All articles by Zak Garner-Purkis
Zak Garner-Purkis
Credit gains momentum in the US
A more optimistic economic outlook has resulted in a 6.7% USD volume growth in card spending in October 2012, a report has highlighted.
Square Wallet goes live in 7,000 Starbucks stores
Starbucks will now accept Square mobiles payment application Square Wallet in approximately 7,000 US retail locations, following an agreement signed in August this year.
Western Union launches prepaid cards in Family Dollar stores
Western Union is making two of its prepaid cards available across 7,400 Family Dollar stores in 45 states.
Ingenico partners with BNP Paribas Fortis to promote smartphone-payments in Belgium
Hardware provider Ingenico has partnered with BNP Paribas Fortis on a project to boost smartphone payment acceptance in Belgium. The deal means that retailers and professionals will soon be able to receive card payments on their smartphones across the country.
iZettle launches in Britain with EE
Swedish social payments company iZettle is to launch its iZettle mini chip-card readers in the UK. The device plugs into smartphones and tablets turning them into mobile payments terminals and will be available exclusively to the mobile operator Everything Everywheres (EE) 297 retail outlets and from EEs telesales channel.
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Merchant Link in deal with Phoenix Managed Networks
US merchant services company Merchant Link has agreed a multi-year deal with payments technology company Phoenix Managed Networks.
Rogers and CIBC switch on NFC payments in Canada
Canadian bank CIBC and mobile operator Rogers have announced that their NFC payments network is will go live on 16th November.
Visa and MasterCard both see boost in earnings
As US consumer spending rose from 0.5% to 0.8% in September, the worlds two biggest payments networks felt the benefits, posting strong fourth quarter results.
Nigeria raises maximum daily limit on prepaid cards
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased the amount that can be loaded onto a prepaid card from N20,000 to N50,000.
Fantastic Plastic: Display Cards on the rise
Who said that mobile was the way forward for payments? Perhaps there is too much planning for the (relatively distant) future, when what is called for is innovative and evolutionary ideas within existing card technology. Duygu Tavan and Nick Collin consider the growing interest in display cardsSometimes, basic is best. New payments technologies are emerging left, right and centre and the good old card is easily overlooked as a product of the past. Now a new type of cards is emerging: display cards, which are just like any card, but with the added-value of touch-sensitive buttons that generate one-off passwords, and with an LED display that presents that password, as well as credit balance and limit.And if MasterCards research is anything to go by, then display cards will soon be normality. In an era when communication and interactivity are key attributes to payments innovation, upgrading a conventional product with new technology will clearly appeal to both the conservative banking consumers, as well as the tech-savvy ones.