Payments News

April 26, 2018

Headline News from PaymentsNews.com

Zelle Network® Announces $25 Billion in Person-to-Person Payments in Q1 2018

“In the first quarter of 2018, more than $25 billion moved through the Zelle Network, up 15 percent quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), on 85 million transactions, up 14 percent QoQ. “Zelle^® is replacing cash and checks for sending gifts for birthdays to distributing funds to those in need, changing how money moves safely for millions of consumers,” said Paul Finch, CEO at the bank-owned Early Warning Services – the network operator behind Zelle. “In partnership with each of our participating financial institutions, we are educating consumers while innovating to deliver safe and secure payments.””

Tags:
P2P

On The Web

Business Function, Regulation

Your local post office could become a bank if this bill passes

CNBC

Tags:
Financial Inclusion

"Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is proposing legislation aimed at putting an end to current payday lending practices by giving some banking services a new home: the U.S. Post Office. The legislation, called the Postal Banking Act, would make retail banking services available at all U.S. Postal ...More

Companies, Domains

PayPal hails Venmo impact, mobile payment growth

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/money-home-banner/paypal-hails-venmo-impact-mobile-payment-growth/

"PayPal registered a record number of users on its mobile payments platform Venmo in Q1 2018, despite facing stiff competition from new challengers including Apple and the US bank-driven brand Zelle. During the company’s Q1 earnings call, CEO Dan Schulman (pictured) said Venmo – which is largely use...More

Companies

PayPal Forecasts Growth, Easing Concerns Over Losing EBay

Bloomberg

"Dan Schulman, PayPal’s chief executive officer, has been expanding partnerships with companies once viewed as threats, like Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc., and making acquisitions to strengthen its position. He’s pushing for PayPal to become a more versatile financial tool, rather than just a payment...More

Companies

Apple Puts Big Money Into Mobile Payments Lobbying

Payment Week

Tags:
Apple

"A company like Apple can be a strange animal, particularly when it gets involved in politics. A new report says that Apple recently spent the second-most money it’s ever spent on lobbying efforts, a hefty $2.14 million in the first quarter of 2018, specifically to target the Consumer Financial Prot...More

Domains, Tech

53% Of Consumers Want Smartphone Payment Option

Retail Touch Points

"Smartphone-based payment solutions have so far been slow to take off in the North American market, but that trend could be shifting. Nearly one in three (31%) of consumers already use mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, and 53% of consumers feel stores should accept smartphone payments. That figure r...More

Global

Ant Financial, bKash partner for Bangladesh payments

Mobile World Live

"Alipay parent Ant Financial invested in Bangladesh mobile wallet company bKash, with the two set to collaborate on expanding the capabilities of the latter platform and measures to boost financial inclusion. bKash already has 30 million registered users in Bangladesh and a network of 180,000 agents...More

Global

WORKING PAPER: DFS PAYMENT ASPECTS FOR FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN THE ARAB REGION

Arab Monetary Fund

"Over the past five years, the Arab region's financial services industry and policymakers have taken significant steps to recognize and address challenges to meaningful financial inclusion for its people. Still, the Arab region continues to face challenges in pursuing financial inclusion compared to...More

Infographic, Regulation

WHAT THE GDPR MEANS FOR PAYMENTS?

European Payments Council

Tags:
Privacy

"The GDPR significantly revises and harmonises how consumers’ personal data shall be protected in the European Union. When it comes to data privacy, payments might be one of the most sensitive areas for consumers."

Investments / M&A

Cashback app Dosh raises $44M on a $240M valuation from PayPal and more

TechCrunch

"Dosh, a startup and app of the same name that lets you get cash back when you shop at selected retailers with a linked card, has raised $44 million in a Series A round of funding from investors that include PayPal and Goodwater Capital. The company has paid out $25 million to some 3 million uses si...More

Providers

Digital banking startup Revolut raises $250M at a valuation of $1.7B

TechCrunch

"To put this into context, TransferWise — London’s undisputed fintech darling and on some features a direct competitor to Revolut — recently announced $280 million in Series D investment, giving the company a reported post-money valuation of $1.6 billion. The difference? It took TransferWise seven y...More

Risk & Fraud

The Crypto Crime Wave Is Here

Wall Street Journal (Paywall)

"The Meza case is part of a recent spike in cryptocurrency crime, prompted by the soaring values of digital currencies like bitcoin. Chainalysis Inc., a firm that analyzes cryptocurrency transactions, says reported thefts of bitcoin worldwide increased from $3 million in 2013 to $89 million last yea...More

On The Wires

Companies

Barclays and PayPal Announce Industry Leading Partnership

Tags:
Apple

"Barclays (LON:BARC) has announced a new strategic partnership with PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) that is designed to enable customers to manage and use their Barclays and PayPal accounts together with greater ease, for the first time. The partnership is expected to benefit millions of consumer and small bus...More

Companies, Tech

Ripple Grows Its Global Payments Network With Five New xVia Customers

Tags:
Ripple

"Ripple, the enterprise blockchain solution for global payments, is announcing that five new customers across Europe and Asia - FairFX (U.K.), RationalFX (U.K.), Exchange4Free (U.K.), UniPAY (Georgia), and MoneyMatch (Malaysia) - will use xVia to power frictionless payments over RippleNet."

Domains

Western Union Expands Digital Service to Panama and Jamaica

Tags:
Remittances

"The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement, today extended its global digital footprint to Latin America and the Caribbean, activating the Western Union® mobile app (for iOS and Android) in Panama and Westernunion.com/jm in Jamaica, enabling custom...More

Systems

ACI Worldwide Spotlights Real-Time Payments and Open Banking at NACHA PAYMENTS 2018

Tags:
ACH

"ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading global provider of real time electronic payment and banking solutions, today announced its participation at NACHA PAYMENTS 2018, held April 29-May 2 in San Diego, Calif. ACI will showcase the latest in real-time, digital and open banking offerings at its boot...More

April 25, 2018

Headline News from PaymentsNews.com

On The Web

Business Function

Shift4 Is Embroiled in an Antitrust Suit Alleging It Shuts out Rival Restaurant Processors

Digital Transactions News

Tags:
Litigation

"The ongoing consolidation of companies focused on point-of-sale systems for restaurants gave rise on Tuesday to an antitrust suit that seeks to reverse one of the most recent mergers among payment processors. Payment Logistics Ltd., a San Diego-based payments provider, alleges in its complaint that...More

Companies

TransferWise launches multi-country bank account

Finextra

Tags:
TransferWise

"TransferWise says that for anyone travelling, living or working abroad the account means they can manage their money between countries more easily than ever before, with no sneaky fees and no exchange rate markups. Customers can hold and convert funds in over 40 global currencies meaning they can ...More

Investments / M&A

BigCommerce raises $64 million to power e-commerce sites

TechCrunch

"The growth-stage startup, which powers e-commerce sites for Sony, Toyota and 60,000 other merchants, has raised $64 million to accelerate its business. The investment was led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from General Catalyst, GGV Capital and Tenaya Capital. And it brings BigCommerce’s tot...More

Providers

Royal Bank of Scotland takes aim at challengers with digital-only bank

Tearsheet

"RBS is moving in on challenger bank territory. The Royal Bank of Scotland reportedly plans to launch a mobile, digital-only banking platform in a beta testing phase in the third quarter. The experience is being designed as a “marketplace” for financial services that would recommend different financ...More

Providers

How to become a bank

Bank of England

Tags:
Financial institutions

A presentation by the Bank of England Prudential Regulation Authority.

Providers

Incomm Flexes It’s Muscles Within the Prepaid Value Chain

Payments Journal

Tags:
Processors

"This announcement changes the business’ public perception of InComm’s capabilities, they have always been known as a distributor and major processor for the gift card industry, but not in the General Purpose Reloadable (GPR) space. This exposes the strength of InComm’s money distribution system th...More

Regulation

GSMA Puts eSIM Spec Dev on Hold as Feds Investigate AT&T, Verizon

Light Reading

"AT&T, Verizon and the GSMA are under investigation by the DoJ, under suspicion of making it harder for subscribers to seamlessly move between carriers, by locking new eSIM user identity technology to their networks. Embedded Subscriber Identity Management -- or eSIM -- is supposed to be the lat...More

Risk & Fraud

To Catch Bad Actors, Winklevosses’ Bitcoin Exchange Teams Up With Nasdaq

Wall Street Journal (Paywall)

"Gemini, the bitcoin exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has teamed up with Nasdaq Inc. to beef up its defenses against market manipulation—the latest sign that the cryptocurrency industry is trying to get past its Wild West days. The deal comes as regulators have stepped up scrutiny o...More

Systems

BitPay Targets Physical Stores for Cryptocurrency With a Refreshed Checkout App

Digital Transactions News

Tags:
Bitcoin

"BitPay introduced its Checkout app, which works on Android and iOS smart phones and is aimed specifically at physical retailers, in November 2014. Now, the update introduces a redesign of the app and includes a feature called Payment Protocol, which the company says can reduce user errors, such as ...More

Tech

Exclusive Q&A With Mastercard Exec: Expanding Payment To Wearables, VR And Smart Home Devices

Retail Touch Points

Tags:
IoT

"Payments are the unglamorous but absolutely necessary piece of any consumer purchase. As retail touch points have multiplied and become more technologically complex, encompassing mobile devices, wearables, and now voice, AR and VR applications, payment providers have had to keep pace. One indicatio...More

On The Wires

Companies

Buckle Up, Prime Members: Amazon Launches In-Car Delivery

Tags:
Amazon

"Amazon today announced that Amazon Key, the service that already enables in-home delivery and keyless guest access, now gives customers an option to receive deliveries inside their vehicle. With Amazon Key In-Car, Prime members with compatible vehicles now have the convenience of having packages de...More

Companies

Visa Inc. Reports Fiscal Second Quarter 2018 Results

Visa

Tags:
Visa

"Payments volume for the three months ended December 31, 2017, on which fiscal second quarter service revenue is recognized, grew 10% over the prior year on a constant-dollar basis. Payments volume for the three months ended March 31, 2018, grew 11% over the prior year on a constant-dollar basis. Cr...More

Companies

Financial Institutions Get Fit for Open Banking with Fiserv

Tags:
Fiserv

"The move toward open banking, driven by the European Union’s Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and the United Kingdom’s Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), will transform financial services. As a result of these regulations consumers will be able to access financial information and in...More

Market Reports

Adyen Study Reveals The Cost Of Convenience; Retailers Lost $37.7B In Potential Sales Due To Long Lines

"he study showed that the demand for immersive interactions is shifting competition in retail from price points to experiences. To compete effectively in today's environment, retailers must go beyond selling a product or service to delivering experiences that cater to their customers' own unique nee...More

Security

Secure Technology Alliance Provides Education on Trusted Execution Environment and EMVCo Payment Account Reference

"In alignment with its expanded mission, the Secure Technology Alliance has released two new resources today that provide high-level overviews on the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) and EMVCo Payment Account Reference (PAR). Last March, the Alliance expanded its mission to security technologies ...More

April 24, 2018

Headline News from PaymentsNews.com

Systems

U.S. Faster Payments Council Proposed: Industry Encouraged to Review, Comment

Faster Payments Task Force

“A draft governance framework for an organization to be named the U.S. Faster Payments Council is now available for broad industry feedback. A governance framework was identified last year by the former Faster Payments Task Force as critical to sustaining progress and achieving faster payments ubiquity in the United States.”

On The Web

Companies, Tech

Inside Santander’s plans to digitize money

Tearsheet

"Many banks focus their blockchain efforts on post-trade processing or bank-to-bank payments, but Santander is working on tokenizing payments for retail customers. The Spanish banking giant’s U.K. arm recently launched One Pay FX, a mobile payments service for its U.K. debit card holders that want t...More

Companies

Amazon will now deliver packages to the trunk of your car

The Verge

Tags:
Amazon

"Amazon announced today a new service that gives its couriers access to a person’s vehicle for the purpose of leaving package deliveries inside. But rather than use smart locks and a cloud-connected camera to gain entry, Amazon wants to use the connected technologies embedded in many modern vehicles...More

Domains

Are Masterpass and Visa Checkout Doomed by the New Shared Buy Button?

Digital Transactions News

Tags:
Remote Commerce

"Speculation that Visa Checkout and Masterpass brands may be on the way out has surfaced following announcements last week from Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. they would support a shared buy button for online purchases based on EMVCo’s Secure Remote Commerce specification. Reports of a possible phase...More

Domains

Remittances Rose in 2017 While Their Costs, Although Still High, Declined

Digital Transactions News

Tags:
Remittances

"Driven by growth in the United States, Europe, and Russia, global remittances grew 7% in 2017 to $613 billion from $573 billion in 2016, the World Bank reported Monday. At the same time, the average cost of remittances fell, though expenses remain more than twice as high as the World Bank would lik...More

Global, Tech

Half of all London’s pay as you go journeys are now contactless

MayorWatch

Tags:
Contactless

"London’s successful adoption of contactless fares reached an important milestone today with the news that half of all Tube and rail pay as you go journeys in the capital are now made using the technology. First launched in 2012 on buses and extended to Tube and rail services in Summer 2014, contact...More

Tech

TSB online banking chaos leaves MPs demanding action

The Guardian

"TSB’s botched IT “upgrade” has snowballed into a full-scale crisis that has left up to 1.9 million customers locked out of their accounts for five days, with MPs demanding action and the bank facing a potential multimillion-pound compensation bill and regulatory fines."

On The Wires

Business Function

Expensify Announces Collaboration With Wells Fargo to Launch ExpensifyApproved! Banks Program

Tags:
Expense management

"Expensify, a premier innovative expense reporting app provider, launched the ExpensifyApproved! Banks program today at ExpensiCon with Wells Fargo as its first major partner. This relationship will allow the two firms to continue to deepen their existing agreement on creating an innovative and more...More

Companies

eBay and PayPal Finalize New Payments Agreement

Tags:
eBay
PayPal

"As previously announced, the new agreement between eBay and PayPal will ensure that PayPal as a form of payment continues to be available to buyers on the eBay marketplace. PayPal as a form of payment includes payments through the PayPal payment button, as well as value-added services such as fraud...More

Security

Pay with the touch of a finger

Tags:
Biometrics

"Nets, the digital payments specialist, has launched testing of finger vein payments in Denmark. Now, students and visitors at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) can leave their cash, cards and smartphones behind and buy lunch using just their finger. Paying with your finger is a new, faster and safe...More

Security

Elavon Gives Customers and Partners Enhanced Protection from Data Breaches with PCI Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) Validation

Tags:
P2PE Validation

"Elavon, a leading global payments provider and subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), today announced its Safe-T Link® with P2PE Protect received validation as a Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards CouncilTM Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE)TM solution. Receiving this level of validation ...More

April 23, 2018

Headline News from PaymentsNews.com

Business Function

Shiny New Button May Help Visa, Mastercard and AmEx Fight PayPal

Bloomberg

“Earlier this week Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., the world’s largest card networks, told an industry conference they will combine their Visa Checkout and Masterpass payment options into a single button. Spokesmen for American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services said their firms also will join the project.”

Tags:
Ecommerce payments

On The Web

Business Function, Global

19 crore (1.9M) Indian adults don’t have bank account: World Bank

Livemint

Tags:
Venezuela

"Besides, almost half of the bank accounts remained inactive in the past year, the multilateral financial institution said in a report, even as it lauded the Indian government’s financial inclusion scheme, the Jan Dhan Yojana, for bringing in additional 31 crore Indians into formal banking system by...More

Business Function

Continuing to Make Choice a Reality with Samsung Pay

PayPal

Tags:
Mobile commerce

"Today, we have begun rolling out the ability for consumers to use PayPal within Samsung Pay and make purchases at the millions of retailers that accept Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay users can load their PayPal account with the debit card or bank account found in their PayPal Wallet for use in-store - al...More

Domains

Zelle, the Banks’ Answer to Venmo, Proves Vulnerable to Fraud

New York Times (Paywall)

Tags:
P2P

"Zelle, a service that allows bank customers to instantly send money to their acquaintances, is booming. Thousands of new users sign up every day. Some $75 billion zoomed through Zelle’s network last year. That’s more than twice the amount of money that customers transferred with Venmo, a rival mone...More

Global, Security

Viewpoint: The pitfalls of India’s biometric ID scheme

BBC

"More than a billion Indians now have the biometric-based 12-digit personal identification number called Aadhaar, which means foundation in Hindi. What started as a voluntary programme to tackle benefit fraud has now grown into the world's most ambitious, and controversial, digital identity programm...More

Investments / M&A

Razer doubles down on Southeast Asia and payments with acquisition of MOL

TechCrunch

"Gaming hardware maker Razer, which went public in a big IPO in Hong Kong last year, is doubling down on payments after it announced a deal to acquire MOL, a company that offers online and offline payments in Southeast Asia."

People, Risk & Fraud

Featurespace CEO Martina King using machine learning to crack credit card fraud

"Featurespace CEO Martina King is making it harder for hackers to commit credit card fraud. Her U.K. company, which recently expanded into the U.S., has machine-learning software that not only tags fraud, but is able to quickly clear cards that have been erroneously cited. The latter ability is impo...More

Risk & Fraud

SunTrust Says Ex-Worker May Have Stolen Data on 1.5M Clients

U.S. News

Tags:
Data breach

"SunTrust Banks Inc. says accounts for 1.5 million clients could be compromised following a potential case of data theft. The Atlanta bank said Friday that a former employee may have stolen the data and an investigation is ongoing. Compromised information could include names, addresses, phone number...More

Security, Tech

Chase customers can now use their voices to unlock their accounts

Tearsheet

"Chase is rolling out voice-based authentication for card customers phoning its call center starting this spring."

Tech

Walmart Wants to Store Payment Data On a Blockchain

Coindesk

Tags:
Blockchain

"The two applications - published on Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) - both reference using a blockchain-powered platform to secure the payment data, ensuring that private information can't be access by unauthorized parties. The same Walmart team drafted both applications, w...More

On The Wires

Domains

PayStand Announces B2B Payments Integration with SuiteCloud, Achieves ‘Built for NetSuite’ Status

Tags:
B2B

"PayStand, the B2B payment platform for the future of business, has achieved ‘Built for Netsuite’ status. Announced at SuiteWorld Las Vegas, the new SuiteApp integrates and automates entire NetSuite-based financial processes by automating the $550 billion worth of transactions stuck in pre-internet ...More

April 19, 2018

Headline News from PaymentsNews.com

Companies

Jeff Bezos reveals Amazon has 100 million Prime members in letter to shareholders

CNBC

“Bezos also disclosed for the first time that Prime now exceeds 100 million members worldwide. In 2017 alone, Amazon added more Prime members than any prior year, and shipped over five billion items through the paid membership service worldwide, he said.”

Tags:
Amazon

On The Web

Business Function, Global

Financial inclusion is improving around the world—but women are still missing out

Quartz

Tags:
Financial Inclusion

"In developing countries, the gap in financial inclusion between men and women has stalled at nine percentage points. Not every emerging market has this disparity—men and women are equally likely to have an account in Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam, for instance. Even so, making sure wome...More

Business Function

Contactless donations project raises thousands for homeless in Cardiff

Wales Online

Tags:
Financial Inclusion

"A scheme to allow shoppers to donate to the homeless using their contactless cards has been hailed a success after a trial. A total of 430 kind-hearted shoppers in Cardiff swiped their contactless cards to give money to the homeless in just three weeks. The interactive window in the city centre all...More

Companies

Google Pay hits 100 million installs on the Play Store

Android Police

Tags:
Google

"100 million is impressive, but it may not be nearly as impressive as you're imagining. For instance, Google Pay uses the same Play Store listing and APK pname (com.google.android.apps.walletnfcrel) as Android Pay, which Android Pay continued to use from Google Wallet. Additionally, Google Wallet/An...More

Risk & Fraud, Security

Why Paying for Fast Shipping Could Get You Flagged as a Fraudster

Wall Street Journal (Paywall)

"When people shop online at retailers like Macy’s Inc. and Finish LineInc., their visits are tracked and shared with an outside firm that scores their behavior and decides whether to approve or deny purchases. Shoppers who exhibit behavior that such scoring firms often associate with fraud, such as ...More

Security, Standards

Major card schemes zero in on single ‘buy’ button for online commerce

Finextra

Tags:
Secure Remote Commerce (SRC)

"Major card schemes are rallying around the the new EMVCo Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) framework in a bid to create a ubiquitous online shopping technology standard backed by token-only storage of payment details. Both Visa and Mastercard have set out their plans to support the standard at an indust...More

Security, Systems

PayThink column: An old law brings a fresh compliance challenge to faster payments

Payments Source

Tags:
Immediate Funds Transfer

"Financial institutions providing same-day delivery of good funds via ACH transfers more than ever will need to be vigilant to ensure that their systems protect their customers, are commercially reasonable and, most important, follow strictly the protocols the financial institution has agreed to wit...More

Users

Meijer to launch self-scanning app to speed grocery checkou

Chicago Tribune

Tags:
Merchants

"The Shop & Scan service allows shoppers to scan products as they shop with a Meijer app downloaded on their phones and bag the groceries on the go. To check out, shoppers hold their phones up to a self-checkout register, then walk out the door."

On The Wires

Business Function

Affirm Expands Offering to Cover Smaller Purchases with Simple, Transparent Payments

Tags:
Installment payments

"Affirm, Inc., the company founded by entrepreneur Max Levchin to provide fair and honest financial products, today announced Affirm will partner with brands and retailers to offer shoppers a simple, no-interest payment option on purchases of any size via three easy, monthly payments. Now, Affirm’s ...More

Companies, Global, Systems

SWIFT explores Asia Pacific cross-border real-time payments

"SWIFT has joined forces with a group of SWIFT gpi banks from Australia, China, Singapore and Thailand to develop a unique cross-border real-time payments service in the Asia Pacific region."

Companies, Global

FIS Connects Three Australian Financial Institutions to Real-time Payments Platform

Tags:
Australia
FIS

"Continuing its leadership in the global movement toward real-time payments, global financial technology provider FIS™ (NYSE: FIS) announced today that it has leveraged its Open Payment Framework (OPF) to connect three leading Australian financial institutions to the country’s New Payments Platform ...More

Companies, Tech

Walmart Launches Check Out With Me, a New Service Designed to Save Customers Time

"Walmart is testing a new program called Check Out With Me in the Lawn & Garden Centers of more than 350 stores across the country, just in time for the busy spring season. Outfitted with cellular devices and Bluetooth printers, Lawn & Garden associates at these select stores can check out c...More