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NewsBriefs

Following are excerpts from news stories recently posted under Breaking Industry News on our Most of that money ($257.33, or 71
home page. For links to these and other full news stories, please visit www.greensheet.com/ percent) was spent specifically on
breakingnews.php?flag=previous_breaking_news. gifts, the NRF said.
Mexican eWallet ToditoCash
goes fee free

Todito Cash, a payment processor
Efma, Capgemini report a wake-up call for banks and service provider headquartered
The World Retail Banking Report 2019 by Capgemini and Efma builds a case for in Monterrey, Mexico, disclosed it
new, inventive banking models that bridge the divide between banks and "Big- has eliminated transaction fees for
Tech players." Banks must collaborate with startups to remain relevant in the its digital wallet, ToditoCash. Todi-
evolving financial ecosystem, researchers found. Sankar Krishnan, Capgemini toCash users can deposit or retrieve
executive vice president and author of The Power of Mobile Banking, noted that cash, pay bills, top-up mobile phones
the evolving financial services environment requires high scalability, high se- and purchase goods and services via
curity and high throughput monitoring to predict losses and errors before they the mobile app without paying addi-
happen. tional fees, company representatives
stated. Payments analysts expect
Americans kick off holiday season with record spending the move to accelerate mobile wallet
adoption in Mexico, which remains
It's beginning to look like retailers will be ringing up record sales gains for the a cash-based economy, according
year-end holiday season. A record 189.6 million Americans went shopping at to recent reports and commentary.
brick and mortar as well as online stores from Thanksgiving through Cyber Medium blogger Guillermo Antonio
Monday, a 14 percent increase over the same period last year, according to data Araiza Torres attributes Mexico's
just released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analyt- slow digital wallet adoption to lack
ics. Shoppers spent an average $361.90 on holiday items over the long Thanks- of traditional financial services and
giving holiday weekend, a 16 percent increase over 2018. what he described as an informal
economy.
Allied Wallet accused of campaign
contribution fraud
Problems continue at Allied Wallet,
an online bankcard processor and
multicurrency gateway. The com-
pany has been the subject of several
investigations involving the Federal
Trade Commission and U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice for alleged fraudulent
activities. CEO Andy Khawaja and
company officers Mohammad Diab
and Amy Rountree, settled with the
FTC in May 2019 after admitting to
defrauding customers and were as-
sessed penalties of $110 million,
$320,429.82 and $1 million, respec-
tively.

Most recently, the DOJ unsealed an
indictment against the company, al-
leging it used its proprietary gateway,
digital wallet and merchant services
in ways that violate AML guidelines.
According to the indictment, Khawa-
ja concealed more than $3.5 million
in campaign contributions between
March 2016 and January 2017 by co-
vertly directing funds to political
committees involved with the 2016
presidential election.
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