for smart phones to make contactless credit and debit card payments and for merchants to accept near field communication (NFC) payments. Zenius Solutions, a California startup, is marketing a pair of solutions aimed at enabling any mobile platform to support contactless transactions ZeniusMobilePay, which enables NFC phones to send payments, tickets and coupons to a POS system or other payment acceptance mechanism and ZeniusMobilePOS, which allows merchants to accept contactless payments from any smartphone.
Smart safes streamline cash handling
Charles Davis spoke to Fifth Third Bank about their Remote Currency Manager, a secure payments receivables solution enabling merchants to deposit and manage cash in their stores
PayPal breaks new ground
PayPal continues to expand its payments capabilities, with a pair of announcements aimed at linking debit cards and reaching out to the unbanked The deals an agreement with First Datas STAR network and another with the prepaid issuer Green Dot each target markets PayPal views as ripe for expansion. The First Data announcement allows STAR cardholders to easily link their debit cards to a PayPal account online through the STAR Online Partner service
iPhone payment apps just keep coming
Apples iPhone is creating something of a revolution in the way people communicate Now mFoundry and Starbucks have teamed up to harness the power of the iPhone to create something which has the potential to revolutionise the way people pay with and manage gift cards
Fundtech powers Bank of America
Just as Fedex allows the shipper to choose from a variety of tiered shipping options, then easily follow the package online from doorstep to doorstep, Bank of Americas new portal harnesses service-oriented architecture (SOA) to allow clients to choose the most advantageous route for payments, then append transaction details to email alerts notifying the recipient of the incoming payment.The payments hub will handle transactions for a wide range of cash-management customers, from small and mid-size businesses to large corporate and trust clients all over the world Cindy Murray, global banking and wealth management e-commerce executive for Bank of Americas Global Corporate & Investment Banking division, told EPI.Murray said the hub will allow BofA to consolidate multiple platforms that the bank operates from, including those of Merrill Lynch, but also LaSalle Bank, which Bank of America bought from Dutch bank ABN AMRO Holding in 2007
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Visa and US Bancorp join forces
Richard Langer, COO of the new venture, provided Charles Davis with insight into the strategy being followed.Signalling the growing importance of automating business-to-business (B2B) payments, US Bancorp is teaming with Visa on a new joint venture aimed at attracting more corporate users and more lucrative transaction fees.The joint venture named Syncada extends the reach of the Minneapolis-based US banking companys PowerTrack platform into new markets by inviting other banks into the network.Combining Visas connections to banks all over the world with US Bancorps years of handling domestic corporate payments produces a player to be reckoned with in B2B payments processing
Heartland raises payments security bar
Like Johnson & Johnsons now-famous tamper-proof lid developed after the 1980s Tylenol poisoning which helped restore confidence in the Tylenol brand, Heartland is hoping its end-to-end encryption product will similarly inspire confidence in its security systems.The task seems daunting, but Heartland already is gaining adherents as it prepares to launch in the fourth quarter its own security module complete with its own line of POS terminals for both credit and debit transactions.Jason Maloni, a spokesperson for Heartland, told EPI that CEO Robert Karr is taking lemons, and making lemonade.What happened to us was a travesty, but we are using that travesty to build a better solution for our clients, one that will ensure that nothing like last years data breach ever happens again, Maloni said.This is a massive undertaking, and one that revolves around end-to-end encryption as the beginning and ending point.Heartland is investing heavily in its end-to-end encryption (E3), based on the guiding principle that the problem with security is all about the money: remove the economic incentive for a breach, and there will be fewer of them and, when they do occur, the damage is far easier to contain.Maloni said that Heartland recently completed the first phase of its end-to-end encryption pilot project, handling more than 1,000 transactions from seven pilot retailers in Indiana and Texas, and added that the E3 network will be ready for live launch in the fourth quarter.The first step involved the transmission of live Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encrypted card transactions from a merchant to Heartlands processing platform
Temenos acts to streamline core banking systems product delivery
Swiss core systems provider Temenos is broadening its reach both in terms of its product offerings and in its strategic partnerships as it seeks bank business across the globe.EPI sat down recently with Mark Gunning, Group Retail Banking Director of Temenos, who briefed us on the firms newest acquisition the UK-based business intelligence software provider Lydian Associates Limited and its new strategic partnership with the consulting giant Cognizant.It is all part of a maturing company seeking better service relationships for its client banks, Gunning explained.These deals are a sign of the maturity of the product and its breadth and functionality, but what really distinguishes us is our independence and our openness, and we wont change that, he said
US ATM fleet is showing its age badly
While US banks have concerned themselves with new customer service channels, that old stalwart, the ATM has been sorely neglected Some banks are now making solid strides in adoption of the latest ATM innovations while laggards risk never being able to close the technology gap
Slicing paper cheque payment costs
Payments aggregator Yodlee explained to Charles Davis how they are tackling this problem with PostcardCheck, a solution that slices cheque payment costs and offers the lure of converting customers to electronic payments.Striking squarely at a paper cheque stranglehold, US payments aggregator Yodlee has launched a new product designed to increase efficiency and lower the significant costs associated with paper payments of online bills