Category: Payments

Business Models, Payments, US

Wal-Mart can cancel banks’ store leases

Colin Henderson

Wal-Mart is engaged in a major battle with the US Banks at Senate hearings. Wal-Mart can cancel banks’ store leases Wal-Mart is seeking FDIC approval to open a special type of bank in Utah called an industrial bank. A range of opponents, from local banks to farmers to unions, testified for three days last month that Wal-Mart was really aiming to get into general banking services and argued this would be bad for local economies Wal-Mart is interested in ensuring it controls the costs along its entire value chain, a smart trend that all companies think about, such as Home … Continue reading Wal-Mart can cancel banks’ store leases

Payments, US

“Best Clearing” – image technology and ACH to optimize cost and accelerate adoption

Colin Henderson

Courtesy of Payment News, the topic of payment convergence appeared at the NACHA conference. Payments News: NACHA’s Take on the Future of Payments: Convergence – May 11, 2006 “Best Clearing” was described as using a combination of image technology and the ACH system to optimize cost and accelerate adoption of electronic processing of checks. Checks would be imaged by the collecting bank, stored locally, and then cleared through the ACH system. Images would be made available by collecting banks through some kind of standardized access model and not stored twice as they are today (once by the bank of first … Continue reading “Best Clearing” – image technology and ACH to optimize cost and accelerate adoption

Payments, Security

MTN, UBA partner to take electronic banking to new level – Nigeria

Colin Henderson

I must admit I did a double take when I read the introduction here at the mention of Nigeria.  Between terrorism, revolutions, and spamming Nigeria doesn’t have the greatest reputation.  However when I read the rest, there is an impressive array of services in this new partnership. NIGERIAN TRIBUNE – Info Systems In addition, non-cash payments will also be available from POS terminals at these locations. Several UBA products, notably Moneygram, would also be available at all MTN Service Centres and MTN Connect Stores. UBA, which is the sole super agent of Money Gram in Nigeria, holds more than 80 … Continue reading MTN, UBA partner to take electronic banking to new level – Nigeria

Payments

eBay starts to see integration benefits

Colin Henderson

Courtesy of Preoccupations, Skype has integrated Paypal money transfer. Both Paypal and Skype are owned by eBay. The sheer simplicity of this is compelling. Note there are no banks involved in this transaction, but there are over 100 million Skype and Paypal users worldwide and growing. Relevance to Bankwatch: Banks have to assume a large proportion of the payment structure is outside their control in the future. The concern I have is that deposit balances will migrate to the simplest provider of those services, so market share of deposits is at risk.Technorati Tags: payments, skype, paypal Continue reading eBay starts to see integration benefits

Payments

The merchants are right!

Colin Henderson

If there is one thing about the payments networks that is becoming increasingly evident as a key obstacle it is the merchants. This from Aneace is just another example of an underlying issue that Banks and payment networks choose to ignore. US payments consultant First Annapolis reveals that merchant acquirers are expressing deep doubt over the benefits of contactless. The following comments were taken from the April issue of the firm’s Navigator report We really need an open standard POS terminal that will work for all and any payment system. The merchants are right. Why should they invest in multiple … Continue reading The merchants are right!

Payments

Security Expert Says Chip-And-PIN Facilitates ATM Fraud

Colin Henderson

Now that UK has moved to pin/ debit, this security expert points out that the opportunities for fraud are expanded because of the variety of security in existence at the point of sale endpoints that now require PIN.  This has always been the case in Canada, and its known that POS terminals are one of the weak links in the network infrastrucuture.  Card Technology, The Smart Card News Source Today, however, consumers must enter their PINs at any point-of-sale terminal, which makes it much easier for criminals to obtain the data, Bond says. “Now there are hundreds and hundreds of … Continue reading Security Expert Says Chip-And-PIN Facilitates ATM Fraud

Canada, Payments

Dexit: Canadian Contactless Firm Looks To UK

Colin Henderson

Dexit apparently has been involved in the RFP for TfL expansion of Oyster that didn’t materialise.  However it seems that they have gained some potential UK contacts as a result. Card Technology, The Smart Card News Source Campbell says Dexit’s participation in the TfL bid has opened up some possibilities for future business. “Through that process, we made a number of contacts in the UK market, and some of those people we’re still in discussions with about projects in the UK,” he says. Dexit, which has about 50,000 registered users and 450 participating merchants in the greater Toronto area, is … Continue reading Dexit: Canadian Contactless Firm Looks To UK

Payments

ebay: their potential is great but their investor positioning is not

Colin Henderson

eBay are understating their potential, and it remains to be seen whether their Executive are doing this deliberately. FT.com / Companies – Why eBay’s health lies in the balance

While declining to talk about keyword advertising directly, Ms Whiman said of the opportunity to take advertising in eBay: “This is something we’ve thought about a lot.”

Paypal is doing well and is a world player now.

PayPal The promise from PayPal: more of the same. The online payment system’s revenues topped $1bn last year, lifting eBay’s overall growth rate. A year ago, with 64m accountholders, PayPal was almost neck-and-neck with American Express, which had 65m: since then, its user base has jumped to 105m, compared to 73m at Amex.

Continue reading “ebay: their potential is great but their investor positioning is not”

Business Models, Payments

Special Issue Call for Papers: Electronic Commerce Research and Applications (ECRA) Journal

Colin Henderson

Interesting topics in this call for papers, with September 06 deadline.  Worth following up on, so we’ll watch for results. Mobile Payments Topics. The special issue will be devoted to exploring strategic, managerial, technical, security and policy challenges in the domain of mobile payments. We seek high-quality, unpublished contributions on the following and other related topics: Current and future technologies and service platforms for real-time m-payments Economic and other theoretical perspectives on m-payments P2P m-payments and m-payment-enabled business processes Case studies of successful and failed trials with m-payments Business models and revenue generation approaches for m-payment services Security, biometrics, trust, … Continue reading Special Issue Call for Papers: Electronic Commerce Research and Applications (ECRA) Journal

Payments

Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW) remittances jump 14% to $1.8B

Colin Henderson

Sympomatic of many foreign workers, money remittance is becoming a staple of their needs, and this occurs outside of traditional banking.  Many cultural specific groups orchestrate these money remittances.  OFW remittances jump 14% to $1.8B MONEY remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) totaled $1.8 billion in January and February, sustaining a double-digit growth rate of 14 percent from the same period last year despite a slowdown in the number of workes going abroad, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP, the central bank) said Wednesday. Technorati Tags: payments Continue reading Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW) remittances jump 14% to $1.8B