Finextra Research: Latest fintech news, analysis, interviews, features and opinion by industry experts

Watchdog to probe insurance comparison sites

The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) is set to review the regulation of insurance comparison sites amid concerns that current rules do not adequately protect customers.

22 January 2008

News/Legal

GE Money reports customer data loss

Card issuer GE Money has reported that a computer tape containing confidential information belonging to over 650,000 credit card holders has been lost.

21 January 2008

News/Legal

Re-trial for ATM 'thief' given life sentence

A Chinese court will re-hear the case of a man who was handed a life sentence for taking funds from a faulty cash machine which deducted just Yn1 from his account for every Yn1000 withdrawn from the ATM.

18 January 2008

News/Legal

Payzone execs secure injunction against ousting

Irish e-payments firm Payzone has suspended trading in its shares a day after its CEO John Nagle and CFO John Williamson successfully fought off efforts to oust them.

17 January 2008

News/Legal

Maestro loses UK domain name fight

MasterCard's debit card subsidiary Maestro has lost its legal battle with a UK Internet domain name dealer over the ownership of the maestro.co.uk Web address.

15 January 2008

News/Legal

TT dismisses eSpeed patent claims

Chicago-based Trading Technologies (TT) has dismissed as "not accurate" claims made by Cantor Fitzgerald unit eSpeed last week that a senior district judge overturned a jury's decision to award it damages for patent infringement.

15 January 2008

News/Legal

Commission approves AIB/First Data joint venture

The European Commission has given the go-ahead for the creation of a payment cards joint venture between Allied Irish Banks and First Data.

11 January 2008

News/Legal

Customer bank records found on motorway

A box of files belonging to UK insurance group Prudential and including the banking details of 200 customers has been found on a motorway slip-road after it apparently fell out of a courier's van, according to press reports.

11 January 2008

News/Legal

ESpeed strikes back in TT patent case

US electronic bond trading network eSpeed says a senior district judge has overturned a jury's verdict that earlier versions of its futures trading software infringed patents held by Trading Technologies (TT), in the latest move in the long-running patent-infringement lawsuit between the two companies.

11 January 2008

News/Legal

RiskMetrics prices shares at $17-$19 for IPO

New York financial analytics outfit RiskMetrics Group says it will sell a total of 14 million shares at an estimated price of $17-$19 apiece in its forthcoming initial public offering (IPO).

10 January 2008

News/Legal

Second Life cracks down on unregulated banks

Linden Labs, the San Francisco-based creator of 3D online universe Second Life, is banning all unregistered and unregulated 'banks' from the virtual world.

10 January 2008

News/Legal

Barclays chairman loses £10,000 in ID fraud scam

A fraudster managed to con high street bank Barclays out of £10,000 in a credit card scam by posing as its high-profile chairman Marcus Agius.

10 January 2008

News/Legal

ECB wins French ruling in Document Security Systems patent fight

The European Central Bank has won an appeal in a French court against Document Security Systems (DSS), the New York-based provider of anti-counterfeit software that filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the central bank in 2005.

09 January 2008

News/Legal

Halifax facing chip and PIN fraud lawsuit

UK high street bank Halifax is facing a lawsuit brought by a customer who claims that fraudsters cloned his chip-based card and withdrew £2100 from his account at ATMs.

07 January 2008

News/Legal

MasterCard appeals to consumers over interchange ruling

MasterCard has stepped up its campaign against the European Commission's rulings on interchange charges by warning consumers not to expect lower prices when they shop if the fees are scrapped.

20 December 2007

News/Legal

UK government launches consultation on payments services directive

The UK Treasury is launching a consultation into the implementation of the payment services directive (PSD), which aims to increase competition by removing obstructions to the creation of an EU-wide internal market for payments.

19 December 2007

News/Legal

EC orders MasterCard to drop interchange fee structure

MasterCard has six months to scrap the non-negotiable interchange fees it charges for cross-border transactions or face daily penalties, under a ruling by the European Commission (EC).

19 December 2007

News/Legal

TJX settles with banks over credit card data breach

US retailer TJX says it has reached a settlement with all but one of the seven banks and banking associations that filed lawsuits following the massive data breach at its operations that resulted in the theft of millions of credit card numbers.

19 December 2007

News/Legal

ECB consults on Target2-Securities

The European Central Bank (ECB) is launching a public consultation on its controversial initiative to establish an integrated securities settlement system in the euro zone.

18 December 2007

News/Legal

FSA fines Norwich Union Life £1.26m for slack security

The UK's Financial Services Authority has fined insurer Norwich Union £1.26 million for failing to protect confidential customer data - including bank account information - from fraudsters.

17 December 2007