News

BOA Merrill Lynch Expands Commercial Card Services to Seven New Countries
July 26, 2012

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s commercial card solutions are now available to businesses in seven additional countries, according toFinextra. Argentina, the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have been added to BOA’s commercial card roster, the report says. And the company will also soon...

NRF: Gift Card Use Shifting From Holiday Go-To to Loyalty Tool
July 26, 2012

Retail gift card usage is slowing down overall, but lately merchants are seeing more reasons to get behind the payment method, notes Stores Magazine’s Lauri Giesen. For example, gift cards can boost consumer loyalty and total spend. First Data’s Mike Hursta says 71 percent of consumers...

ING Bank Set to Conduct NFC Payments Trial In Poland
July 24, 2012

ING Bank Slaski, the Dutch company’s Polish subsidiary, will conduct a 12-month trial of NFC payment technology in Poland, NFC World reports. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional...

Standard Bank Brings Card Payments to South African Transit
July 22, 2012

Standard Bank is issuing the MasterCard Muvo debit card to its customers, giving those customers an alternative to cash payments for transit fares. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no...

The Latest Country to Add NFC Payments Is…
July 16, 2012

NFC payments will soon be arriving in Cambodia, the Phnom Penh Post reports. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required. yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today....

Giftcards.com Hires Former SkyMall COO To Lead Its Own Operations
July 15, 2012

Giftcards.com hired Jay Scannell, former chief operting officer for SkyMall, to be its own COO. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required. yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter,...

Visa, Samsung Distributing 1,000 NFC Phones to Olympics “Decision Makers”
July 12, 2012

Roughly 1,000 Samsung Galaxy S III devices will be distributed to “key stakeholders and decision makers” at the London 2012 Olympics — and each NFC-enabled device will come with a Visa mobile payments app preinstalled, according to NFC World. Get the Full Story Complete the...

Giftly Wants You To Stop Using Closed-Loop Cards
July 12, 2012

Roughly 60 percent of the $100 billion spent annually on gift cards is loaded onto closed-loop products, according to Dan Kimerling. Kimerling is chief operating officer at Giftly, a two-year-old startup that wants to replace those closed-loop cards by moving gifting to the existing payment...

The Tale of the (Payments) Wallaby
July 12, 2012

Before about a month or so ago, whenever wallabies came up in any conversation, it was in the context of those cute little kangaroo-like critters native to the regions down-under. In addition to rating high in the cuteness category, these agile and resourceful creatures were...