All articles by EPI editorial
EPI editorial
Review of the Year: Consumer payments
Back in 2010, pundits across the industry were touting 2011 as the year of mobile. Not quite. But the last 12 months have certainly seen some clear position-building, and some innovative deal-making. New technology and a more globally-mobile population accelerated the introduction of e- and m-wallets throughout 2011
Review of the year: Clearing and settlement
Europe’s clearing market clearly felt the impact of the credit crisis during 2011. At this years Sibos, frank discussions on the unintended consequences in Basel III and SEPA raised questions over the future ownership of clearing houses The CEOs of Europes leading clearing houses later told Electronic Payments International they considered a simple SEPA-compliant service plain vanilla – restricting business growth
Review of the Year: Mergers & Acquisition
The economic crisis halted M&A activity for a while, but the market picked up around June The most active areas, were alternative payments processing, ATM testing, e-commerce and e-billing. A Fiserv study found e-billing more effective and there is an industry wide acceleration towards e-billing.
Video exclusive: Micropayments interview
Capturing the Micropayments Opportunity: Andy Cook of VRL Financial News’ publication Cards International, interviewing Francesco Burelli of Value Partners, Richard Poynder of Smartex Group and Tony Godfrey of the Welsh Assembly Government about opportunities in Micropayments
Global framework gathers momentum
In January 2008, SEPA came into effect to standardise and facilitate low-cost cross-border credit transfers within Europe, with cross-border eurozone direct debits becoming available in November 2009.However, until the establishment of the International Payments Framework Association (IPFA), low-cost, non-urgent payments taking place outside the eurozone have lacked a unifying standards-setting body.The role of SWIFT in international payments standards has mainly been confined to high-value, urgent payments, says Aite Group senior analyst Nancy Atkinson.
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Automating wire transfer processes
Bank of the West is planning to offer its small-business customers an ACH payment service that could make costly wire transfers unnecessary. The San Francisco banking company is developing an online banking service for small businesses that will be built around a new money-transfer service from CashEdge.
Citi first to sign up for digital card
Citi has become the first bank in the US to sign up to an innovative new digital card which will allow users to choose whether they want to redeem loyalty points or pay by credit at the point of sale. The card is able to work at any merchant which accepts magnetic stripe payments, the most popular payment format in the US, through a digital electronic stripe
Predictive credit scoring for Raiffeisen
Raiffeisen International has added a predictive element to its credit scoring process to reduce credit risk and potentially stabilise the capital requirements of its retail bank.
Consumer fear an obstacle to uptake’
Throughout 2009, firms continued to enhance a number of innovative services to aid consumers in decision-making, including chat rooms, blogs, widgets and personal financial management (PFM) tools. The current economic environment has raised the importance of services that facilitate financial management, such as free credit scores and debt-relief solutions.
New rules could spur transaction banking
Banks can increase revenue despite stricter banking regulations by upping investment in their transaction banking businesses.