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Visa, PayPal team in Asia: Visa and PayPal are collaborating to extend their respective services geographically, pushing a digital payments initiative in Asia. The partnership is designed to make it easier for Visa issuers in the region to offer PayPal for online checkout, and also extends PayPal to retailers that accept Visa in their physical stores. Based on an earlier agreement, Visa and PayPal will support a "seamless" user experience for consumers, who will be able to add Visa cards to PayPal from other banking apps. Visa and PayPal will extend the Visa Digital Enablement Program, which adds tokens in place of account numbers to encrypt mobile and other digital transactions, and Visa will provide the option for PayPal to use Visa Direct to enable PayPal customers to move funds to Visa accounts in real time. The two companies will also cooperate on financial inclusion projects in emerging markets. The partnership is a far cry from the not-too-distant past, in which Visa's former CEO Charles Scharf would often publically criticize PayPal for "steering" customers away from the card brand. PayPal also entered a similar technology-driven cooperation agreement with Mastercard later in the summer of 2016.
PayPal signage is displayed in front of eBay Inc. headquarters in San Jose, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. EBay Inc. is spinning off its PayPal division, heeding demands by activist shareholder Carl Icahn and giving the business independence it can use to contend with rising competition from Apple Inc. and Google Inc. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
$15, a drill and an ATM: There's a vulnerability in some ATM models that allows crooks to steal the machine's cash with drilling equipment that costs about $15. Wired reports Kaspersky researchers demonstrated an attack that uses a portable drill and a gadget that costs about $15 to inject false commands to order the ATM to dispense all of its cash. The only evidence left behind is a golf-ball sized hole next to the PIN pad, which the attackers usually hide with an official-looking sticker to cover their tracks. The researchers did not name the ATM brand or the banks that use the specific type of ATM, but claim crooks are already using the method in Russia and Europe, and ATMs with similar vulnerabilities are deployed globally.
Is North Korea behind the Bangladesh Swift hack?: In a separate issue, Kaspersky is contending North Korean hackers are behind last year's hack that used the Swift messaging system to convince the New York Fed to transfer $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank. Reuters reports hackers who are part of the Lazarus hacking group configured a compromised server to centralize the malware. Kaspersky reports the attackers made a mistake in masking their work, leaving a trail that suggests a source inside North Korea for at least some of the hackers. The security researcher also says the trail could be fake, and part of an intentional misdirection. Finextra reports other sources, such as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and U.S. investigators, have also accused North Korean sources as being behind the attack.
Azimo adds phone number payment: Money transfer service Azimo has added a feature that allows users to request, pay and receive payments through a mobile phone number. TechCrunch reports the feature is similar to Venmo and Zelle in that it enables payments directly to mobile numbers, though Azimo is targeting remittances as a core business more than Zelle and Venmo, which are general P-to-P plays that are serving as a platform for broader financial services. To use Azimo's new feature, users chose a phone contact via the Azimo app, and the recipient receives an SMS link to register with Azimo to receive their money. Azimo has allowed payments via its Facebook app since 2013.
Credit Cards and the Disturbingly Widening Gyre of Free Speech Verdict | Legal Analysis and Commentary from Justia • Michael C. Dorf Cornell University law professor Michael C. Dorf explains the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding New York credit card surcharge laws as free speech. Dorf argues that the decision reflects an alarming trend of the Roberts Court to agree...
Starbucks, Amazon, Dunkin' Donuts Drive New Mobile Payment Behaviors MediaPost • Chuck Martin Mobile payments have been a highly sought after end-game for years. However, the idea of paying by using a phone rather than cash or credit card just never seemed to be more efficient. It's just as easy or easier to grab some...
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Elavon's new CEO sees big growth opportunity in niches The U.S. merchant acquirer-processor arena is so mature that the only dramatic gains typically come from consolidation, leading to even more formidable combinations that make the next phase of growth even tougher. But there are also opportunities for companies that know how to specialize.
For banks, PSD2 is a 'chance for greatness' In January 2018, following the Payments Services Directive (PSD2) compliance deadline, 740 million Europeans will be able to tell their banks to share their personal financial information with more-or-less any third-party service provider they choose.
JPMorgan's head of new technologies hired by Lending Club JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s head of new technologies has been hired by Lending Club Corp. as the peer-to-peer lending pioneer seeks to rebuild business following a scandal over its corporate controls.
Ingenico expands Five Guys burger chain's mobile ordering After launching a mobile pre-order and pre-pay app at Five Guys burger locations in Paris and Madrid, Ingenico ePayments is preparing to make the system available at the chain's restaurants throughout Europe in the coming months.
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michael Barr Monday spoke at length about efforts to enhance banks' liquidity and long-term debt positions after last year's bank failures while saying little about the capital hikes detailed in the embattled interagency Basel III endgame proposal.
Originators misled VA refinance applicants into believing they could skip two months of mortgage payments, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said.
The announcement, made at the Mortgage Bankers Association's Secondary Markets Conference, underscores Ginnie Mae's role at the forefront of digitization efforts in the capital markets space.
Investors are facing recent pressure after Republic First's collapse, allegations of criminal activity by an executive at Old National and a pending CFPB rule affecting credit card fees.
Senate Banking Committee chair Sherrod Brown, D-Mass., asks the White House to nominate a replacement for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg after an independent review found instances of severe workplace misbehavior at the agency.
