PaymentsSource Payments Update Featuring HomeATM

Featured for Friday July 9th, 2010





Paul Turgeon, president of Payments & Processing Consultants Inc., believes HomeATM’s device is well suited for line-busting situations and for mobile merchants in general. “There are lots of those kind of merchants who are spending a lot of money equipping themselves to take credit cards,” he adds. [FREE] Read More >>
Many of Canada's merchants and financial institutions are on track to meet a key deadline less than three months from now for converting to EMV chip-and-PIN card technology. Read More >>
The allure of mobile payments, which Generator Research, a United Kingdom-based research firm, estimates will grow to an estimated $600 billion worldwide by 2014, has drawn AT&T Inc. into the fray, as have the merchants accepting payments via their phones. [FREE] Read More >>

Brazilian ATM Maker Enters U.S. Market
Sao Paolo, Brazil-based Itautec S.A., a maker of low-cost ATMs, plans to sell its full-service machines in the U.S. market starting this fall. Read More >>










Enhanced by Zemanta

Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank Friday, July 9, 2010 2 comments

High-Profile Players Sign on to Promote Mobile-Merchant Technology



(July 8, 2010 Digital Transactions News)



As the young market for mobile payments on smart phones takes shape, industry players are scrambling to pair up with world-famous partners with massive numbers of consumer and business customers.  



Read More


Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank 0 comments

MasterCard (MA) Not As 'Priceless' As Rival Visa (V)

Editor's Note:  If anyone is interested, I'll trade my 1000 shares of Visa for 1000 shares of MasterCard all day long...in fact, all weekend long!

July 9, 2010 11:04 AM EDT 





Shares of credit card processor MasterCard (NYSE: MA) are being left out of today's rally after Goldman Sachs said its prefers the company's rival Visa (NYSE:V). Goldman Sachs' analysts said they like Visa more because of a faster-growing debit business and very limited exposure to Europe. Visa was added to the firm's prestigious Conviction Buy List.  But not all is lost for MasterCard, which is still rated a Buy at Goldman. <<read more>>
.  

Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank 0 comments

CFSI to Host Symposium at U.S. Capitol

Washington, July 8, 2010 -- The Center for Financial Services Innovation will convene a symposium of the country’s foremost experts in financial transaction and savings products for lower-income, underbanked consumers at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, July 14. The Symposium will feature general purpose reloadable prepaid cards and how they can meet the financial needs of millions of Americans who are either unable or choose not to use traditional bank accounts. Panelists will explore consumers' preferences for general purpose reloadable prepaid card products (GPR cards), provide industry insights on emerging trends, and address public policy considerations, including interchange policy and consumer protection rules.



WHO: Panelists include Michael Barr, U.S. Treasury Department Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions; Melissa Koide, Policy Director, Center for Financial Services; Robert M. Hunt, AVP and Director, Payment Cards Center, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; Janis Bowdler, Deputy Director, Wealth-Building Policy Project, National Council of La Raza; Will Sowell, COO, Green Dot Corporation; John Thompson, Principal, Advent Financial; Brian Kibble-Smith, VP & General Counsel, Government Payment Services, Inc.; Josh Wright, Director of Financial Access Innovations, Office of Domestic Finance, U.S. Treasury Department.
WHEN: Wednesday, July 14, 2010, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm EST
WHERE: Congressional Meeting Room South in the Capitol Visitor Center at First and East Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC
WHY: This symposium seeks to inform Capitol Hill staffers and policymakers about underbanked consumers and the benefits of and appropriate policies for GPR cards. GPR cards are used by many unbanked or underbanked consumers as a variation of or as a substitute for bank accounts. Applying consumer protections to GPR cards will make the product more attractive to consumers and provide regulatory clarity for prepaid providers.


About CFSI:
The Center for Financial Services Innovation is the nation’s leading authority on financial services for underbanked consumers. Since 2004, its programs have focused on informing, connecting, and investing – gathering enhanced intelligence, brokering and supporting productive industry relationships, and fostering best-in-class products and strategies. A nonprofit affiliate of ShoreBank Corporation, CFSI works with leaders and innovators in the business, government and nonprofit sectors to transform the financial services landscape.


Source: Company press release.


Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank 0 comments

Chief Benefactors In Debit Likely To Change With Final Reform Bill



ISO & Agent Weekly | Thursday, July, 2010
By Kate Fitzgerald
A year or so from now, merchants likely will be paying less to accept debit cards, and financial institutions will be earning less revenue issuing them. And some issuers may have to reacquaint themselves with PIN-debit brands not associated with Visa Inc. or MasterCard Worldwide. These are among the results likely to transpire if Congress in the coming days signs off on the final version of financial-reform bill approved by a reconciliation conference committee in the early hours of June 25. A vote on the newly named Dodd-Frank Act could come as early as July 1, but could be pushed past the congressional holiday after a House and Senate conferees agreed late Tuesday to strip a proposed bank tax from the bill and add other budget offsetting mechanisms in its place.  The final bill includes a controversial amendment authored by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., that would require the Federal Reserve Board for the first time to set debit card interchange rates according to “reasonable and proportional” standards. The amendment also bans brand-exclusivity arrangements between card networks and debit card issuers.  “This has been quite a coup for merchants,” Philip Philliou, managing director of the consultancy Philliou Selwanes Partners LLC, tells PaymentsSource. Merchants have been “lobbying hard for years” for interchange-rate reductions, he notes...<<read more>>


Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank 0 comments

NTP Sues Apple, Google, HTC, LG, Microsoft and Motorola for Infringement of Wireless Email Patents







DONALD E. STOUT,

PARTNER

Intellectual Property Law


RICHMOND, Va., July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- NTP Incorporated, the company founded by Tom Campana, the inventor of wireless email, yesterday filed lawsuits against Apple, Inc., Google Inc., HTC Corp., LG Electronics Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and Motorola, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for infringing NTP's eight patents related to the delivery of electronic mail over wireless communications systems. Each of the defendants is a manufacturer or developer of either wireless handheld devices or software applications used in the delivery of email across wireless communications systems.  

"Use of NTP's intellectual property without a license is just plain unfair to NTP and its licensees. Unfortunately, litigation is our only means of ensuring the inventor of the fundamental technology on which wireless email is based, Tom Campana, and NTP shareholders are recognized, and are fairly and reasonably compensated for their innovative work and investment.  We took the necessary action to protect our intellectual property."




NTP is best known for its long litigation and eventual settlement with Research in Motion (RIM), maker of BlackBerry® wireless devices.  In that litigation, all the claims asserted at trial were found to be valid and willfully infringed by RIM, and the verdict was ultimately affirmed on appeal by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Spurred by that litigation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) moved to re-examine NTP's patents.  In December 2009, in spite of the massive effort by the USPTO to overturn NTP's patents, the USPTO Board of Patent Appeals (USPTO Board) ruled that 67 of NTP's patent claims in four patents are valid, including three claims that RIM was found to have infringed.  Infringement of a single claim is all that is needed for a patent to be deemed violated.
NTP has also filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to overturn the USPTO's remaining rejections of NTP's patent claims.
"The filing of suit today is necessary to ensure that those companies who are infringing NTP's patents will be required to pay a licensing fee," Mr. Stout continued.  "In view of the USPTO Board's ruling, the debate over whether Mr. Campana was an originator in the field of wireless email is over.  No patents in U.S. history have received as much scrutiny as NTP's patents.  We are delighted that the USPTO Board has recognized the groundbreaking innovation of Mr. Campana by confirming 67 of NTP's patent claims.  We are also confident that the USPTO's rejections, which are on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, will be overturned."
About NTP Incorporated
NTP Incorporated is a privately-held intellectual property firm based in Richmond, Virginia that was founded in 1992 by the late inventor Thomas Campana, Jr. and his partners. NTP's intellectual property includes patents relating to technologies involving wireless email which Mr. Campana developed as lead inventor in 1990.  Mr. Campana was awarded over 50 patents in his career and invented a wireless location technology that helps parents find their children which received first prize at the 1996 Consumer Electronics Show.  NTP has licensing agreements with Research in Motion Limited, Good Technology, Inc., Nokia Inc., and Visto Corporation.  






Contact:
Micheline Tang  
Kekst and Company
(212) 521-4800


SOURCE NTP Incorporated


Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank 0 comments

Americans' PINs at Risk for Skim Skams





Americans' PINs at risk for scams   New places and unfamiliar ATMs are fertile ground for 'skimming'



By Lucy Soto For the AJC



As you head into summer travel mode, think about arming yourself against more than just the sun and the mosquitoes.  Watch out for ATMs. Grabbing that extra bit of traveling cash in a new city can turn into a costly headache.



Americans are still traveling: About 176 million passengers will take to the U.S. skies this summer, according to the Air Transport Association. Another 26 million are travelling internationally.  So, going to the World Cup before the finale on July 11? Going out West to visit wide open spaces? Be careful.



New places and unfamiliar ATMs are fertile ground for scams that cost consumers and the ATM industry about $1 billion in annual global losses.



"In general, tourists on vacation travelling tend to have their guard down," said Mike Urban, an ATM fraud expert with Fair Isaac, the provider of FICO credit scoring. "You may not be as diligent as you normally are in certain situations. Criminals realize this."



And that makes the situation ripe for "skimming."



Skimming involves stealing the information from a card's magnetic strip or pilfering a consumer's personal identification number, or PIN. It's the most basic of ATM frauds. It can involve a peek over a shoulder or crooks posting small cameras or using telescopic devices to see the PIN. Skimming also happens with fake card readers and phony ATMs.



Criminals are even taking it up a notch. The basic tactics are being replaced with attacks on software in ATMs and ATM networks, or criminals who "phish" for PINs using false telephone text alerts. Some steal account information to pose as consumers who want to change their numbers.



"Anyone at or headed to the World Cup needs to be very careful," said Paul Henninger, vice president of products for Actimize, a risk management software company. "These national and international events, like the Olympics or the Super Bowl, are magnets for criminal activity."



Banks use fraud detection systems to track user behavior over billions of transactions all over the world. But the systems can be thrown off when there's a spike in unusual traffic, as with high tourist turnouts and variations in times and places of ATM usage that don't fit consumer patterns.



As a consequence, events like the World Cup in South Africa give criminals a short window of cover.



"What fraud systems look for is strange increases in volume and amount of transactions," Henninger said.



ATM fraud is a growing problem in the United States. A survey earlier this year found that 10 percent of all fraud victims in the U.S. experienced phony ATM cash withdrawals.



According to financial research company Javelin Strategy & Research, the number of records breached rose 16 percent in 2009.



Actimize surveyed financial services representatives in May 2009, and its report showed 70 percent of respondents saw an increase in fraud claims in 2008 compared to 2007. Of those, 58 percent had double-digit growth.



In the meantime, banks in other countries are moving toward new technologies to stem fraud. New chip-and-PIN cards have encrypted microprocessor chips that are more difficult to clone and require the user to enter a personal identification number.



Experts say the level of ATM fraud in the United States will increase as bordering countries Canada and Mexico move to the higher-security cards.



The encrypted smart cards have already become popular overseas where sophisticated skimming networks have flourished.



This can be a problem for U.S. travelers with their magnetic strip cards. Automated kiosks - like vending machines, bicycle rental racks in Paris, parking meters in some areas of London and toll and gas stations - accept only chip-and-PIN cards.



New York-based United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU), a $3.1 billion institution with 88,000 members across 205 countries, has begun issuing chip-and-PIN Visa credit cards to its top-tier members who have had trouble using U.S.-issued cards overseas.



In May, a payment services director for behemoth retailer Wal-Mart touted its move to chip-and-PIN technology in its stores, a move that might nudge the U.S. to evolve from the magnetic strip card.



In the meantime, consumers, said Urban, need to be alert.



"It's something that's growing," he said. "It's certainly a global issue. Anywhere there's an ATM and there's a criminal that thinks they can get away with something."


How to protect your ATM info
Here are a few tips to prevent ATM fraud and insights into how criminals steal your personal identification numbers.
  • Always protect your PIN: Don't give the number to anyone and cover the keypad while you are entering it.

  • Beware of hand-lettered signs posted on the front of ATMs directing you to reinsert your card or enter your PIN multiple times.

  • Look for the unusual - strange caps, wires or foreign devices on card readers. If anything looks damaged or like it has been tampered with, stop immediately and find an alternative ATM.

  • If your card gets stuck or the cash doesn't come out, contact your financial institution immediately by calling the number on the back of your card. This is something called cash- or card-trapping, in which criminals insert devices to collect the dispensed money or hold the card long enough to steal its information.

  • If you travel abroad, tell your bank or credit union before you leave, so they can help if you need it while you are away. And make sure you carry all phone numbers for credit, ATM and debit cards in case they're stolen and you need to call. Don't, of course, carry them in your wallet or purse.

  • When travelling, never use an internet café computer to check e-mail or bank accounts. If hackers compromise your e-mail password, they can get to your accounts by, for example, asking for new passwords via e-mail.

  • Monitor your bank accounts. Many banks offer daily balance alerts, text message alerts for ATM usage and other instant account management tools.

  • Make sure your bank has up-to-date contact information, including your cell number, so they can notify you if they spot anything unusual.



Source: Mike Urban, fraud director at Fair Isaac, the provider of FICO credit scoring;bank and security Web sites.

Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank 0 comments

New Online Banking Report Published by Netbanker



By Jim Bruene on July 8, 2010 1:13 PM | Comments (0)


imageTwo months ago when we were sketching out the next Online Banking Report (see note for links to the report), I thought it would be useful to look at the real-time Web and how consumers were becoming accustomed to status update feeds through Facebook and Twitter.
Old-school alerts: Email

As I wrote the report, I realized that most online banking users still want to consume transaction data the old-fashioned way, through email and over the Web. We did a quick consumer survey that confirmed our hypothesis, with email preferred 2-to-1, over text and voice messaging. Even among the under-35 crowd, email and text alerts were tied.
So we also took a detailed dive into email alerts, developing 22 recommendations for state-of-the-art email messages. And we graded 16 alert examples from 13 financial institutions. Overall, our sample scored very well with Bank of America, Lending Club, Mint, ING Direct,PayPal all earning A grades. Also US Bank, Schwab, Wells Fargo and Prosper were just slightly lower, each with a B+. 
The future: Real-time streams/feeds/updates

While email, text or voice messages work well for alerts. They are not as desirable for keeping users informed of all their transactions. Once you starting getting multiple emails each day from your financial accounts it becomes overwhelming and you stop opening them. That’s why a transaction feeds are a promising means for keeping customers up-to-date on an ongoing basis. In a world where so many consumers are following a Facebook news feed, Twitter feed, or good old RSS, it’s only natural that financial transactions will join the mix.
But it’s still a long way off. Consumers for the most part, do not want commercial messages cluttering their news feeds. And they are understandably confused about privacy/security settings, and don’t feel confident that bank transactions delivered via Twitter direct message, are not being displayed to the world.
However, once we get past that educational challenge, we believe a significant number of consumers will prefer tracking their finances via feed (mostly via mobile) instead of logging in to online banking multiple times per month.
To learn more about what could happen in this area, we looked at three transaction-feed startups:
Bottom line: Real-time feeds are the future, but many years away from making it past even the earliest of adopters. For most financial institutions, the important thing to do now is make sure you have great email and text alerts. But for those looking to differentiate with technology, feeds provide an intriguing opportunity. 

Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank 0 comments

TRX Reaffirms Highest Level of Payment Card Industry Compliance for Service Providers

ATLANTA, July 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TRX, Inc. (www.trx.com) (Other OTC: TRXI), a world-leading provider of travel technology, process automation, consulting and data services, has reaffirmed compliance with the highest data security tier for service providers recognized by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) through earning the PCI Data Security Standard v1.2 compliance.
TRX reaffirmed compliance with the latest standards after undergoing an extensive on-site audit conducted by an independent third-party, operating in accordance with the PCI Security Standards Council. TRX has adhered to a rigorous data security standard designed to provide additional assurances that client-confidential data is kept secure. As part of the certification maintenance process, TRX undergoes quarterly external vulnerability assessments to ensure that key systems remain secure and compliant between annual certifications.
"Providing a secure environment for the data we manage is critical and serves as a differentiator for us in the travel data processing arena," said Shane Hammond, President and CEO, TRX. "Reaffirming PCI compliance is one of the many steps we take to further our commitment to data security."
About TRX
TRX is a world-leading travel technology and data services provider, offering more than 20 software-as-a-service utilities for online booking, reservation processing, data intelligence, and process automation. We deliver our technology applications in an on-demand environment to travel agencies, corporations, travel suppliers, government agencies, credit card associations, credit card issuing banks, and third-party administrators. We provide patented savings maximization solutions via our travel analytics consulting practice, extending spend management services to travel buyers all over the world.  We complement all of these offerings with a global workforce focused on travel process automation and reengineering. For more information about TRX or to contact a TRX sales office, phone 404.929.6100 or visit the company's Web site at www.trx.com
SOURCE TRX, Inc.

Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank 0 comments

comScore Reports May 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share




Samsung Blue...Everybody owns one...

(apologies to Neil Diamond's Song Sung Blue)
Samsung top handset manufacturer with 22.4% market share, RIM leads smartphone platforms with 41.7% share



Google’s Android Platform Continues to Snatch Smartphone Market Share
RESTON, VA, July 8, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending May 2010 compared to the preceding three-month average. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. according to their share of current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone. The May report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.4 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 41.7 percent market share.
OEM Market Share
For the 3 month average period ending in May, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 22.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up one percentage point from the preceding three month period. LG ranked second with 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola (21.2 percent share), RIM (8.7 percent share, up 0.5 percentage point) and Nokia (8.1 percent share).










Top Mobile OEMs

3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2010

Total U.S. Age 13+

Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
Feb-10May-10Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers100.0%100.0%N/A
Samsung21.4%22.4%1.0
LG21.7%21.5%-0.2
Motorola22.3%21.2%-1.1
RIM8.2%8.7%0.5
Nokia8.7%8.1%-0.6
Smartphone Platform Market Share
49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share and Microsoft with 13.2 percent. Google saw significant growth during the period, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.8 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.










Top Smartphone Platforms

3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2010

Total U.S. Age 13+

Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
Feb-10May-10Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers100.0%100.0%N/A
RIM42.1%41.7%-0.4
Apple*25.4%24.4%-1.0
Microsoft15.1%13.2%-1.9
Google9.0%13.0%4.0
Palm5.4%4.8%-0.6
*May data does not include the impact of Apple’s launch of iPhone 4, which 

became available in June.
Mobile Content Usage
65.2 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in May, up 1.4 percentage points versus the prior three month period, while browsers were used by 31.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.3 percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 30.0 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the previous period. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs also saw significant growth, increasing 2.6 percentage points to 20.8 percent of mobile subscribers.











Mobile Content Usage

3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2010

Total U.S. Age 13+

Source: comScore MobiLens
Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
Feb-10May-10Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers100.0%100.0%N/A
Sent text message to another phone63.8%65.2%1.4
Used browser29.6%31.9%2.3
Used downloaded apps27.9%30.0%2.1
Played games21.8%22.5%0.7
Accessed social networking site or blog18.2%20.8%2.6
Listened to music on mobile phone13.1%14.3%1.2
About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
Contact:

Stephanie Lyn Flosi

Marketing Communications Analyst

comScore, Inc.

+1 312 777 8801

press@comscore.com

Full Story
Posted by John B. Frank 0 comments

Payments Industry News Blog

Search the PIN Debit Blog by Subject

Kapersky Calls for Mass Adoption of Card Readers

Kapersky Calls for Mass Adoption of Card Readers