“Kenya’s Safaricom will start a joint venture with Vodacom to acquire the intellectual property rights to the popular M-Pesa mobile financial services platform from Britain’s Vodafone, Safaricom’s CEO said on Thursday. The 12 million euro ($13.4 million) deal will let both purchasers make significant savings in royalties paid to Vodafone and expand the service to new African markets, said Bob Collymore, Safaricom’s CEO.”

“Nepal’s central bank dealt a blow to Chinese mobile-payment giants that have been aggressively expanding abroad, restricting the use of these platforms after finding that some transactions they facilitated in the small Himalayan nation flouted its laws. Earlier this week, Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank and banking regulator, issued a terse notice saying certain types of foreign-payment transactions were illegal, and offenders could be prosecuted under the country’s foreign-exchange laws.”

“A software glitch at Deutsche Bank has for almost a decade prevented some potentially suspicious transactions from being flagged to law enforcement authorities, Germany’s biggest bank has discovered. The revelation is a further blow to the reputation of Deutsche, which has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for breaching money laundering and sanction rules and is still being investigated by authorities around the world for alleged similar wrongdoing.”

“In an era of widespread automation, it’s hard to believe manual data entry still constitutes a sizeable chunk of employees’ chores. According to a recent Salesforce survey , people at small and medium-sized businesses spend 23% of their workday manually inputting data. Another study — this one conducted by SoftwareAdvice.com — found the time sink to be particularly acute in sales, where around 71% of reps say they copy data by hand each day. While a silver bullet remains elusive, San Francisco-based Bill.com believes its new AI suite, which formally launches today after a lengthy pilot, will eliminate manual entry in at least one domain: payments. The company today took the wraps off the Intelligent Business Payments Platform, an end-to-end financial workflow automation toolset designed to streamline payment processes for Bill.com’s more than 3 million members.”

“Comparable digital sales surged 42%, contributing 2.1 percentage points to comparable sales growth. Same-day fulfillment services (order pick up, drive up and Shipt) drove well over half of the company’s digital sales growth. During the quarter, Target completed 53 of the approximate 300 store remodels it is scheduled to complete this year. It also opened seven small-format stores, including its first location in Santa Barbara, Calif.”

“Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber & intelligence at Mastercard, said: “Our digital and physical lives are merging and we need a digital identity solution that reflects this reality. Without control over how their data is used, people rely on outdated systems that can compromise their security. Our collaboration with Samsung advances a digital identity solution that is bound to a trusted device – the mobile phone – which is used by millions of people every day.” People will soon be able to access a digital identity capability on their devices for interactions in both the physical and digital worlds. This will provide consumers with a more efficient way to interact with businesses and service providers, whether opening a bank account, accessing e-mail and social media, video streaming or shopping online.”

“Nuvei Corp. has agreed to buy U.K.-based payments firm SafeCharge International Group Ltd. in a cash deal valued at $889 million (669 million British pounds), according to a regulatory filing. SafeCharge shareholders will receive $5.55 a share in cash under the agreement. The purchase price represents a 25% premium based on the SafeCharge purchase price at the end of business yesterday. “The price premium Nuvei is offering reflects SafeCharge’s leading position in the high-growth e-commerce market, the strength of its own technology platform, its diversified and stable customer base, and the significant experience in the payments industry of SafeCharge’s payments team,” SafeCharge chairman Roger Withers said in the filing.”

“Canada’s largest merchant acquirer, Toronto-based Moneris Solutions Corp., says that in the first quarter contactless for the first time accounted for more than half of card-present transactions—51.5%. Contactless payments grew nearly 25% year-over-year while overall credit and debit card spending rose only 2.5%, Moneris reported. Meanwhile, nearly one-third of all credit and debit card transactions in the U.K. in February were made using contactless cards, according to a new report from UK Finance Ltd., a London-based trade association of banks, other financial firms, and payment networks. There were 644 million contactless card transactions in February, up 20.6% from 534 million a year earlier.”

“This new option comes as consumers’ financial options are skyrocketing. According to a 2018 BankRate survey, 63% of smartphone users have at least one financial app on their phone. About a third of millennial respondents said they have at least one budgeting app, and roughly the same percentage had at least one investing app. The booming fintech industry has already been pegged as the ultimate bank “disruptor.” Fintech has put pressure on even the biggest banks, which are trying to compete with the likes of J.P. Morgan, which earmarked $10.8 billion for technology in 2018.”

“Fintech startup N26 received an order from BaFin, the German banking regulator. According to the regulator, N26 hasn’t been doing enough when it comes to money laundering and terrorist financing. The company has a specific period of time to implement changes and rectify its internal processes.”

“Paying for your shopping could be about to get even simpler thanks to new technology from Fujitsu. The Japanese giant has shown off new biometric payment technology that will do away the need not just for cash at the checkout, but possibly debit or credit cards as well. Instead, Fujitsu’s “palm vein” system will use in-depth scans of your hand to authenticate payments, meaning there’s no need to juggle different bags or payment methods at the till.”

“Circle Internet Financial Ltd. , a closely held mobile-payments firm which acquired one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges last year, is eliminating 30 positions, or 10% of its workforce, citing an increasingly restrictive regulatory environment for digital assets.”

“With momentum building to ban cashless stores, a rough consensus seems to be emerging that the United States will never have the cashless society futurists have predicted for decades as first cards, then e-commerce, and now mobile payments took root. To be sure, research released Tuesday by Square Inc. shows a fast-growing consumer preference for digital payments at the small and medium-size restaurants and retailers that use Square’s point-of-sale equipment. In just the four years since 2015, the percentage of transactions under $20 paid for with cash has slid from 46% to 37%, the company said.”

“Two powerful forces for making contactless cards a routine feature of daily life are acceptance by mass-transit systems and backing from the biggest issuers. On Wednesday, that combination came into focus with an announcement from Visa Inc. that starting May 31 users of the 20 million contactless credit cards JPMorgan Chase & Co. has pumped out so far will be able to use them to tap and pay for fares on New York City’s subway lines and bus routes.”

“The most recent study found that contrary to some expectations, cashless acceptance not only does not cannibalize cash sales, but actually boosts them. In addition, cashless technology drove top line sales growth more for low-performing machines (generating less than $2,000 a year in sales) on a percentage basis than for higher-performing machines. The M.S.U. study measured performance in 250,000 machines over an 18-month period following cashless deployment and found cashless sales increased by 131% in low-performing machines compared to 78% of all machines studied. Cash sales improved by an average of 97% in the low-performing machines during that period, compared to 17% for all the machines.”

“NAB announced the arrival of Apple Pay in a tweet posted to the bank’s official account. “It’s here. NAB customers can now use Apple Pay. Just add your NAB Visa Card and start using Apple Pay wherever you can tap and pay. Apple Pay with NAB. Easy,” the tweet reads. Along with the announcement, an accompanying link points to a comprehensive mini-site detailing the service. Customers are provided information regarding compatible devices, credit and debit cards and a quick setup guide for iPhone and Apple Watch.”

“A credit union consortium is working on a blockchain-based cross-border payments tool aimed at serving 89,000 credit unions globally. CULedger, a group of credit unions working on distributed ledger technology, today launched a partnership with enterprise software firm R3 on a cross-border payments tool built on its Corda blockchain platform, called CUPay.”

“Four years after Calgary Transit pulled the plug on plans for an electronic fare card, riders could soon be able to pay for their bus or CTrain ride through a smartphone app. Calgary Transit announced Tuesday it will launch a mobile ticketing pilot program allowing riders to pay for and validate their transit fare using the smartphone app My Fare . Testing will take place over 90 days from late June to late September on four routes”

“We are rolling out OMNY in phases. Starting on May 31, 2019, you can use OMNY onboard all Staten Island buses and at all subway station entrances on the 4, 5, and 6 lines between Grand Central-42 Street and Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr. All remaining bus routes, subway stations, and Staten Island Railway locations will be equipped by late 2020. You will be able to use OMNY for commuter rail by early 2021.”

“The multi-year partnership that will fully embed American Express payment capabilities into the Ariba Network was one of the biggest announcements at the recent SAP Ariba Live event. During the keynote, E-Bai Koo, executive vice president, global commercial services at American Express, outlined the benefits of the virtual card payment solution for buyers and sellers that rely on the Ariba Network to purchase goods and services with their American Express cards.”

“Integrated payments and marketing platform RiverPay Inc. today announced that it has launched a partnership with iconic global health and wellness retailer Holland & Barrett to exclusively add world’s leading mobile payments tool Alipay to the brand’s more than 1,600 retail stores around the globe, including 800 in the UK and Ireland. As part of the agreement, RiverPay has also integrated Alipay into Holland & Barrett’s official online shop to enable Alipay users to buy the wide range of health products anywhere and anytime.”

“The four new representatives will join the existing RTP Business Committee which meets monthly and has numerous responsibilities, including providing input and guidance to the strategic execution of the RTP network, ensuring prudent risk management practices are followed, promoting the design, operation, and management of the system so that it delivers safe, efficient, and accessible payments that include appropriate protections for all end users, and establishing, amending, repealing, or restating the rules for the RTP network, among others duties.”

“Pay with Ibotta marks a major milestone for the company as it seeks to further its mission of making every purchase rewarding. When Ibotta Savers use Pay with Ibotta, they will earn cash back on their entire purchase at more than 30 participating retailers. The feature allows Savers to simply enter the purchase total into the Ibotta app, prompting retailers to scan the app for an instant, rewarded checkout. With no waiting or redeeming receipts, users will earn immediate cash back upon purchase, and Savers who link credit cards through the Ibotta app will also have the opportunity to stack their credit card rewards with their Pay with Ibotta earnings.”

“ADP’s latest payment solutions expand employers’ payroll capabilities and place financial wellness tools directly in the hands of employees.  Wisely Now™, the latest offering from Wisely by ADP™, enhances the availability of instant pay while providing key employer protections.  Additionally, myWisely™, the companion mobile application for Wisely by ADP, empowers employees with new tools for financial wellness.”

“Startups that are disrupting and unlocking the lucrative world of financial services continue to unlock big fund funding rounds for themselves. Today, Marqeta — which helps third parties like Square, Affirm, DoorDash, Kabbage and Instacart build and offer card services to their customers — announced that it has raised a Series E of $260 million led by Coatue Management.”

“Payments company TransferMate has won a major deal to handle global payments for US banking giant Wells Fargo . The Kilkenny-based fintech will see its platform exclusively handle all Wells Fargo’s inbound payments into the US from overseas. TransferMate will add a team of 25 staff in New York and North Carolina and a further 25 staff in Kilkenny to manage the Wells Fargo partnership.”

“The central bank of Venezuela will develop an independent national payment system to get rid of international giants Visa and Mastercard in response to US sanctions, according to local media citing the regulator. The document, which also separately mentions multi-national debit card service Maestro owned by Mastercard, orders a suspension of debit card operations starting November 2019 and payments via credit cards from January 2020.”

“Meet French startup Kard , a challenger bank that works a lot like N26 or Revolut. But Kard is all about convincing teens that their first bank account is going to be a Kard account — a bit like Step in the U.S.”

“Leading the way in Postal Financial Services, Eurogiro is proud to announce that Bulgarian Posts has successfully launched the Eurogiro Supermarket platform across its Postal network on the 2nd May and is actively processing new transactions. Seven more Postal Organizations in Europe, Africa and Asia are planned to go live in 2019.”

“The growing popularity of UPI can be attributed to its simple, safe, cost-effective and mobile-based payment system. Companies such as Paytm, PhonePe, MobiKwik and GooglePay, along with 144 banks, also offer payments via UPI, which surpassed mobile wallet payments in terms of volume of transactions as well as value. There were 384.89 million mobile wallet transactions worth ₹15,990 crore in March, compared to 799.54 million UPI transactions worth ₹1.33 trillion during the same month. As their awareness and comfort increase, people are moving towards UPI to carry out high-value transactions.”

“Sales at several store chains slowed during the latest quarter, clouding the outlook for the retail sector as it braces for a significant increase in tariffs on goods imported from China. Sales at Kohl’s Corp. KSS -12.34% , J.C. Penney Co. JCP -6.96% , Nordstrom Inc. JWN 1.04% and Home Depot Inc. HD 0.26% weakened as they experienced a slower start to the year. Comparable sales fell 3.4% at Kohl’s, and were down 5.5% at Penney. Both retailers missed analysts’ expectations for the quarter, which ended on May 4. Nordstron’s net sales fell 3.5%.”

“SWIFT today announces that a group of banks are to trial instant gpi cross-border payments in Europe using the TARGET Instant Payments Settlement (TIPS) platform. The European Central Bank (ECB) and SWIFT have launched this initiative to extend the reach of instant cross-border payments deeper into the European market by enabling gpi in the TIPS system. Banks will carry the cross-border legs of the payments, which they will then settle through TIPS, allowing for instant crediting of accounts at ultimate beneficiary banks across Europe. The ability to process gpi cross-border payments instantly, even when the final legs of the payments have to be cleared on arrival within the destination country, is key to ensuring ubiquitous availability of real-time cross-border payments.”

“Bank of America Merchant Services, a leader in payments, eCommerce and security solutions, announces that it has been chosen by Sezzle to be their digital card processor for the rapidly growing fintech company and its clients. Sezzle will use Bank of America Merchant Services’ global payment platform powered by Visa’s CyberSource. “We’re thrilled to provide our payment solutions to this exciting business,” said David Ades, EVP, General Manager and Head of Sales North America at Bank America Merchant Services. “Sezzle has a deep understanding of consumer shopping behaviors and financial needs – and their offering really hits home with millennials.””

“Payments is an extremely buzzy corner of the financial sector right now, and JPMorgan Chase wants to dominate it, Credit Suisse analyst Susan Roth Katzketold clients Friday following a meeting with the bank’s management.”

“Facebook has set up a new financial technology company in Switzerland focusing on blockchain and payments as well as data analytics and investing, Geneva’s commercial register shows.  Libra Networks, with Facebook Global Holdings as stakeholder, was registered in Geneva on May 2 to provide financial and technology services and develop related hardware and software, plans submitted on the Swiss register reveal.”

“The POS solution is designed to bring together selling, customer engagement, store inventory and fulfillment functionalities to help store teams deliver customer experiences with a single omnichannel system of record. Additionally, the move allows Lamps Plus to choose from among numerous hardware manufacturers, form factors and operating systems.”

“PayMaya is now the preferred payment option in some of the merchants in Boracay where users can pay using their app via PayMaya QR, including restaurants like Spice Bird in D’Mall, Titos near Station 2, and Sunny Side Café in Station 3; convenience store like Budget Mart; and Epic Bar, among many others. This is on top of the initial batch of merchants that have been offering PayMaya QR as a payment method in Hue Hotels and Resorts as well as small merchants in Station X, which was launched in January of 2018, including other nationwide key merchants such as McDonald’s, Army Navy, Yellow Cab, Shakey’s, and Mercury Drug, among others.”

“We teamed up with researchers from New York University and the University of California, San Diego to find out just how effective basic account hygiene is at preventing hijacking. The year-long study, on wide-scale attacks and targeted attacks , was presented on Wednesday at a gathering of experts, policy makers, and users called The Web Conference .Our research shows that simply adding a recovery phone number to your Google Account can block up to 100% of automated bots, 99% of bulk phishing attacks, and 66% of targeted attacks that occurred during our investigation.”

“Several of the world’s largest banks are in the process of investing around $50 million to create a digital cash system using blockchain technology to settle financial transactions, according to people familiar with the plans. The previously disclosed project, known as the “utility settlement coin,” was first proposed by Swiss bank UBS Group AG and London-based technology startup Clearmatics in 2015. It aims to develop a system to make clearing and settlement in financial markets more efficient.Around a dozen banks are investing in a new entity called Fnality which would run the project, one of the people said.”

“Support for NFC mobile ticketing forms part of SafeTix, a new Ticketmaster service that the company said “leverages new technology to give event owners control over their tickets by tying a unique, identifiable digital ticket to each fan’s mobile phone through an encrypted barcode that automatically refreshes every few seconds”.”

“The number of ATMs around the world fell for the first time last year as banks closed branches and redirected resources toward digital payments, consulting firm RBR said in a study released Monday. Declines in four of the world’s five largest markets — China, the U.S., Japan and Brazil — drove the 1% drop in ATMs in 2018. In the fifth, India, “growth slowed considerably,” London-based RBR said.    Bank customers are increasingly turning to their mobile phones for routine financial services, forcing banks to rethink the balance between physical and digital strategies. JPMorgan Chase & Co. , the biggest U.S. bank, cut back its branches by 2% last year while earmarking $10.8 billion for technology. The lender saw a 5% increase in active digital customers, and an 11% gain in active mobile customers.”

Key Findings:

• 75% expect all delivery options to be displayed on product pages
• 75% have purchased more items to take advantage of a minimum spend ‘free delivery’ option
• 70% expect to pay extra for one-hour, same day, next day or Sunday delivery
• 54% of consumers expect to be able to choose which carrier delivers their online purchases
• 55% expect one-hour delivery in metropolitan areas

“Modulr , the Payments as a Service API Platform for digital businesses, today announced that it has completed an investment of £14m. The investment round has been led by new investors Frog Capital as well as further investment from existing investors including Blenheim Chalcot .”

“Geoswift, a leading provider of cross-border payment solutions between China and the rest of the world, announced today that its Hong Kong entity has been granted a coveted Stored Value Facilities (“SVF”) Licence by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. With the SVF licence, Geoswift can provide greater convenience and a better experience for consumers and merchants and move closer to providing a seamless cashless, digital payment world. Stored value facilities are changing the fintech landscape in Hong Kong, and as more companies such as Geoswift hold SVF licences, it is creating a competition which is innovating the marketplace. This increase in diversity will result in new services which will bring more convenience and choice to both consumers and merchants.”

“Technology giant Apple is set to launch its mobile payment platform Apple Pay for cardholders in 16 additional countries in Eastern Europe, MacRumors has reported. As per the plan, the mobile payments service will now be launched in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.”

“Amazon is taking a slice of Europe’s food delivery market after the U.S. e-commerce giant led a $575 million investment in Deliveroo . First reported by Sky yesterday , the Series G round was confirmed in an early U.K. morning announcement from Deliveroo, which said that existing backers, including T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Research Company and Greenoaks also took part. The deal takes Deliveroo to just over $1.5 billion raised to date. The company was valued at more than $2 billion following its previous raise in late 2017 , although no updated valuation was provided today.”

“Cryptocurrency companies shunned by banks often turn to shadowy middlemen for payment processing and other financial services. One of those companies is at the center of the mystery surrounding Bitfinex’s missing customer funds. Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange that controls the popular digital currency known as tether, lost access to $850 million in customer funds after handing it over to Panama-based Crypto Capital Corp. to process customer withdrawals, the New York attorney general said last month.”

“Despite greater than ever use of smart devices for banking and payments and a desire for the latest technologies, Europeans are some of the most cautious adopters, according to a survey of 15,000 consumers in Europe, America and Australia.”

“In this blog post, we describe the proceedings of a recent workshop where leading risk managers, academics, and policy makers gathered to discuss proposals for countering cyber risk. This workshop is part of a joint two-phase initiative run by the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and New York and the Fed’s Board of Governors to harmonize cyber risk identification, classification, and measurement practices.”

“The Pareto Principle tells us that 80% of revenue comes from the top 20% of customers; therefore, should these top customers be treated differently? The hospitality industry gets it. So does the financial industry. But in general, the retail industry is still issuing generic loyalty cards to the masses, when they should be offering customized, tailored experiences to their most loyal customers.”

““Our customers and Fintech Partners need financial technology tools that align with their personal and business needs. Providing real-time payments is an important step for us, allowing us to deliver important new functionality to our customers.” said Robert Conery, COO, EVP, Avidia Bank. “Avidia Bank has strategically committed to providing Payment Services comprised of innovative solutions. As existing payment channels evolve and access to faster payment alternatives become ubiquitous in the digital era, we shall leverage this opportunity by partnering with TCH to provide products to both local and national markets.”