This past week saw numerous advances in the payment space resulting in new fees from Visa, the possibility that Visa and MasterCard may cease operations in Russia and Amazon entering the mPOS market with a new wallet application for iOS and Android.
Russia’s new laws for international card firms is creating a strain, forcing the largest card firms in the world to seek out an eligible payment provider. With struggles in Russia, Visa is also planning to introduce a new chargeback fee this October to help prevent fraudulent activity in the travel industry.
Also, Amazon released its new mobile wallet application. While it does not yet support familiar cards and payment options, it does support reward and loyalty cards with possibilities of standard Payments in the near future.
ACI Worldwide to Acquire Fraud Management Firm ReD for $205 Million
Electronic payment and banking system provider, ACI Worldwide, has announced it will acquire independent fraud management and detection platform provider ReD.
According to a press release from ACI Worldwide, the Acquisition of ReD will be for the amount of $205 million in cash. Also, according to ACI’s PR, the deal will be settled sometime in Q3 2014.
ACI plans to incorporate ReD’s SaaS-based Ecommerce solution with integrated fraud detection/management into its own platform. The integration of ReD’s robust fraud detection offering could position ACI as a global leader in payment and fraud management services, offering a suite of services for Ecommerce merchants and retailers.
You can view the full article here.
Amazon Goes Physical with New Mobile Wallet Application
A new addition to both Apple’s AppStore and Google PlayStore shows intentions from US Ecommerce platform provider, Amazon, on mobile payment method solutions. The addition to the app stores, dubbed Amazon Wallet, currently only offers the ability to store and manage gift and loyalty cards. However, given Amazon’s track record, we expect the wallet is currently being tested before offering full-on card support.
Users can scan or manually enter their gift cards in to the application. After being stored users can present their cards as barcodes, QR codes, texts or images. Some supporting merchants will also have the option to let customers check their balance.
You can view the full article here.
EU Travel Firms to Be Impacted by Visa's New Chargeback Fee
Visa is planning to add a new chargeback fee targeted towards new fraudulent categories, focusing primarily on payments made in the travel industry. The fee is planned to be set in place beginning October 1st, 2014 and is set to cost merchants an additional €12 per chargeback dispute. The new fee is for transactions based in the EU and is categorized under CNP (Cardholder-Not-Present) payments placed online or over the phone. While the exact reasons have not yet been provided, it is understood the majority of the chargeback codes associated with fraudulent transactions are travel-based.
A major reason for adding the new fee is the rising rate of fraudulent CNP charges originating from the travel sector, particularly when orders are placed online or over the phone. According to Financial Fraud Action UK, the financial services industry’s anti-fraud group, it is predicted the amount of travel related fraud will treble over the next year, resulting in €3 million a month.
You can view the full article here.
MasterCard and Visa Need to Find a Russian Payment Provider or Pay $2.9 Billion Deposit
Following new laws in Russia, card firms MasterCard and Visa are now searching for local payment systems to doge hefty security deposits. A new bypass to a law previously legislated by the Russian Prime Minister will give the 2 largest card firms in the world the ability to continue operations in the region without leaving a calculated combined security deposit of over $2.9 billion. That amount is said to be 5 times higher than both companies’ annual revenues in Russia.
The new law will waive the security deposits to Russia's Central Bank in favor of partnering with a local payment firm (of national importance). Exactly what that means is still unclear.
You can view the full article here.
