Amex Italy suspends card issuance

American Express Italy is temporarily suspending issuance of new cards from 12 April to complete IT upgrades after a Bank of Italy inspection, states Reuters.

Earlier, a Bank of Italy source said the central bank had ordered a halt to the issuance of new American Express credit cards in Italy as part of a fraud and usury investigation. The source said the company did not meet Italian legal requirements "with regard to usury, money-laundering and transparency".

In a statement, American Express acknowledged it had received a report following an inspection from the Bank of Italy. "As a result of the inspection, the company is currently implementing an upgrade of its IT systems and other procedures, in order to adhere more closely to the regulations applicable to payments service providers and financial intermediaries," it said.

Two of SA's largest companies, Standard Bank and MTN, have been served with summonses that could result in a claim nearing R1 billion, according to Business Report.

The claim is for alleged infringement of technology patents in establishing and running the joint Standard Bank-MTN cellphone banking venture, MTN Banking.

The claim is by 3MFuture Africa, a company controlled by a German IT expert, Wolfram Reiners, who is a South African permanent resident. Reiners claims Standard Bank and MTN used technology developed by him and two others in 2000 to launch and maintain MTN Banking.

Monitise has signed a joint venture agreement with First Eastern and secured additional funding of £5.6 million (R62 million) as the Hong Kong-based investment group increased its shareholding in the UK firm, as part of the deal, reports Mobile Entertainment News.

First Eastern has extensive reach from its Hong Kong base into China and throughout Asia. This deal will take Monitise's Mobile Money Manager technology platform into these key strategic markets.

The first services are expected to be live in Hong Kong in the second half of 2010. Monitise has over two million registered customers, giving them the opportunity to use their mobiles to check balances, be alerted to transactions on their accounts, pay bills and send money.