June 25, 2019

Visa announced an agreement to buy the tokenization and ticketing business, formerly known as Bell ID and Ecebs LTD, from Rambus, according to a release. 

The acquisition, when combined with Visa's network tokenization capabilities, will help facilitate safer and more secure payments, company officials said. 

"Facilitating safer and more secure digital transactions is core to Visa's brand promise and central to growing electronic payments for everyone, everywhere," TS Anil, senior vice president and global head of payments products and platforms, said in a company release. "As the way people and businesses pay and get paid continues to evolve, the addition of Rambus' technology will allow us to deliver greater security beyond the card to support more transactions, payment systems and participants."

Topics: Card Brands, Security

Companies: Rambus, Visa

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June 25, 2019

Citigroup Inc. announced a new rewards feature with Mastercard to allow Citi ThankYou cardmembers to get real-time alerts and redeem their points on a variety of purchases at the point of sale in stores. 

Citi said that starting in July that ThankYou members would be able to use its new Pay With Points feature to get push notifications after eligible purchases and use accumulated points for a variety of rewards, ranging from groceries to entertainment and department store purchases. 

Citi is the first major issuer to allow U.S. cardmembers to apply their points in real time for shopping or dining, according to the company. 

Citi officials cited data showing 86% of customers would redeem their points if they could do it in real time. 

"Our customers work hard to earn those points and we want to make it as rewarding as possible," Mary Hines, head of customer engagement and innovation, Citi Branded Cards, said at a press breakfast in Manhattan today. 

The Pay With Points feature works with Citi Prestige, Citi Premier, Citi Rewards and Citi ThankYou Preferred cardmembers. 

Cardmembers who don’t want alerts after each eligible purchase can set up alerts daily or weekly, and can also set up a minimum dollar amount for an alert. They can also set up email alerts instead of mobile alerts. 

Citi ThankYou cardmembers in the U.S. will be able to use Pay with Points using Citi.com or the Citi mobile app to set up push notifications to find out which points are eligible for ThankYou Points redemption. 

Citi ThankYou cardmembers can also redeem ThankYou Points for eligible purchases online, according to Citi. 

Image courtesy of Citi

Topics: Card Brands, In-App Payments, Loyalty Programs, Mobile Banking, Mobile Payments, POS, Restaurants, Retail

Companies: Citi, MasterCard

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June 25, 2019

By Christina Luttrell, senior vice president of product and client solutions at IDology

The vast majority of consumers own a mobile device of some kind. The share of Americans that own smartphones is 77%, up from just 35% in Pew Research Center’s first survey of smartphone ownership conducted in 2011. Consumers today expect the "anywhere, anytime" convenience of using those devices for everything from shopping to paying bills and opening new accounts. Yet, while consumers have gravitated to mobile, so has fraud.

Mobile devices are direct pathways to the type of personal information that fraudsters want to compromise. As mobile fraud continues to rise, businesses must consider the risks presented by mobile malware that can steal personal information and intercept text messages right off a consumer’s smartphone. And with consumer preference for friction-less experiences, businesses must also look at fraud detection and identity verification in a different light, taking into consideration ways to protect consumer data while also delivering a positive customer experience.

Mobile Fraud Tactics

The list of ways that fraudsters target mobile devices is long and always evolving, but some of the more common include:

Mobile Change Events  

Within the last 12 months, 47% of consumers (or an estimated 100.6 million mobile phone owners) experienced at least one of type of mobile change event. These mobile change events, which include porting a number or changing carriers, make it easier for fraudsters to compromise consumer data and more challenging for businesses to identify and authenticate digital device identities. This is evidenced by the increase in mobile phone account takeovers — which help criminals gain access to financial accounts when consumers utilize two-factor authentication involving a text message or token app — which doubled in 2017 according to an Identity Fraud Study published by Javelin.

Multi-layered Approach

The opportunity that comes with mobile far outweighs the risk. Mobile identity verification can elevate customer trust, facilitate onboarding and engagement, increase business identity assurance and deter fraud — if done properly. But how?

While there are multiple ways to authenticate identity via a mobile device, no one method is a silver bullet. However, there is a starting point from which other methods can be layered on — mobile network operators (MNOs). Sourcing real-time device and user information directly from MNOs can help businesses create a unique mobile identifier that persists through mobile change events. This means that a customer’s device, and by default that customer, is automatically authenticated behind the scenes and granted immediate access. This persistent mobile identifier is effective across devices and networks, so it neutralizes password burdens and instantly builds trust in the business-customer relationship.

When other methods are layered on, such as the ability of a smartphone to take pictures or scan an ID, the mobile device becomes the ultimate identity verification mechanism. By starting with MNO data to verify a mobile identity and building on other methods as needed, legitimate customers are quickly given the green light and additional steps and friction can be applied only when needed.

The ever-increasing number of consumers with a preference for mobile, along with growth of customer-not-present fraud, have created a perfect storm and are paving the way for a new, dynamic approach to authenticating mobile identities. At the end of the day, we have to look at mobile in a different light. The layers of identity verification businesses use should make it difficult for fraudsters to get in, but simple for customers to do business with them. The companies that have been successful at lowering the effort required by customers to access services and solve problems are enjoying a distinct competitive advantage with the ability to attract new customers and retain existing ones.

Cover photo: iStock

Topics: Handsets / Devices, Security

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June 25, 2019

Monzo, a U.K.-based challenger bank, said it raised $144 million (113 million British Pounds) in funding, led by Y Combinator Continuity and Latitude, according to a new blogpost. 

Monzo said it now has more than 2 million customers, with about 200,000 joining the bank by the end of June.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after Monzo announced plans to enter the U.S. market during the summer. Monzo will work with Ohio-based Sutton Bank, which is FDIC insured, to launch a U.S. neobank. 

Just yesterday, Monzo officials said the bank is testing new business accounts with a group of 100 customers and plans a wider rollout of firms on a waitlist, according to a blogpost. There are currently about 15,000 business owner on the list. 

Topics: Mobile Banking, Region: EMEA

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