There were some recurring payments news themes that dominated the headlines in April 2015 – cyber security, mobile payments and various fintech developments. Interestingly though there were some new stories around ATM’s and a couple of important financial inclusion stories worth catching up on. Unfortunately there were also some bank glitches that caused customers a bit of a headache. For those of you that are interested in SWIFT, there were events in London and Canada. See my top payments news stories for April 2015 below…
1. Payments News – Cyber Security
- A cybercrime gang, involving Romanian nationals, that stole over $15 million (in 2013) through fraudulent ATM withdrawals globally has been busted
- Ryanair has fallen victim to a €4.6 million hack attack
- MasterCard reaches settlement with Target for data breaches in 2013 – Target will pay up to $19 million to eligible banks and credit unions
- According to the WSJ, China is stopping the implementation of controversial banking-technology rules
- A WorldPay press release reported that British businesses encountered card fraud every 20 seconds in March 2015
- City of London Police at the Tech UK Conference claimed that banks hide cyber crime losses
2. Payments News – Mobile Payments
- Paym – a UK based mobile payments service – celebrates its 1st year during which it transferred almost £44 million
- A report by the WSJ highlights that Apple will be Launching in Canada during the autumn this year
- The voluntary Code of Conduct for the Credit and Debit Card Industry in Canada is updated to include contactless and mobile payments
- A Halifax press release shares that Card Is King as cash and cheque payments decline
- ING Mobile Banking Survey 2015 reveals key trends in the mobile banking and payments space
3. Payments News: Digital / Cryptocurrencies
- Goldman Sachs and IDG Capital Partners invest $50 million in Circle, a consumer finance company
- Coinbase launches its bitcoin services in the UK
- BNY Mellon’s CIO talks to the WSJ about Bitcoin
4. Payments News: Bank News
- TSB invests in “Bricks and Clicks” – digital and mortar….
- Deutsche Bank announces details of their strategy, which includes investing up to EUR 1 billion on digital technology
- Capgemini and Efma release the World Retail Banking Report 2015
- Wincor Nixdorf announces a decline in net sales and earnings and details of a restructuring program
- Nationwide extends video link service to another 100 branches, providing the video banking service to a total of 161 branches
- A Cebr Report for Fiserv highlights Future Trends in UK Banking
- IT Glitch impacts Nordea
5. Payments News: Financial Inclusion
- Malawi aims to tackle poverty and financial inclusion through the creation of a digital payments ecosystem
- A World Bank Report – Measuring Financial Inclusion Around the World – provides an invaluable insight into the current status, the progress and opportunities surrounding Financial Inclusion
6. Payments News: Fintech
- Paypal introduces One Touch payments, previously only available on mobile devices, to the web
- MasterCard buys cloud based big data analytics company Applied Predictive Technologies (APT)
- BBVA acquires the San Francisco user experience (UX) and design firm, Spring Studio
- Yes Bank, in India, partners with Twitter to send tweets to customers via a missed call
- BBVA and Dwolla go live with real time payments in the US
- Alibaba plans launch of a e-commerce stock index and internet bank…
7. Payments News: ATM
- NCR introduces Kalpana Software which moves ATM software into the cloud…
- EAST press release highlights a 26% decline in ATM related fraud incidents but skimming losses increase
8. Payments News: SWIFT
- The SWIFT Business Forum in London hosted around 1100 delegates to discuss the key themes dominating the industry
- Announce SWIFTRef API’s enabling the identification and validation of payment data in real time
That’s it folks! Let me know below if I missed anything important….