RBI has issued a set of new Guidelines for Online Credit Card payment processing.

Effective 1st August 2009 all online transactions will be done with an extra level of safety and security as per the new guidelines issued by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in which all online payments are required to go through an extra level of authentication.

As per the guidelines issued, when you will make an online transaction with your credit card, you will need to enter a password as an extra level of authentication after entering your credit /debit card details. This technology for safe online transactions is called VBV – Verified by Visa or MSC -MasterCard Secure Code.

MMT09 is the rightfully being recognized already as the world’s largest independent mobile money transfer conference and exhibition.

This year’s event is scheduled to take place at the JW Marriott, Dubai on the 26-27 October. Highlights include keynote speeches from mobile microfinance innovators.

As well as project management guidance, MMT09 also offers unsurpassed networking opportunities and a private exhibition featuring all the leading mobile money technology developers.

The program features over 45 leading mobile money pioneers including the banks who have practical experience of MMT programme deployment. Some of them are as follows:

Following card frauds experienced by consumers and the various degrees of support and reassurance received from their respective banks, a poll conducted shows that 50% of consumers support chip and PIN move in UAE.

Almost half of all responders to a poll have said they think the new chip and PIN idea that is to be rolled out across the UAE is a great idea that will have a major impact on fraud.

Last week’s announcement by the UAE Central Bank that all banks in the country will be required to move to chip and PIN technology called widespread debate, with some experts citing the move as useless against the type of fraud residents suffered last summer at the hands of international gangs.

Computer Viruses are not the only ones that are in constant race with the Anti-Virus – or vice versa!

Bankers are forced to adopt new technologies to protect their consumers from various types of frauds.

Reportedly, Chip and PIN technology may cut fraud cases in Bahrain as reported by Andy Sambidge in Arabian Business.

Cases of card fraud are set to drop in Bahrain following the rollout of chip and PIN technology, it was reported on Sunday.

Following an order from the Central Bank of Bahrain, all new credit and debit cards issued from July by banks must come equipped with a microchip, which stores all of the cardholder’s data.

Most UAE residents will remember the scores of consumers who were hit by card frauds, including ATM frauds, in the recent months.

Here is a report on a survey conducted on the subject which revealed that 73% of Dubai consumers worried about card fraud.

Seven percent of consumers in Dubai had been the victim of bank card fraud in the past five years, according to the results of a survey released on Tuesday.

Dubai was found to have a low rate of card fraud compared to the US and UK, where 27 percent of respondents to the survey had been hit by card fraud, and Australia, China and Singapore, where 15 percent had been affected, the research by ACI Worldwide found.

I had the pleasure of participating at MMT-08. Doubtless, it was a great learning experience with the likes of CEOs of mPesa and Obopay sharing their insights – not to forget the local players like Etisalat and NBAD.

Here are the details along with the message from Steve Clarke on MMT-09

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The total value of international mobile p2p payments is expected to reach $202 billion by 2015*. With the likes of Orange, Zain, Orascom, Globe, Smart, Etisalat, Vodafone, MTN and Safaricom all at advanced stages of MMT programme deployment, you need to finalise your mobile money strategy so as not to be left behind.

Foreign workers in the UAE send home more than $10 billion (Dh36.7bn) every year – making the country the second highest fund remittance performer in the GCC, said global trade association Money Transfer International (MTI).

And the UAE is the third largest sender of remittances worldwide. MTI says the region has the potential to drive growth in the sector though the global economy is slowing down.

“The GCC is one of the top five performers in the global remittance industry, which was worth $550bn in 2008,” said MTI’s Regional Director, Premal Patel. He said recent estimates from the International Monetary Fund indicated that the remittance volume in the UAE would lead the increase and would rise by five per cent this year.

Using the Web 2.0 write up in Wikipedia this video educates about Web 2.0 tools.

www.globalchange.com Banks will become phone companies and telecom companies will become banks. Mobile payment systems, micropayments, mobile phone credit card transactions and loans. Economic impact of remittances from foreign workers using SMS credit to avoid foreign exchange transaction costs. How biometrics fingerprint technology will allow large mobile phone payments. Commissions and interest charges on loans. Impact of revenues from American Express, Visa, Delta, Access, Mastercard …

Bahrain residents will soon enjoy the comfort of paying their utility bills from their mobile phones. This is the latest among the series of eGovernment initiatives.

The services, reportedly, will be launched by the beginning of September 2009.

“We will launch the service before the end of August,” Mohamed Ali Al Qaed, CEO of Bahrain’s eGovernment Authority (eGA), told Arabian Business in an interview. “We wanted to make sure that we had the right security in place before we allowed people to pay on their mobiles,” he continued. “Now we have a new model that will be totally secure.”