All articles by EPI editorial
EPI editorial
Heartland takes a harsh battering on two fronts
The year-end setback for the fifth-largest payments processor in the US came on 23 December when a US District Judge, Mary Cooper, rejected its lawsuit aimed at preventing payment systems vendor VeriFone from offering direct support to Heartlands merchant customers. Hostility between Heartland and VeriFone dates back to September 2009 when VeriFone filed a lawsuit against Heartland in which it alleged that a POS terminal being developed by Heartland infringes one of its patents.
MoneyGram goes mobile in Philippines market
MoneyGram has staked its claim firmly in the Philippines mobile phone-based money transfer arena with the forging of an alliance with Smart Communications, the countrys largest mobile network operator (MNO). Stressing the significance of the alliance, John Hempsey, MoneyGrams executive vice-president for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, said this partnership gives MoneyGram access to more than 39 million Smart subscribers in the Philippines. In the initial phase of the mobile remittance service MoneyGram launched a pilot project in late December 2009 in a number of agent locations in San Diego, California and Hong Kong.
Net1 takes Iraq into the electronic payments age
Building a retail electronic payments system from scratch is no easy task, even more so when it is in Iraq, a country still recovering from the ravages of war It was a challenge Net1 UEPS Technologies took on in February 2008. The US company was appointed by Iraqs government to provide a solution for state payments, including grants to war victims and pensions and salaries for employees of the two state banks.
Payments industry security body readies for fight against crime
The recently established US-based Payments Processing Information Sharing Council (PPISC) has gained momentum with the formation of a steering committee tasked with setting the bodys agenda and initiatives. The PPISC is part of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), a non-profit organisation formed in 1999 to promote collaboration on security issues between financial services industry players Membership of the PPISC is open to credit and debit card payments processors owned and operated by depository financial institutions and third-party processors that conform to FS-ISAC operating rules.
Australian payment fraud rising
Across all four payment instruments, APCA reported that compared with the 2007-08 12 month period fraud increased by almost A$0.02 ($0.018) for every A$1,000 transacted, from A$0.0722 to A$0.0898 in every A$1,000.
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Auckland’s public transport ticketing to go contactless
Joining a growing number of cities worldwide, the Auckland Regional Council has given the green light for implementation of an integrated contactless payments solution for its public transport services The contract for the solution encompassing New Zealands largest citys train, bus and ferry services has been awarded to French electronics systems developer Thales. Auckland will receive a proven, multi-modal and multi-operator system leveraging some of the best fare collection systems already in operation in the world including Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Dubai, commented Rabin Rabindran, chairman of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA).
Crédit Agricole and Equens set to join forces in Europe
Marking another step toward consolidation in Europes payments market, Frances largest retail bank Crdit Agricole and pan-European payments processor Equens have entered into exclusive talks to explore the possibility of what they term aligning their payment platforms. The objective is to conclude the negotiations in 2010. Should the consolidation get the go-ahead, combining the payment processing operations of Crdit Agricoles subsidiary CEDICAM with Equens would create a payments processor with a combined volume of over 15 billion transactions annually
Microsoft and Temenos team up
The focus of the alliance which covers technical, marketing and sales collaboration is delivery of core banking solutions based on the Temenos T24 (T24) system and the Microsoft SQL Server platform. The formal alliance follows an initial joint project involving deployment of a core banking solution based on the T24 system and the Microsoft SQL Server for North Shore Credit Union (NSCU), a Canadian financial institution with some 400,000 members.
VeriFone intros iPhone card-present solution
Among the latest is PAYware Mobile, a solution from US payment systems vendor VeriFone which trumpets that it puts mainstream payment processing capabilities in the hands of small business merchants. The complete PAYware Mobile solution brings secure payment capabilities to merchants who previously could not justify a dedicated payment acceptance device, commented VeriFones CEO, Douglas G Bergeron
IAMTN bestows top honour on Mi-Pay
Mi-Pays claim to be among the leaders in the rapidly developing global mobile phonebased money transfer market has received a major boost with its selection by the International Association of Money Transfer Networks (IAMTN) as the Most Innovative Company in Money Transfers. The UK-based mobile payments services provider received the award from the global money transfer industry trade body at a function held in London in November