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Barclays cards draw a bad hand: Barclays suffered a digital breakdown that left consumers unable to use ATMs or make card payments in stores. The U.K. bank reported it was investigating the problem and was in the process of fixing the issue, though the BBC reported the fixes were staggered, resulting in some consumers having difficulty making payments and accessing cash for several days until early this week. Barclays has about 15 million cardholders in the U.K., though the bank said the glitch did not affect all of its customers. The more recent glitch comes a few months after another issue resulted in some consumers being charged twice for Barclaycard payments.
A logo sits on display outside the offices of Barclays Plc bank in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. The South African Reserve Bank said it will collaborate with Barclays Plc to manage the flow of money and minimize risk of causing fluctuations in the rand as the British bank prepares to reduce its stake in Barclays Africa Group Ltd. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
A competitor for PayPal and Square's merchant lending: Extending small amounts of credit to retailers has proven to be a popular merchant service for PayPal and Square, which use their ability to accumulate vast amounts of transaction data to make quick decisions and to collect debts. Allentown, Pa.-based Harbortouch is joining the market through a partnership with Strategic Funding Source. The two companies will collaborate to extend business loans, generally more than $10,000 in working capital, and will use their existing relationships and data to enable funding and automated repayment features. Two two companies enjoy substantial scale. Harbortouch has served more than 300,000 merchants in the U.S. and processes about $12 billion in annual payments, while SFS has provided financing to "thousands" of businesses, with credit totalling "tens of millions of dollars," according to a release.
Some good news on fraud: Most of the news about fraud is about how it's getting worse, or larger, or more sophisticated. But there are some parts of the market where it's in decline. Debit card losses due to card skimming are down for the seventh year in a row in Canada, according to Interac, Canada's national debit network. The organization reported skimming losses of $11.4 million, a record low, and noted only $1.5 million of that fraud was in Canada. Of the $351 billion sent across the network in 2016, only 0.003% of that value was fraudulent, Interac reported. It's a victory for EMV, as Interac says the very low in-country skimming is due to the maturity of chip cards. Canada's migration began in 2008 and EMV cards and merchants are nearly saturated in Canada. Despite that, Canadians are still afraid of skimming. Interac reports 75% of Canadians are worried about skimming, and a third of consumers have used debit cards less due to the concern.
Signs of life for the 'Pays': Contactless payments from a mobile device are still a small portion of payments in the U.K., but it's starting to take off fast. Citing research from Worldpay, Finextra reports mobile contactless payments reached 38 million in 2016, or 247% year over year growth, with December being the busiest month for NFC payments. Worldpay also reports contactless payments now account for 28% of all non-cash transactions in the U.K. The research firm attributes the expansion to the introduction of Android Pay to the U.K., the growth of Apple Pay, and the role of marketing. Lunchtime "meal deal" hotspots, including supermarkets, grocery stores and other food businesses, accounted for more than 54% of all mobile tap and pay transactions in 2016, while bars, pubs and restaurants made up 20%.
Daily Energy Payments Powering Digital Finance in Ghana CGAP • Daniel Waldron, Michiel Wolvers Much has been written about the potential of pay-as-you-go solar to advance financial inclusion while expanding access to energy among the poor.
More from PaymentsSource
Airlines that ignore digital commerce could get grounded With 90% of airline travelers looking to use their mobile devices pre-, during and post-trip for activities that involve flight searches, booking, updates and boarding passes, airlines must be prepared for on-the-go passengers of they hope to capitalize on the a huge market.
Will social payments succeed if banks provide the tech? As social media platforms scale back their underperforming payment integrations, Israeli startup PayKey is gearing up for the next wave of innovation — with banks as its ally.
Placing a bet on the (in)security of the Internet of Things No one knows exactly what the Internet of Things will look like in five years, but forecasters predict more than 20 billion devices will be connected, and Trustonic is sure fraudsters will come along for the ride.
Fime will test Amex ExpressPay Host Card Emulation apps Fime has received accreditation from American Express Co. for its cloud-based payment testing services to validate Amex mobile payments leveraging Host Card Emulation (HCE) apps.
The retail giants are kicking the tires on their own currencies. The potential prize is a way to reimagine prepaid cards and gain a key position as new forms of artificial intelligence-powered payments take off.
Primis Bank plans to sell an undisclosed amount of its 19% ownership stake in Panacea Financial, a digital-only lender focusing on medical professionals and veterinarians. The deal should yield $22 million.
The impact of President Trump's tariffs is the top concern for most middle-market American businesses, a new KeyBank survey found. But these firms also view the scrambled landscape as a chance to innovate and restructure.
The Federal Reserve Board banned a former relationship banker in Arkansas after he was caught stealing customer funds; Benchmark Federal Credit Union plans to merge with Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union to form a $2.1 billion-asset institution; Robin Vince, CEO of Bank of New York Mellon since 2022, has been elected chairman of the board; and more in this week's banking news roundup.
