Online Payment

• Online payment company Dwolla wins a Best of Show Award at FinovateSpring, a conference about innovative financial and banking technology. Dwolla is a web based payment platform that allows users to send, receive, and request money from other users. The service is free for micro-transactions, for transactions above $10 Dwolla charges a flat fee of $0.25. The company received the award for their new FISync technology that enables users to integrate their bank accounts directly with the Dwolla platform.

Mobile Payment

• Mobile wallet service ISIS, a joint venture between the U.S. carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, add support for American Express cards. ISIS is a mobile wallet payment service based on NFC technology. Read more
• MasterCard starts its new PayPass Wallet service. Customers can store their payment credentials in the digital wallet and use the service to pay online and in stores. Tap-and-go in-store payments can be made using a NFC-enabled smartphone and the PayPass Wallet app. Read more

Cards

• Citi Ventures, Citi’s venture arm, invests $3.3M in online payment and ID verification company Jumio. Jumio’s Netswipe solution turns a webcam into a credit card scanner. The camera analyzes and verifies the physical credit card in real time. Card holders only have to approve the transaction by entering the security code number and the additional security and authentication mechanism 3-D Secure of Visa and MasterCard. The service supports Visa, MasterCard, JCB, Diners Club and American Express credit cards. Read more

Citigroup is expanding its cross-border payment solution, WorldLink Payment Services, into eight new countries. The traditional Automated Clearing House (ACH) offering is now available in 29 countries, including Brazil, Dominican Republic, Israel, Jamaica, Morocco, South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago and Tunisia.

Citi’s WorldLink is a non-account-based service, offering multicurrency payment solutions for corporations, financial institutions and public entities. The product enables its clients to issue payments in more than 130 currencies, by leveraging an existing network of over 225 partner relationships and accounts, in over 180 countries worldwide. Citi reports the WorldLink service makes over 30 million payments annually with a value of almost 900 billion US Dollar equivalent.

Michael Vallance, Head of WorldLink Payment Services, comments: “We continue to see increasing client requirements for a larger focus on local currency payments, especially in emerging and developing markets. Thanks to Citi’s global network, local presence and WorldLink’s long history of cross-border payment execution we have been able to quickly refine and optimize our offerings to meet our clients’ ever-changing needs.”