eCommerce Journal - Learning more about virtual economy - Banks and internet banks

RBI lowers fees for e-payments in India

ayny — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:16:24 +0200

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently reduced charges for electronic fund transactions through real time gross settlement (RTGS), national electronic fund transfer (NEFT) and electronic clearing services (ECS) which means that now customers will be charged any fee for receiving money from other bank accounts while senders will have to pay less.

M-banking nationwide adoption in India facing challenges

ayny — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:16:50 +0200

The government’s target to extend mobile banking to the unbanked masses in India is still far from being achieved. Analysts explain the situation by the lower adoption of mobile phones in in tier II and III cities with 11% and 10 % respectively.

Thus analysts suggest Telecom companies to contribute to the mass adoption by issuing a free SIM and set lower entry costs.

American bank encouraging e-payments

ayny — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:31:33 +0200

This week Michigan-based Charter One Bank announced that it will immediately begin paying new and existing retail checking account customers who enroll in its Green$ense program 10 cents for every electronic payment they make, up to $10 per month and $120 per year.

Clear2Pay to be implemented in Arab region

ayny — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:22:55 +0200

Recent reports inform that United Arab Bank was added to an Internet banking system of Brussels-based Clear2Pay.

Under the terms of the deal United Arab Bank's retail and corporate customers will be provided a centralized platform from Clear2Pay.

The technology will be eventually rolled out across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. A phased adoption will start in the emirate of Sharjah.

Epayment platform selected by America’s largest drugstore chain

ayny — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:21:25 +0200

Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chain entered into partnership with Bank of America to implement its ePayables platform as a cornerstone of its payment management strategy. As reported by the bank in its first 90 days the program subscribed 337 vendors who are among Walgreens' key suppliers.

A client subscribed for a new product from Deutsche Bank

ayny — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:36:10 +0200

FX4Cash, a cross-currency payments solution developed by Deutsche Bank was chosen, piloted and launched by Anglo-Eastern, a leading provider of ship and crew management, as well as new shipbuilding consultancy services to third parties worldwide according to the bank’s reports.

VeriFone’s module to enable e-payments in cash-only kiosks

ayny — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:58:20 +0200

VeriFone Holdings, Inc. released its Vx 700, an electronic payments module that delivers the power and security of the Verix V architecture to kiosks, vending machines, ticketing devices and other systems where cash has traditionally been the primary payment method.

Royal Bank of Canada launches SMS payment service

lexus — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:32:01 +0200

Royal Bank of Canada has announced the launch of the RBC Mobex, a mobile person-to-person payments service enabling the customers to send and receive money through SMS messages. Until January 2009 this service will be piloted by bank employees and their families and if successful it will be widely distributed.

Texas’ bank to offer ClairMail powered mobile banking

ayny — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:30:50 +0200

City Bank, a locally owned and operated community bank in Texas established a relationship with ClairMail, Inc., the leader in 2-way mobile phone-based customer interaction to power its new mobile banking offering.

Philippine central bank to regulate e-money business

ayny — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:51:57 +0200

Non-bank organizations in Philippines that offer electronic money services are to be soon regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The decision was taken in from considerations of protecting the society from fraud and losses.

Transaction feature of mobile banking service with Lloyds TSB

ayny — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:50:47 +0200

An extra function was added into mobile banking in the UK by Lloyds TSB. By the moment several banks including Lloyds TSB, RBS and HSBC have already introduced mobile phone banking services without transaction capabilities. Customers can view their balances, receive text-alerts and top-up their mobile phones.

RBI sets m-banking guidelines

ayny — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:01:13 +0200

Finally, after a long wait the Reserve bank of India issued on Monday the draft guidelines for mobile banking.

As per the new guidelines, the RBI has put a limit of Rs. 2500 per transaction and it would be subject to an overall cap of Rs. 5000 per day, per customer. Banks may also put in place monthly transaction limit depending on the bank's own risk perception of the customer, the guidelines said.

First Regional Bank said “NO” to the illegal tobacco business

ayny — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:28:23 +0200

First Regional Bank headquartered in Los Angeles has announced about the new changes in its policy. The changes will touch upon the online retailers who sell cigarettes and tobacco products. So, according to California Attorney General’s Office First Regional Bank agreed to stop any payment-processing services to online retailers who have no license to sell all kinds of tobacco products over the Internet.

Macedonia introduces the SMS billing to pay the administrative taxes

ayny — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:21:56 +0200

Macedonia has announced the coming launch of a new mobile payment system aimed at paying of administrative tax for issuance of passport, personal ID card or driver's license. Owing to this system the Macedonians will be enabled to pay simply, quickly and troublefree by their cell phones via call center or by entering the governmental site www.uslugi.gov.mk.

Uganda will pay with SMS

ayny — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:22:46 +0200

Mobile operator of Uganda, MTN, has announced the coming launch of the first mobile phone money transfer service in the country. The operator has already got the license for conducting of the financial transactions. The mobile operator has approached financial regulators for a license to begin the operations.

Improved services under cooperation of Heartland and UBSH

ayny — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:09:30 +0200

Businesses in Virginia will be provided combined services under the new partnership between , a leading provider of card processing, payroll, check management and payments services, and Union Bankshares Corporation.

Mobile banking to be protected by SMobile

ayny — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:54:03 +0200

Financial institutions and customers will be offered a new Secure Mobile Banking and Trading (SMBT) endpoint security solution developed by SMobile Systems (www.smobilesystems.com), the leading developer of mobile security solutions.

Fitting to SEPA standards with HSBC

ayny — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:16:52 +0200

HSBC Group is introducing its Global Payments Directory BIC and IBAN solution to help its clients simplify cross-border euro-denominated payments and reduce repair fees. With the new product customers will be allowed to validate BIC and IBAN details before payment submission or, if required, to derive these details from a bank name, address and BBAN (Basic Bank Account Number), subject to counterparty verification which means quicker and more accurate payment processing.

ACI Enterprise Banker selected by Societe Generale

ayny — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:14:54 +0200

Societe Generale, one of the largest financial services groups in the euro-zone is implementing ACI Worldwide's online business banking product ACI Enterprise Banker for the business banking activities of its North American clients.

SWIFT Services for customers of Grupo Acotel

ayny — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:31:58 +0200

New SWIFT-ready services will be introduced by Grupo Acotel so as to allow corporate and bank customers in Spain better manage financial communications via the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) platform.

SwiftReady Gold label granted to Expertus

ayny — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:30:35 +0200

Expertus, a leading provider of payment solutions and a SWIFT Solution Partner reports that it gained the SWIFTReady Gold Label 2008 for Exceptions and Investigations (E&I) for its Monetis Global Payment Solution (MGPS) thus becoming the first company in the world to obtain the yearly certification for a second year in a row (2007-2008).

30%-40% online customers joining Citibank

ayny — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:11:36 +0200

Citibank Bhd named Malaysia’s Best Consumer Internet Bank for the fourth time predicts the number of its online customers to increase 30%-40% yearly. Today the bank that launched its online banking business seven years ago has about 500 thousand registered online customers.

1 million account holders joined Wachovia’s savings program

ayny — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:00:20 +0200

The data reported by Wachovia Corp. show that there are more than 1 million U.S. consumers that have subscribed for the company’s Way2Save program.

Within the program customers save their money by transferring $1 from their checking account into a savings account each time they make a check-card purchase or an electronic payment

M-banking application for iPhones

ayny — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:08:29 +0200

A new financial services product was announced by mFoundry. With mFoundry’s iPhone mobile banking solution customers are offered a cross-platform, cross-carrier solution for mobile banking, mobile payments and mobile wallets.

Customers can access to iPhone mobile banking solution as both a stand-alone or supplement to other supported devices.

A French division of Experian put up for sale

ayny — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:00:45 +0200

Advanced talks are being held by Experian Group Ltd., the world's largest credit-checking company with Doc@Post, a unit of French postal service operator La Poste and private-equity firm Advent International about a sale of Experian’s transaction processing activities in France.

Partnership extended between Elavon and City National Bank

ayny — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:15:37 +0200

A five-year agreement was signed by Elavon, formerly NOVA Information Systems to prolong its a more than 15-year long relationship with City National Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of City National Corporation.

As a part of the agreement Elavon’s merchant processing services will be further marketed by City National Bank that has offices in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay area, Nevada and New York City.

HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank will be the first wholly owned banks in Vietnam

ayny — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:52:32 +0200

According to the official statement of the officials of HSBC, their
bank together with Standard Chartered Bank have got an approval from
the State Bank of Vietnam for opening their wholly owned entities on
the territory of Vietnam. Earlier neither of foreign banks received
such permission but it became possible after joining WTO last year. It

Free Kaspersky for Barclays’ customers

ayny — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:11:45 +0200

All 2 million online banking customers of Barclays in the UK will be offered free internet security software including apart from anti-virus software also spyware, adware, firewalls, parental controls and spam filters.

Federal tax wires option added to Wells Fargo’s m-banking

ayny — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:04:55 +0200

Users of CEO Mobile will be provided with the option to initiate and approve federal tax wires. US bank Wells Fargo decided to upgrade its mobile business banking service. CEO Mobile is a wireless version of the bank's Commercial Electronic Office portal that was launched to a select group of corporate customers in April last year.

Cardless ATM withdrawals in Kenya

ayny — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:04:06 +0200

M-PESA registered customers will be allowed to withdraw money from PesaPoint ATMs using their Safaricom phones. A new corresponding agreement was signed between Safaricom and PesaPoint. Under the deal customers will not need ATM cards which means that Kenya becomes the first country to deploy cardless transaction system at ATMs