PAYMENT SYSTEMS

NEWS

Online Bettors Furiously Ante Up for March Madness.  Advances in software, wireless and electronic-payment technology let millions of Americans plunk money down anytime and anywhere — even in the middle of a game. USAtoday.com. March 18, 2005. 

Chip Cards Ready to Roll.  South Africa’s four biggest banks are poised to issue their new chip-based cards, but some are ahead of others. Allafrica.com, Johannesburg, March 17, 2005. 

MasterCard and Visa Agree on Standard for Contactless Payments.  MasterCard International and Visa International, which are now both offering platforms in the U.S. for contactless card transactions based on radio-frequency identification technology, have agreed on a common communications protocol and on testing requirements for the technology.  DigitalTransactionsNews, March 14, 2005.

Are Smartcards as Smart as We Think? The Oystercard travel system, which soon hopes to double up as e-money, came crashing down for a few hours. Is this a warning as society heads towards a cashless society? BBC News Online. March 11, 2005.

Reserve Bank of India Forms Panel on Payment and Settlement Systems.  The Reserve Bank of India has constituted a Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement System as a committee of its central board. Financialexpess.com, Mumbai, March 10, 2005.  

Mobile Wallets Start to Take Shape.  New ways of paying for goods with mobiles are gaining momentum. But do users want to add their purchases to their mobile bill? BBC News Online, March 1, 2005.   

Middle East Banks Are On Track For Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) Migration.  70 to 80 percent of banks in the Middle East are predicted to use EMV card systems under a deadline set by the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE). Epaynews.com, February 2005.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

E-Payments without Frontiers – Issues Paper for the European Central Bank Conference of November 10, 2004.  This paper provides an overview of a segment of e-payments, examining the latest developments and issues related to recent innovations in the area of retail payments. The European Central Bank, March 2005.

Payments and Securities Clearance and Settlement Systems in Brazil.  The report describes and assesses the payments system and securities settlement systems in Brazil with a view to identifying possible improvement measures in their safety, efficiency and integrity. Western Hemisphere Payments and Securities Settlement Forum, Centre for Latin American Monetary Studies, The World Bank, September 2004.

Payment and Securities Settlement Systems in the Accession Countries.  The “Blue Book” provides a comprehensive description of the main payment and securities clearing and settlement systems both in the Member States which joined the European Union in 2004 and in Bulgaria and Romania, and covers both the domestic and cross-border aspects of these systems. The European Central Bank, February 2005 .

Statistics on Payment and Settlement Systems in Selected Countries.  Bank for International Settlement (BIS), March 2005.

EVENTS
Upcoming:

SWIFT and International Payment Systems.  This one-day session will explain the role of SWIFT in international payment systems and provides detailed information on the major payment systems worldwide. February – June 2005 (various locations/countries).

The Future of Payments.  The conference aims to broach some forward-looking issues on how payment systems and payments media may look in the future and the implications of this for public policy in general and central banks in particular. Organized by The Bank of England, London, May 19-20, 2005.

Antitrust Activity in Card-Based Payment Systems: Causes and Consequences.  This conference will present research on the cause and on the effects of antitrust actions and address the need for better information on the efficacy of the different remedies mandated by the courts worldwide. A conference jointly sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Review of Network Economics, September 15-16, 2005.

EVENTS
Past:

Payments 2005.  The Electronic Payments Association Annual Conference highlighted the trends towards wider adoption and increased volumes of electronic payments, and the benefits these advances promise for companies of all sizes and across industries. Texas, April 10-13, 2005.

NEWSLETTERS

The ePaynews.com Weekly Newsletter.  Sent out every Friday, this newsletter summarizes the top payments news of the week, as covered on ePaynews.com.

The electronic Payment Systems Observatory (ePSO).  This site is updated regularly and provides useful links to articles, proceedings, data and other sources of information on electronic payments.

LINKS

ePaynews.com  This site is a news portal and research tool that focuses on electronic and mobile payment technologies to give payment professionals a dynamic information resource for their industry.

Bank for International Settlements.  The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international organization which fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks. 

Commonwealth of Independent States Payments and Securities Settlement Initiative.  The purpose of the Initiative is to assess payments and securities systems in the CIS countries with a view to improving their safety and efficiency. The World Bank, replicating the success of the Western Hemisphere Payments and Securities Settlement Initiative, launched the Commonwealth of Independent States Payments and Securities Settlement Initiative in September 2004, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. 

Supervising the Technology Risks.  This Conference focused on electronic safety and soundness, the risks that the financial sector faces when integrating electronic payment methods, and options for managing those risks effectively. 2004 Asia Pacific Regional Conference, Singapore, May 2004.

Western Hemisphere Payment & Securities Settlement Forum.   The Western Hemisphere Payments and Securities Clearance and Settlement Initiative (WHI), through the several activities performed since 1999, has become a regional forum to discuss relevant issues in the field of payments and securities clearance and settlement. 

World Bank E-Security/E-Finance.  This site acts as a clearing house for knowledge on how to better manage the risks associated with open network architectures; and to assist policy makers, supervisors, private market participants, and consumers of financial services to become more educated about the complex trade-offs and actions needed to manage these risks and protect digital assets. http://www1.worldbank.org/finance/ (click on E-Security/E-Finance)

World Bank Payment Systems.  Latest news reports, publications, events, analysis, policy notes and more related to this topic from official institutions, international organizations, academia and others.