“Visa recently launched the Visa Direct Preferred Partner program, a global program designed to help partners of Visa’s real-time money movement network accelerate time to market. Through the program, Visa Direct Preferred Partners can access the tools and resources they need to help launch, sell, and grow their real-time payment solutions. The program is currently live in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America, with Central Europe, the Middle East, and Africa expected to follow in the coming months. It supports 25+ partners, including Checkout.com, Commerce for Business, Carat from Fiserv, Moneris, TabaPay, and YellowPepper, A Visa Solution, among others.”

“Digital payments and financial services player Paytm said on August 11 that the company will be changing its internal systems to ensure that loan disbursals and repayments are routed directly to and from the bank accounts of the borrowers and the lending partners, as per the latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved norms for digital lenders…Paytm, like most fintechs, acts as a technology service provider for customers to avail loans that are disbursed by its lending partners…In the recommendations by the Working Group on Digital Lending that the RBI accepted for implementation on August 10, the regulator said that all loan disbursals and repayments are required to be executed only between the bank accounts of borrower and the registered lender without any pass-through/pool account of the loan service provider (LSP) or any third party.”

“Brazil’s central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto said on Thursday it is not true that banks lose money with the Pix instant payment system, launched by policymakers in late 2020. Speaking at an event hosted by Brazil’s banking lobby group Febraban, he acknowledged Pix affected revenues to some degree, since in the past banks charged people for transfer fees, while Pix is free. On the other hand, it offers new services, increases the volume of transactions and reduces cash costs for banks, said Campos Neto. The platform, which is owned by Brazil’s central bank, has been a huge success in the country and winner of international plaudits. It recently surpassed the volume of credit and debit card transactions in the country.”

“A new study from Juniper Research has found the total number of merchants deploying soft POS solutions will surpass 34,5-million globally by 2027; rising from 6-million in 2022. This growth will be driven by Apple’s entrance into the soft POS space; enabling iOS users to access an affordable mobile POS solution. Soft POS enables NFC enabled smartphones or tablets to accept contactless payments, without additional hardware. The research forecasts that Apple’s decision to enable third parties to develop soft POS solutions leveraging iOS NFC capabilities will result in an influx of iOS-specific services; leading to innovative solutions for merchants. Furthermore, the research predicts Apple’s entry will provide 1,2-billion iOS users with soft POS capabilities; unlocking a previously untapped market.”

“With another innovative RTP® Network solution, U.S. Bank can now provide loan funds to auto dealers instantly after the loan contract is finalized by the bank. Following a successful pilot completed in June, U.S. Bank has already enabled more than 800 auto dealers to receive funds from auto loans via a real-time payment. The bank expects to deliver the solution to more dealers in the coming months as the bank continues to improve operational efficiencies for auto dealers…Auto dealers using real-time payments gain a competitive advantage, with greater control over cash flow and improved Contract-in-Transit metrics, a key performance indicator for auto dealers and their employees. The solution is also available to recreational vehicle dealers.”

“The Federal Reserve today announced the addition of several organizations to the FedNow Service Pilot Program. The participants are joining more than 120 other organizations amid the program’s testing phase, which began earlier this year and will continue through the launch of the FedNow Service in 2023. The new pilot participants include the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Exchange Bank, and several payment processors and solution providers, including Alacriti Payments LLC, ECS Fin Inc., Form3 and ModusBox, Inc.”

“Bryan Zhang, the co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, will head up the strategic working group for the oversight of open banking. The UK has moved another step closer to a clear vision of the open banking Oversight Committee with its latest appointment.   Bryan Zhang will act as the new independent chair for the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee’s (JROC) strategic working group (SWG). Co-chaired by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR), the SWG is a non-decision-making consultative forum to provide industry and stakeholder insight to help shape the future development of open banking.”

“BitPay, the world’s largest provider of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment services, today added a reward program to its BitPay Prepaid Card. Cardlytics, a cash-back rewards platform, is managing the rewards where the BitPay cardholder automatically receives up to 15 percent cash back on purchases every time they use their card at participating retailers.”

“Amazon is making its Amazon One palm payment shopping experience available at a new set of Whole Foods Market stores. More than 65 Whole Foods Market stores across California will soon offer the Amazon One palm-based payment system that allows customers the option to use their palm to pay for purchases. This is the first broad roll out of Amazon One at Whole Foods Market stores following previous launches in Seattle, Austin, and select stores in New York and Los Angeles.”

“Wise, the global technology company building the best way to move money around the world, and Plaid, the API-first data network powering the digital financial ecosystem, today announced an open finance agreement to provide customers a seamless way to move money across different financial institutions. The integration is based on Plaid’s industry-aligned open finance solution Core Exchange and provides Wise customers, totaling 13 million worldwide, with the ability to move money conveniently and securely across their own accounts. Customers simply connect their Wise USD local account details in their app of choice and use Wise with thousands of Plaid-powered apps and services. The Plaid network covers more than 6,000 apps including 9 of the top 10 most downloaded fintech apps in the Android + App Store (as of May 2022) such as Venmo, Truebill, Chime, and more.”

The Bank of London, the world’s first purpose-built global clearing, agency, and transaction bank, today announced its intention to expand its United States (US) footprint by opening its US Global Platform & Services headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, creating 350 new jobs by 2026 across numerous disciplines.

“Apple today announced customers in Malaysia can now use Apple Pay with their iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. The easier, safer, and more secure way to pay for everything in customers’ daily routines is available in-store at leading retailers, in apps, and on the web. Apple Pay brings added speed and convenience to users’ daily lives, whether they’re grabbing a coffee at Starbucks, buying groceries from Village Grocer, or making an online purchase from Shopee. Starting today, thousands of retailers will accept Apple Pay, with support from some of Malaysia’s most established banks across major credit and debit networks.”

“The DFPI has entered a settlement with Florida-based point-of-sale lender Four Technologies, Inc., in which the company has agreed to stop making loans, pay $2,500 in penalties, get a license, and refund $13,065 in illegal fees.  These refunds represent the fees Four Technologies collected from consumers in transactions the DFPI concluded were illegal loans. Under the settlement, Four Technologies will make future loans to California residents only after obtaining a California Financing Law (CFL) license. In late 2021, the DFPI reported on the shift to Buy Now, Pay Later products, and an increase in consumer use of Buy Now, Pay Later products is drawing scrutiny from regulators. The DFPI continues to lead the way on oversight, clarifying late last year that BNPL products are loans and that the companies that offer them must comply with California’s state lending rules.”

“A bipartisan group of US lawmakers wants the Federal Reserve to get more serious about issuing a digital dollar to compete with rivals like China’s digital yuan. Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters has drafted legislation that aims for the Fed to further study the prospect of a digital dollar and design a route for it to come to fruition, The Wall Street Journal reported.  It comes after Waters, who is chair of the House Financial Services Committee, called the area of central bank digital currencies “a new digital assets space race.” Another supporter of the digital-dollar effort, Republican Rep. French Hill, cited China’s creation of a digital yuan in 2020 as a concern, noting Beijing’s lending around the world could aid its adoption and threaten the dollar’s dominance.”

“Avivatech, LLC, an innovative software business specializing in cash and check software automation solutions in branch banking and retail payment environments, has unveiled its check product suite of solutions, comprising of Avivatech’s Vault and QDS Capture solutions. Together, these solutions work to provide financial institutions (FIs) a fully integrated and automated toolset for handling and processing check payments…QDS Capture supports an FI by enabling lockbox providers to continue to capture payments received via P.O. Boxes without the need for the legacy specificized transports that are becoming obsolete and unsupported.”

“Western Union today announced an update to its existing partnership with Visa, expanding its integration with Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time1 money movement network, into Western Union’s United States network. Western Union’s integration with Visa Direct was initially activated across Europe, allowing Western Union customers in more than 20 countries to send and/or receive funds directly to eligible Visa debit card holders. Building on this momentum, Western Union customers in the United States can now send money in near real-time to eligible Visa debit cards in Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, Philippines, Romania2 and Thailand using WU.com, the Western Union app, or from many of Western Union’s US retail locations.”

Sionic, a leading provider of omni-commerce, consumer-to-business payments solutions, today announced the September 1st launch of a unique resellers program aimed at ISOs, Agents, ISVs and other resellers looking to step up their game and provide merchant clients with a new Pay-by-Bank service in the U.S. Resellers’ merchant clients benefit from Pay-by-Bank instant digital cash deposits from customers at the point of sale and enjoy an average 2% cost savings over card swipe fees. Pay-by-Bank is a real-time, bank-to-bank payment service that uses The RTP Network provided by The Clearing House.

“Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.® announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Payrailz, adding the company’s next-generation digital payment capabilities, including real-time person-to-person (P2P) payments, to Jack Henry’s payments ecosystem.   Based in Glastonbury, Conn., Payrailz provides cloud-native, API-first, AI-enabled consumer and commercial digital payment solutions and experiences that enable money to be moved in the moment of need, and banks and credit unions to successfully compete with industry disruptors…This acquisition enhances Jack Henry’s payments-as-a-service (PaaS) strategy, which is a natural extension of its commitment to open banking and the ability to enable embedded finance and embedded fintech.”

“The Reserve Bank is collaborating with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) on a research project to explore use cases for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Australia. Considerable research has been undertaken by central banks, including the Reserve Bank, into the feasibility and possible technical design of CBDC, in particular exploring the potential use of new technologies such as distributed ledger technology. A question that has received less attention to date, especially in countries like Australia that already have relatively modern and well-functioning payment and settlement systems, is the use cases for a CBDC and the potential economic benefits of introducing one. The project with the DFCRC will help address this gap by focusing on innovative use cases and business models that could be supported by the issuance of a CBDC. The project will also be an opportunity to further understanding of some of the technological, legal and regulatory considerations associated with a CBDC. The project, which is expected to take about a year to complete, will involve the development of a limited-scale CBDC pilot that will operate in a ring-fenced environment for a period of time and is intended to involve a pilot CBDC that is a real claim on the Reserve Bank.”

“Saudi Arabia is among the top markets globally for contactless payment adoption, with nine in 10 transactions made with contactless cards or devices throughout the Kingdom, according to digital payments giant Visa. In line with Saudi Vision 2030’s goal to reduce the country’s reliance on cash, Saudi Arabia has made great strides in near-field communication adoption, Visa’s General Manager for GCC cluster Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman Ali Bailoun told Al Arabiya English.”

“China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot testing continues to onboard new use cases for the digital yuan. The country has now recorded its first instance of Intellectual Property (IP) financing on the CBDC platform. The Rural Commerce Bank of Zhangjiagang, located in China’s Suzhou province, has issued the first-ever digital yuan loan backed by intellectual property as collateral. In a press release, the Suzhou Market Supervision Bureau confirmed that a loan of 500,000 yuan (about $74,000) was issued to an unnamed business to fill its capital turnover gap…The loans go directly to the users’ digital yuan wallet, can be repaid via the CBDC platform, and allows for regulators to track illicit use as well as monitor fund flows for better policymaking.”

“When’s the last time you paid for something using physical money? For many of us, particularly in Australia, it’s a tough question to answer. Thanks to the proliferation of online banking, contactless payments and even cryptocurrencies, fewer and fewer transactions are being made with cash. This trend has only accelerated during COVID. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 2019 Consumer Payments Survey (CPS) – which was conducted in late 2019, prior to the onset of The Spicy Cough – contactless tap-and-go payments accounted for around 55% of in-person transactions, with both industry data and anecdotal evidence indicate that the pandemic has only increased that proportion.”

“IDEX Biometrics ASA and Reltime AS are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to jointly develop and market the world’s first next-generation, Web3 biometric payment card including cold storage and digital asset wallets, combined with digital identification. This all-in-one, EMV1 compliant biometric payment card is anticipated to reach the market in the first half of 2023. The biometric solution based on IDEX Biometrics sensor technology will enable EMV compliant payments alongside Reltime’s global Web3 financial ecosystem’s unique “check-out” feature. Securing fiat and digital asset transactions with an extra, secure layer of authentication, the smart card will also include other unique features. Moreover, this secure Web3 Cold Storage Payment and ID Card will support other Web3, NFT and digital asset formats, meeting the needs of people around the world to safeguard their valuable digital assets from being stolen or lost, while securely storing them offline, without the interference of any intermediaries.”

“AvidXchange Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of accounts payable (AP) automation software and payment solutions for middle market businesses and their suppliers, today announced TimberScan Titanium, now integrated with AvidPay, is available to Sage Intacct users offering a complete purchase-to-pay solution for professionals in the construction industry. This offering liberates construction professionals like contractors and developers from having to match purchase orders, manage invoices and facilitate payments by hand. Instead, these finance tasks can be managed remotely and more efficiently – from anywhere and at any time – via one centralized, fully automated platform.”

“Infinicept, a leading provider of embedded payments software, today announced the launch of  Infiniport, a single, open payment operations capability enabling clients to interface with any processor or alternative payment rail they choose. With Infiniport, payment facilitators, payments companies, and software platforms with embedded payments can now “bring their own processor” (BYOP) to their payments and business initiatives. Enabling orchestration between processing platforms is critical for organizations that require multiple payment processing relationships. Until now, companies that wanted a modern embedded payments experience had an all-or-nothing choice. Using one provider meant higher fees and being locked into that technology. Alternatively, companies could build embedded payments themselves. Now with Infinicept’s universal platform, customers can achieve the modern experience and work with their choice of payment processors, gateways, terminal providers, token solutions, and other industry participants.”

“ACI Worldwide, the global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, today announced an agreement with Japan’s leading central domestic payment network, Japan Card Network, Inc, CARDNET, to modernize its digital payments infrastructure. The agreement will see ACI work with CARDNET to provide the latest digital payments technology and next-generation solutions to CARDNET’s customers. CARDNET processes more than 30 billion domestic payment transactions annually and provides card payment switching services to 106 companies nationwide and over 889,000 point of sale terminals to Japan’s leading merchants. The new infrastructure will enable it to meet growing demand and provide its customers with more sophisticated digital payment services and solutions covering both Japan domestic and international market.”

“At a time of growing interest in social commerce in Africa, Instagram has started working with African startups focused on helping vendors sell more through DMs, by letting those startups connect to its messaging APIs. One of the first startups to do this integration is Bumpa, a Nigerian Shopify-like website that allows its users to create an online store, plus other functionalities like recording sales and tracking payments. Vendors who have the Bumpa app can receive Instagram direct messages from potential customers, without needing to have Instagram installed on their phones (though they must have an account).”

“Ethio Telecom has launched its long-anticipated micro-credit and saving scheme through its Telebirr mobile money platform. The state-owned telecom operator, in partnership with Dashen Bank, launched Telebirr Mela, Telebirr Sanduk, and Telebirr EndeKise, today at Skylight Hotel, August 5, 2022. Telebirr Mela is a microloan service that allows users to take out small loans without collateral based on their credit score. Telebirr Sanduk enables users to save money and earn an interest of 7 p.c on it.”

“The use of Pix in Brazil’s major online stores has again reached an all-time high level, and now the instant-payment system created by the Central Bank shares with boleto, a banking bar-coded bill for cash payments, the second position among the most available payment methods in e-commerce, according to Gmattos’s most recent payment study. The analysis shows that credit cards remain at the top of the ranking, but there have been important changes, with fewer sellers willing to offer 12 interest-free installment plans. In July, 78% of the analyzed stores offered the option of payment via Pix, compared with 16.9% in early 2021, when the survey was first conducted. The percentage is the same when boletos are analyzed. Credit cards are accepted by 98.3% of retailers. The study considered 59 online stores, which account for 85% of e-commerce in the country.”

“The Indian diaspora will soon be able to pay utility bills and other recurring payments like fees using the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), the Reserve Bank announced on Friday. The RBI made it clear that the move is not driven by the need to attract more remittances at a time when the domestic currency is under pressure, nor it is the result of its efforts to minimise the spreads made by banks while converting currency. The Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an interoperable platform for standardised bill payments. Over 20,000 billers are part of the system, and more than 8 crore transactions are processed on a monthly basis.”

“Over the weekend of May 7–8, 2022, Terraform Lab’s TerraUSD stablecoin (aka “UST”)—which was one of the top-three largest stablecoins by market share—plummeted to mere pennies from its previous $1 peg.  The damage was done by the following Monday.  Investors had lost over $18 billion invested (aka “locked”) into TerraUSD.  Make that over $40 billion when combined with the value of Luna, Terra’s native token. While the future of TerraUSD and other cryptocurrencies hang in the balance, there is one thing readers can take to the bank: stablecoin regulation is coming.  And at least some stablecoin issuers appear to welcome it.”

“Stablecoins, which are designed to be pegged to the value of a more “stable” asset, are subject to a string of regulatory gaps that should be filled as the market keeps evolving, Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer of cryptocurrecy exchange Coinbase Global (COIN), said Wednesday during the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank’s 2022 fintech conference… For instance, “understanding what reserve assets stand behind a given stablecoin, and having certain requirements, for example, regarding the composition of those reserve assets,” are necessary for “additional regulation to clarify the standards and requirements attached to these stablecoins,” Grewal explained. His suggestion comes after the multi-billion dollar meltdown of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUST (UST-USD) when it de-pegged from the U.S. dollar in May. Singapore’s central bank, in particular, is currently assessing its approach in regulating stablecoins.”