Fuze Network

PayPerks Takes Top Honors at Third Annual Core Innovators Mega Challenge – pymnts.com

sstone — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:42:55 +0000

Jun 5, 2013, 4:00pm

Today, Core Innovation Capital named PayPerks as the winner of the 3^rd Annual Core Innovators Mega Challenge and the most promising new idea serving the Emerging Middle Class. PayPerks was chosen from among ten finalists by a live vote of hundreds of underbanked experts and fellow innovators at the 8^th Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum.

PayPerks is a financial capability and rewards platform designed to drive behaviors that are positive for underbanked consumers and profitable for the financial institutions that serve them. As the 2013 Mega Challenge winner, PayPerks will receive $10,000 cash, plus a complimentary consulting session with the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) Advisory Services team.

“The record number of applicants and finalists this year is representative of the growing importance of the Emerging Middle Class,” said Arjan Schütte, managing partner at Core. “We are excited to award PayPerks as the winner of this year’s Core Mega Challenge and a great example of the innovative new technologies and services that are disrupting this marketplace and driving meaningful change for consumers.”

The 80 million underbanked Americans that earn more than one trillion dollars in annual income make up the Emerging Middle Class and represent a tremendous opportunity for financial technology entrepreneurs. Core Innovation Capital is committed to identifying, supporting, and investing in the most disruptive companies serving this space.

The expanded 2013 Mega Challenge was featured as the kick-off event for the Forum presented by CFSI and SourceMedia. Finalists presented live show-and-tell demos of their products with a live vote by the Forum’s audience of hundreds of financial services industry executives, investors, academic researchers, nonprofit providers, and government leaders. All finalists were also featured in the Forum’s Innovators Row, a showcase of the best new ideas for the underbanked.

The three runners-up in the 3^rd Annual Core Innovators Mega Challenge, included:

Mitek (San Diego, CA) showed a new solution for the underbanked that uses the camera on a mobile device to facilitate payments.
LendUp (San Francisco, CA) loans are a better alternative to payday loans because they are designed to help customers build credit, not keep them trapped in debt.
Fuze Network (Salt Lake City, UT) is the first platform for moving funds quickly and easily to any bank-issued cards for credit card payments, prepaid card loads, and bank deposits with debit cards.

Additional finalists in the competition included iSend, Nexxo Everyday Financial Services, TrustEgg, Inc., Enova International, SaveUp, Inc., and Yattos.

The Underbanked Financial Services Forum continues today through June 7 in Miami with presentations by leading finance, technology, and underbanked experts. For more information about the Forum, visithttp://www.americanbanker.com/conferences/cfsi/ and join the conversation at #FreshIdeas13.

To learn more about the Mega Challenge, visit http://www.corevc.com.

About Core Innovation Capital:

Core Innovation Capital is a leading investor in financial technologies serving the Emerging Middle Class, the 80 million Americans that generate over $1 trillion in annual income and spend more than $78 billion in fees and interest on financial services. Core partners with proven entrepreneurs and invests in disruptive financial technologies that measurably improve the lives of the Emerging Middle Class. The Core Impact Alignment investment thesis leverages social impact to create above-market financial return. For more information about Core Innovation Capital, visit www.corevc.com or follow @coreemc.

Fuze-CFSC Training & Support

sstone — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:37:32 +0000

Walmart

masterish — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:15:23 +0000

Moving Cash to Cards – The Rise of Self-Banked Consumers Using Plastic

sstone — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:02:24 +0000

Fuze Network Presenting at 2013 NACHA Payments Conference

What: More than 35 million consumers choose not to establish a checking or savings account with financial institutions. Even more consumers – upwards of 50 million – use prepaid cards to manage their finances. While these consumers do not engage in traditional banking activities, many rely on the convenience and protection of credit cards and prepaid cards. One hindrance to self-banked consumers using plastic has been the expensive, time-consuming challenge of paying bills without a checking account or reloading prepaid cards. With the developments of innovative payments via terminal technology, transferring cash to any card can be as simple as swiping at the terminal and handing over a payment.

Who: Dave Wilkes, founder and CEO of Fuze Network, a payments technology company with the nation’s first platform that enables the movement of funds to any bank-issued card through an open Application Programming Interface (API), can provide expert commentary on: – How self-banked consumers use both credit and prepaid cards as a safety net against overspending; – The hurdles consumers face when paying or reloading cards with cash and how these barriers reduce the usage of card services; – The benefits of setting up terminal and point-of-sale (POS)-based load services for financial institutions, card providers and retailers; and – How consumers can use cards to receive funds from any electronic transfer without a checking account.

When: Wilkes is available to provide insight immediately by phone, or at the 2013 Payments Conference hosted by NACHA in San Diego, Calif., Monday, April 22 from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. PDT.

Contact: To speak with Wilkes, or for more information, contact: Joanna Braeckel at 678.781.7211 or David Jones at 678.781.7238

The Rise of e-money

sstone — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:21:13 +0000

By Dave Wilkes

T he National Retail Federation expects nationwide gift card sales to top more than $28.79 billion in sales in 2013, with $8 billion of the sales originating through the already thriving mobile and virtual gift card channels. With the proliferation of smart phones, the wallet-placeholder status of plastic gift cards is being replaced. Through virtual gift cards, consumers can send and spend gifts from their cell phones via an app, email, text or even social media – revolutionizing the way consumers send gifts and spend money.

Virtual cash
There are tangible benefits to virtual gift cards over traditional ones, most notably the ability to avert monthly and dormancy fees. Stores now send friendly email reminders to gift-card holders to notify them of card balances and usage. Additionally, the intimate quality of the customer experience a virtual gift card provides creates a more compelling brand environment for the recipient, enabling a unique, multimedia opportunity to redeem the card’s value. Open- or closed-loop virtual gift cards are continuing to proliferate in marketplaces ranging from restaurants, department stores, eBay Inc. and just about anywhere else, thanks to prepaid virtual gift cards branded, for example, by Visa Inc.

E-gifting of virtual gift cards has opened up doors for merchants by leveraging data analytics to target marketing programs based on consumers’ buying trends and habits. Retail chains and stores are developing and deploying loyalty programs tailored to support customers as they shop online. The ability to provide consumers personalized, rapid customer service will attract new customers and cause repeat customers to continue visiting the business.

The future of gift cards is now
Electronic gift-giving companies have penetrated the consumer landscape by inventing apps that allow users to quickly send and receive virtual gifts. Throughout 2013, the industry will continue to see the emergence of business-to-business companies taking advantage of the growing virtual gift card trend. Payment processing companies capable of sending money from the giver’s bank account to the recipient’s are popping up to meet the demands of virtual-gift giving consumers. Location-based virtual gifting allows consumers to send any kind of gift, at any location, without going through a merchant. Gift-giving apps process givers’ requests by using a payment processing platform to quickly and conveniently transfer funds from one account to another.

The simplicity of sending a friend a beer at a local pub through a location-based app paves the way for a sense of community, and a gift that will actually be consumed. According to TowerGroup, virtual gift cards are forecasted to reach $11 billion in sales by 2014, with no sign of the annual revenue depreciating. Companies with payment processing technologies that allow for quick, simple fund transfers are fueling this trend’s ascendancy. They are the driving force of funds and management behind e-gifting platforms – and will procure the most benefits, continuing the trend for years to come.

Originally Published by The Green Sheet here

Giftly enables consumers to send and receive electronic gifts

sstone — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:01:01 +0000

The location-based process of the electronic gift exchange powered by Giftly allows consumers to send any gift, for any amount, to any recipient. How has Fuze Network delivered and ensured the timely transfer of funds for Giftly’s 25,000 gifts made in Q4 2012 and Q1 2013? Click here and find out.

Point-of-Sale Terminals Should Revolutionize Credit Card Payments

sstone — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:31:16 +0000

By: Dave Wilkes, Fuze Network

There are more than 1 billion bank-issued cards in the United States – more than 500 million debit, 600 million credit, 50 million reloadable prepaid, 100 million private label, including store, gas and retail – and yet there are more than 37 million Americans that are classified as “unbanked” and do not possess a traditional checking account. These consumers are technically not unbanked because they possess, on average, three to four bank-issued card accounts. They have a bank account, just not a traditional savings or checking account.

The question remains is how are these consumers paying bills on plastic if they don’t maintain a traditional checking account?

“Unbanked” consumers are restricted to paying bills by waiting in lines to fill out code-specific forms in cash payment centers found in retail stores, or by waiting for their payment to arrive via mail through purchasing a money order or certified check. Traditional checking account customers spend minimal time visiting their financial institution or logging online to handle their financial needs. There are no forms, no codes and no calls to process their desired payments, plus their visit might even end with a lollipop.

How can financial institutions, retail stores and card issuers offer quick and convenient financial services for the “unbanked” and “underbanked” consumers to match those of the banked?

According to NerdWallet, as of November 2012 the average U.S. household hovered around $7,117 in credit card debt. And surprisingly, more than 40 million credit card bills were paid with cash last year. The typical “unbanked” consumer must get creative to turn that cash into a viable solution to pay bills or load money onto their multiple forms of plastic.

Transforming an ordinary point-of-sale (POS) terminal into a payment center would help revolutionize the way the “unbanked” or cash-preferred pay their credit card bills. Credit cards, and especially retail store-issued credit cards, must have accessible and cost-effective methods for consumers to make cash payments. Increasing the locations of payment acceptance for plastic will increase card utilization, customer loyalty and foot traffic – a win for the consumer, retailer and card issuer – and also differentiate the retail store from its competitor by offering such an opportunity.

Credit card payments must be seamlessly integrated into the average, on-the-go American lifestyle. A quick, premeditated trip to the drug store can offer a consumer more than just their drug store needs. A POS that is capable of accepting and processing cash as a credit card payment will allow anyone with a plastic card – banked or unbanked – to add cash to their card account quickly and conveniently. The added benefit of not having to increase inventory and additional costly infrastructure, will increase store revenue and repeat customer visits.

Mobile, online and retail banking are changing the ways consumers purchase and conduct financial transactions; shouldn’t all parties have the opportunity to benefit from this new era of banking?

Dave Wilkes is founder and CEO of Salt Lake City, Utah-based Fuze Network, a payments technology company that has “fuzed” together existing payment networks enabling cardholders to send money to any card. He can be reached at dave@fuzenetwork.com or at 888.389.3832.

Originally published by PaymentsJournal here.

ISO & Agent Weekly: Using Cash at POS to Pay Card Balances

sstone — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:27:50 +0000

Merchants have the opportunity to increase foot traffic by offering consumers the ability to make cash payments at the POS terminal through their ISOs and agents. Enabling retailers to accept cash payments for bills at the POS eliminates late fees and delayed posting times for consumers.

To learn how Fuze Network is enabling this new era of banking: Read Article

Digital Transactions Featured Article

sstone — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:12:25 +0000

Virtual gift cards are growing at a rapid rate, and according to Mercator Advisory Group, its sales are expected to reach $1 billion during 2013’s holiday season. Giftly, a virtual gifting experience that allows a gift giver to send any gift, at any location, has penetrated the gift giving marketplace by enabling the transfer of funds from the giver’s credit or debit card to the recipient’s. The value of the gift is transferred to the recipient via Fuze Network, allowing for a convenient and quick gift exchange. Any merchant can accept a Giftly; opening up the doors for smaller retail locations to offer and accept gift card programs. Instead of losing business to proprietary and large retail programs, says Dave Wilkes, founder and CEO of Fuze Network, Giftly benefits financial institutions because customers are sending money from one bank account to another; riding on the rails of other card networks. To read the full “Gift Cards Go Virtual” article, click here. (The article is on pages 26-32.)

CFSC 1

sstone — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:26:07 +0000

“Our customers love the ability to pay credit card bills for a nominal fee and see a next business day posting to their statement. Through Fuze, we are able to improve the customer’s experience and simplify how they manage their funds and access their cash.”