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Virtual Piggy Now an Option for Gaia Online’s Under-18 Members

By David Penn Posted on February 25, 2013
Categories: Virtual Piggy

Paying for everything from virtual furniture for your Gaia House to virtual auto parts for your Gaia Car just got easier for the under-18 set on Gaia Online.

Virtual Piggy announced today that its payment system could now be used to make purchases within Gaia Online, one of the world’s largest online communities. Now members will be able to use Virtual Piggy to buy Gaia Cash, the coin of the realm in this Internet community that claims more than 26 million registered users.

A few facts about Gaia Online:

Gaia Online was founded in 2003
Over one million posts are made to Gaia Online daily
Gaia Online has 7 million unique users each month
The company was awarded the Mashable Best User Experience Award in 2010

Founded in 2008, Virtual Piggy presented at FinovateEurope 2013 in February, earning a “Best in Show” award. Video of Virtual Piggy’s award-winning demo will be available soon.

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Finovate Alumni News– February 25, 2013

By David Penn Posted on February 25, 2013
Categories: Azimo, Banno, BillGuard, Continuity Control, Kantox, Kony Solutions, MasterCard, SafetyPay, Service2Media, TrustedID, TSYS, Xero

MasterCard announces MasterPass, enabling one-touch transactions with payment cards and devices.

BankNxt takes a look at Finovate Europe 2013.

Service2Media launches new version of App Lifecycle Platform, M2Active 4.0.

TSYS extends payment processing contract with Green Dot.

lovemoney.com features Azimo’s money transfer service.

Continuity Control releases regulatory compliance management system for small- to mid-size credit unions.

Kantox adds spot transactions to FX to offer a full range of FX services to corporate clients.

Kony opens EMEA office, enhances mobile CRM product.

Market Consensus reviews BillGuard.

New Zealand-based bank, ASB, supports automagic bank feeds into Xero.

Next Advisor compares TrustedID with competitor.

Des Moines Register reports: Open atmosphere, passion for product help Cedar Falls’ Banno grow.

SafetyPay to power Computop’s Paygate payment platform.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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SumUp Now Supports American Express Payments in Some European Markets

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 22, 2013
Categories: SumUp

European mobile payments company SumUp announced recently that it has added support for American Express in some of the European markets in which it operates.

Customers can make payments with an American Express credit card using either the traditional EMV method or SumUp’s new mobile payment method, SumUp Pay, that it demoed at FinovateEurope last week.

American Express payments are approved in the following markets:

Germany
France
UK
Ireland
Italy
Netherlands
Spain
Austria

Negotiations to accept American Express are still ongoing in Belgium and Portugal, the other two countries in which SumUp operates.

Unlike most merchants who accept American Express credit cards, those who use SumUp will not be faced with a premium fee. Instead, they will pay SumUp’s regular 2.75% per transaction fee.

In its press release, SumUp claims it will accept more types of cards in more regions than any other mobile point-of-sale technology provider worldwide.

SumUp’s demo video from FinovateEurope 2013 in London will be posted soon at finovate.com/archives.html.

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DeviceFidelity Receives $1 Million in Debt Financing

By David Penn Posted on February 22, 2013
Categories: DeviceFidelity

NFC plug-and-play technology firm DeviceFidelity has raised $1 million in debt financing.

Investors in the financing were not disclosed. However, six unspecified investors contributed to the financing starting on January 31st, according to a SEC filing.

The company’s leading innovations are in the field of mobile wallets. DeviceFidelity’s moneto (demoed at FinovateSpring 2012) uses microSD with an NFC chip to enable secure contactless transactions for both the iPhone and Android smartphones.

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Finovate Alumni News– February 22, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 22, 2013
Categories: Comarch, Dashlane, Expensify, Finsphere, HelloWallet, Mint.com, Moven, Pageonce, Personal Capital, Ping Identity, TIO Networks

VendTek Systems and TIO Networks partner to provide walk-up bill payment services to the Canadian Market.

PerspecSys and Ping Identity partner to make it easier and more secure for enterprises to take advantage of the cloud.

Dashlane and Mint.com listed as 2 of 10 free, worthwhile iPhone apps.

DoughRoller lists Personal Capital, Mint.com, Expensify, HelloWallet, and Pageonce as 5 of 10 tablet apps that manage your money.

Bank Marketing Strategy blog looks at what sets Moven apart from traditional banks.

Finsphere awarded US patent for geo-location technology on mobile devices.

Comarch wins contract with Italy’s UniCredit Group to implement Smart Finance platform.

Xconomy reviews personal finance management apps from Mint.com and Pageonce.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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New Online Banking Report Published: Breaking Down the Digital/Mobile Wallet Hype

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 22, 2013
Categories: Credit/Debit Cards, Mobile Payments, Online Banking Report

We now have digital wallets, cloud wallets and mobile wallets. There’s the Google Wallet, PayPal wallet, ISIS, Serve, MCX, V.me, PayPass, Lemon, Pageonce, Wallaby, Passbook, LevelUp (see screenshot below) and 280 mobile payment startups listed on Angel List. NFC is coming, or is it? Why not just use the QR code? Or do we wait until EMV, Oct 2015? Does this make money or just add another layer of costs? Are we having fun yet?

Bottom line: With consumers carrying a powerful computer on their person, the days of the dumb mag-stripe are numbered. No one debates that. But what is a financial institution to do today?

That’s what we set out to answer in our latest report on Digital & Mobile Wallets.

If you are not a major credit-card issuer, you may choose to ignore the issue until the dust settles. That’s a valid strategy, but it won’t help you pick up market share during the upcoming market confusion.

We believe every bank and credit union with a mobile app should dip its toes into the wallet space now with some relatively low- to no-cost positioning moves, while waiting for the tech questions to be answered this year and next.

And if you are a big issuer, you have a very interesting few years in front of you. Do you build or buy? Which of the major wallets, if any, do you throw your marketing support behind? And how do you explain any of this to your shell-shocked customers who just want to pay their tab and get away from the cash register as fast as possible?

__________________________________________________________________

About the report
__________________________________________________________________

Digital & Mobile Wallets (link)
Payments in the smartphone era

Author: Jim Bruene, Editor & Founder

Published: 21 Feb 2013

Length: 36 pages, 10 tables, 12,000 words

Cost: No extra charge to OBR subscribers, US$495 for others (here)

————————-

Report excerpt:

First Trade Union Bank is teasing its LevelUp mobile wallet partnership on its homepage (19 Feb 2013).

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TSYS Announces $1.4 Billion Acquisition of NetSpend

By David Penn Posted on February 21, 2013
Categories: TSYS

This week, TSYS announced that it is buying the second largest prepaid debit card company, NetSpend, for $1.4 billion. The purchase, expected to be complete by summer, will give TSYS access to the growing market for prepaid debit cards.

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Here’s a closer look at what TSYS is adding to their portfolio including a few facts about the prepaid debit card market:

The market for prepaid debit cards is estimated at 68 million potential consumers
NetSpend’s customer list includes more than 2.4 million accounts
More than 45% of NetSpend’s accounts are direct deposit
NetSpend prepaid debit cards are available at more than 62,000 locations

TSYS anticipates a 20% growth in the prepaid debit card market by 2018.

TSYS first demoed with Finovate in 2010 as part of FinovateSpring. They were also among the 64 companies that demoed at FinovateEurope in February. Videos of the FinovateEurope presentations will be available soon.

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Finovate Alumni News– February 21, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 21, 2013
Categories: Azimo, Cartera Commerce, CommunityLend, DeviceFidelity, Dwolla, Expensify, FamZoo, Fiserv, Geezeo, Mitek, MoneyDesktop, ReadyForZero, Simple, Taulia, TSYS

CommunityLend grows FinanceIt team.

Cartera Commerce appoints Brian Michon as CTO.

Expensify integrates with Sage 50.

Mitek granted new patent for its mobile photo bill pay capabilities.

Geezeo partners with OSG Statement Services to develop a statement option that will allow PFM data to be leveraged in eStatements and printed statements.

GoBankingRates reviews Simple’s banking service.

Mashable features ReadyForZero.

American Banker reports: Maine’s Katahdin Trust Company selects Fiserv’s core banking platform.

MoneyDesktop reports record year with customer growth of nearly 80% from 2011 to 2012 and a 4.5X increase in recurring monthly revenue.

Hallmark chooses Taulia to provide e-invoicing, dynamic discounting and supplier self-services.

FamZoo’s prepaid card family pack featured in TIME.

Torsion Mobile integrates with Dwolla’s payment network.

Dallas Business Journal reports that Device Fidelity has raised $1 million in debt financing.

TSYS to begin processing ATM transactions through the LINK network in the UK.

Azimo CEO Michael Kent explains the social remittance business in Pymnts.com Q&A.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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FinovateEurope 2013 in the Press

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 20, 2013
Categories: Azimo, Backbase, BBVA, Cardlytics, CurrencyFair, EZBOB, Finantix, FinovateEurope 2013, Kabbage, mBank, Meniga, Moven, SAGE SA, SumUp, Temenos, TESOBE, The Currency Cloud, Thomson Reuters, True Office

Here’s a look at some of the press coverage we received from FinovateEurope last week:

AllFacebook

Money-Transfer Service Azimo Integrates with Facebook

By David Cohen