“Africa-focused payment startup PalmPay has launched in Nigeria after raising a $40 million seed round led by Chinese mobile-phone maker Transsion . The investment came via Transsion’s Tecno subsidiary, with participation from China’s NetEase and wireless comms hardware firm Mediatek — a Transsion spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. PalmPay had piloted its mobile fintech offering in Nigeria since July, before going live today at a launch in Lagos.”

“Colorado residents who download a special app can use their phones as a form of ID in places like bars, restaurants and banks, but it is up to the establishments to decide whether they accept the new format. Rolled out late last month, the technology that digitizes driver’s licenses or state IDs is part of an effort led by Theresa Szczurek, the state’s chief information officer, to modernize the way services are delivered.”

“Facebook has unveiled a unified payments service designed to provide “a convenient, secure and consistent payment experience across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp”. “People already use payments across our apps to shop, donate to causes and send money to each other,” the company says. “Facebook Pay will make these transactions easier while continuing to ensure your payment information is secure and protected.””

“Nigerian digital payments firm Interswitch confirmed today it has reached unicorn status after Visa acquired a minority equity stake in the firm. “The investment makes Interswitch one of the most valuable African fintech businesses with a valuation of $1 billion,” Interswitch said in a release to TechCrunch. The Visa investment could create the first of two market distinctions for Interswitch — as it shouldn’t change the Lagos-based company’s plans to go public.”

“Toast has launched Toast Capital so its customers can secure loans, with restaurant-specific quirks in mind, like “seasonality and restaurant profit margins,” according to Tim Barash , chief financial officer at Toast. Toast will offer loans between $5,000 to $250,000 to restaurants that already work within the Toast network.”

“The subscription model is today sustaining a number of businesses, including artists, creators , news publishers, game developers , entertainment providers and more. Now, top publishing platform WordPress.com is making it easier for any creator or web publisher to add a subscription feature to their own website, so they can begin to generate repeat contributions from their supporters, readers, fans or customers. The feature is available to any of the millions of WordPress .com sites on a paid plan, as well as the millions of self-hosted WordPress sites using Jetpack, the company says. It’s also fairly flexible in nature.”

“Adyen (AMS: ADYEN), the global payments platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies, today announced the addition of card issuing to its offering. Adyen Issuing will enable clients to provide virtual and/or physical cards to their customers. Cards issued by Adyen can be used online, in-app, in-store, and can be integrated into mobile wallets. Adyen Issuing will meet various client needs. It gives them the ability to issue cards for a variety of use cases, including: marketplaces paying out to cards that can then be used to pay anywhere, and online travel agencies using virtual cards to make disbursements to their airline and hotel partners.”

“The Chinese e-commerce giant said its platforms sold goods worth 268 billion yuan, or $38.4 billion today, easily exceeding last year’s record $30.7 billion haul . Electronics gadgets and fashion items were among the most sold goods in the 11th edition of the Singles’ Day annual event, company executives said in an interview.”

“One of Africa’s veteran fintech companies is about to become the sector’s first unicorn. Global payments giant Visa is paying $200 million for 20% stake in Interswitch, Nigeria’s largest electronic payments company, UK’s Sky  News reports . The investment places a billion-dollar valuation on 17-year old Interswitch and is a major boon ahead of a proposed initial public offering slated for  the London Stock Exchange next year.”

“Cashless payments are taking off in India, growing faster than in other countries around the world. The shift has attracted a host of tech companies, backed by deep-pocketed foreign investors, battling for market share. Digital transactions in India increased by 55% last year, compared with 48% in China and 23% in Indonesia, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). By comparison, cashless payments grew about 10% in the UK, a developed market where card transactions are already entrenched.”

“Some 33% of people who traded in cars to buy new ones in the first nine months of 2019 had negative equity, compared with 28% five years ago and 19% a decade ago, according to car-shopping site Edmunds. Those borrowers owed about $5,000 on average after they traded in their cars, before taking on new loans. Five years ago the average was about $4,000. Rising car prices have exacerbated an affordability gap that is increasingly getting filled with auto debt. Easy lending standards are perpetuating the cycle, with lenders routinely making car loans with low or no down payments that can last seven years or longer.”

“Xoom , PayPal’s international money transfer service, today rolled out the ability for customers to send money to recipients in the U.S. for the first time. Through strategic alliances with Walmart and Ria, Americans can now use Xoom to send money fast for cash pick-up typically in minutes at nearly 5,000 locations across the country.”

“Amazon on Monday said it plans to open its first new brand of grocery store in California next year, as it amps up its ambitious push to become a bigger name in food. “Amazon is opening a grocery store in Woodland Hills in 2020,” an Amazon spokesperson confirmed to CNET on Monday morning, soon after the company published four new jobs postings for the location. Woodland Hills is a neighborhood in Los Angeles.”

“Fast transaction growth isn’t everything to Square, which is generating increasing revenue from lending, subscription services and its consumer Cash App. But like many payments businesses, the company’s take rate, or how much of each transaction it takes as revenue, is gently declining, due in part to doing business with larger merchants that drive tougher pricing. So volume is still very important.”

“The planet’s biggest shopping day is upon us, and Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce behemoth , is poised again to show the world how many mountains of stuff it can persuade people to buy in the 24 hours of Nov. 11, also known as Singles Day. Last year, more than $30 billion worth of merchandise was sold on Alibaba’s platforms, by the company’s own count, making Black Friday look like a yard sale.”

“I write to share my formal submission outlining my support for the Federal Reserve’s proposal to develop the FedNow Service, a new, round-the-clock, real-time payments system. The proposal is a natural extension of the Federal Reserve’s existing role in check clearing, wire transfers, and the automated clearinghouse (ACH) system. A private megabank monopoly over our electronic payments system will suppress innovation and distort incentives in our markets.”

“The New York Department of Financial Services (NY DFS) is investigating Goldman Sachs after users complained that the Apple Card’s algorithm discriminates against women in determining credit limits, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 10.”

““We’ve been asking quite a number of questions because we get many, many concerns when it comes to Apple Pay for pure competition reasons,” the EU’s Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager told reporters during a news briefing at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon last week, Reuters says.”

“Returns hit the bottom line in multiple ways: the value of returned merchandise was $369 billion in 2018, and it takes, on average, more than seven people to handle processing a return. Additionally, 80% of first-time customers who return their order will never buy from that retailer again. However, most returns happen due to preventable issues, such as shipping the wrong item, a damaged product or inaccurate product description. This puts 65% of product returns under retailers’ control, and every $1 million in returns prevented adds $500,000 to their EBITA.”

“Spending for goods and services initiated by credit, debit, and prepaid cards issued in the United States, which totaled $7.266 trillion in 2018, is projected to reach $10.086 trillion in 2023 according to statistics released this week from The Nilson Report, the leading card and mobile payment industry trade publication.  At the end of 2018, there were 6.96 billion credit, debit, and prepaid cards in circulation in the U.S. That total is expected to reach 8.02 billion at the end of 2023.”

“In a nutshell, Snapdoc’s toolset aims to cut down on manual mortgage processes by digitizing wherever possible. It automates scheduling for signings and manages payments to the tune of over $4 million per month, all while centralizing key information like order history, signer, and notary documents in a single portal. Signing agents can create white-labeled dashboards where clients can send new orders, add documents, and track progress. And those same agents get analytics on the backend, including a list of clients that generate the highest profit.”

“Rapyd, a London-based startup fintech, announced the launch of a Singapore payments platform that will help enable cashless transactions for businesses and consumers.  The firm, which received a remittance license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore last month, said it will roll out a comprehensive payments platform that will allow a range of bank transfers, conversion of cash to digital payments and expand the use of e-wallets like GrabPay and OCBC Pay Anyone.”

“Add HMBradley to the list of Los Angeles-based startups looking to shake up the world of high finance typically dominated by East Coast giants with names like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The new Santa Monica, Calif.-based bank joins companies like Aspiration and Acorns in trying to offer consumers new ways to manage their finances. Founded by a team of fintech veterans and backed by PayPal founder Max Levchin, HMBradley got its start in Levchin’s HVF Labs, a San Francisco-based venture studio.”

“Payments as a Service platform Modulr has joined Faster Payment Service (FPS), a UK banking initiative to reduce payment times. The fintech also holds an account in the Bank of England’s (BoE) Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, authorising it to make settlements in central bank money.”