All articles by EPI editorial

EPI editorial

Predictions and priorities for 2014 from the industry’s top experts

With the year all but over EPI has asked the industry’s experts to share their predictions for 2014. The explosion of payment start-ups looks set to continue although a few players may drop out with Visa and MasterCard looking to further their digital offering

How secure is contactless?

Over the last few years we have seen a major shift in the way consumers pay for everyday goods and services, from the development of pre-paid wallets such as the Oyster Card through to mobile and contactless payments. Chris Davies reports on the security of contactless payments in the UK.

Risk and lack of infrastructure aren’t enough to put BofAML off CEEMEA

With CEEMEA set to continue its rapid growth, the challenges of the payments infrastructure combined with the potential risks and a difficult regulation landscape have not put BofAML off the idea of expansion into the market. EPI spoke to Chris Jameson, head of sales for global transaction services (GTS), at BofAML

Red senior executives re-elected to Merchant Risk Council

The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) has elected Kevin Sprake to serve a second three year term on the Global Board of Directors. He will work together with ten other industry experts of the trade association for electronic commerce and multi-channel merchants.

Square to bring in $200m in funding

Mobile payments company Square is to raise some $200 million in new funding from private-equity investor Suhail Rizvi bringing the companys valuation to less-than-expected $3.25 billion, US media reported This is the third large funding round for the mobile POS provider in three years and aims to put Square in a position to compete with the likes of Google, Intuit and PayPal. Experts suggest that investors will be looking to treble their investment by the time the company goes public, meaning that Square is expected to reach a 10bn valuation in a few years.

SEPA Direct Debits: SunGard, Sentenial team up

Sentenial and SunGard have teamed up to investigate the impact that SEPA will have on corporates IT systems and have come up with solutions for corporates SEPA migration woes. The vendors have identified the top 10 IT trends and challenges, which include the adoption of SEPA Direct Debits, which could be an unexpectedly large project for many corporations due to the many variables involved with implementing and integrating a SEPA solution with a variety of back-office accounting and CRM systems. Other trends identified by Sentenial and SunGard include a lack of a dedicated budget for SEPA projects because some corporate do not realise how complex a migration will be; migrating customer records to IBAN and sustaining a uniformity in CRM systems.

EPC selects new chairman, vice chairman

The European Payments Council (EPC) has appointed a new chairman and vice chairman.Gerard Hartsink is to step down as chairman of the EPC at the end of June and his post will be taken on by Javier Santamaria, who has been EPC Plenary since 2002 and chairman of the EPC SEPA Payment Schemes Working Group since 2009.

Gate2Play launches e-payment service in Middle East

Gate2Play, a provider of payment gateway services, has launched an e-payment system which will allow merchants to accept all types of credit and prepaid cards, bank transfers and other payments made online or via a mobile phone Gate2Play said the service enables international corporations to launch their products and execute their services in the regions market, easily and with no financial obstacles

2012 Outlook by Sybase 365

By the end of 2012 cutting edge merchants, banks and operators will be using loyalty and gamification to create new ways of rewarding their customers Whilst NFC will continue to dominate discussions, in reality, it will still be two to three years away from being widely available

Review of 2011: Corporate payments

Shortly before, after, and of course during this years Sibos, the main topic for corporates to discuss (or worry about) was the impact of regulation Basel III and its consequences both intended and unintended and SEPA, as well as the International Payments Framework Association, were all high on the agenda. At Sibos, delegates said the extra burden of regulation is likely to cause more harm than good to an area of banking that has more than proven its stability over the last few years