85 Results
Matt White North America editor at Finextra
On the day insurance giant Aviva announced it will axe 1800 UK jobs, its American arm invited agents to visit the company's private island in Internet-based virtual world Second Life. The firm says its island features free virtual gifts and a "bright futures centre”...
06 June 2008 /retail Futuristic Banking
HSBC put out a press release yesterday hailing the US launch of a “green” credit card. Having looked at the details I think it’s safe to say the ecosmart MasterCard is not going to save the planet. The card gives you a ‘reward point’ for every dollar spent – you can then use the points to make donations to various environmental causes. HSBC negle...
29 May 2008 /retail Going green
McDonald’s Japan has just launched Kazasu Coupon, a programme that sends digital vouchers to your mobile phone which are redeemed in store by tapping your handset against a contactless POS reader. To take advantage, you just download an application to your phone and register via mobile web, selecting the coupons you want. The system, which is being...
23 May 2008 /payments /retail
The Boston Globe reports that Bank of America is embracing customer interaction via an online forum. Predictably, plenty of irate customers are taking advantage of the feature to air their frustrations. With people posting reviews all over the Web anyway the bank has decided it might as well get into the spirit of things and show customers it’s “...
08 May 2008 /retail
According to the BBC, a blogger who took aim at the police over what he considered mistreatment has been fined £150 with £364 costs for posting a "grossly offensive and menacing message". His freedom of speech defense didn't cut much ice with the magistrate. So be warned - think before you blog.
30 April 2008
Following on from Navjeet’s post on the enduring popularity of cash, a serious digital rival looks to be emerging, at least if you believe the forum's panel discussing innovations in payments technology. A venture capitalist in the audience asked what sort of exciting new technology start-up he should be looking to invest his money in. The panel...
25 April 2008 /payments
You have to feel for poor old E*Trade. In a seemingly desperate cost-cutting exercise, the beleaguered discount brokerage has had to sell off its corporate jets. Apparently the private planes enabled executives to work on the move without nosy fellow passengers peeking at confidential information. I guess they'll just have to run the risk of mid-a...
03 April 2008
A couple of weeks ago Finextra reported that security expert Adam Laurie has developed a script that lets fraudsters pull the names, account numbers and expiration dates from RFID enabled American Express cards without touching, or even seeing, them. At the time Amex told us the information was of little value to criminals and couldn't be used fo...
12 March 2008 /security
Christmas – a time to spend time with loved ones, relax with plenty of food and drink and, if you’re a troubled fintech firm, slip out any embarrassing news whilst the rest of us are busy doing better things. At least that’s the thought that, perhaps uncharitably, crossed my mind when press releases from payments processor ACI Worldwide and ATM man...
21 December 2007 /payments
Boffins at Carnegie Mellon University have developed an online game designed to teach Internet safety. Anti-Phishing Phil sees our fishy hero swimming in a sea of worms (URLs). He/we must work out which worms are safe to eat and which should be rejected. Okay, so it’s not exactly World of Warcraft, or even Sonic the Hedgehog, but nice to see an ...
20 September 2007 /security
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