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Nov 18th, 2011
Edition #279
Happy Thanksgiving
New to NewsFilter? Click here to subscribe. In this Issue In Other News This Day in History 1991 Terry Waite Released Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite after more than four years of captivity. Waite, looking thinner and his hair grayer, was freed along with American educator Thomas M. Sutherland after intense negotiations by the United Nations. Waite, special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, had secured the release of missionaries detained in Iran after the Islamic revolution. He also extracted British hostages from Libya and even succeeded in releasing American hostages from Lebanon in 1986. A total of 10 captives were released through Waite's efforts before Shiite Muslims seized him during a return mission to Beirut on January 20, 1987. He was held captive for more than four years before he was finally released. Click here to read more.
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Visa Names Its New PayPal-Like Digital Wallet Service “V.me” 
11/15/11 All Things Digital The brand that consumers will see when Visa’s digital wallet launches early next year won’t be the Visa logo. Consumers will be able to fund the digital wallet using a variety of sources — a Visa, MasterCard or bank account. It will be used to check out online using a user name and password, rather than having to key in the 16-digit number each time. The idea is similar to eBay’s PayPal, and to services by Amazon as well as e-wallet services being developed by American Express. Visa Picks a Consumer Brand for a Product That's All Business
11/16/11 American Banker The name of Visa Inc.'s digital wallet understates its ambition for the service. That may turn out to be a smart branding move. The handle, V.me, suggests the system is all about person-to-person payments. ("Want to send me the money? Just 'V' it to me!") Visa says the platform is meant to go well beyond P-to-P — its primary focus is enabling retail payments via financial institutions. The company is laying the groundwork for a digital wallet system that would work on the Web, on mobile devices and at the point of sale. TSG/ETA Economic Indicators, Reports Key Findings on the Payments Industry 
11/18/11 PaymentsPulse The Q3 2011 Economic Indicators Report released today contains Macroeconomic, Microeconomic, and Payments Industry analysis. This free report contains illustrative details on the following findings as well as 35 additional data points that trend performance of the economy and the payments industry.
Click here to read the report. Processing $11 Million A Day, Jack Dorsey Says: “We Don’t Want To Make Square All About Taxi Cabs”
11/14/11 TechCrunch Jack Dorsey’s mobile payments startup Square is now processing $11 million a day in mobile payments, it was revealed today at the Techonomy conference in Tucson, Arizona. Host David Kirkpatrick threw the number out there as something Dorsey had told him backstage—the last official number was $10 million a day and Square may not be consistently above $11 million yet. Either way, this is up from $4 million a day just last July. Moynihan Says 'New Normal' in Banking Is Less Profitable
11/15/11 SF Gate Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan said that slow economic growth and new regulations mean that the "new normal" in retail banking won't be as profitable as before. The second-biggest U.S. lender by deposits is cutting costs and seeking to sell more services to existing clients to adjust, Moynihan said at a conference in New York. "It's going to be a smaller platform, it won't be quite the same as it was at Bank of America and around the industry." The 10 Biggest U.S. Banks Could Lose Up to $185 Billion in Assets Due to Customer Defections in 2012
11/17/11 The Street The next year might be a particularly bad one for the nation's largest banks if they don't begin to address their customers' needs more aggressively. The 10 largest banks in the U.S. are in danger of losing $185 billion in deposits during the next 12 months as more customers get fed up and choose to bank elsewhere. Much of that will come from the four biggest banks in the country -- Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo -- which are projected to lose a combined $135 billion in that period. Should Consumers Embrace Banks' New Scattershot Approach to Fees?
11/14/11 The Atlantic Earlier this month, when Bank of America and others reversed their plans to create a fee for debit card usage, some consumers cheered. They felt like their complaints were heard, enabling them to escape additional fees after all. Such optimism may have been a little premature. Banks aren't simply accepting that they will make less money from their retail customers due to new financial regulation. Instead, they're quietly adding new fees for services or increasing the size of other fees that already exist. Visa's Courtship of Nancy Pelosi
11/14/11 Yahoo! News Visa has long bragged about its rewards program for consumers. So when its lucrative swipe fees got caught in the congressional crosshairs a few years back, the credit-card giant developed a special program for then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to feel its influence. The lobbying campaign, reconstructed by Newsweek through interviews and documents, speaks volumes about the efforts of big business to curry favor, even among perceived enemies. Apple Wins Patents That Include NFC Technology
11/17/11 BTN The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Nov. 15 published 31 patents granted to Apple related to NFC technology and what appears to be a new location service that uses the global positioning system. Apple's NFC patent covers the sharing of information between different devices, including iPhones, iPads, Mac computers and point-of-sale terminals in retail environments. Google Folds Its Checkout Service into Google Wallet
11/17/11 Digital Transactions Google Inc. this week said it will merge its Google Checkout online-payments service into its new Google Wallet. The change comes five-and-a-half years after Google Checkout debuted, years the service spent mostly in the shadows of PayPal Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Payments. Any online merchant currently accepting Google Checkout will have its “pay” button changed to Google Wallet. Google won’t do the switchover until early next year because it doesn’t want to disrupt merchants now, when they’re fully occupied with the holiday selling season. Minimize Change When Buying ISO Portfolios
11/16/11 ISO&Agent While it seems natural that retention rates might decline after a merchant portfolio changes hands, purchasers have found ways of keeping losses to a minimum. What matters most is maintaining continuity so merchants have no reason to switch to another processor, sources suggest. To keep the merchant experience seamless, investors from outside the industry tend to purchase more than just the accounts or the residuals. Instead, they buy an ISO’s entire business and retain most of the staff. PayPal launches Send Money Facebook App
11/18/11 Finextra The Send Money app offers people the chance to send money, along with an e-card, photos, videos and messages, to friends and family members for things like birthdays. Users just visit the app page on Facebook, select a card for the occasion and choose a recipient. Then they log-in to their PayPal account within the app, choose the dollar amount and click send. China Sidelines MasterCard, Visa
11/17/11 The Economic Observer Visa and MasterCard process around three quarters of card transactions in Europe and the U.S., but the ban on providing yuan-denominated cards has left them powerless in the world’s fastest-growing market. Almost all of China’s 2.4 billion cards bear the logo of China UnionPay, a payment system launched by the central bank in 2002. Unable to offer cards to the vast majority of Chinese who only make purchases domestically, Visa and MasterCard are hoping to make their case in China. MasterCard And Intel Want To Put Contactless Readers In Laptops—Maybe Even Soon Enough To Matter
11/16/11 StorefrontBacktalk E-Commerce has been depending on the trustworthiness of strangers for a long time—customers typing in what might easily be stolen payment-card numbers from thousands of miles away. That might be changing soon, and with a real advantage for E-tailers. On Monday (Nov. 14), MasterCard and Intel announced a push to install a contactless reader in laptops, so they’ll function as PayPass readers to take contactless payment cards—with a lot less trust required. Salvation Army Red Kettles Now Accept Credit Card Donations With Square
11/17/11 Mashable The Salvation Army is outfitting its Red Kettle ringers with Square credit card readers that will allow the omnipresent do-gooders with a mobile way to collect credit card payments. The Red Kettles have become a staple of the holidays. If you haven’t seen the volunteers collecting donations on street corners, you’ve heard them ringing their bells and calling for support. American Express® Launches American Express for Target Prepaid Card in More Than 1,000 U.S. Target Stores
11/15/11 American Express American Express today announced the launch of the American Express for Target Card, a reloadable prepaid card with no monthly or maintenance fees, available exclusively at more than 1,000 U.S. Target stores. The launch of this Card provides millions of Americans with easy access to a consumer-friendly payment solution that is loaded with benefits, not fees. "We're excited to partner with Target to provide consumers with a safe and secure everyday payment tool." The Durbin Amendment and the Payments Value Chain - A Current Look
11/17/11 TSYS Section 1075 of the Dodd-Frank Act amends the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) by adding Section 920, also known as the Durbin Amendment (“Durbin”), which encompasses the debit interchange transaction fees and rules for payment card transactions. The intent of Durbin was to transfer wealth from the Issuing banks to the merchants with the hope that it will result in lower prices for consumers through lower fees to merchants. This paper seeks to clarify issues and discuss the affects on the industry as a whole. VeriFone to Acquire Point to Build out Alternative Payments Infrastructure
11/14/11 VeriFone VeriFone Systems, Inc., today announced it has signed a definitive agreement with Nordic Capital Fund V to acquire Point, Northern Europe's largest provider of payment and gateway services and solutions for retailers. VeriFone intends to extend the Point platform throughout the region and beyond, with the aim of creating the world's largest infrastructure for rapid deployment of alternative payments. VeriFone will pay approximately €600 million to acquire all of the equity of Point. Citi to Cut Jobs as More Investment Bank Jobs Go
11/16/11 CNBC Citigroup is planning to cut as many as 900 jobs from its securities and banking division — and as many as 3,000 positions overall — as it grapples with turmoil in equity and debt markets, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. CNBC confirmed the layoffs Wednesday. "As part of our ongoing efforts to control expenses, we are making targeted headcount reductions in certain businesses and functions across Citi." iPayment Reports Results for the Third Quarter and First Nine Months of 2011
11/14/11 MarketWatch iPayment Holdings, Inc. today announced financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2011. All operations are conducted through iPayment and its subsidiaries. Revenues increased 3.4% to $181.0 million for the third quarter of 2011 from $175.1 million for the third quarter of 2010. Revenues, net of interchange, were $80.6 million for the third quarter of 2011, up 3.5% compared to $77.9M for Q3 2010. CTA Board Approves Modern Fare-Collection System
11/15/11 Smart Card Alliance The Chicago Transit Board today approved an agreement to implement a new, open standards based fare-collection system. The Board approved a contract to convert the CTA’s current proprietary-fare system to an open fare system, using contactless cards that use both financial and information security industry “open standards” technology. CTA patrons will simply “tap” their contactless credit, debit and bank cards or CTA-branded prepaid cards on a card reader to board trains and buses. National Credit Card Delinquencies Increase, But Remain Near Record Low Levels
11/16/11 InsideARM The national credit card delinquency rate (the ratio of borrowers 90 or more days past due) increased in the third quarter for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2009, edging upward to 0.71 percent. Average credit card debt per borrower increased $63 in the quarter to $4,762, though it remains near record-low levels. This information is reported by TransUnion and is part of its ongoing series of quarterly analyses of credit-active U.S. consumers. |
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