- April 20, 2014
- Business
Nets Scandinavia, sold for $3.1 Billion to Private Equity and a Pension Fund
Nets, Scandinavia, the household name in payments processing has agreed on March 24th, 2014, its sale to a consortium of Private Equity players; Advent International, ATP and Bain Capital. Advent and Bain Capital already owning Worldpay, the Merchant Services business bought from RBS in 2010.
- December 19, 2012
- Global Payments Knowledge
Fraud – You’re only as good as your last prevention
The industry analogy is that fraud is like a balloon, you squeeze the fraudsters in one area and they pop out somewhere else. Sometimes it’s predictable like when chip & PIN was introduced, already high CNP fraud rose still further and x-border fraud levels rose
- December 18, 2012
- Interchange
Visa Hungary – Reports suggest they are losing their appetite
If the recent article published on the Pymnts web site is accepted then it seems that Visa may be considering an exit strategy from Hungary in the face of substantial, and continuing, market share loss to MasterCard. According to the article, and cross referenced pieces,
- November 29, 2012
- Interchange
Card Issuers don’t refer for the fun of it
Both of the international card schemes Visa and MasterCard, include in their impressive array of member fee tariffs an assessment fee for Issuers that breach a percentage threshold of authorisation referral responses to authorisation requests received. The percentage is 0.5% but that is incidental. Both
- May 23, 2012
- Card Processing
Card Terminals: A thing of the past?
We’ve talked about mobile commerce and how new ways to pay would have an effect on cards, but maybe the biggest shift we will see in the near term is mobile phones taking on the role of the payment terminal. Following the success of Square
- April 16, 2012
- Card Processing
Is it “The End of Cards” or “The Future of Cards”?
It is very easy to say that the Alternative Payments Methods; Mobile, Square, iZettle, e-Commerce, Cloud Wallets etc., are approaching mass and will “replace” cards in the future. Appropriate historical analogies could be: “Cards are the end of Cash” – a statement recurring for about
- August 28, 2010
- Global Payments Knowledge
Each regional market worldwide is actively transforming, so where does it all end up?
All aspects of Payments are in transition; traditional business models questioned by governments/regulators, innovative players with new payment channels/technologies reaching mass and heading for the more traditional business segments, infrastructures underpinning many card processing businesses for decades needing mass change, and mergers and acquisitions gain
- July 31, 2010
- Global Payments Knowledge
It seems 2010 is yet another year where more is being achieved during summer than in the previous year
While some activity certainly slowed due to normal vacations, it seems 2010 is yet another year where more is being achieved during summer than in the previous year. The apparent theme that seems to be emerging from the news during this period suggests: ―Are the
- March 10, 2010
- Card Processing
The cards payments world is ramping up like never before…
M&A‘s, consolidation and technology change in just the past 2 years has left many quandaries and few definitive answers. The realisation is now quickly spreading worldwide that there is high risk and big spends coming for many of what was regarded as stable card businesses