Will The U.S. Consumer Adopt the EMV PIN?

As the EMV era nears for the U.S. market, there are conflicting messages and directions coming from the card associations in regards to implementation dates, liability shift dates, what options to implement and how to ensure cardholder buy-in and acceptance. Most of these topics were evident in the SCA EMV Forum sessions discussions held September 12 and 13, 2012.

Starbucks and Square push mobile payments forward

Starbucks recently announced it has inked a deal with electronic payment service Square Inc. The international coffee chain will begin processing U.S. card transactions through smartphones using Square’s payment platform this autumn.

A mobile payments Q & A with Chris Dunne of VocaLink

Chris Dunne is the Strategy Director of Global Transaction Services at VocaLink. Chris spoke at this year’s ACI Exchange EMEA Customer Conference about how VocaLink is delivering the infrastructure for the UK Payments Council’s national mobile payment service, and how this will act as a springboard for mass adoption of mobile payments. In this Q&A, Chris talks about the landscape for mobile payments and some of the key issues that face the industry.

A fraud Q & A with John Verrechia

John Verrechia is a Senior Manager on the Fraud Analytics Team at the Nationwide Building Society, analytical architect of ACI’s PRM card fraud detection system. At ACI Exchange, John spoke about how Nationwide Building Society has utilised and enhanced the ACI Proactive Risk Manager card fraud detection system to reduce their card fraud losses by 75% in the last three years. In this Q&A, John shares his thoughts on some of the key fraud issues affecting financial institutions at the moment.

The interchange lawsuit settlement: what it could mean for the payments industry

On July 13, 2012, the stakeholders in the seemingly never-ending class-action lawsuit, which alleged that Visa, MasterCard and their member banks violated anti-trust laws when setting interchange rates, announced a preliminary settlement.

When the supermarket met the bank – a match made in heaven?

Asda is the latest supermarket to follow the trend and raise its profile in the personal finance sector. The UK supermarket giant recently announced its new brand, Asda Money, which offers its millions of customers an unlimited cashback credit card. This move follows a spate of supermarket and financial service provider collaborations, such as Marks & Spencer which celebrated the opening of its first bank branch at Marble Arch last week.

SEPA Widdershins

The European Payments Council (EPC) recently achieved its 8th birthday. Back in 2002, the road to SEPA probably looked fairly straightforward – the EPC would develop the payment schemes and frameworks necessary to realise SEPA, and market forces would ensure a smooth transition from the fragmented payments landscape of the time in Europe to the calm waters of a single payments area. The European banking industry would deliver the basis on which SEPA would be built, the rest would fall into place as a matter of course, and the end-user would be Very Happy.

Q & A with John Russell, Central Bank of Oman

John Russell is a Payment Systems Specialist for the Central Bank of Oman, and the Project Manager for the recent implementation of the new National ATM and POS Switch. In addition to this role, John is also a member of the Central Bank’s IT Strategy Steering Committee and the EFT Strategy Committee, providing guidance to the Central Bank on the development of the National e-Payments infrastructure and services.

A fraud Q & A with Arjun Medhi, CIFAS

Arjun Medhi manages the Staff Fraud Database operations at CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service. He was a keynote speaker at this year’s ACI Exchange EMEA Annual Conference in Monaco, where he spoke about the state of employee fraud in the UK private sector. In this Q&A, Arjun recaps some of the main pillars of his speech, looking at fraud profiling and the issue of whistleblowing.

Roundtable Discussion: Payments transformation and the role of mobile banking and payments

Last week, I had the honor of hosting a group of banking executives for a luncheon in Melbourne, Australia. The goal was to facilitate discussion about the changing face of payments, and in particular, the role mobile is playing.

What they know about monitoring in São Paulo

A study of 100 banks around the world conducted by Ovum early in 2011 identified large global discrepancies of the importance of application and system monitoring.

Combating Online Banking Fraud – A Top 10 List

For many financial institutions, the recent ruling in the US holding a bank responsible for fraudulent losses from business accounts has raised a few eyebrows because, traditionally liability has remained with the customer for business accounts.