PayThink

The development of contactless technology, thanks to the NFC adoption in mobile handsets, is offering a new opportunity to create and develop value added services for the end user with an innovative and interactive experience.

Diebold Chief Innovation Offer Frank Natoli Jr. maps out what it will take to make biometrics a banking reality.

Historical patterns of human innovation suggest that the ever-expanding array of payment technologies will eventually hit a wall. Some of today’s most prominent payments platforms may not survive the next cycle.

Cities including Baltimore and Los Angeles have brought lawsuits against banks alleging that subprime lending to minority borrowers wound up costing municipalities tens of millions of dollars. A recent Supreme Court ruling could help banks deflect such charges.

There’s no doubt that the payment industry has gone through significant changes over the last few years. The implementation of stringent federal regulations presents a number of challenges for payment processors. And with increasing instances of frauds and disputes, merchants and customers alike are expecting payment service providers to ramp up in terms of security measures, yet still make transacting easy for them.

A consolidated exam force could give state regulators access to federal resources without undermining the dual banking system.

Merchants who use dynamic currency conversion should be required to give consumers full disclosure about the service's added fees.

Touch-screen point of sale systems make a substantial impact on a merchant’s bottom line. In fact, a POS system typically delivers 4% to 8% in operational savings, resulting in a significant improvement to a merchant’s profitability.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

The dramatic headwinds of the Affordable Care Act will result in increasing defaults and bankruptcy for many healthcare operators. Lenders should start evaluating risk in their healthcare portfolios now.