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Dear Readers!
We congratulate you with the coming New Year!
Let the Year 2008 justify the concealed symbol of eternity, with which its number ends!
We wish you and yours, friends and colleagues, endless success, prosperity, well-being and,urse, good health!
Skate smoothly on the ice of your lives to your aims, and let your skates always be sharp!
And first of all, be happy!
Editorial Board of PLUS Journal
In connection with the coming period of
New Year holidays in Russia the next update of the on-line news on our www.plusworld.org information portal will be done on January 9,
2008, and then PLUS-daily information service will continue its work as usual.
According to Associated Press, in October, 2007, the volume of card debt delayed for over 30 days grew by 26 % and reached 17.3 billion dollars, which makes more than 4 % of the total credit card debt.
In connection with expansion of its information products portfolio PLUS Magazine Publishing House announces rebranding with the purpose of unification of the whole product line of the Publishing House.
Russian Europay Members’ Association (REMA), VTB and MultiCard processing company have signed a tripartite agreement, the terms of which provide for participation of the latter in the REMA project as a processing center.
According to VietnamNet Bridge, Vietnamese banks Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and VIB Bank began to raise commission from the clients for ATM services.
Six national European payment systems united to create Pan-European payment system, which got the name of Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes (EAPS).
РќРЎРЎ mobile operator (ON trade mark), operating in the Republic of Mordovia and five sectors of the Volga Region, has joined the e-port system.
Indian Bank, based in Chennai (former Madras), State of Tamil Nadu, and NCR Company implement a joint project for development of a portable ATM based on Personas 75 ATM technology.
Diebold Company announced its intention to set up a direct sales operation for its financial self-service and security products in Central America and the Caribbean.
Now believers of various religious confessions can donate using non-cash payment systems.
Following information on migration of Indian schools to biometric systems for accounting working hours of teachers and pupils attendance, there were messages on transition of US schools to similar kinds of accounting systems.
The Bank of Russia has started testing of a new bank electronic express payment system (BEEP) due to which the Russian banks will be able to speed up their interbank settlements from several days up to several minutes.
According to Gartner analytical agency, in 2007 the US financial companies lost about 3.2 billion dollars because of phishing attacks.
Mobile Credit Baltic Company specializing in provision of quick and short-term credits for sums from 50 up to 500 lats (from 25 up to 250 US dollars) has installed ATMs in shopping centers Alfa, Dole, Azur, Mols and Origo, which provide Credit24 through Internet.
According to Javelin Strategy and Research, by 2012 the share of alternative ways of payment in online-transactions will increase from the present 14 % up to 30 %.
The Dutch police have arrested a group of criminals stealing money from the online-accounts of ABN AMRO Bank by using accounts of real clients, specially employed for this purpose.
According to Thomas Middelhoff, Chairman of the Board of Moneybookers
Ltd., Internet-payment system, in 2007 the system demonstrated a
record-breaking growth of financial indices.
Halyk Bank jointly with KaR-Tel Company and Visa Int. launched the
first joint project in the Kazakhstan market within the framework of
which Halyk Bank applet will be installed into Beeline SIM card.
AiRUnion and Swiss International airlines have started joint
distribution of electronic air tickets. Testing of electronic ticket
servers’ interaction was completed at the end of December, 2007.
Four inhabitants of Perm are charged with theft of 1.5 million rubles
from ATMs. Each of the criminals can be imprisoned for 10 years.
On the eve of Christmas and New Year Holidays, characterized by an
increased volume of card transactions including in Internet shops,
experts from ChronoPay, processing company, gave their recommendations
concerning safe online shopping.
US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is working on Next Generation Identification project – establishment of the world's biggest biometric database.
According to the report of Aite Group, consulting agency, by the end of
2009 about 25% of the cellular telecom companies’ subscribers will use
mobile banking services.
On December 4, 2007, Experian Company organized in Moscow the Fourth
Annual Credit Risk Management Seminar, intended specially for the
markets of Russia and CIS countries.
A criminal was detained in Yerevan (Armenia), who had stolen a unique sum of money in cash – 1.5 million dollars from ATMs with a counterfeit Visa credit card made in India.
Health and Human Services Commission, HHSC, Texas, USA, announced its intention to introduce biometric smart-cards within the framework of Medicaid Insurance Program (Medicaid).
Banks Software Systems (BSS) has signed a dealer agreement with CASPEL,
IT-company. As a result CASPEL got the right to sell DBO BS-Client
Internet banking systems.
According to the China Financial Certification Authority (CFCA) survey,
in 2007 about 30 % of private and 30 % of corporate bank clients in 10
big China cities took advantage of the online-services, which,
accordingly, by 4.2 % and 1.7 % exceed similar indices of 2006.
Finservice Bank has started issuing co-branded VISA Gold cards, the
holders of which will get a 10 % discount on all purchases in «The
Seventh Continent» retail chain.
Russian Post and Post Bank of France (a subdivision of French Post) have begun an exchange of electronic money transfers.
Specialists from SecureWorks, an anti-virus software company (USA), have found Prg Trojan, a new version of Trojan virus generation, specially developed for bank fraud purposes.
According to the Bank of Russia, by the end of 2007 the Central Catalogue of Credit Histories (CCCH) had information on over 30 million borrowers.
Leading Estonian banks Hansapank, SEB Eesti Гњhispank, Sampo and Nordea blocked the cards of their clients, which might have been copied by criminals at Sevenoil gas station in Tabasalu.
According to the Ukrainian Interbank Payment Systems Member Association (EMA), by December 2007 Ukrainian banks issued over 49.1 million cards of Visa Int. and MasterCard Worldwide.
By the end of 2007 International Moscow Bank (IMB) will change its name for UniCredit Bank due to its integration into UniCredit group.
Diasoft Co. has finished its safe cell automation project based on Diasoft FA# Retail solution.
Vneshprombank has joined SBERCARD Russian Payment System as a Principle Member and initiated implementation of the procedure necessary for its technical integration into the system.
Aladdin Knowledge Systems Co. signed a distributor agreement with COMPUTERLINKS subsidiaries (based in Austin, Texas, USA) on exclusive right to supply and introduce eSafe content filtering system in the USA.
The number of payment acceptance points of CyberPlat Internet payment system has exceeded 100 000.
On December 17, 2007, Hewlett-Packard and Bank Solidarnost (Samara)
announced termination of the project on establishment of the bank’s
processing center based on РќР solutions.
On December 11, 2007, the ceremony of the 250 000th Visa Int. card issued by Sviaz-Bank presentation was held in Orenburg.
By December 10, 2007, the banks-members of the National System Mass
Electronic Payment issued over 1.7 million NSMEP cards, the turnover
exceeded 50 billion grivnas (about 9.9 billion US dollars).
According to Denis Bass, first Deputy Chairman of Kiev City State
Administration, in 2008 the administration will allocate about 30
million grivnas (about 4 million US dollars) for implementation of the
Social Card Program.
At the end of 2007 the results of three marketing researches done by
Consumer Reports, J.D. Power and Forrester Research and devoted to the
assessment of the credit cards by the consumers were simultaneously
published in the USA.
The competition «MasterCard Bank of the Year» summed its results in
Ukraine and nominated the best financial institutions and financial
products in the market of the country.
Bank-Bakai (Kyrgyzstan) has joined ALLUR money transfer system as a new
participant. The head office of the bank (Bishkek) is now connected to
the system.
HSBC intends to issue MasterCard premium credit cards for the Japanese market.
PayMate, Indian provider of mobile payment services, announced its plans to enter the North American market soon.
On November 23, 2007, Vancouver police arrested two suspects in
connection with a sophisticated debit and credit card skimming
operation and possession of credit card forging equipment, – Dumitru
Gabureac and Oksana Syrevich.
According to the report of McAfee experts in virtual criminology,
attacks targeted at Web-based services will constitute one of the 10
biggest global security threats in 2008.
On November 30, 2007, a teenager from New Zealand was arrested on
suspicion of being the ringleader of a hacking network which
infiltrated over 1.3 million PCs and stole millions of dollars from
bank accounts around the world.
In December, 2007, BRED Banque Populaire (Paris, France) jointly with
MasterCard Worldwide began to issue the first card product intended for
women only – BRED Affinity MasterCard.
Euronet Worldwide, electronic payment operator, announced that its
proposal to buy MoneyGram money transfer system for $1.65 billion
dollars had been rejected.
Royal Bank of Scotland launches a new urgent cash-dispensing service Emergency Cash.
Israeli army intends to equip the check points dividing the territory
of Israel and West Bank of the Jordan River with of biometric ID
systems.
The government of Tain District (State of Maharashtra, Bombay Region,
India) decided to introduce biometric ID systems for teachers and 25
thousand pupils in all 352 schools of Ambernat and Javakar.
SEVERNAYA KAZNA Bank has given to its «Internetbank» remote access
system users an opportunity to open accounts in a remote mode.
By the end of 2007 Ukrsotsbank plans to expand its acquiring network by
increasing the number of ATMs up to 950, and of the round-the-clock
self-service halls - up to 80.
Rosan Co. announced a successful termination of Visa Int. certification
of a new card production organized in partnership with SecureID,
Nigerian company. A block of SecureID shares has been recently acquired
by the Russian vendor.
LipetskKomBank and INPAS have implemented a complex project on
acception of Golden Crown international and gift cards in VeriFone
POS-terminals Vx series in Lipetsk.
On December 12, 2007, in Solianka Gallery exhibition hall, Moscow, a
press conference was held dedicated to the 10th anniversary of
partnership between I-Teco, Russian system integrator, and
Рќewlett-Р ackard, world’s biggest producer of software and hardware
solutions for information technologies.
MasterCard announced a launch of holiday promotion campaign «Gifts into good hands!» in the Russian market.
Ingenico and Sagem SecuritГ© signed an agreement on merger of their business activities in payment solutions development
Banks - members of HandyBank system started to issue and acquire cards under a new brand of HandyCard.
On December 12, 2007, Sergey Ivanov, the first vice-premier of Russia,
solemnly opened a new Sitronics microcircuit production line in
Zelenograd.
On November 22, 2007, an official press conference and an evening reception were held in Moscow, dedicated to the opening of VeriFone Russian repoffice, which will be based in Moscow.
As of November 1, 2007, the total number of the bank cards issued by
Bankas Snoras, Lithuanian bank and biggest foreign participant of
CONVERSBANK Financial Group, exceeded the level of 740 thousand.
According to the Bank of Russia, in the period from the beginning of
January to the beginning of October, 2007, physical persons-residents
in the Russian Federation transferred 13.022 billion US dollars from
Russia to foreign countries, which is 91 % more than a similar period
of 2006.
UNIStream, international money transfer system, has signed a partnership agreement with Volzhsky Social Bank.
EUROSET, the largest participant of the cellular retail market in CIS and one of the leading dealers of telecom operators, announced its intention to considerably expand its own network of payment terminals.
In October 3-5, 2007, exhibition&conference «SSE-Terminals. Vending. Kiosks 2007» , was held in Crocus Expo, Moscow exhibition center.
In early December, 2007, personal credit adviser service from BINBANK became available to its clients in Yaroslavl, Ufa and Kazan.
During Cognos PERFORMANCE 2007, the first conference for the partners and customers in Russia and CIS countries, was held in Moscow on November 15, 2007. Cognos, the developer of technological solutions Business Intelligence and Performance Management, Enterprise Planning and Consolidation, demonstrated its technologies used today by the participants of the banking-financial, retail and metallurgical markets of Russia.
The number of POS-terminals, installed by INPAS jointly with Baikal Bank of the Savings Bank of Russia in Irkutsk, has reached 1 000 devices.
Raiffeisenbank continues to expand the list of the services, available to the users of SMS-banking.
On November 2, 2007, the forth international practical conference Russian Financial Market 2007 was held in Expocentre, Moscow.
The biometric system of passes for port workers (TWIC), introduced in Wilminton (Delaver, USA) at the end of October, 2007, in every fiftieth case fails to compare a fingerprint with the data contained in a smart-card. In this connection the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), subordinated to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), intends to replace it. The deficiency of the scanners was reported to the conference on sea transport security.
PRONIT, one of the leading suppliers of personalized software in the Russian and CIS markets and member of CardHall group, announced completion of the project on integration of a new generation ProtectServer Gold and ProtectServer External hardware security modules from SafeNet into solutions for magnetic strip cards and EMV-cards personification, and also operations with keys.
Golden Crown payment system participated in TransExpoYug Transport Forum of the South of Russia, which has held in November 21-23, 2007, in Rostov-on-Don.
Bank of America announced that in less than 6 months from the moment of commissioning of its own system of mobile bank services it was already joined by 500 thousand subscribers.
Wincor Nixdorf announced introduction of new ATM technology for accepting mixed stacks of cash and checks.
This year the annual conference of SmartVista software products users – SmartVista User Group – marks its fifth anniversary.
According to MasterCard-ordered research, UEFA EURO 2008 football championship will gain over 1.4 billion euros for the European economy.
On October 25, 2007, Moscow representation of EMC, leading company in the field of solutions for information infrastructures management, organized in Moscow EMC Forum 2007, the forth international forum on technologies for information storage and management, which gathered over 1 000 representatives of the IT-industry.
Diebold announced launch of a new complex service system for ATM networks in Russia.
On December 10, 2007, MasterCard Worldwide announced conclusion of an agreement with BayernLB, German bank, and Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB), its affiliated company.
In November, 2007, the Mobile Barcode technology from Mobile Discount Systems (MDS) was launched in the entertaining clubs «Odon» (Moscow) and «Port» (St. Petersburg).
In November 21- 23, 2007, the Tenth Moscow International Russian Smart Cards Forum and the Twelfth International Conference and were held in the Moscow City Mayor Administration.
Smart Cards (РљРЎРљ), incorporated into Microelectronic Solutions of SITRONICS, announced completion of its renaming process.
Delta-Systems, supplier of bank equipment of one of the leading vendors - Wincor Nixdorf - informs about opening its service-center for bank equipment servicing and repair in St. Petersburg .
VPS Vantage Promo Solutions announced that its program of privileges for holders of Vantage Club premium cards would be extended to the international market.
In November 27 - 29, 2007, «IT-Technologies in Transport», international specialized exhibition-conference, was held in Moscow Expocentre with support of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, International Academy of Transport, Joint Stock Company «Russian Railways» (JSCo «RZD») and Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
«Today card business is one of the most promising spheres of bank services development in Russia» – such was the conclusion of the participants in the «Plastic Cards Market» Conference, held in Moscow on December 3, 2007. The event was organized by Financial World Company supported by Golden Crown system. The official analytical edition of the conference was PLUS Journal.
On December 8, 2007, the Fourth Belarus Plastics Meeting ` 2007 was held in Madison Club bowling-center (Minsk, Belarus). The event is annually visited by Belarus banks representatives and vendors of bank equipment, software, payment systems and processing centers. The organizer of the event was Internet-project «RBCARD.com – Bank cards in the Republic of Belarus».
According to First Data, processing company, 77 % of USA adults «extremely, very likely or somewhat likely» intend to acquire gift cards for family and friends as Christmas presents. Most people (66 %) plan to purchase the same number of cards, as in the previous year, while 19 % of respondents wish to acquire even more gift cards, than in 2006.
Bell ID entered into strategic partnership relations with Dutch company Collis. Their agreement envisages integration of Bell ID’s EMV-cards and application management systems with testing technology from Collis.
Planet Payment, New York company, plans to use voice biometric-based authentication software of Israeli company PerSay in its multi-currency payments processing system. Software from PerSay will allow consumers to make purchases from Planet Payment’s merchant customers by using interactive voice recognition.
Western Union money transfer system in partnership with Indian mobile telecom operator Bharti Airtel, started development of international wireless money transfer system in India.
In December 2004 – April 2005 a retail automation project based on Diasoft FA# Retail solution was launched and implemented in Khanty-Mansi Bank.
By the results of the National reward «Financial Russia», organized with support of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia, Alfa-Bank was recognized as the best in Private Banking nomination.
Aerosvit Airlines jointly with PrivatBank have provided opportunity for consumers to pay for their air tickets from the site www.aerosvit.ua with the use of their cards Visa Int. and MasterCard Worldwide. Security of the transactions is ensured by Internet-payments 3-D Secure security standard.
Sitronics has announced its intention to increase the volume of a monthly supply of contactless RFID-passes for Moscow underground up to 25 million tickets in 2008. The passes will be supplied by «NIIME and Micron», parent enterprise of Sitronics Microelectronic Solutions.
In April 22- 23, 2008, a regular forum of Security Document World will be held in London Covent-Garden alongside with the first exhibition of identification technologies – Identity Loop 2008. Over 60 firms-exhibitors plan to participate in the events.
On November 23, 2007, WEB PAY (www.webpay.by), the first system of electronic payments in the Belarus market, began its operation in the country. Thus, Internet-shops in Belarus connected to the system will be able to accept payments for the goods and services via cards Visa Int. and MasterCard Worldwide of any issuers.
TJX Companies, one of the largest American retail networks, offered 40.9 million US dollars to the issuers of Visa Int. credit cards for an extrajudicial settlement of their data leak claims. Banks, in turn, demand a reimbursement of their expenses for issue of new cards. Visa Int. intends to impose on TJX its own fines. To come into force an amicable agreement requires consent of 80 % of the banks-participants of the claim, while the claims should be settled with each of them individually.
CONTACT international system of money transfer and payments has been joined by Global Money Transfers (GMT) Ltd., one of the largest Israeli companies in the money transfer market. Over 60 GMT offices in 37 cities of the country now accept and transfer US dollars and euros within CONTACT system.
SKB-bank has started emitting of Visa Electron Instant Issue cards. Opening of a Visa Electron Instant Issue account in SKB-bank will cost 2 US dollars or 60 rubles, and minimum initial payment will be 6 dollars or 150 rubles.
The biometric system of passes for port workers (TWIC), introduced in
Wilminton (Delaver, USA) at the end of October, 2007, in every fiftieth
case fails to compare a fingerprint with the data contained in a
smart-card. In this connection the US Transportation Security
Administration (TSA), subordinated to the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), intends to replace it. The deficiency of the scanners
was reported to the conference on sea transport security.
DIXIS group of companies and MoneyMail declared beginning of their joint project, within the framework of which clients of Moscow DIXIS Internet-shop will be able to pay for their purchases through MoneyMail electronic payment system.
On November 26, 2007, a press conference was held in Swissotel Krasnye Holmy, Moscow, devoted to the launch of the joint project of Visa Int., «Tinkoff Credit Systems» bank and Russian Low Cost Airline Sky Express. Within its framework the bank has started to issue club co-branded credit card Visa Platinum FLY HIGH!
From June 9 till June 13, 2008, the Fifth International Biometrics Summer School will be held in Alghero (Island of Sardinia). Its sessions to be conducted by 18 world’s leading experts in biometrics will discuss urgent problems of the branch development.
Visa cardholders now can make Cards-CONTACT online money transfers by means of their mobile phones supporting WAP-protocol data transfer.
On November 29, 2007, the 13th Conference of Golden Crown payment system devoted to the topic «The Role and place of the Russian payment systems in the modern conditions» was held in Moscow Renaissance Hotel.
As of November 1, 2007, BINBANK’s ATM 24+ network of ATMs and self-service terminals accounted for 427 devices, out of which 124 were in Moscow and 303 - in the regions of the bank’s presence.
Promsviazbank has launched person-to-person service in its ATM network. The service is available to ruble card holders.
From December 1, 2007, till February 15, 2008, Raiffeisenbank undertakes a New Year promotion campaign «Money comes back!» for the holders of credit cards Visa Gold, MasterCard Gold and MALINAв„ў - Raiffeisenbank Visa.
UCS Joint-Stock Company has summed up the results of its 15-year activity in the Russian market of credit cards.
Beijing C&W Technology, Chinese company, intends to organize production of ATMs in Russia.
Kunmin bank, South-Korea, and Samsung SDI have developed a multimedia bank payment card allowing its holder not only to carry out financial transactions, but also to watch videoclips.
HTC Census pocket computers are being tested in the USA to be subsequently used for data collection during 2010 census.
At the end of November, 2007, a closed conference in the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation devoted to the questions in the markets of payments for telecom sevices, housing and communal, and other services, adopted a decision recognizing the scheme of work of the terminals without banks as control links for reception of payments, as corresponding to the existing legislation.
During PERFORMANCE 2007, the first in Russia and CIS conference for partners and clients of Cognos held in Moscow on November 15, 2007, Cognos, developer of technological solutions Business Intelligence and Performance Management, Enterprise Planning and Consolidation, demonstrated its technologies used today by the participants in the banking-financial, retail and metallurgical markets of Russia. In particular, the attendees familiarized themselves with Cognos 8 BI solution, optimum tool ensuring stable development of enterprises.
On November 30, 2007, FIN-online Internet-bank of Finservis registered the 5000th client. The lucky user of the system, Maria Mozokina from Moscow, received presents - a camera and certificate of an Honorary Client of the Bank, from Vyacheslav Habibov, Head of the Department of External Relations of Finservis.
In less than 12 months the number of clients of Alpha Click, Internet-bank system of Alpha-Bank (Russia), has doubled and exceeded 200 thousand persons.
MasterCard Worldwide together with DnB Nor, Norwegian bank group, and Telenor, telecom company, intend to start public testing of contactless mobile payments based on Near Field Communications (NFC) technology and use of PayPass cards.
Diebold Inc. has presented Intellectual Depositary Module (IDM), a new universal system for reception and processing of payment documents, capable to accept and process simultaneously up to 30 receipts and accounts.
The government of Uganda and Map International, American finance company, have signed an agreement on cooperation.
Banque Societe Generale Vostok (BSGV) has presented its new product – Financial Institutions Loan Servicing (FILS).
Transport for London jointly with Nokia and O2 telecom operator will soon test a new service – passengers of London Underground will be able to pay their fares with mobile phones.
Visa Int. in partnership with Australian SCX Global intends to introduce in the Australian market Vcard, virtual prepaid card, which can be used to pay for goods and services in Internet-shops and by phone.
BIO-key International and Tiger IT BD Ltd., its partner in Bangladesh, started implementation of the next stage of the project providing mass registration of Bangladesh voters biometric IDs.
Punjab National Bank followed the example of Andhra Bank and ICICI-Bank and installed its first biometric ATM in India, in the city of Gautam-Budh (State of Uttar Pradesh).
AuthenTec has already produced 25 million fingerprint scanners, out of which 15 million scanners were produced in recent 16 months.
Before the end of 2007 the Ukrainian railways will start introduction of a bank card payment system for long-distance train tickets.
On January 1, 2008, all regions of Russia will begin to issue new biometric foreign passports.
The 3rd Man, a British company, has announced acquisition of Early Warning UK, company specializing in development of the security systems for online-payments and collection of Internet-fraud information.
In November, 2007, the Federal Police of Brazil detained over 30 cybercriminals, a part of an organized criminal group.
American officials have announced expansion of the pilot program, within the framework of which identification of the illegal migrants from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico is done with biometric technologies.
Sberbank of Russia has introduced a new payment service within the framework of Mobile Bank system. Now the holders of the bank’s international cards can transfer money person-to-person.
In the middle of November, 2007, instruction № 1842-U of the Bank of Russia came into force. It specifies the principles of operation of the organizations accepting payments for municipal and telecom services.
From December 3, 2007, a personal concierge service will be available to the Russian MasterCard World Signia cardholders in Russian.
United System of Instant Payments (USIP) announced a successful audit of the IT-systems undertaken by VympelCom (trade mark of Beeline) cellular telecom operator.
MasterCard Europe jointly with Banque Accord (bank subdivision of the French chain of Auchan hypermarkets, specializing in electronic banking, operations with bank cards and credits) started implementation of the pilot project of the first in Europe contactless MasterCard PayPass co-branded cards issue.
MasterCard Worldwide has launched a new integrated chip card on MULTOS platform supporting new MasterCard Integrated Card Application (MICA) with a dual interface.
Samsung, NXP Semiconductors and T3G Technologies (joint venture of NXP, Datang Mobile, Samsung Electronics and Motorola, one of leaders in the market of terminal telecom devices TD-SCDMA) presented the first-ever multistandard mobile phone TD-SCDMA HSDPA/GSM/GPRS/EDGE.
NXP and Sony have announced establishment of Moversa joint venture.
On the eve of introduction of SEPA MasterCard Europe informed about intention of three European banks to migrate to Maestro debit cards.
American Express has announced a launch of a special program in Great Britain, within the framework of which new holders of AmEx Platinum credit cards will get up to 5% cash-back on card purchases.
MasterCard Worldwide has started implementation of PayPass project of contactless payments in China.
Bank Finservis continues to expand the services available to the clients of its FIN-online system of Internet-banking (www.fin-online.ru).
According to the Central bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan, by October 1, 2007, banks of the country issued over 3.5 million cards, which is about 16 % more, than in the same period of 2006.
Experts from ClearMyMail, British anti-spam company, say, that the USA is the main base for criminals using e-mails to trick British consumers and to steal confidential financial information concerning their bank accounts and payment cards, etc.
According to experts from UK National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit (NTFIU), now terrorists actively use prepaid gift cards, cell phones and the Internet to transfer funds.
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Great Britain has adjusted its estimation of the total cost of the 10-year program of production and distribution of biometric ID-cards to be used as internal ID documents in the country.
Halifax, British bank, will start issue of the debit cards supporting Visa payWave function of contactless payments.
Safaricom, leading operator of the cellular telecommunication in Kenya, has started M-Pesa project, a new service of mobile money transfers via SMS, for the unbanked clients.
Ulyanovsk Motor Licensing and Inspection Department and FIA-Bank have started installation of POS-terminals in patrol cars, by means of which MLID officers will accept payments for the imposed fines directly on the spot.
RBC bank group and Visa Canada intend to start in Ontario the first in Canada project of a mobile payment service based on the technology of Near Field Communication (NFC), due to which the Visa card holders will be able to pay for their purchases from their mobile phones with Visa payWave function.
PayPal is set to roll out a risk reduction program for eBay sellers in the USA and Canada over the next few months.
New South Wales Police will roll out a new statewide system of Criminal Infringement Notices (CINs) from 1 November, 2007.
According to Financial Insights, consulting company (USA), in 2008 the Asian banks plan to increase on average by 39 % their expenditure on the further development of an anti-money laundering (AML) system.
Thomas P. Di Napoli, the New York State Comptroller, has called for more effective security inspections of bank-owned ATMs in the state.
Various security services in the airports – airport screeners, customs agents, police officers and members of the military, everyone who everyday has to analyze behavior of thousands of people can soon get a more reliable instrument than their own intuition.
State Duma has postponed consideration of the bills «On amendments to article 13.1 of the Federal Law «On banks and bank activity» introduced on October 29, 2007, by Vladislav Reznik, Chairman of the Duma Committee on the Credit Organizations and Financial Markets.
In 2008 the transit services of Prague plan to introduce tickets based on chip cards for use in underground, buses, trams, and also in the city and commuter trains.
During November, 2007, Citibank undertakes a promotion within the framework of which the CASH BACK cardholders will get a 10 % cash-back of their purchases (instead of the traditional 1 %).
In December, 2007, the passport and visa service of Naberezhnye Chelny will begin to issue biometric passports for travels abroad.
Edeus Mortgage Company, established in Great Britain in 2006, announced that in the first 6 months after introduction of Hunter fraud detection system from Experian Decision Analytics the sum of the prevented losses from fraud operations had reached 35 million pounds (about 73.85 million US dollars).
Petrol stations in Dubai intend to stop accepting credit cards as a protest against the recent increase of the trading commission.
NXP Semiconductors announced that the volume of Aero RF radio-frequency transceivers for the cellular phones produced by the company on the basis of CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) technology in the market of mobile portable devices had reached 500 million pieces.
By November 1, 2007, the acquiring network of Bank PIVDENNYJ accounted for 155 РђРўРњs, 981 POS-terminals, 707 merchants and 108 cash dispensers.
According to US Airways, one of the biggest air carriers in the USA, now their clients can get their air tickets by using services of PayPal payment system.
NXP Semiconductors Company published the results of its activity in the third quarter of 2007. In the specified period the volume of the company’s sales reached 1.211 billion euros, which is 7.4 % more, than in the second quarter of 2007, but 2.8 % less, than in the third quarter of 2006.
Diasoft Company has finished the project of introduction of Diasoft FA# Bank, a new complex automation system of corporate services, in Mikhailovsky Promzhilstroibank. Before that the bank used Diasoft’s 4С…4 for DOS system.
After the project Social Cards for the Residents of Ivanovo Region, started in the summer of 2007, URALSIB financial corporation intends to take part in another social card program.
Three leading banks of India – Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank – and mChek, developer of banking technologies, intend to undertake in the near future a public test of a new service function from Visa Money Transfer – money transfer by means of mobile phones.
Leading Russian acquirer UCS Company started introduction of UCS Virtual POS-terminal, new software, in the clients’ network, including clients of its agent banks. The solution, which functionally repeats and expands the functional of a POS-terminal, allows an enterprise to use Internet standard means of navigation (IE 6 and older) for authorization and electronic gathering of information on accessible operations.
By the results of a market research done by Gartner Basel II Magic Quadrant and covering data on 60 companies, Experian is among 14 leading suppliers of solutions, which ensure conformity with Basel II standards.
Alpha Bank jointly with Visa, Cosmopolitan Magazine and IL DE BEAUTE network of perfumery shops announced a launch of Bring Your Girlfriend, special promotion action aimed at the cardholders of Alpha Bank-Cosmopolitan-Visa co-branded cards.
BGS Smartcard Systems and Savings Bank of Mongolia have signed a contract on supply of DUET smart-technology to the bank and started work on creation in Mongolia of a payment system for servicing of mass daily purchases.
Toyota Bank specializing in car credits has introduced AcquireSM managed service and generalized scoring card of Experian Decision Analytics for automation of the credit decision-making and analysis of data on the borrowers in the Russian market of car crediting.
Three Estonian pensioners, aged from 69 up to 71 years, were arrested by the police in Oriuela-Costa, coastal zone of the Spanish province of Alicante. All of them were suspected of the use of counterfeit credit cards for getting money from ATMs of 14 foreign banks.
In the beginning of November, 2007, NXP Semiconductors announced its
plans to supply SmartMX, state-of-the-art chips, to Germany. SmartMX
chips will provide the basis for ePassport, the first-ever project of
electronic passports of the second generation, containing digital image
of owner’s two fingerprints.
MasterCard Worldwide published the results of its activity in the third quarter of 2007 in Europe. Compared with the similar parameters of 2006, the following growth rates were achieved: volume of purchases with the cards of the payment system – 16.8 %, number of operations on cards – 11.2 %, and number of cards of the payment system issued by banks – 19.3 %
BPC Company announced successful termination of modernization of the processing center of Energobank (Ukraine).
Experts from Sophos, British company, one of the world leaders in information security, have prepared a report, which contains unambiguous conclusions that mistakes in the ideology of the social network web-sites subject the clients of these web-sites to a real threat of ID theft.
In September 29 - October 2, 2007, conference Business Solutions: Banks and Finance (solutions for business: banks and financial sector) was held in Odisseya Hotel (Sochi). It was organized by Fort-Ross marketing agency with the official support of the Association of Banks of Northwest of the Russian Federation and assistance of Russia Association of Regional Banks.
In October 10 - 12, 2007, the International Exhibition Center (Kiev, Ukraine) was the venue of the 3d international exhibition-conference CARDEX & IT SECURITY ’ 2007 (smart cards, payment systems and IT security systems) and of the 12th international specialized exhibition CORPORATE & BANKING SYSTEMS EXHIBITION ’ 2007 (information technologies, networks and equipment for state agencies, banks and corporations).
Leader, international transfer system, and LCC Trans-Sending, one of the leading participants of the market of international transfers in Great Britain, announced beginning of their cooperation.
According to the management of Pravex-Bank, during its Time as a Gift promotion campaign over one thousand clients-legal persons joined its electronic banking systems Client-Bank + and Internet-Client-Bank.
Five British mobile telecom operators (Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, 3 and O2) launch PayForIt payment system, which allows its subscribers to use their phones for small purchases.
In September 26 - 28, 2007, the forth international specialized exhibition-conference on information security Infosecurity Russia 2007 was held in CEC Expocentre (Moscow).
In September 26 – 28, 2007, the third international specialized exhibition-conference StorageExpoRussia 2007 was held in Expocentre, Moscow, attended by over 1800 data storage system experts and specialists.
AT&T is the first company to present in the market a complex RFID-solution for public health services, allowing to obtain the reports necessary to increase the security of patients and improve efficiency and financial indexes of the medical institutions.
CDCK, British producer of card fraud prevention solutions, intends to sell at an auction a patent for an expert software developed to counter fraud in card not present (CNP) environment and also the international card fraud.
Premium Bank got a license for issue and acquiring of UkrCard payment system cards.
The second international specialized exhibition-conference Documation Russia 2007 was held in September 26 – 28, 2007, in Expocentre (Moscow). It was attended by over 1400 representatives of the biggest producers and suppliers of electronic documentation equipment, and also 18 exhibitors from Russia and the CIS countries.
Diebold is the first producer to get a certificate on the use of technology from Better ATM Services (Arizona, USA), which allows to dispense prepaid gift cards from ATMs.
Gemalto opened its new personification center in Brazil oriented on clients from the financial and state sectors of Brazil and other countries of South-American Common Market – Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.
In January, 2008, MasterCard Worldwide, PrivatBank and a number of Ukrainian banks will sum up the results of promotion campaign «Decide, what your house should look like» aimed to promote credit cards of the payment system in Ukraine.
Nigerian Access Bank and United Bank of Africa (UBA) became the first in the country to opt for Chip&PIN technology. For protection of card transactions they selected HSM 8000 Host Security Module from Thales.
BPTS Company announced a successful termination of its project of establishment of Khreschatik Bank’s processing center (Kiev, Ukraine).
After the corresponding certification procedures with the international payment systems the bank obtained the right on issue and acquiring of cards with a magnetic strip in its own processing center based on SmartVista solution of BPTS company.
MegaPhone Company offers a new mobile commerce service - shopping by means of bar-codes sent from mobile phones.
APACS, British association, studied the payment preferences in various regions of Great Britain, which for a long time were associated with certain payment stereotypes.
At the end of October, 2007, KD Avia joined the air carriers participating in CONTACT payment system.
SOYUZ Bank announced the results of its activity in the market of crediting by the end of the third quarters of 2007.
Javelin Strategy & Research (USA) came to conclusion that the dominant position of the international payment systems’ credit cards used by American consumers in electronic commerce will be shaken. The main reason is that Americans would prefer higher security and convenience of the alternative payment systems.
Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), British research organization, states in its report that an essential increase of the volume of sales via Internet in the British market is, however, accompanied by a growing rate of card fraud.
The project of Alpha-bank–Cosmopolitan–Visa co-brand card, developed specially for women, received the award Creative of the Year of the RETAIL FINANCE AWARDS 2007 from The Retail Finance Magazine.
In the near future the federal government of Canada intends to introduce a number of amendments in the Criminal Code, which will simplify police actions against ID thefts and will allow the employees to counter or prevent the crimes more efficiently.
BINBANK will undertake a special action, within the framework of which the interest rate on the bank’s credit cards will be halved.
Western Union DP East announced opening of the 10 000th service center for WU clients in Russia. It also informs that it has partner relations with 600 Russian banks.
Office of MasterCard Europe in Russia celebrated its 10-year anniversary and summed up the results of its activity in the Russian market in this period.
Early in October, 2007, a new member appeared among the banks-participants of UkrCard payment system - Bank Daniel, which got a license to issue and acquire UkrCard products.
Early this week SOYUZ BANK announced the start of promoaction «Visa Gold. High relations with fashion», in which it takes an active part.
According to Finextra Research (USA), independent analytical company, the European banks are rather pessimistic about the prospects of their obligations to start the first stage of SEPA project set for January 1, 2008.
China UnionPay (CUP), Chinese payment system, continues to expand the geography of acceptance of its cards all over the world.
According to the report based on the research undertaken by McAfee Company and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), most US citizens are absolutely helpless in the questions of the demanded level of Internet-security in the conditions of the constantly growing cyber-crimes.
Australian Hotels Association (AHA) announced its plans to allow practically only non-cash payments in the bars of New South Wales.
Vitas Bank joined SBERCARD Russian Payment System and received the status of a Principle Member of the system.
On September 28, 2007, Delta-systems celebrated its 15th anniversary.
Within the framework of the large-scale program of development of the regional retail network, Alpha-bank opened 100 new credit-cash offices in 43 cities of Russia.
The British credit card issuers took an extreme measure and addressed the Chamber of Lords with a request to deprive the cardholders of their traditional right to insurance protection against poor-quality purchases abroad.
Peter Costello, Federal Treasurer of Australia, has called authorities of the country to remove ATMs from casinos, because, in his opinion, they only increase temptation of the hot-tempered players.
Hi-Tech Wealth Company, major Chinese manufacturer of the mobile phones supporting GSM and CDMA telecom standards, has opted for Nexperia Cellular System Solution 5110 from NXP Semiconductors for use in the first-ever mobile phone on solar batteries S116.
October 30, 2007, is the last day of registration of participants of the fifth annual conference Business Intelligence: Universal Analytics as an Integral Part of the Business-processes.
On September 26, 2007, at the conference Diasoft FA # Integration – Integration SOA-based Solutions for the Bank Sector organized by Diasoft and IBM and attended by representatives of the biggest Russian banks, Diasoft presented Diasoft FA # Integration platform built on the principles of the service-oriented architecture (SOA).
In July, 2007, UCS offered to its banks-clients a new service – an online system for fraud-monitoring of the issue risks.
Our readers remember that from August 1, 2007, Sainsbury’s chain of British supermarkets will no longer accept cheques as payment.
In 2007 the use of the PIN-Less debit cards in the American system of payment for various services will grow by 40 %.
Corporation NCR presented in the Russian market an innovative ATM - NCR Personas 71 of a very compact size and special design providing full protection against the environment and ensuring its operation in any weather conditions.
Requisites of bank accounts, copies of tax returns, applications of students for grant-in-aid and credit reports were among the pieces of confidential ID-information stolen in Seattle from personal computers, the owners of which used P2P networks, such as Limewire, in particular.
The leader of the gang, which used the confidential information stolen from TJX network, was sentenced to five years of imprisonment and compensation of 600 thousand US dollars.
Early in September, 2007, the Internet-banking system of the Bank of India was temporarily closed, when IT-security service of the bank revealed the fact, that malefactors had installed their nocuous program in the site of the bank.
Diasoft and Toyota Bank have announced successful termination of the first stage of their project - introduction in the bank of Diasoft FA# of a complex system of automation of the bank activity.
Golden Crown payment system and BaikalBank, one of the biggest credit and financial institutes in Buryatiya, started their joint social action «Let us do good things together!».
Golden Crown and Chelindbank started implementation of their joint project, which envisages a transit application for the cards issued by the bank.
It will allow to record the fact of a trip and travel payment itself, and to keep account of the subsidies provided for a travel payment.
Diasoft has introduced a new functionality of retail Diasoft FA # Retail back-office for an off-balance (material) accounting of plastic cards
NXP Semiconductors announced opening of its new R&D center in Caen (France).
Diasoft Company has finished its large-scale complex automation of RosDorBank.
During the Second Specialized Exhibition Terminals. Vending. Kiosks 2007, held in Moscow early in October, 2007, Elo TouchSystems (USA), pioneer and the world leader in the field of touch technologies, for the first time presented in Russia a new model of desktop monitor ET1522L.
Novosibirsk URSA Bank and Gulf Stream, local taxi company, started introduction of non-cash payment services in taxis. Thus, the company installed in a number of cars GPRS payment terminals accepting cards of Visa, MasterCard and Golden Crown.
SmartCard-Service (SСS) and Automated Retail Systems (АRS) took part in the Second International Specialized Exhibition Terminals. Vending. Kiosks 2007.
Finservis Bank announced a launch of a new service in ATM network – opening and making deposit for a fixed period.
Second All-Russia forum E-5: e-banking, e-trading, e-insurance, e-commerce, e-funding was held in September 27 - September 28, in Holiday Inn Moscow Lesnaya. It was organized by abcForum, Moscow with support of the Association of the Regional Banks of Russia. The general media-partner of the event was journal PLUS (Payments. Systems. Cards).
PayPal Internet payment and money transfer system begins to work with the Israeli credit companies. Now Israeli credit cardholders can use their credit cards to get money from PayPal virtual account.
ICICI Bank issued Visa Signature, the first premium-segment credit card in the Indian market.
According to the Ukrainian Interbank Association of Members of EMA payment systems, by September 1, 2007, the number of cards Visa Int. and MasterCard Worldwide, issued by the Ukrainian banks, exceeded 44.8 million.
The Eighth International Forum of the Developers of the Integrated Banking Systems (IBS) was held in September 17 - September 18, 2007, in the Moscow City Hall.
The leading specialized mass-media informed about a new kind of card fraud.
It works like this – criminals call cardholders presenting themselves as employees of security or antifraud departments of Visa or MasterCard.
In the coming 12 months Ukrainians do not plan to do without the consumer credits – such were the conclusions made by GfK Ukraine, a Ukrainian research company, by the results of a market research of the banking services for physical persons in the first quarter of 2007.
BPC became one of the few developers of software solutions for management of bank self-service devices with the function of a remote change of master keys in NCR ATMs.
TietoEnator and RSA, security division of EMC holding, have concluded an agreement in the field of electronic banking services.
Sinopec, Chinese oil-and-gas corporation, has announced its plans for reconstruction of 268 of its gas stations for the Olympic Games -2008.
Kazkommertsbank (Kazakhstan) is the first in the country to issue and promote American Express Gold Card and American Express Platinum Card of American Express nominated in tenge and in US dollars.
BPC Company began introduction of SmartVista processing system in the Russian branch of Denizbank, which is a part of Dexia, one of the largest European bank groups.
TietoEnator Corporation signed an agreement on purchase of Indian Fortuna Technologies Pvt. Ltd., which came into force on September 17, 2007.
BPC Company has tested SmartVista processing solution on new HP Integrity Superdome servers based on Intel Itanium 2 processors in HP High Technologies Center in Beblingen (Germany).
Euro Financial Corporation s.r.o. (EFC) from Czech Republic became a new participant of the ALLURE money transfer system.
CyberPlat has started implementation of its e-ticketing project of payment for SKYEXPRESS flights and for additional services.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which incorporates 8 thousand out of 40 thousand taxi drivers of the city, intends to hold another GPS-strike on October 22, 2007.
URALSIB BANK has signed an agreement with CRIF Solutions, which is a part of the international CRIF Group, a leaders in development and management of credit reports and support for decision-making in the market of retail crediting.
A 23-year old young man has pled guilty of fishing with the use of electronic posting of forged greeting cards to the clients of America Online (AOL).
Another victim of the mortgage crisis in the high-risk category is Morgan Stanley, American bank group. It has recently announced layoff of 500 employees, who worked with bonds in the USA, and of about 90 employees in Advantage, its British affiliated company, which worked with mortgage securities.
In January, 2008, passengers, who enter Moscow underground through turnstiles of a new station - Trubnaya – will be able to take advantage of NFC transit payment technology.
NCC/UC Integrated Payment System has summed up the results of its activity in the first half of 2007. Since the beginning of the current year the number of issued cards of NCC payment system has grown by 11 % and reached about 1 million.
Golden Line, Moscow multiservice telecom operator, started connecting the clients of the Bank of Russia, credit organizations, insurance companies and pension funds to the Automated Electronic Interaction System (АEIS) of the Moscow Main Territorial Administration (MTA) of the Bank of Russia via allocated digital channels.
Taking into account the modern trends in the world card business, where
fraud is still one of the most serious threats to the banks, ACI
Worldwide Company has developed and presented to the market a new
interactive Web-solution for risk-management – a calculator allowing to
simply and quickly minimize the fraud risks
(www.aciworldwide.com/prmcalculator).
On August 29, 2007, the Court of Sydney accused an Australian criminal
group of preparation for cash theft from the local banks ATMs by an
extremely impudent and socially-dangerous method – by blasting of ATMs
with self-made high explosives.
Results of the survey by the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner (APC), testify that population of the country is seriously concerned about the existing problem of fraud and leak of personal data.
Teradata, a leading developer of corporate data warehouses, announced
its final separation from NCR and issue of its own stocks for
circulation at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from October 1, 2007,
under TDC ticker.
SBERCARD’s East Branch, established within the framework of the
regional development program of the SBERCARD payment system, began to
operate in Novosibirsk.
According to the latest report prepared by Packaged Facts, US research
company, in recent years American consumers, disappointed with their
experience with the banking system, more and more often reject the
traditional banking services and in order to get crediting or to solve
other financial problems opt for the services, unusual for the
North-American market.
German criminal police has arrested an international gang specializing
in fishing – posting of forged letters in order to obtain an
unauthorized access to the confidential data of Internet users, such as
numbers, passwords, PIN-codes and other information concerning their
bank accounts and cards.
The project of issue of the Rock Dollar Card, which combines the
functions of a student ID and a debit prepaid card, was implemented for
the first time in the USA market.
National Australia Bank (NAB), Telstra telecommunication operator and
Visa announced their plans for implementation of the first pilot
project of mobile payments in Australia.
On October 1, 2007, another Citibank credit card promoaction was launched in Samara and Ekaterinburg.
IMPEXBANK started a special promoaction, within the framework of which
it considerably lowered the interest rate on the National Credit
Program.
By the results of the second quarter of 2007 the turnover on Visa cards
in Russia reached 106.8 billion US dollars. This figure is by 82.5%
higher compared the same parameter of 2006.
Diasoft Company and BINBANK have signed an agreement on strategic
partnership. The basic part of it is an understanding of the partners
on the priority of all the questions, which can arise during their
joint activity, and also observance of a rigid schedule of preproject
inspection and introduction of projects in the bank.
Alpha-Bank has summed up the results of its first year in the market of mortgage crediting.
The number of credits provided by the bank in this period exceeded 1.1 thousand.
MasterCard Worldwide announced a launch of a new program in the US
market - MasterCard Easy Savings intended for corporate credit and
debit MasterCard BusinessCards cardholders.
Authors of the report prepared by American consulting agency Aite
Group, came to a unequivocal conclusion that the time of pilot projects
of mobile banking had passed, and at this moment the banks should start
real introduction of projects allowing daily mobile electronic payments.
At the end of July, 2007, subdivisions of the Federal Investigation
Agency (FIA) of Pakistan combating cyber-crimes were given the task to
create a computer database on the criminals connected with credit card
fraud.
Ordinary claims of a common Canadian consumer to the bank, which has issued his credit card, may have very serious consequences.
In the near future ICICI Bank (India) plans to issue prepaid smart-cards for the rural areas of the country.
TietoEnator Corporation opened a new service-center in St.-Petersburg.
Main directions of its activity are search for new business
opportunities in the Russian market and provision of technical support
for its clients, including organizing and maintenance of
infrastructures, hosting, implementation of projects, management of
applied programs, etc.
SOYUZ Bank began to accept cash and non-cash payments from physical persons to the address of Mosenergosbyt.
SBERCARD company informs about its transition to the next stage of
development of SBERCARD Russian Payment System, which envisages its
re-branding.
Within the framework of the special offer «Big hockey is back! Unique
card design for you!» Raifaizenbank Austria started issuing
Raiffeisenbank MasterCard credit cards with a unique hockey design.
Renaissance Capital bank continues implementation of a large-scale
project for construction of a modern IT-infrastructure on the basis of
IBM WebSphere industrial integration platform.
Aladdin, Russian authentication and information security solutions
vendor, has introduced Safe Hellgate hardware-software complex in
METROBANK. The complex is intended to ensure proactive information
security from all kinds of threats from the active Internet-content of
the bank.
On September 11, 2007, Delta-System announced a launch of a new
software product - ATM configurator, intended for automation of
configurations development for ATMs and terminals working under NDC and
DDC protocols.
The recent news that hackers cracked the client database of Ameritrade,
one of the biggest on-line brokers in the USA, provoked an ambiguous
reaction of some information security experts.
Visa Europe has set a task to issue in several years up to 17 million V
PAY cards – a debit Chip & PIN product specially developed for the
EU countries.
The forth international exhibition and conference Intellectual Cards
and Security Systems for Information Technologies/Cardex & IT
Security 2007 was held in September19- 21, 2007, in the Central
Exhibition Complex of Expocentre, Moscow.
Promsviazbank informs that all the branches of its regional network
began to issue Visa credit cards with rouble, US dollar and euro
accounts with a 50-day grace period.
Within the framework of the press conference held on September 20, 2007
in Moscow the management of ICICI Bank Eurasia announced introduction
of a new service in the Russian market - Balance Transfer for Visa Gold
credit cards.
Kara Altyn Bank (Kazan) became the first financial institution of
Tatarstan to become a Principle Member of SBERCARD payment system.
During Infosecurity-2007, exhibition and conference to be held in
September 26-28, in EXPOCENTRE in Red Prenya, Aladdin Company intends
to present its three new products - eTokenPASS, eTokenJava and eSafe
WTA (Web Threats Analyzer).
Aeroflot Bonus Program has summed up the results of a special
promoaction organized for business class passengers of Aeroflot -
Russian Airlines.
At the end of August, 2007, SOYUZ Bank presented prizes to the Visa cardholders-winners of the Visa promoaction.
By the end of the first half of 2007 the card portfolio of SDM-BANK
grew by 40% compared with the same parameters of 2006 and exceeded 90
thousand cards.
At the end of September, 2007, participants of the joint working group
formed under Russian Railways Company demonstrated in the Russian
Railways Innovation Center (Moscow) to Andrey Kazmin, Head of the
Savings Bank of Russia, and Vladimir Yakunin, Head of Russian
Railways, a complex of the developed technical solutions allowing to
use SBERCARD payment system.
Federal Service on Consumer Protection and Human Well-being
(Rospotrebnadzor) has accused the banks, which post credit cards to
citizens, of infringement of consumer rights.
Mail of Russia and Mail of China Group of Companies started exchange of electronic money transfers.
CyberPlat Internet payment system has increased the number of points accepting payments for housing and communal services.
From August, 2007, first Shell petrol stations in America made life
easier for the drivers who pay for petrol with prepaid Visa cards.
Results of a research by the Latvian Internet Association jointly with
IT-company Euro Data show that from the beginning of 2005 the number of
clients of Internet-banking systems in Latvia increased almost by 100%
and reached 963 thousand persons.
According to the report recently published by ID Analytics, company
specializing in counteraction to fraud, American country towns turned
into a Klondike for ID-thieves.
Within the framework of the program of credit risks reduction and fraud
prevention the People's Bank of China (PBOC) plans to implement a
credit bureau project intended to expand the potential of the available
base of credit histories.
MasterCard undertook a special promoaction on the occasion of
introduction MasterCard PayPass and Maestro PayPass cards and payments
with Tap&Go technology in UK.
From the end of August, 2007, Mobile Banking system of the People's
Bank of Kazakhstan became accessible to subscribers of the two biggest
Kirghiz GSM-operators: Skye Mobile (trade marks Bitel, MobiCard) and
BeМоCом Ltd. (trade mark MegaCom).
Notwithstanding its rich traditions, Britain seems to have decided to surprise the world bank community once again.
Prepaid card products swiftly take the leading positions in the payment industry and economy of the USA.
JCB Co., Ltd. (JCB) has declared start of J/Speedy program of contactless payments.
In September, 2007 there were changes in the structure of shareholders
and the Board of Directors of SBERCARD company. The total number of its
shareholders reached 7 organizations.
China has turned into the biggest market of RFID-solutions for the
first time in the world history of development of RFID-technologies.
So, in 2007 out of 4.96 billion dollars …
Chinese consumers took the first place in the Asia-Pacific Region as
the most loyal and interested users of their payment cards, says
Payment Evolution Report, recently presented by Citibank Australia.
Alpha-bank issued over 100 thousand Aeroflot-MasterCard-Alpha-Bank co-branded cards and thus overfulfilled its annual plan.
An the end of August, 2007, British company Finjan, world supplier of
on-line solutions for Internet-security, informed about arrest of
well-conspired cyber-crime gang.
Australian courts can adopt strict measures against the local credit
organizations which have unfairly high tariffs on banking services in
general and on credit card service, in particular …
At the end of August, 2007, incorporated processing company One Payment
Alliance started processing transactions of its clients from China,
Japan and South Korea.
Report of Visa USA published at the end of August, 2007, shows that
most Americans born during the world famous baby boom in the second
half of 1940s – first half of 1960s just like Americans belonging to
the second generation of bayboomers believe that in the foreseeable
future electronic payment transactions will supersede cash and checks.
According to a recently published American Bankers’ Association (ABA)
research, practically each third American in under 34 age bracket finds
the services of Internet banking more preferable, than personal visits
to a bank.
According to the available information, Google applied for a patent for its own system of mobile payments – Gpay.
Representatives of Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games
declared that RFID-tags would be widely used in the Games of 2008.
On August 23, 2007, Visa Europe published White Book, which describes
the situation and current trends in the development of retail banks of
EU, processing centers of the third party and major vendors in the
payment industry.
According to the available information, at the end of August, 2007, in
Manchester (Great Britain) a 12-meter (40-foot) tunnel was found, by
means of which an unknown gang of robbers tried to steal an ATM with
all the cash inside.
Citibank together with Axis Software Pvt. Ltd., Indian IT-company,
installed in Hyderabad and Mumbai two ATMs with the function of
biometric cardholder identification.
New York taxi drivers are divided whether to go on strike or not
against the existing plans to equip all the taxis with GPS-terminals.
According to the European Central bank (ECB), the credit and financial
establishments, which introduce innovative technologies, develop new
business trends and render additional services to clients, will
possibly get most advantages from SEPA implementation.
British Barclays Bank group began to issue co-branded Visa payWave contactless credit cards in the USA.
In September, 2007, De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) in Britain
will become the venue for the first conference devoted to the
eye-tracking technology and use of human eyes movement for control of
computers and other devices.
In accordance with the recently announced new plans, the Organizing
Committee of Olympic Games in Beijing - 2008 (BOCOG) will order from 7
million up to 9 million paper contactless admission tickets for
competitions.
At the beginning of August, 2007, Nokia 6131 mobile phones supporting
NFC technology appeared in the retailer in Hsiamen (China, southeast
province of Fujian), and before the end of 2007 they are expected to be
on sale also in the shops of Kwangchow and Beijing.
In the second half of last August Monster.com., one of the world's
biggest recruiting websites with 73 million users all over the world,
was attacked by hackers.
Innovations appeared in the recent months, radically change the situation in the mobile broadcasting market.
At the end of June, 2007, two porno-spammers were brought to justice in the USA.
ACI Worldwide announced that it had signed 11 agreements in EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa) in 12 past months.
McDonald's has introduced an analytical solution for card authorization in 1.1 thousand of its restaurants in Great Britain.
Diasoft Company has produced its new module Household Payments as part of Diasoft FA# Retail.Back.
United Card Service Company (UCS) and MasterCard Worldwide have summed
up the results of their joint action Promo MasterCard – UCS, undertaken
in June 1 - July 31, 2007 in Rostov-on-Don, and aimed to encourage
retailers to use MasterCard and MasterCard Electronic cards.
More and more mobile operators all over the world start to provide services of videotelephony and multimedia messaging.
Now the question of a universal application of Near Field
Communications (NFC) standard based on the ideology of short-distance
data transmission via a radio channel in the frequency band of 13.56
MHz and also RFID technology is practically solved.
In 2006 total Visa debit cards turnover in Australia grew by 16.3% and
reached the level of 15 billion Australian dollars (11.8 billion US
dollars).
Coca-Cola Corporation plans to modernize a wide range of its vending
machines due to embedded MasterCard PayPass terminal modules, which
accept contactless payments.
According to APACS, the number of bank checks written out by Britons continues to decrease.
According to the report recently prepared by analytical company ABI
Research, before the end of 2007 the volume of the world market of
contactless technologies for payment systems (including hardware,
software and various services) will reach 260 million US dollars.
Dmitry Davidov, Chairman of Volgo-Vyatsky Bank of the Savings Bank of Russia, said at the Eighth All-Russia Bank Forum in Nizhni Novgorod, that with growing living standards Russians actively master the financial services.
NCR Corporation announced its strategic investments in ViVOtech Inc., one of the leaders in the sphere of contactless payments.
Leading representatives of British business community called upon the
government to take urgent measures in connection with inability of the
British police to cope with the galloping cybercrime growth.
In the middle of August, 2007, US authorities brought accusation of
high-tech fraud against a group of suspects and a Russian citizen among
them.
Spam is a basic element of the growing cybercrime, because exactly mass
posting is used for fishing and dissemination of the harmful programs,
due to which criminals get unauthorized access to confidential
information.
NCR Corporation concluded a long-term license agreement with CIMA S.p.
A., one of the leading developers of cash flow control systems.
On August 16, 2007, Visa, supported by the Russian Ministry of Finance,
launched the program that will improve the financial literacy of the
Russian consumers in the field of payment cards usage.
On August 15, 2007, Citibank and Miles & More loyalty program
introduced new terms of the usage of bonus miles received within the
framework of the Miles & More program for credit Citibank Miles
& More cardholders.
According to IMS Research, as a result of a probable takeover of
Infineon Technologies by STMicroelectronics a powerful giant can emerge
in the world semi-conductor market, a serious rival to its present
leaders.
In June, 2007, China took the first place in the world by the number of disseminated viruses.
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) announced its recent strategic investments
in ViVOtech Inc., one of the leaders in the field of contactless
payments.
According to experts, due to many objective reasons, nowaday markets of
BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) have huge potentials for
development of their economies as a whole.
A parliamentary committee in Great Britain announced that the
government and police of the country should take real measures to
increase security of everything connected with the use of Internet.
According to official representatives of the British House of Lords,
early in August, 2007, it adopted a decision on the necessity to
introduce corresponding amendments in the legislation.
Fast growth of financial fraud, which was revealed within first six
months of 2007 and in this or that way infringe the interests of the
country’s financial institutions, causes grave concern of CIFAS (Credit
Industry Fraud Avoidance System), British office in charge of the
struggle against fraud in financial services sector.
New Haven, Connecticut, became the first city in the USA to offer illegal immigrants opportunity to get ID-cards.
British bank Newcastle Building Society (NBS) is ready to issue prepaid cards in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Poland.
In the first half of 2007 China UnionPay (CUP) payment system issued
10.21 million credit cards, almost 200% rise compared to the same
period in 2006. Besides, in the first half of 2007 it issued 127
million debit cards (113.7% growth compared with 2006).
In 2005-206 the situation with the real estate in Estonia had the
following specific feature: it was actively used as a mechanism for
increasing of the credit weight. Thus, according to the Bank of
Estonia, by the end of June, 2007, total volume of credit and leasing
portfolios of the country’s banks and their branches amounted to 232
billion Estonian krones (EEK), which is 42% up compared to the same
period in 2006.
On-line fraud is gaining momentum. Thus, according to the recently
published report of Deloitte, in the past 12 months information
security systems of 85% of the financial structures in EMEA region were
successfully attacked.
According to the available information, in July, 2007, experts from RSA
Security (USA) managed to reveal the program code, by means of which
criminals could place a false web-site for farming purposes in a few
seconds.
According to Forrester Research, a rapid growth of the number of
Internet users in Canada, however, does not strengthen positions of
electronic commerce.
On August 15, 2007, the second two-day international conference Bank
Cards: Effective Business began its work in President-Hotel, Moscow.
The conference was organized by the Association of Regional Banks
(Association «Russia») and Finance Media.
According to APACS, in 2006 remote banking services were provided to 24 million adult British customers.
According to managers of the Swedish bank Nordea, their clients
regularly receive e-mail messages, in which under various pretexts they
are asked to disclose their personal passwords used for remote banking.
According to the British Banking Association (BBA), the methods used
against the card fraud in the USA can provide a basis for development
of secure Internet-banking in Great Britain.
In the middle of July, 2007, Tesco Personal Finance announced its plans
to continue the further expansion of the euro-cash ATM network.
MasterCard has declared the beginning of a promoaction «One holiday is
good, but two is better!» aimed to encourage payment cards usage in the
retail network.
In the spring of 2007 participants of the summit of Economic and
Currency Community of Western Africa (UNION ECONOMIQUE ET MONETAIRE
OUEST-AFRICAINE - UEMOA) agreed to implement uniform passport project
for citizens of Gabon, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Central African
Republic, Chad and Equatorial Guinea.
On August 9, 2007, Golden Crown payment system and Dalcombank celebrated issuance of their 5-millionth card.
Datacard Group has announced launch of a high-performance system of
card packing in Datacard MXD Mailer envelopes, which can prepare up to
3000 personified messages per hour.
Pay & Display parking machines in Copenhagen (Denmark), which used
to accept only cash, are now equipped with Artema Modular automatic
payment terminals from Thales, French manufacturer of electronic
systems.
British operator of fixed telecommunications BT and MBNA Europe Bank
Limited issued Visa credit card. New BT Credit Card became the first
step in promotion of BT in the credit card market.
According to the APACS, in the past year sales volume on plastic cards
in Great Britain amounted to 321 billion pounds (646.19 billion US
dollars).
TransUnion, American agency of credit histories, and Edgar, Dunn,
consulting company, have introduced a tool for direct marketing
employing a combination of behavioral model of preferences and consumer
scoring system.
Citibank has launched a new service in Malaysia. It allows a credit
cardholder to pay accounts by using SMS-messages sent from a mobile
phone.
Ingenico, global supplier of solutions for transactions and secure
payments, and Sagem Securite, which is a part of the international
concern SAFRAN Group, specializing in the field of high technologies,
entered into negotiations at the end of July 2007.
The minds of the British cardholders are under constant stress because
of the necessity to remember the PINs of all their cards. The analysis
of Abbey National Bank, British affiliate of the bank group Banco
Santander Central Hispano of Spain, revealed, that PIN «overloading» of
the memories of British consumers has long ago become a real problem
in the country.
Gift cards became an integral part of youth culture attracting an ever
increasing number of young people, who prefer to give presents or
receive them in the form of prepaid cards. Comdata Corporation (USA),
developer and supplier of card solutions and processing company, has
published a research about the role and market place of prepaid cards
in the American youth environment in 2006-2007.
At the end of July, 2007, processing company Global Payments Europe,
s.r.o. (Prague) signed a contract on provision of card processing
services to Home Credit Kazakhstan, which is a part of Home Credit
Group, actively operating in the market of consumer crediting and card
issuance.
At the end of July, 2007, Chinese banks quadrupled the ATMs’ daily cash
withdrawal limits - from 5 thousand yuans (over 660 US dollars) up to
20 thousand yuans (over 2 640 dollars).
MasterCard Europe announced its results of the second quarter of 2007.
Cumulative card turn-over increased on 14.3%, purchase volume up 14.7%,
number of cash transactions increased by 11%, and the number of the
issued cards up 18.2% compared to the same period in 2006.
Severnaya Kazna (Northern Treasury) bank has implemented Super Agent
solution from Fluke Networks to meet its needs of monitoring and
productivity management of applications.
Kremenchug Court (Ukraine) sentenced a former banker for embezzlement
of over 500 thousand grivnas (about 99 thousand US dollars) to five
years of imprisonment with confiscation of his property.
A research done by Level Four (UK), ATM software vendor, testifies that
Over a third (38%) of the British consumers plan to transfer as soon as
possible their accounts to other banks, because ATMs of their present
banks are often «out of order or out of cash».
Beginning from 2008 Estonian anglers will be able to pay for fishing licenses from their mobile phones.
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) in Strasbourg has
adopted a resolution which calls upon the states to recognize the
struggle against cyber-crimes as a priority task.
US House of Representatives has approved a bill against the use of
various programs, illegally collecting information from the infected
computers (spyware) for criminal purposes.
In the end of June, 2007, two Ukrainian banks – Ukrsotsbank and Finance
and Credit Bank, two of the largest credit organizations in the
country, signed an agreement on a joint use of their ATM networks.
According to the available information, in the past year ACI Worldwide
(USA) software vendor concluded 18 new license agreements for delivery
of ACI Proactive Risk Manager systems for use against fraud and money
laundering.
Representatives of the British chain of Sainsbury's supermarkets (one
of the biggest in the country) have announced their intention to stop
accepting banker's checks as a means of payment. Sainsbury's will join
other big British networks such as Boots, Asda and Shell, which do not
accept checks already.
TSYS Card Tech, an affiliated structure of the American company Total
System Services (TSYS), has won the tender for a contract with the
Russian bank Tinkoff Credit Systems.
According to the authors of the beach of the future project its
visitors will wear on their wrists special bracelets by means of which
their bank account will be debited automatically or payments made from
their credit cards accounts for beach entrance tickets, food and
drinks, parking lots, etc.
This summer the first «talking» ATMs appeared in Norway for the blind and visually-impaired persons.
Barclays Bank has issued a new prepaid card using Chip & PIN
technology, which will be accepted in ATMs all over the world and also
throughout the Visa network.
Bank of America has launched credit cards issuance project for people, who live in the USA, but have no social security number.
In April, 2007, MyMemory Company installed in the northern terminal of
London Gatwick Airport a vending machine to sell various capacity
flash-cards, USB-drives from various manufacturers, stereo-headphones,
etc.
According to Eric Schmidt, Executive Director of Google, the time, when
the authorities will have to seriously consider the questions connected
with the Internet, is not far off.
Analysts from Danske Bank, one of the biggest banks in Denmark, have
recently analyzed the economic situation in the new EU member
countries. As a result of their research Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia,
Romania and Bulgaria were included in the so-called «insecure zone».
Eric Schmidt, Executive Director of Google, discussed with US
governors-republicans a number of facts graphically demonstrating the
potential of Internet for influencing the public opinion and politics
in general.
The information recently discussed in the bank community was fully
confirmed on August 2, 2007. Russian payment system Golden Crown
jointly with the Russian Europay Members Association (REMA) has
registered co-branded MasterCard cards issuance program . Within the
framework of this program REMA banks-affiliates can issue MasterCard
and Maestro cards with logos of Golden Crown and MasterCard.
On August 1, 2007, Golden Crown payment system celebrated the first
anniversary of implementation of its transit project – Electronic
Travel Card-Novosibirsk.
Golden Crown payment system has summed up the results of the first half
of 2007. Thus, now the company’s line of products includes: bank cards
(debit, credit, wholesale-purchasing, petrol, corporate cards);
driver’s cards; transport cards; social cards; money transfers;
acceptance of payments and settlement of credits with cash or cards (at
cash desks, ATMs and kiosks); retailers’ loyalty cards (bonus, gift,
discount, prepaid and other cards); SMS-and Internet-banking.
Insurance Bureau, an automated information system, was opened on August 1, 2007 (http: // antiobman.ru).
Estonian banks suggest that parents should acquire bank cards for their
beloved 5-7 year old children. A child’s bank account can even be open
from the moment his (hers) birth certificate is issued.
First Data, one of the biggest processing companies in the world, has
announced its signing of agreement on acquisition of Check Forte
Processamento de Dados, a Brazilian service provider of electronic
payments processing.
An interesting thing happened in Manhattan, USA. Accountant Frenk Van
Beren received from his bank two thousand fuel credit cards, which can
be used for refueling in the chain of ExxonMobil gas stations, one of
the biggest oil-refining corporations.
Kuda.ru Chain of Travelling Agencies and Citibank have issued a new
co-brand credit card, which has no analogues in the Russian market.
With each payment for any purchase made with the given card cardholder
gets on his account one bonus for each 100 rubles, which can be used to
buy holiday vouchers or air tickets in Kuda.ru Chain of Travelling
Agencies.
Gemalto Company has announced the results of its activity in the second
quarter of 2007. Total income of Gemalto by the results of the quarter
amounted to 398 million euro, which means a 6% decrease in terms of the
present course of exchange (or 10% in terms of the exchange rate of the
beginning of the year).
On July 20, 2007, MasterCard Worldwide has announced its launch of the
first MasterCard PayPass project in Italy together with Poste Italiane,
a structural subdivision of Banco Posta.
Visa Europe together with la Caixa, the biggest bank in Spain, has
presented the first pilot project in the country based on contactless
payment technologies - Visa payWave - for Kinepolis cinema chain in
Madrid.
Gemalto Company and Oi, Brazilian mobile telecom operator, have
launched Promociono Premiada project (promoaction «Forward, get the
prizes!») offering its clients entertainment and information services
connected with Pan-American Games Rio 2007.
On July 25, 2007, a ceremony was held in one of the stores of retail
chain Maria-Rа chain of stores in Barnaul devoted to installation by
INPAS Company together with Altay Bank of the Savings Bank of Russia of
the 2000-th VeriFone POS-terminal and its first transaction.
Ingenico Corporation, one of the world leaders in development of
solutions for payment operations, and Trafficland, Russian developer of
software for mobile phones, have successfully tested a system with the
working name Electronic Discount Coupons based on the technology of
bar-code dispatching to the subscribers’ mobile phones.
Experian Decision Analytics (subdivision of Experian Group) and
Unibank, one of the leaders in the bank sector of Azerbaijan, have
signed an agreement on introduction in the operational structure of the
bank of New Business Strategy Manager (NBSM), decision-making software,
and specially developed scoring cards.
WebMoney Transfer, system of electronic Internet-payments, has
introduced purses of a new type - WebMoney Gold (WMG). The money in the
system is based on ingots of 24-carat gold.
The Russian bank community is well aware of the consistent position and
practice of Visa Int., which counteracts any actions of any structures
infringing the intellectual property rights.
Within the framework of a large-scale project on a comprehensive bank automation based on Diasoft FA * solution, which is now being implemented in NOVIKOMBANK, Diasoft Company has successfully commissioned the Module of Interaction with Credit Bureaus.
Fifth Annual Conference GSM> 3G Russia/CIS, organized by analytical company Informa Telecoms and Media, was held in Radisson SAS Slavianskaya Hotel in Moscow, June 5-6, 2007.
People’s Bank of Kazakhstan has commissioned Internet-banking for legal entities, the first such system in the market of Kazakhstan.
Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) has finished the first large-scale auditing of all 23 credit bureaus operating in the Russian market.
MasterCard Europe and Bank of Uralsib started implementation of the next stage of introduction in Russia of the social cards based on EMV-compatible microprocessor.
On June 21, 2007, the District Court of the
Southern District of the State of New York (USA) withdrew
an action on the claim of MasterCard Worldwide to the International Federation
of Football Associations (FIFA) on the basis of the agreement on adjustment of
claims signed by the parties.
Moscow Mortgage Bank
continues emission of Olympic-themed cards. Thus, following the emission of the
first in Russia MasterCard UEFA Champions League cards started in May, 2007, the
bank jointly with the International Olympic Committee began emission of the
first in Russia and Europe exclusive official Visa cards with original design
dedicated to the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008.
INPAS Company has won the
tender of VTB 24 Bank for delivery of terminal equipment.
One of the cyber-criminals
arrested in Great Britain,
Alexey Kostap, 31-year old man from Estonia, was sentenced for ID-fraud
in banking operations.
GE Money, Consumer Crediting
Division of General Electric Company, has announced the launch of eBay
MasterCard payment card specially for eBay Internet-auction. The first cards are
expected to be available to clients in the middle of summer, 2007.
Second annual conferenceFinancial retail: strategy of automationwas held in Holiday Inn MOSCOW Lesnaya, Moscow, June 28-29, 2007. Journal PLUS was an
official information partner of the conference.
Seventh International ConferencePayment card 2007 was held in the
International Exhibition Center of Kiev (Ukraine), June 6 - 8, 2007.
Visa Int. and Creative
Mobile Technologies (software vendor) intend to launch a mass project – installation
of readers capable to accept PayWave contactless cards in city taxis.
According to the Central
Bank of the Russian Federation ...
Germany is the first to issuer V Pay
Chinese cell market beats the records
German health smart-card interested Russian vendors
Russian Post Office chooses SC 5000 of VeriFone
Visa implements Common service standards for Russian merchants
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