Bankinter: cloud NFC a big blow to telcos

Bankinter's plans to launch a mobile payments service that bypasses the need for a handset's secure element highlights a major shift in the market dynamics for mobile NFC payments. Despite Bankinter's activities being heavily concentrated in Spain, its plans spell bad news for telcos and smartphone manufacturers globally, as this approach would remove them from the NFC value chain.

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Card fraud: threat from abroad

Research from Barclaycard shows that France, the US and Spain account for much of the fraud conducted overseas on UK issued cards. There are already initiatives underway to combat this, but as one solution to fraud is found, the fraudsters find a new weakness. Levels of mail non-receipt and identity theft fraud are already on the increase.

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Changes in the Spanish savings bank market are a blessing in disguise for cardholders

Although decreasing choice locally, consolidation and change in the Spanish savings bank market will increase competition nationally, as cajas merge together. These larger Spanish issuers are competing in greater numbers across many regions and will provide more advanced and innovative products with better rates for payment cardholders, although consumers may be slow to take up the new offerings.

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Commercial fuel retail: fuel cards lead the way in Europe

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Online commerce: creating opportunities for new type of cooperation in combating fraud

The growth in online commerce is creating opportunities for fraudsters and this in turn calls for a new type of cooperation between consumers, merchants, and card-issuing banks. For banks, this means that educating the customer and the merchant is becoming as important as directly targeting compromised accounts, particularly given the magnitude of recent security breaches in the industry.

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Outdoor fuel payment: taking off slowly in southern Europe

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Plastic cards: Irish transaction value less than a tenth of Spain's

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Plastic cards: Spanish to go on a spending spree

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Plastic cards: UK leads the way in Europe

The finding that UK consumers are the greatest users of payment cards in Europe is no surprise. Plastic cards have always been popular in the UK, both as a payment and a borrowing tool. Moreover, the gap looks set to widen as the UK card providers increasingly choose to mirror US practices in order to encourage further growth.<BR />

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Spanish banking: external evaluation is finally on the cards

The latest round of bank reform in Spain has seen a u-turn on the pledge not to use any more public funds to support the sector, the resignation of a top banker, and an increase in the provisioning for non-toxic loans. However, most importantly, the Ministry of Economy and Finance has decreed that the banks must undergo evaluations from at least two external "recognized industry experts."

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