Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 1 March 2018

14 tech firms joins Visa transit programme

Visa announced it has signed 14 new technology companies, from across 10 countries, as part of its Visa Ready for Transit program. The program works with companies whose technology solutions are accelerating seamless, friction-free commuting with contactless payments – helping to promote contactless growth in public transportation globally. The Visa Ready for Transit program was first announced in November 2017 with initial partners, Vix and Worldline.

The Visa Ready certification sets a benchmark for high-quality, ready-to-deploy solutions, enabling transit companies to implement a more convenient experience for commuters worldwide using secure solutions.

The newest Visa Ready for Transit partners all produce software or hardware to support a more seamless commute for people around the world:

  • AS Ridango (Estonia) provides state-of-the-art transit solutions and services.
  • BBPOS International Limited (Hong Kong) distributes mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) technology.
  • Conduent Business Solutions (France) provides diversified business process services offering capabilities in transaction processing, automation and analytics.
  • Digicon (Brazil) specializes in the provision of access controllers (turnstiles), traffic controllers, parking control systems (parking meters), electronic time clocks and automatic ticketing systems for urban transportation.
  • FIME (France) works with transit operators to deliver the interoperability of fare collection systems to provide seamless travel to commuters.
  • Mennica Polska (Poland) is a leading Polish ticketing operator and automatic fare collection solutions integrator.
  • Paycraft (India) provides contactless, open loop products with capabilities of processing online and offline transactions.
  • Perto (Brazil) develops technology products and services for banks and retailers.
  • Planeta Informática (Brazil) provides solutions for secure online and offline payment systems and devices.
  • Quadrac (Japan) provides ultra-high-speed payment servers and proximity communication devices.
  • Schiedt&Bachmann (Germany) provides intelligent ticketing and information systems.
  • Spire Payments (Luxembourg) provides point-of-sale hardware and software solutions.
  • Smartran Ltd (United Kingdom) delivers smart business solutions utilizing contactless EMV and NFC mobile applications.
  • T-Systems Ltd (United Kingdom) operates information and communication technology systems for multinationals and public sector institutions.


CIMB upgrades EVA mobile assistant

CIMB Bank Berhad (“CIMB” or “the Bank”) has added new features to its first-in-ASEAN, innovative and multi award-winning mobile application, the CIMB Enhanced Virtual Assistant (EVA), to bring further personalised, convenience and improved experience to its customers.

Launched in December 2016, CIMB EVA has delivered simplicity in mobile banking for customers, enabling easy account overviews and transactions through chat or quick keyword access.

Built to be agile and highly scalable, EVA was recently enhanced to include Spend Analyser and natural language conversational capabilities. With CIMB EVA’s Spend Analyser, customers can manage their accounts better and make smarter financial decisions via single-tap spending insights for, among others, utilities, petrol, entertainment, dining and travel made on their CIMB debit, credit and prepaid cards. CIMB EVA’s chat capabilities have also been enhanced – its natural language processing’s ability is now able to handle a wider range of chat-based transactions, enabling customers to chat with EVA based on words in a natural conversation. This instinctive natural language messaging is EVA’s key differentiator and represents the future of customers’ banking interactions.

Mastercard partners Flipkart to secure payments for online buyers

At Mobile World Congress, Mastercard announced that Flipkart will be the first merchant in the Asia Pacific region to launch ‘Mastercard Digital Enablement Services (MDES) for Merchants’.

The service will enable the card issuing banks to replace Mastercard credit, debit and prepaid card primary account number (PAN) numbers with secure digital tokens. These tokens will allow the merchants to offer enhanced security and customer experience. This announcement not only strengthens Mastercard and Flipkart’s partnership, but also exemplifies both organizations’ efforts to decrease fraud on e-commerce channels.

Storing card information in apps and online is popular among merchants and consumers to reduce checkout friction, enable subscription-based services and recurring payments. However, the security of transactions is extremely important. MDES provides an extra layer of security. In case of token compromise, MDES blocks the transaction, thus eliminating any chance of a fraud. If a device is lost or physical card is compromised, the link in MDES between the tokens and the card/device can be broken – and reissued for the new token or the card– without troubling the consumer.