“Global payments processing company Stripe is launching its own fiat-to-crypto on-ramp, allowing customers to exchange dollars for cryptocurrencies. Stripe’s new transactions solution is billed as a customizable widget, which can be directly embedded within different DeFi platforms.  The most common way to on-ramp fiat-to-crypto today is to purchase cryptocurrencies through a centralized exchange — including the likes of Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and the recently deceased FTX. To partake in DeFi, one then transfers the cryptocurrency to a third-party wallet. As a major payments processor for prominent Web2 companies, such as Apple and Walmart, Stripe’s decision to step further into the crypto world during a time when centralized exchanges are under heightened scrutiny can help DeFi become more accessible to mainstream consumers.”

“Nacha’s Payments Innovation Alliance has created a new resource aimed at financial institutions, billers and payments processors. Voice Payments: Guide to Nacha’s Operating Rules identifies the most common conversational payments use cases, offers answers to frequently asked questions and assists in determining the Standard Entry Class (SEC) Codes for consumer bill payment use cases using voice-assisted devices or smart speakers for ACH payments.  “Over the past two years, Nacha has updated its Operating Rules and Guidelines to reflect emerging technology, including voice payments within the ACH Network. Voice Payments: Guide to Nacha’s Operating Rules assists by identifying the specific provisions that apply in a variety of use cases,” said Jennifer West, AAP, APRP, Senior Director, Payments Innovation Alliance, Nacha. “The publication offers important guidance to banks, credit unions, billers and payment processors offering conversational ACH payment options.”

“UnionPay International (UPI) announced its partnership with the Korea Easy Payment Foundation and BC Card to enable the merchants of ZeroPay, a local mobile payment service provider in South Korea, to accept UnionPay QR codes. This partnership enables UnionPay cardholders visiting the country to make QR payments with their UnionPay App at the merchants accepting ZeroPay. In the future, this new offering will be extended to more e-wallets that support the enrollment of UnionPay cards. In recent years, UnionPay has become a payment brand recognized by the industry, well-known to merchants and popular among consumers in South Korea through its refining acceptance network as well as its growing capabilities to service local customers. At present, almost all merchants in the country accept UnionPay cards.”

“The Payments Council of India (PCI), the apex body of payments and settlement players in the country, has launched an initiative named ‘Project Pratima’ to standardise icons for payments across apps and platforms to make it easier for customers to identify digital payment icons. Gaurav Chopra, Executive Director of PCI told Moneycontrol, “It is a project which PCI has undertaken to standardise icons of most common use cases in payments. The main idea behind this is to safeguard people against fraud and increase adoption of digital payments. Standardised icons will help users identify payments actions correctly.”   Pratima means ‘icon’ in Sanskrit. The project’s website says that it aims to improve the trust, security, and familiarity of digital payment icons in a bid to avoid instances of customers falling prey to fraud or making mistakes while conducting payment transactions.”

“National and regional governments around the world have been exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), powered by distributed ledger technology (DLT). CBDCs are similar to cryptocurrencies, however, they are issued and regulated by the central bank or monetary authority of a region; they are pegged to the fiat value of the issuing country or region. Some central banks and monetary authorities are still in the research stage of their CBDC, while others have begun the testing of various technical solutions for their CBDC.”

“Vodacash is launching its new service M-Pesa Rallonge in the DRC to allow customers to financial assistance from their cell phones. M-Pesa Rallonge is a new service dedicated to M-Pesa users with zero or insufficient balances. Users will be able to take advantage of this service to get an instant overdraft and top up their balance to make a transaction, such as: Send money without withdrawal fees; Purchase Credit for oneself; Purchase Packages for oneself; Purchasing Products; Resubscription to cable channels such as Canal+, Startimes, Easy TV, and Bleusat, except DStv, which only supports payment in dollars. As you might have already guessed, this is the same product as M-PESA’s Fuliza in Kenya, which allows customers to access credit when their balance is zero or insufficient for completing certain transactions. It has been around since 2019 and has since surpassed M-Shwari and KCB M-PESA in terms of revenue. The product has further seen its charges reduced substantially to cushion users from the harsh economic times.”

“Passengers travelling on bus, train, tram and metro services in the Dutch capital and surrounding areas can now pay their fares by tapping onboard readers or ticketing gates at the beginning and end of their journey with their contactless debit or credit card or with their Apple or Android NFC smartphone. Public transport providers GVB and EBS have launched the OVpay service in Amsterdam as part of a national rollout that began earlier this year. It has now made it available across a number of regions including Haaglanden, Voorne-Putten Rozenburg, Waterland and other municipalities in the province of North Holland. The rollout is scheduled to be completed by 2024 with OVpay due to add support for discounted fares and season tickets “soon” and the existing prepaid OV-chipkaart transit card “slowly being replaced with a new one” that will “add new services”.”

“The role of a bank in ecommerce in Australia is changing, with the launch of CBA’s new platform PowerBoard. With this solution, selected merchants will be able to “plug in” to the platform once and deploy their ecommerce offering, gaining access to a range of payment methods which can be seamlessly switched on for their customers – all through a single platform. To date, payments orchestration has generally only been accessible to larger business with in-house technology teams. PowerBoard will provide merchants of many sizes with payments acquiring, multi gateway capability, a menu of payment options, and an innovation roadmap that will future-proof their business and deliver technology efficiencies. To deliver this Australian banking first, CBA has partnered with fintech and payments orchestration platform Paydock, combining global best technology with bank-grade standards to give merchants peace of mind and meet enhanced security, fraud, data and cyber standards. The PowerBoard portal provides a simple interface to switch on features, monitor real-time transactions, and configure the experience they want to deliver to their customers; meeting the unique needs of each business…PowerBoard is set to integrate with five categories of payment methods: traditional card payments; digital wallets including Apple Pay and Google Pay; Buy Now Pay Later alternative payment methods; domestic payment methods such as eftpos and PayTo; and digital gift cards. In addition to payment methods, PowerBoard will simplify other technology integrations, such as enhanced security tools that support merchants to detect and prevent fraud. Additional connected services will be added in future releases, such as logistics and multi-currency. In some cases, an agreement will be required between the merchant and the provider of the third party connected service.”

“Extend, a leading virtual card and spend management platform, today announced a collaboration with Bank of the West, which has more than 600 branches and Commercial Banking Offices across the Midwest and Western United States. Bank of the West small and mid-size clients can begin using Extend in minutes, without any technical integration or additional application process required. The pairing gives users a simple, powerful way to control company credit cards and streamline spend management. Businesses are often challenged by tedious, manual processes for managing essential payment tasks, from paying vendors to reconciliation. Virtual cards solve many of these challenges, but access to virtual cards has traditionally been limited to enterprise-sized clients. That is no longer true with Extend, which brings the benefits of virtual cards to any business. When businesses pay with Extend, they can automate otherwise time-consuming finance operations and get real-time control and insights on company card spending.”

“India has decided to extend the deadline on capping the share of digital payment transactions by about two years to Dec. 31, 2024, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said on Friday. The NPCI had said in late 2020 that payment firms will not be allowed to process more than 30% of the total volume of transactions on UPI from Jan 1. The move comes as a breather to companies like Walmart Inc’s PhonePe and Alphabet Inc’s Google, which are among the leading digital money transfer apps in the country.”

“This summer, after a yearslong journey creating and developing its own data management solutions, Capital One launched a new line of business, Capital One Software, to sell the data management and related software products it had developed to other companies who are looking to transition to the cloud. It represents a culmination of the bank’s efforts to transform itself, its technology, and its organization, as well as a goal to offer what it has learned along the way, and the solutions it has developed and tested, to help other companies achieve the same transformation. VentureBeat spoke with Ravi Raghu, president, Capital One Software, International, business cards and payments, about the story behind how Capital One transformed itself, scaling up its own use of data and cloud computing, and then creating a business to sell its software to third parties.”

“OnlineCheckWriter.com, a leading B2B payments company, announced today that businesses could make international payments through the platform in any currency of their choice. Users could create wallets funded through different currencies and transact as required. Payers can initiate transactions in any currency of choice, while the payees would be free to accept funds in their preferred currency. This launch by OnlineCheckWriter.com would go a long way in making international payments more efficient and hassle-free for businesses. Multi-currency payment feature in OnlineCheckWriter.com comes on the heels of the successful launch of its new credit card payment facility for companies. The credit card payment feature allows firms, irrespective of their business size, to pay vendors/suppliers or any payee with credit cards – even if payees normally do not accept credit cards.”

“Coinbase tweeted this morning that Apple blocked the release of its latest crypto wallet app, asking for a cut of gas fees when people transfer NFTs to each other. Coinbase had to disable its NFT transfer feature before Apple would let the company update its popular self-custodial wallet.    “Apple’s claim is that the gas fees required to send NFTs need to be paid through their In-App Purchase system, so that they can collect 30% of the gas fee,” Coinbase said via it’s Coinbase Wallet Twitter account. “This is akin to Apple trying to take a cut of fees for every email that gets sent over open Internet protocols.”   For once, that’s not PR hyperbole.   It’s actually that serious.”

“In 2019, William Hockey, the co-founder of fintech business Plaid, announced that he would step down from his position as Plaid’s chief technology officer and president. Having helped to grow Plaid into a multibillion-dollar business with fellow co-founder Zach Perret, Hockey left for other pursuits and to — as he put it in a June 2019 tweet — make room for more “great leaders.” Hockey has kept a low profile since, maintaining a seat on Plaid’s board as the company, now valued at $13.4 billion, builds out its global finance network. But he’s been anything but idle, quietly creating the platform for what he believes is the first bank of its kind: a “financial infrastructure” bank. To rephrase, Hockey founded a bank called Column. “[Column is] a nationally chartered bank but have built every facet of the technology from scratch,” Hockey told TechCrunch in an email interview. “We are both the bank and the technology provider.””

“Japanese tech giant Fujitsu has announced plans to set up a research center for data and security in Israel as part of efforts to strengthen its Research and Development (R&D) strategy as well as increase its presence in the country. The center, which will go operational from April 2023 according to the announcement, highlights Fujitsu’s objectives of meeting the data security and trust requirements of companies and businesses at a time when many people are performing more transactions online. Fujitsu says the center, to be based in Tel Aviv, will bring together about 10 research experts from Israel, Japan and Europe and their work will be focused on improving security technology for communications networks as part of its global strategy for data and security – a key area in its global R&D strategy. Research at the center will focus on two main areas, namely developing technology that can ensure and enhance trust for network security, and technologies which can be used for a wide range of real-life situations like autonomous driving, self-checkout, as well as public safety, including anti-attack technologies for object detection AI. Fujitsu has been involved in several trials and partnerships to implement its vein biometrics and other technologies for retail self-checkout applications.”

“ABA Bank, a financial institution in Cambodia, has become the first bank in the country to launch instant card issuance kiosks using Compass Plus Technologies solutions. This new service enables the issuance of international debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay) and local Cambodian Shared Switch (CSS) cards via self-service kiosks, ensuring the bank’s customers receive debit cards on the spot in under two minutes. The bank has embarked on this project to offer an instant issuance service that would allow its customers to receive their new cards quickly and independently. The pilot launch of the bank’s first self-service kiosk was well received by customers for the convenience it provided. At present, ABA Bank has 90 instant card issuance kiosks operating in over 80 branches and ABA 24/7 self-service banking spots across the country. Since launching the kiosks, ABA Bank has successfully issued 191,000 debit cards.”

“The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced its first retail digital Rupee pilot will commence on December 1, 2022. “The pilot will test the robustness of the entire process of digital rupee creation, distribution and retail usage in real time,” said RBI. The pilot works like this: Participating banks distribute the e-rupee (e₹-R), in the same denominations available as notes and coins, into digital wallets stored on mobile phones. These deposits can in turn be used for transactions among individuals, or to acquire goods and services from merchants. Merchant payments can be made using QR codes. The e₹-R will not earn any interest but can be converted to other forms of money. RBI said the digital currency would offer the same features of physical cash – like trust, safety and settlement finality. In late October, RBI detailed that the pilot would include “closed user groups comprising customers and merchants,” but operation-related specifics would be revealed in “due course.” The first phase of the pilot will start off with four banks (State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank) in four cities (Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar.) It will later expand to four more banks (Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank) and nine more cities (Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla).”

“Electronic payments firm Pesapal has unveiled a M-Pesa tap and go pay feature, allowing customers to pay for goods and services seamlessly. The Supertap platform enables Pesa mobile users to simplify Mpesa payments at the thousands of merchants using Pesapal Sabi POS machines. Customers can now tap their phones on Pesapal Sabi POS machines to complete Mpesa payments. Supertap eliminates the lengthy process at the counter where customers are required to key in till numbers or give cashiers their phone numbers to complete payments.”

““Will that be cash or credit?” Those familiar words have probably been uttered at stores and restaurants billions of times over the last 50 years or so. But today, cashiers could ask, “Will that be cash or credit … or Apple Pay or Google Pay or Venmo or PayPal?” And if they aren’t saying it already, they might soon tell customers, “You can also participate in a buy now, pay later service — we offer Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna. And if you prefer to pay with cryptocurrency, we accept bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether …” In recent years, alternative payment methods have been gaining currency with both consumers and retailers. In 2021, the five biggest BNPL firms (Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal and Zip) handled $24 billion in purchases made by over 180 million consumers, a tenfold increase from 2019, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Meanwhile, Apple Pay and other digital wallets have gained wide acceptance among retailers while many take PayPal. And Venmo — originally intended for “peer to peer” payments among individuals — is now accepted by CVS, Abercrombie & Fitch, Uber Eats, Hulu and Foot Locker, among others. In addition, cryptocurrency is making a slow march toward acceptance. Big brands that currently accept crypto include Chipotle, Regal Cinemas, Whole Foods Market, Baskin-Robbins and GameStop. And Subway is experimenting with accepting bitcoin at three of its restaurants in Berlin. It’s enough to give any business owner pause. Is there a risk to being too accommodating when accepting payments? And is there a risk to not being accommodating enough? The answer to both questions is yes.”

“Intuit, the global financial technology platform that makes TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, announced today it has entered into an agreement to acquire SeedFi, the partner behind Credit Karma’s Credit Builder1, which helps low, or no-credit borrowers build credit while saving money, all for free. Credit Builder offers a line of credit and a secured savings account enabling members to build their credit while building up savings. By combining SeedFi’s Credit Builder technology with Credit Karma’s long standing relationships with credit bureaus and others in the credit ecosystem, Intuit will be able to move with greater speed and scale to help Credit Karma members make financial progress. Late last year, Credit Karma entered into a partnership with SeedFi to offer Credit Builder to its members, enabling them to make regular payments, starting with as little as $20 per month or $10 per paycheck. By reporting these payments to the credit bureaus, members took steps toward improving their financial health. Through this partnership, members increased their score by an average of 21 points in as little as 30 to 45 days2 and built up over $10 million in savings. This acquisition will enable Credit Karma Money to continue to build on that momentum and help put more members on a path to financial security.”

“American Express  announced Amex Business Link™, a new business-to-business (B2B) payments ecosystem for network issuing and acquiring participants to offer to their business customers. Amex Business Link makes managing payments easier for buyers and suppliers of all sizes by accepting card and non-card payments and supporting domestic and cross-border transactions. The new digital ecosystem is equipped with reporting and reconciliation tools and connects to all customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that use APIs… For buyers and suppliers, the solution provides: An easier and safer way to manage their payments and connect directly with other businesses through the ecosystem; Seamless connectivity to ERP/CRM systems via APIs; Multiple payment methods including card, ACH, wire, check, etc.; Purchases and sales insights that allow companies to monitor growth; Access to dynamic reports that allow automatic reconciliation.”

“Today, most banking services are not adapted for people with disabilities. 90% of visually impaired people have once in their life faced fraud or encountered a mistake at a point of sales. This statistic prompted Thales to develop a solution which offers trust and autonomy to people with impaired vision in their daily payment experiences. This unique innovation that vocalises each step of a transaction, is now certified by Visa and Mastercard. There is a global commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion to build a better environment for all. In collaboration with its partner Handsome1, Thales decided to use its innovation to offer inclusive solutions in the payment area. To benefit from it, the Voice Payment Card users just have to install an app on their mobile phone, which is uniquely associated with their card. Each time they make a payment, the mobile app vocalises the amount of the transaction before letting users validate it with their secret code. The Thales Voice Payment Card works as a connected device that gets the amount from the point of sales terminal and communicates it to the mobile app via Bluetooth. The customer can then hear the information either through the phone’s speaker or through earphones. This one-of-a-kind solution is about to be commercialized soon by several banks, convinced of its interest.”

“Bectran, Inc., an industry leader providing cutting-edge credit, collections and accounts receivable automation software, has launched a multilingual payment portal to empower you to conveniently service your customers globally by removing friction caused by language barriers. This functionality introduces the capability to toggle between languages and displays information in the user’s preferred language without having to relay communication back and forth between departments. Customers now receive personalized support tailored to their language of choice which equates to more satisfied customers and faster repayment. When users log in to the payment portal, they will now see all text and invoices automatically translated for them with payable amounts converted to their local currencies, mitigating confusion and the chances of misunderstandings or errors. The customer-centric formalities that the portal encompasses are designed to reduce the amount of time end users are spending within the portal while ensuring a concise understanding of the information presented, translating to greater customer satisfaction.”

“Finastra today announced that Clinc, the leading conversational AI specialist serving global financial institutions, will deliver its Virtual Banking Assistant technology fully integrated within Finastra’s Fusion Digital Banking platform. The application enables Finastra’s bank and credit union customers, utilizing Fusion Digital Banking as their digital platform, to increase digital engagement and streamline the customer experience. By enabling customers to manage common banking requests through voice and chat, the application creates efficiencies by dramatically reducing call center volume.  This integration represents a unique banking industry partnership where conversational AI software is combined with FusionFabric.cloud, Finastra’s leading financial technology ecosystem, to create AI-driven digital experiences at cloud scale. Built on Finastra’s industry-leading core technologies and harnessing an extensive catalog of open APIs, Clinc’s Virtual Banking Assistant helps financial institutions improve user engagement by offering a functional and natural experience.”

“ASIA United Bank Corp. (AUB) has partnered with Alipay+ to enable the bank’s e-wallet, HelloMoney, for cross-border transactions and to provide an efficient payment experience for users whenever they go out of the country. In a statement on Wednesday, AUB said the move makes it the first Philippine lender with an e-wallet that can be used overseas. HelloMoney will be made acceptable first in South Korea and Japan through the partnership. It will allow users to pay merchants that accept Alipay+… “AUB has been a long-term partner to Ant Group, and we are excited to extend the partnership further to enable its e-wallet’s cross-border operations through Alipay+,” Alipay+ Global Partnerships, Ant Group General Manager Jia Hang said. Introduced by Ant Group, Alipay+ was designed to enable businesses to process a wide range of payment transactions and better serve regional and global clients. “Despite it being a relatively young e-wallet, HelloMoney has garnered strong growth and adoption momentum among users. Through this partnership, users of HelloMoney can rely on the e-wallet when they travel overseas, too, without the hassle of carrying cash or change currencies,” Mr. Hang said. AUB launched HelloMoney to let users digitally perform bank-to-bank fund transfers, buy prepaid load, remit money through PeraPadala, and transact using HelloMoney’s own virtual Mastercard.”

“Brazilian lawmakers have approved a complete regulatory framework for the trading and use of cryptocurrencies in the country. Voted on Tuesday evening in Brasilia, the country’s capital, the new rules recognize bitcoin as a digital representation of value that can be used as a means of payment and as an investment asset in the South American nation. The bill applies broadly to a sector which it calls “virtual assets,” and now only needs the President’s signature before it becomes law. It does not make bitcoin or any cryptocurrency a legal tender in the country. The bill tasks the executive branch with selecting government bodies to oversee the market. The expectation is that the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) will be in charge when bitcoin is used as payment, while the country’s securities and exchange commission (CVM) will be the watchdog when it is used as an investment asset. Both the BCB and the CVM, along with the federal tax authority (RFB), helped lawmakers craft the overhaul legislation.”

“The seven banks that own the payments network Zelle are preparing a major rule change early next year that will require the network’s member banks to compensate customers who fall victim to certain kinds of scams, according to two people familiar with the plans. The shift would reverse the network’s current policy, which typically sticks customers with the losses on any Zelle transactions that the customers physically initiated themselves — even if they were tricked into sending their cash to a thief. A growing number of scams using Zelle has angered lawmakers and regulators, who have pressured banks to better protect — or indemnify — their customers. Many details of the new policy are still being worked out, said the people, who requested anonymity to describe private discussions. The approach would, for the first time, require banks to assume liability for certain transactions made on the Zelle network.”

“Till Payments, global payments fintech disruptor, has announced the release of Terminal Connect. The proprietary in-house solution integrates with a selection of Till’s in-person devices, including its Till Mobile and Till Portable terminals. Terminal Connect enables partners and their merchants to deploy an integration between payment terminals and their Point of Sale (POS) software, unlocking feature-rich capabilities direct from their device screens.  Built on the Android OS, Terminal Connect is cloud-enabled via secure authorization, offering businesses an easy implementation and installation process that can be self-serviceable through their POS system. The low-code solution enables organizations of all shapes and sizes to implement the integration without a need for deep technical expertise. Its unified API spans multiple regions, opening access to merchants and partners around the world.”

“Inter&Co, a leading Brazilian Super App offering a complete range of services in banking, investments, credit, insurance, shopping and remittance-related services, announced that it has joined Amazon’s Payment Service Provider (PSP) Program. The program requires any seller who uses PSP for revenue collecting to work with an Amazon-approved provider. Inter’s Brazilian clients – who are sellers with Amazon US -will now be able to receive and send payments directly to their Inter accounts. Amazon launched the program in March 2021 as part of its ongoing efforts to be the most dependable e-commerce marketplace for customers and retailers around the world. The program aims to enhance the ability to detect, prevent, and take action against potential bad actors while protecting customers from fraud and abuse. As of today, the program currently has 28 providers registered by Amazon worldwide, including Inter.”

“Kyriba, a global leader of cloud-based finance and IT solutions, and J.P. Morgan Payments, announce a new real-time treasury solution with a new API that delivers real-time cash visibility and bank reporting, which will be made available to their mutual clients. The end-to-end process automation, using J.P. Morgan’s open banking API capabilities, enhances existing API-based connectivity and enables more frequent data retrieval and status updates to power real-time decision making on investing cash balances. A mutual client, Hunt Companies, has already gained efficiencies and value from having these enhanced capabilities…Key Benefits of the API powering Real-Time Treasury: Real-time payments unlock efficiencies, reducing payments costs by up to 83%; Real-time bank reporting accelerates cash positioning and liquidity planning; Support end-to-end real-time payment processing to improve payments governance and fraud detection to reduce operational risk.”

“Fraud and transaction problems were leading factors in a surge of US consumer complaints related to cryptocurrencies & other digital assets. The report from the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) comes as the high-profile failure of the FTX crypto exchange has seized the attention of regulators and shaken the crypto industry. “Our analysis of consumer complaints suggests that bad actors are leveraging crypto-assets to perpetrate fraud on the public,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.  Even before the collapse of FTX, complaints from consumers who were hit by other types of digital currency losses have been rising at an alarming rate, the CFPB reported. The CFPB report said the crypto market has become a magnet for fraudsters who see little chance that their schemes will be detected due to the absence of investor protection and the opaque nature of the market.”

“AvidXchange, a leading provider of accounts payable (AP) automation software and payment solutions for middle market businesses and their suppliers, today announced the launch of cross-border payments (CBP). The embedded payment experience will be available first to Oracle NetSuite customers and accessible in AvidXchange’s newly launched SuiteApp within NetSuite’s SuiteCloud platform. With the AvidXchange SuiteApp, customers in the United States can pay both domestic and international suppliers without leaving NetSuite. Payments can be made from a USD bank account and currencies offered include AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, INR, and MXN. Once cross-border vendors have been established, customers can automate exchange rate quotes for international bills and elect to process payments. Building upon NetSuite’s robust solution for financial services, the fully automated accounting process with CBP provides better visibility into foreign exchange fees, gains, and losses, so that customers have more control over costs and cash flow. AvidXchange allows customers to streamline resources and reduce the amount of manual work required to print paper checks and keep track of costly international wire fees. With a centralized system to handle accounting tasks, the process to pay international suppliers is also more secure.”

“Swift reported significant progress in 2022 toward the G20’s goals for enhancing the cross-border experience, rapidly setting a new standard for low-value payments, transforming upfront payment processing to remove friction, bringing new levels of transparency to the securities industry, and delivering breakthrough innovation to integrate CBDCs into the financial ecosystem. The progress is the result of strong strategic focus over the past two years to enable instant, frictionless processing between 4 billion accounts worldwide and aligns with the G20’s objectives of improving speed, cost, transparency, choice and access in the cross-border payments experience. Swift’s achievements this year include: Increasing speed – Today, nearly half of Swift transactions reach end beneficiaries within 5 minutes and two thirds arrive within one hour, well on the way to the G20’s target of 75% settling within 60 minutes; Giving choice to small businesses and consumers – Sign-ups for Swift Go, which brings speed, transparency, and certainty to payments under $10,000, have tripled to more than 500 banks across more than 120 countries…”

“You are mistaken if you believe that the crypto winter has kept investors away from the DeFi Market. Web3 is the new battleground for the majority of businesses as they strive to establish their presence. Mastercard is not an exception, as the corporation submitted an application for yet another active trademark on Monday. The focus of the upcoming operation is on cryptocurrencies. Mastercard is rapidly expanding within Web3, with a focus on cryptocurrencies in particular. Monday, trademark attorney Michael Kondoudis announced the new trademark on his Twitter page. Mastercard’s most recent effort in this regard was filing a trademark application for crypto-related security services. The “Mastercard Crypto Secure” application was submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office on November 22. This filing follows those trademarks the financial behemoth submitted in April to enter the metaverse and adopt NFTs. Following this, the financial entity began cooperating with NFT markets and Web3 providers to enable users to make NFT purchases using their Mastercard cards.”

“Visa announced a seven-year global partnership with GoHenry, the prepaid card and financial education app for 6-to 18-year-olds. Visa will provide support as the exclusive global network partner for GoHenry’s prepaid cards for kids and teens in the US, UK, and Europe. GoHenry helped expand a new category in youth finance 10 years ago with a simple mission: to make every kid smart with money. Since then, with Visa’s support, GoHenry has helped transform financial education for kids, teens, and their parents. The GoHenry financial education app and prepaid card help young people learn about money through several categories including earning, saving, spending responsibly, and charitable giving. The app also enables parents to guide their child’s progress with features like real-time updates and customizable controls.”

“In an effort to increase financial flexibility for its Canadian retail credit card customers, Bank of Montreal has launched a new digital credit card installment plan solution, called PaySmart, it said on Monday. Customers can choose to break down their eligible credit card purchases of more than $100 in three, six or 12 equal monthly payments with no interest charges and a monthly fee of up to 0.9%. Purchases are made within existing credit limits via PaySmart, so no credit checks or approvals are required, the Canadian lender said.”

“Bread Financial Holdings, Inc., a tech-forward financial services company that provides simple, flexible payment, lending and saving solutions, today announced a new relationship with Versatile Credit Inc., a leading provider of innovative solutions linking bank lenders with consumers applying for credit in retail stores. Through Versatile Credit’s platform, Bread Pay’s buy now, pay later installment products will now be available to participating Versatile Credit merchants and their customers. For the first time, these customers will now have access to BNPL financing at the point of sale – both online and in-store – giving them more financial choice and flexibility at checkout. Customers can pre-qualify for Bread Pay in a matter of seconds, immediately apply the financing to their purchase, and pay for their purchase in equal installments over time.”

“Credit card delinquencies and charge-offs rose for all six major U.S. card issuers in October. Bank executives said such a trend is expected as credit normalizes after stimulus aids wane and people come out of pandemic lockdowns. Delinquency and charge-off rates were still well below pre-pandemic levels as consumers continue to show resilience despite inflation, high interest rates and a looming economic recession. All six major card issuers tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence posted higher charge-off rates in October, both sequentially and year over year. American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc., Discover Financial Services and JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted an average credit card annualized net loss rate of 1.15% in October, up from 1.04% in September and 0.90% in October 2021. However, the October figure was about half of the 2.32% recorded in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared March 12, 2020. Capital One posted the biggest year-over-year increase, of 48 basis points, in charge-off rates in October, followed by Citigroup with 32 basis points. American Express had the slightest year-over-year increase of 11 basis points.”

“UnionPay International recently announced a partnership with Tranxactor New Zealand Limited for the launch of PayZe, a contactless prepaid payment card in plastic and digital formats. Coupled with a mobile wallet for Android and Apple, PayZe provides cardholders with full transparency and control over their prepaid accounts. PayZe introduces the convenience of contactless payment to the prepaid payment and gift card market, along with a digital wallet enabling the cardholder to fully manage their PayZe card, view balances and transaction history. PayZe will be available in both chip-based plastic and fully digital formats. The digital PayZe will offer enhanced functions such as peer-to-peer funds transfer and reload, as well as using a mobile phone for ‘tap-and-go’ payment using near-field communication (NFC). PayZe will launch on November 28 in New Zealand, meaning kiwis will be able to use the card not just at home, but also when they’re abroad in some of the top travel destinations for New Zealanders.”

“U.S. shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion online this Black Friday, a report showed on Saturday, as consumers weathered the squeeze from high inflation and grabbed steep discounts on everything from smartphones to toys. Online spending rose 2.3% on Black Friday, Adobe Inc’s. data and insights arm Adobe Analytics said, thanks to consumers holding out for discounts until the traditionally big shopping days, despite deals starting as early as October. Adobe Analytics, which measures e-commerce by analyzing transactions at websites, has access to data covering purchases at 85% of the top 100 internet retailers in the United States. It had forecast Black Friday sales to rise a modest 1%. Adobe expects Cyber Monday to be the season’s biggest online shopping day again, driving $11.2 billion in spend. “

“Transaction Network Services (TNS), a global, leading payment infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider, today announced it is celebrating a 15-year milestone of continuous PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance. As an early adopter taking guidance from the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) and working collaboratively with Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) Viking Cloud, TNS has complied with, and contributed to, secure payment standards compliance since 2007…The scope of the standards has increased exponentially since the card brands first came together to form the Security Standards Council in 2006. PCI DSS 4.0 has taken years to develop and will significantly modernize payments security when it goes into effect in January 2024.”

“Mastercard introduced The Belle Block™ in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), during the 11th edition of the Mastercard LAC Innovation Forum. The Belle Block™ is a community launched in June 2022 to educate and empower women and non-binary individuals to benefit from Web3 technology and crypto. This expansion to the region comes in partnership with WAGMI LatAm, an education initiative aimed at bringing 5 million Latin women into Web3 by 2030. Mastercard believes in the power of technology and its ability to build a better future that includes everyone. This new group focuses on delivering on key building blocks: Business Growth, Education, Leadership, Legal & Regulatory Advocacy and Entrepreneurship.”

“Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, announces that software as a service (SaaS) platform, Moneybird, is the latest customer utilizing its newly launched suite of embedded financial products. Designed to simplify accounting processes for entrepreneurs, Moneybird facilitates bookkeeping needs ranging from vendor onboarding to invoicing and VAT reconciliation. To further meet their user’s business needs, Moneybird has integrated Adyen’s card issuing and business accounts – taking their offering from balance sheet oversight to fully embedded financial services. Moneybird users can now enjoy the synergies between accounting and banking, which go hand-in-hand to provide complete cash flow management.”

“New research from Trulioo, a leading global digital identity verification platform, shows that 87% of online marketplace leaders view identity verification as critical to protecting consumers and building trust during unpredictable times. Those respondents also overwhelmingly see identity verification as more than just a single step during onboarding, with 90% saying it should be continuous throughout the customer journey. The research, highlighted in the “Wary Customers Seek Reassurance From Online Marketplaces” report, reveals that consumers want online brands to do more to protect them against fraud and identity theft. It found that for 73% of consumers, online security is a bigger consideration than it was three years ago. The research also found: 57% of consumers are more tolerant of identity verification; 85% say online brands that invest in the best identity verification show they care about their customers; 75% of online marketplace leaders acknowledge digital trust has eroded during the past three years and consumers are on higher alert; 58% of those marketplace respondents report their organization added more identity verification steps to adapt quickly to fraud and cybercrime threat.”

“Jingle Pay, a UAE-based financial super-app providing money services, has announced a strategic partnership with Mastercard to provide innovative digital payment solutions that will drive financial inclusion. Jingle Pay users can now access the power and scale of the Mastercard network, which includes over 90 million merchants across the globe. Through this partnership, Jingle Pay will launch physical and virtual cards to facilitate everyday transactions for people whether or not they have a bank account.”

“Brazil’s National Monetary Council on Friday decided to allow credit fintechs to initiate payment transactions, the central bank said, a move that will in practice clear them to provide payment services to consumers and business establishments. To operate as payment initiators, fintechs currently need to open another company specifically for this purpose. With the change, they will be able to offer this service within their routine operation, said the central bank. Payment initiators, according to the central bank, “initiate a transaction ordered by the final user but never manage the payment account, nor hold the funds of the transactions.” The central bank stressed that the change should promote innovations in the financial system and increase competition between companies authorized to provide this service.”

“To mark the fifth anniversary of real-time payments in the U.S. The Clearing House (TCH) and Jack Henry launched a flurry of statistics which cast a bit of an obscuring haze over the topic.   TCH says its RTP network reaches 62% of all demand deposit accounts in the U.S. and 85% of insured depository institutions have technical access to the network through more than 20 technology solutions providers, including Jack Henry & Associates, FIS, Fiserv, COCC, Finastra and Shazam. The Clearing House is eager to show that it provides services for small banks and credit unions and isn’t just a network for the major banks.”

“OpenWay proudly announces that its Way4 Card-as-a-Service enabling platform, recently launched in Europe and already recognized as one of the top CaaS technology solutions on the market, is now available to Card-as-a-Service and Wallet-as-a-Service providers all over the world. The solution is based on the award-winning Way4 digital payment platform. It is designed for CaaS providers who prioritize a superb digital-first customer payment experience, and is powered by a flexible online product and service core with fast time-to-market, real-time processing, and a wide set of data-rich APIs. Moreover, the solution contributes to sustainability and financial inclusion when more services are bundled with cards issued on the Way4 platform. Among the services already launched are carbon footprint trackers for each cardholder, card-based distribution of social aid to financially vulnerable populations, financial inclusion for unbanked population via cards and wallets, no-plastic digital-only cards via mobile apps, eco-friendly paperless ATM receipts, and more.”

“Finastra today announced a new Center of Excellence (COE) at Malaysia’s MRANTI Technology Park in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur. MRANTI Park is a hub for technology innovation, commercial adoption, and scientific excellence. It is an ideal location for Finastra to expand its Asia Pacific footprint, further, contribute to the local economy, and promote Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) careers in a region dedicated to innovation. Finastra will benefit from MRANTI’s integrated infrastructure and services. It will be able to tap into local IT talent, including from nearby universities and the growing start-up technology community there. The new COE will champion Finastra’s Lending, Universal Banking, Payments and Treasury & Capital Markets software solutions across the region.”

“When Melbourne barista Melinda Elliott had to cut back on casual work shifts this year, she asked her buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) provider, Afterpay, to lower her credit limit. She did not want debt she could not afford to repay. The Australian company, owned by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc, cut her limit to A$2,000 ($1,300) from A$3,000, but a few months later she added up the debts in her account and saw the limit had returned to A$3,000, the maximum available. “There was no email to say, ‘your credit limit’s gone up again’; it was out of nowhere,” said Elliott by phone. “I don’t want to spend more than what I actually make from working.” Elliott’s experience highlights a core feature of a startup business model that has disrupted consumer finance around the world. But that feature and others may soon be banned in Australia under a proposal to regulate BNPL with the same law that covers credit card and mortgage providers.  Whereas credit card issuers collect both interest payments and vendor fees, BNPL companies attract users by charging nothing for credit, instead relying almost entirely on revenue from retailers. By monitoring users’ repayment performance on generally small balances to control risk, they require no background checks, so signing up is easy and the companies’ costs are low.”