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Payments Cards and Mobile News in Brief

The payments world News
in 60 days:

National Australia Bank may have taken its stereotypical women-focused marketing strategy too far, following the launch of a concept branch in Melbourne, complete with the bank’s own perfumed scent which is pumped into the building to help relax customers. Also available are computers and iPads with free WiFI and a children’s area. The bank has yet to follow suit with a dedicated men’s branch, which would presumably be stocked with beer, games consoles and soft porn magazines.

Thieves in Manchester, UK, spent six months digging a 100-foot tunnel to break into an ATM inside a Blockbusters store but only reaped £6,000 for their efforts. The thieves tunnelled from a railway embankment by a shopping precinct, under a car park and then beneath the foundations of the store. But because the ATM had not been re-filled following the January bank holiday, it would appear that the thieves failed to undertake a cost-benefit analysis, and may have actually lost money given the amount of time, effort and cost of equipment hire needed to execute their plan.

As if the Middle East didn’t have enough problems, it appears that a cyber-war is escalating following the news that Israel’s Tel Aviv stock exchange website was taken offline, hours after a Saudi hacker warned it would become a target. Since December 2011, a wave of cyber-attacks has included the credit card details of over 400,000 Israelis being stolen, which led to an Israeli hacker publishing details of around 200 Saudi-issued credit cards online.

A Romanian man has been arrested in New York, accused of being part of a gang that installed skimming devices on more than 40 HSBC ATMs before stealing at least $1.5 million from customer accounts. The fraud ring allegedly installed compromised card readers and miniature cameras at the ATMs to clone card details.

By 2015 more people will interact with their banks digitally than through branches, and they’ll be prepared to pay for the privilege, according to a global survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Its survey found that most respondents would be willing to pay £10 per month for digital banking services if they believe they offer convenience and value. The research reveals that customers are willing to pay for social media notifications, an electronic wallet for loyalty cards and financial tools provided by banks.

Online payment giant PayPal expects to handle $7 billion in mobile payments volume in 2012, almost double the $4 billion milestone achieved in 2011. The firm originally predicted that 2011 would bring $1.5 billion in volume. PayPal currently has more than 17 million customers regularly making a purchase through their mobile phone, up from 8 million reported in June 2011.

US merchants with Ingenico POS terminals will be able to accept PayPal payments from customers, under a deal struck between the two companies. PayPal has already begun piloting its new POS technology with US retail giant Home Depot, enabling customers to either swipe a card connected to their PayPal account or enter a code and their phone number into the terminal. Ingenico has begun to integrate PayPal’s payment card offering into its legacy Unicapt32 platform POS devices as well as its entire new generation of Telium 2 series systems.

Bank of America has dropped plans to charge a debit card usage fee in the US, following strong opposition from customers and consumer rights groups. Bank of America and other banks were facing an anti-trust investigation after news of the proposed fees emerged.

A report from Juniper Research estimates that the global redemption rate of mobile coupons is set to average at over 8% by 2016, indicating that there will also be over 600 million mobile coupon users globally by 2016. According to Juniper, integration of mobile coupons and mobile payment data represents a massive untapped opportunity, with redemption values expected to hit $43 billion by 2016.

Elan Financial Services, a unit of US Bancorp, has acquired the credit card assets of 28 financial institutions, which collectively have accounted for almost $700 million in outstanding balances. The purchase has been made from FIA Card Services, a unit of Bank of America, with the credit card portfolio including small business and consumer credit cards.

Global analytics specialist FICO has revealed data showing that counterfeit fraud in Europe fell by 60% between 2009 and 2011. Analysis from over 55 million active credit cards show that card-not-present fraud accounted for 69% of all accounts victimised and 72% of all fraud losses. The top 10 sectors most targeted for fraud include hotels/lodging, travel agencies, ATMs and supermarkets. 

Global information services company Experian and American Express have announced a partnership to offer international payment processing and foreign exchange services to Experian’s UK clients. The partnership adds a global payment processing capability to Experian’s existing range of services, which already includes international bank account validation and domestic payment processing. A direct link to American Express’s Foreign Exchange International Payments product will be included within the Experian Payments Gateway, the most widely used Bacstel-IP service available in the UK.

Visa Europe has certified NFC-enabled smartphones from Samsung, LG and Research In Motion for use with the Visa payWave contactless POS application. All new devices certified by Visa Europe host the payWave application on a secure SIM card and incorporate NFC technology.

The number of mobile banking users is set to reach over 530 million worldwide by 2013, according to a report from Juniper Research, up from 300 million in 2011. Juniper states that as banks migrate from traditional brick-and-mortar approaches and seek competitive differentiation, mobile banking offers an opportunity for all banks to improve operational efficiencies and customer retention and acquisition as a cost-effective communication channel.

Trunkbow, a Chinese provider of mobile payment services, has entered a partnership with China UnionPay for the development of the Trunkbow UnionPay mobile payment app.

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