Many hurdles face merchant acquirers

A convergence of pressures, such as attrition, the economic slump, PCI compliance and margin compression, is bearing down on merchant acquirers, but a recent survey in the US points to a glimmer of hope on the horizon in the shape of emerging revenue opportunities. Charles Davis reports...

Japan takes the lead in technology

Despite a high level of card penetration, and sophisticated technological innovation, Japan’s consumers are notoriously reticent when it comes to actual card usage and spending. However, e-money usage is growing strongly, and mobile payment launches have acted as a template for the rest of the world, as John Hill reports...

Gaining acceptance in emerging markets

When it comes to emerging markets, it is the issuance side of the card industry that has been garnering the most attention, but as Ruth Burton, head of acceptance in Visa CEMEA explains, merchant acquiring is now taking centre stage as players realise the importance of increasing acceptance. Victoria Conroy reports...

Asia-Pacific
Technology
NAB adopts Visa contactless technology
Australia’s National Australia Bank (NAB) has announced that its credit card customers will now be able pay with Visa’s contactless technology payWave.
The technology will allow customers to make purchases under A$100 ($90) on their credit card without the need to sign or use their PIN...

What price customer loyalty?


VRL hosted its largest round table to date in London on 26 November. Representatives from some of the leading banking, payments and loyalty agencies in the UK and Europe met to discuss and debate loyalty in financial services – and the overall conclusion was that customer ‘stickiness’ is more important than ever...

Turkey’s Garanti launches iPhone app


The emergence of Apple’s iPhone has led to a flurry of applications from financial services providers eager to tap into a tech-savvy demographic of young and wealthy consumers. Turkey’s Garanti Bank, already an innovator in the fields of cards and payments, has now launched its own app, as Victoria Conroy reports...

Prepaid in pole position

At this year’s Prepaid Cards Summit, held in Rome on 12-13 November, delegates were left in no doubt that, despite difficult economic circumstances, there are many opportunities for prepaid to stand out from the crowd across many industry segments. John Hill and Victoria Conroy report...

All change at the processors

The European processing landscape, long characterised by consolidation, is set to be redrawn again following the news that Equens has signed an agreement with France’s Crédit Agricole’s payment processing subsidiary Cedicam to explore the possibility of the two entities merging.
By combining volumes and developing synergies, both parties said the new entity would