“Brazilian payments firm Conductor has hired banks for an initial public offering in the United States that could come as early as this year, as Latin America’s financial sector is enlivened by the arrival of several newcomers, three sources familiar with the matter said. Conductor, which is backed by venture capital firm Riverwood Capital and payments processor Visa Inc (V.N) , is a provider of technology for financial services. Its tools allow retailers, banks and financial startups to offer credit cards and payment wallets to their clients, for instance.”

“The Bank for International Settlements and the Monetary Authority of Singapore have published a blueprint for the multilateral linking of domestic real-time payement systems across borders. The blueprint builds on the bilateral linkage between Singapore’s PayNow and Thailand’s PromptPay, launched in April 2021, and benefits from the experience of the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) development and operation of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system.”

“One of the most significant new trends is consumers’ strong interest in checkout-free retail, in which payments are handled almost invisibly, according to new research from Arizent, the parent company of American Banker. This stands in contrast to the backlash against checkout-free retail prior to the pandemic, when the concept was seen as discriminatory against the unbanked since it downplayed or eliminated the use of cash.”

“Congress should not attempt to address the threat of ransomware by making ransom payments to cybercriminals illegal, a top FBI official told US lawmakers Tuesday. Banning ransom payments could inadvertently create opportunities for further extortion by ransomware gangs, said Bryan Vorndran, assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division.”

“Paxos , the first regulated blockchain infrastructure platform, today announced it has added strategic investors including Bank of America, Coinbase Ventures, Founders Fund and FTX to its Series D round of funding. This follows the initial announcement of $300 million in Series D funding on April 29, 2021, led by Oak HC/FT with participation from previous investors Declaration Partners , PayPal Ventures , Mithril Capital and more. To date, Paxos has raised more than $540 million in funding. With a valuation of $2.4 billion, Paxos is one of the fastest growing fintech startups in the world.”

“Behalf, Inc. , a provider of In-Purchase Financing solutions for B2B sellers and buyers, today announced $19 million in new venture financing. The round was led by existing investors MissionOG, Viola Growth, Viola Credit and Vintage Investment Partners. New investors Migdal Insurance and La Maison Partners are also participating in the round.”

“Ripple , the leading provider of enterprise blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions for global payments, announced today the launch of RippleNet’s first live On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service implementation in Japan, in collaboration with SBI Remit Co., Ltd, the largest money transfer provider in Japan, and one of the leading mobile wallet services in the Philippines, Coins.ph .”

“BHMI , a leading provider of payments software and creator of the Concourse Financial Software Suite® , announced that Cuscal Limited , Australia’s leading independent provider of payment solutions, will be utilizing BHMI’s Concourse solution to support the needs and requirements for Australia’s New Payments Platform (NPP) upcoming PayTo initiative, which provides customers with enhanced visibility and control over their payment options.”

“NYMBUS ®, a leading provider of banking technology solutions, today announced a partnership with Plaid , a data network powering the digital financial ecosystem, to more instantly authenticate and fund customer bank accounts for financial institutions. With this integration, Nymbus bank and credit union clients can securely onboard new users in a matter of seconds, which translates to more active and engaged banking experiences.”

“Early Warning Services, LLC, the network operator behind Zelle®, announced its Q2 2021 transaction results, which include signed FIs representing more than 500 million DDA accounts. In Q2 2021, the Zelle Network® processed $120 billion on 436 million transactions. Year-over-year sent payment values increased by 68%, while payment transactions increased by 58%.”

“PayU, an online payment service provider for emerging markets operating on four continents, announced that it will enable push payments in partnership with Visa, a global leader in digital payments. PayU is launching the Card Push service to provide businesses with quick, simple and efficient payments to end points. Thanks to Visa Direct, a real-time push payments platform*, businesses using PayU Card Push will be able to instantly transfer money to a bank account linked to a Visa card.”

“Chargebee , the industry-leading Subscription Billing and Revenue Management platform, today announced the general availability of its Summer 2021 Product Release. With this release, Chargebee aims to enable large businesses to further support the complex buying processes of their customers. With over 3000 customers across the globe clocking an average of 150% YoY revenue growth, Chargebee’s Summer 2021 update looks to help businesses sustain their incredible growth.”

“Marqeta , the global modern card issuing platform, announced today that its modern card issuing platform will power the new virtual Google Pay balance card. The new virtual Google Pay balance card, powered by Marqeta, allows users to easily spend their Google Pay balance through a virtual card tokenized into a mobile wallet and used at accepting merchants.”

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today published an issue brief showing that consumer applications for auto loans, new mortgages and revolving credit cards had mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels by May 2021. Prime and near-prime consumers are driving this recovery as applications remain down from borrowers with subprime and deep subprime for all types of credit and, for borrowers with superprime credit scores, applications are down for all types of credit but mortgages.”

“In 2019, West Africa reported the most live mobile money services in any region, with 56 million active accounts. In Ivory Coast, one of Francophone Africa’s largest mobile money markets, 75% of the population own a mobile money account, compared to 20% who own bank accounts. The difference is staggering and clearly shows the region’s huge appetite for the service. While telecom operators have largely dominated mobile money services across most of sub-Saharan Africa, a few startups are trying to change the mobile money experience for customers. Ivory Coast-based fintech startup Julaya is one such company, and today, it announced a $2 million pre-Series A funding to expand its products across West Africa.”

“Solarisbank , a Berlin startup that provides a range of financial services by way of some 180 APIs that others use to build end-user-facing products (including basic banking and card services, lending, payments, and know-your-customer services) has raised €190 million ($224 million) in a Series D that values the company at €1.4 billion ($1.65 billion) and announced the acquisition of one of its competitors in the space, Contis .”

“Payments-technology startup Lithic , formerly known as Privacy.com, raised $60 million in a funding round led by growth-equity firm Stripes. Bessemer Venture Partners, Index Ventures, Exor, Tusk Venture Partners, Rainfall and Commerce Ventures also participated in the round, Lithic co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Bo Jiang said in an interview. The transaction quintupled the card-issuing platform’s valuation to $800 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter.”

“Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) said on Monday it is partnering with the financial tech and payments company Fiserv Inc (FISV.O) to expand its transaction banking and foreign exchange payments network, according to a joint press release. The move gives Goldman the chance to pitch its fledgling business of managing corporate cash to Fiserv’s network of some 12,000 banking, brokerage and government clients.”

“Former Mollie and Klarna senior managers have developed Biller, an AI powered buy now, pay later service for B2B purchasing. The Biller invoicing platform provides suppliers with automated credit and fraud underwriting and the ability to offer buyers flexible payments terms running up to 90 days after the invoice date.”

“Santander (SAN.MC) , the euro zone’s second-largest bank by market value, said on Monday its payment fintech unit, PagoNxt, would start to serve customers in 30 countries in Europe under the Getnet brand. The initiative is part of a wider strategy aimed at boosting the bank’s revenues at a moment when European lenders are struggling with pressure from low interest rates while trying to fend off competition from technology firms.”

“Brazilian Central Bank announced on Thursday that it will incorporate the payment initiator service to the Central Bank’s backed real-time payments system PIX . In practice, it will be another alternative for P2P transfers and e-commerce transactions made through the instant payment system. With payment initiators, it will be possible, for example, to buy something at the delivery app iFood and pay with PIX without having to leave the app to paste the QR code into the bank’s app (an example considering that iFood could obtain the PIX payment initiator license).”

“Australian payments player Eftpos has announced completing the build of its new QR code payments infrastructure. The first stage of the QR infrastructure was built in early July, CEO Stephen Benton said, and is described as being designed to provide secure and enhanced consumer purchasing and engagement experiences through loyalty, offers, receipts, and added security. Benton said testing of the new QR code infrastructure is underway and end-to-end testing would be completed when the first merchant goes live in August. Eftpos said the first commercial trials would be announced in the coming weeks.”

“Visa ( V ) is venturing into the domain of rivals such as PayPal Holdings ( PYPL ) by creating so-called buy-now-pay-later installment payment services for its credit card-issuing customers, the company says. The news comes as Visa stock has been in or near a buy range of late, as has PayPal stock. Visa is quietly rolling out pilot buy-now-pay-later services, also known as BNPL, in the U.S., Canada, Russia and Malaysia. The credit card giant has set up a BNPL website for credit card issuers — mainly banks and credit unions as well as financial technology companies — that use its payment network.”

“Vodafone Group hinted it could spin off its African mobile money service M-Pesa after its popularity soared through the pandemic. The platform offers peer-to-peer transactions in countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Lesotho. It is now pushing into new financial services like small loans, payroll and savings. Vodafone CEO Nick Read said it’s logical to keep M-Pesa within the telecommunications group for now, to maintain benefits like distribution and cementing customer loyalty.”

“The European Central Bank will overhaul its payment system as recommended in an independent review published on Wednesday to address deficiencies in its design and governance that led to a string of crashes last year. The Target system handles payments worth nearly 2 trillion euros ($2.36 billion) per day and is run by the ECB with the help of the central banks of Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Consultancy firm Deloitte carried out a review after Target ran into technical problems five times last year, in one instance leaving payments grounded for 11 hours.”

“Money transmitting company Payoneer reached a $1. 4 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control over 2,260 apparent sanctions violations that spanned six different sanctions programs, the U. S. Department of Treasury said Friday. Between early 2013 and early 2018, Payoneer processed transactions for parties in the Crimea region, Iran, Syria and Sudan as well as 19 payments for people on OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, known as the SDN List, the Treasury said. The transactions totaled about $802,000, the announcement said.”

“Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Monday denied a media report saying the e-commerce giant was looking to accept bitcoin payments by the end of the year. The report from London’s City A.M. newspaper, citing an unnamed “insider”, sent the world’s biggest cryptocurrency up as much as 14.5% before it trimmed gains to last trade 6% higher at $37,684.04.”

“After giving a cold shoulder to cryptocurrencies for years, India’s central bank is finally set to launch its own digital currency, and investors in the country have a reason to cheer. On July 22, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor T Rabi Sankar said the regulatory body is considering introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a phased manner. A CBDC is a legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form. In effect, it is just a digital version of the fiat currency, which in India’s case is the rupee.”

“For much of 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been in the headlines for its anti-cryptocurrency measures . Yet, the institution has this week redoubled its investment and research into crypto’s underlying technology, blockchain, and has set a clear date for the pilot scheme of its blockchain-powered central bank digital currency (CBDC). On Oct. 1, CBN will reportedly launch a pilot scheme for “GIANT,” a CBDC project in development since 2017 that runs on the open-source blockchain Hyperledger Fabric.”

“The Justice Department is investigating possible bank fraud by executives of Tether Ltd. stemming from actions during the early days of its stablecoin cryptocurrency, according to Bloomberg News. The probe has implications for the cryptomarket. Tether’s stablecoin is the third largest digital asset by market cap, at $62.3 billion, according to CoinGecko, and traders often use it instead of dollars or other fiat money to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Tether gives users a way to move funds between exchanges quickly and offers some level of protection from other cryptocurrencies’ price volatility.”

“Launched in 2018, Sila enables software developers to incorporate regulatory compliant payment capabilities quickly and easily into their products. Sila’s banking APIs replace the need for integrating with legacy financial institutions, saving customers months of development time and thousands in legal and regulatory expenses. Sila’s built-in-compliance Know Your Customer (KYC), and Know Your Business (KYB) capabilities, further streamline transactions by verifying consumer and business identities and confirming that the source of funds is legitimate. Sila is backed with bank agency status through Evolve Bank and Trust.”

“BigCommerce (Nasdaq: BIGC), a leading Open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established brands, today announced it has acquired Feedonomics in an asset purchase transaction. As a full-service data feed management platform, Feedonomics helps mid-market and enterprise merchants succeed on hundreds of advertising channels and marketplaces by ingesting, unifying, enhancing, and syndicating product data, and then syncing the resulting order data back into existing systems to streamline operations.”

“The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) is delighted to learn that the CMA has decided, in line with the Trustee’s recommendations to mandate Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) as the mechanism for implementing sweeping… Simply put, sweeping is the automatic transfer of money between a customer’s own accounts, such as moving excess funds into a separate savings account or using them to repay a loan or overdraft account. VRPs allow customers to safely connect authorised payments providers to their bank account so that they can make payments on the customer’s behalf within agreed parameters that offer more control and transparency than existing alternatives.”

“Mastercard and Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking have partnered to deliver a new Open Banking payment solution to Lloyds Bank’s business clients. Lloyds Bank’s PayFrom Bank, enabled by Mastercard’s Open Banking Merchant Payment Solution, lets consumers make payments on an organisation’s website directly from their bank account, without having to enter any payment details.   The solution – which is compatible with most retail bank accounts – gives consumers greater choice over how they pay and enhances their user experience by providing a quick, secure and seamless payment option without the need to remember passwords or input data.”

“Citi is pleased to announce the launch and roll out of a new global Real-Time Liquidity Sharing solution, addressing a pressing need for companies to secure improved efficiencies in liquidity and working capital. Part of Citi’s Liquidity Optimization product suite, the new globally consistent platform is launching across six countries and jurisdictions in Asia Pacific – Australia, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan – with other regions and additional markets to follow in line with client demand.”

“Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute heavily to the economic success of many countries, particularly those in the developing world. They are the backbone of most economies: Globally, SMEs represent about 90% of existing businesses and create more than 50% of employment. In South Africa, these businesses contribute around one-third of the country’s GDP. Last year, the coronavirus pandemic threatened the existence of some of these SMEs, and its effects linger as owners worry about revenue, sales and cash flow.”

“Business-to-business payments platform Nium announced Monday that it raised more than $200 million in Series D funding and saw its valuation rise above $1 billion. The company, now Singapore-based but shifting to the Bay Area, touted the investment as making it “the first B2B payments unicorn from Southeast Asia.””

“The operators of cryptocurrency exchanges Huobi and OKCoin are closing their respective subsidiaries in Beijing, dealing another blow to investors in bitcoin and other digital tokens in mainland China amid the latest crackdown on this sector. Beijing Huobi Tianxia Network Technology Co applied last Thursday to cancel the company’s registration after its “resolution of dissolution”. Creditors must declare their claims to the liquidation group within 45 days of that announcement, according to company records on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System’s website.”

“The Omani Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion (MoCIIP) is making the acceptance of cash-free payments mandatory as part of a plan to reduce the amount of cash circulating in the country. “The first phase of rolling out cashless payment options will cover all activities in industrial areas, shopping complexes, commercial establishments, gift stores, companies involved in the sale of food, jewellers, restaurants and cafes, fruit and vegetable shops, electronics stores, shops selling construction materials, and tobacconists,” Times of Oman reports .”

“A new report from Juniper Research has found that global contactless card transaction values will reach $2.5 trillion in 2021, from $1.7 trillion in 2020, with cards retaining the majority share of overall contactless transaction values at 79% in 2021. The pandemic has significantly accelerated an existing contactless card usage trend, and these value increases will be sustained beyond 2021 and into the future. The new research, Contactless Payments: Trends, Opportunities and Market Forecasts 2021-2026 , found that the combination of accelerated card issuance and usage during the pandemic with a series of global transaction limit increases have unlocked significant growth potential for contactless payments, fundamentally changing the payments paradigm.”

“Mastercard announced today a new Start Path global startup engagement program dedicated to supporting fast-growing digital assets, blockchain and cryptocurrency companies. As a continuation of Mastercard’s digital assets work, seven startups have joined the program, including GK8 , Domain Money , Mintable , SupraOracles , STACS , Taurus , and Uphold , and together with Mastercard seek to expand and accelerate innovation around digital asset technology and make it safer and easier for people and institutions to buy, spend and hold cryptocurrencies and digital assets.”

“Robust growth continued for the modern ACH Network in the second quarter of 2021. Payment volume climbed 9.9%, with particularly strong growth in business-to-business (B2B) payments. The ACH Network processed 7.3 billion payments in the second quarter, 655 million more than the same time in 2020. The value of those payments was $18.4 trillion, an increase of 24.6% from a year earlier.”

“PayQin, a cross-border payment startup that operates a comprehensive e-wallet service for the underbanked in West Africa, is announcing a new €300K seed investment round that takes the company’s funding up to $1 million. The company aims to reach one million daily transactions in a year and envisions a single payment area for the West African countries.”

“MUMBAI: Fino Payments Bank on Monday said it is facilitating person-to-merchant (P2M) payments through QR code-based unified payments interface (UPI) solution. Fino’s initiative comes amidst a surge in QR-code based payment solutions riding on increased smartphone penetration, usage of high-speed internet and Aadhaar-linked bank accounts.”

“Ever since the Covid pandemic set in more than a year ago, the payments industry has been abuzz with talk about its various impacts on merchant acceptance. What hasn’t received as much attention is how the pandemic has affected merchant acquiring. It turns out processors and independent sales organizations have seen some surprising results.”

“Driving the improved results was steady improvement in the company’s vital travel-and-entertainment business and increased usage from younger cardholders, the company said. “We saw Card Member spending accelerate from the prior quarter and exceed pre-pandemic levels in June, with the largest portion of this spending growth coming from Millennial, Gen Z, and small business customers,” said Stephen Squeri, AmEx’s chairman and chief executive, in a statement.”

“Venmo, the popular mobile payment service, has redesigned its app. That’s normally news you could safely ignore, but this announcement is worth a closer look. In addition to making some navigational tweaks and adding new purchase protections, the PayPal-owned platform is finally shutting down its global social feed, where the app published transactions from people around the world. It’s an important step toward resolving one of the most prominent privacy issues in the world of apps, but the work isn’t finished yet.”

“The People’s Bank of China in recent months has accelerated the testing of its digital yuan, putting the operators of Alipay and WeChat Pay in a difficult spot: They have little choice but to take part, despite the risk of eroding the huge user bases they have grown over years. Most of China’s 1.4 billion people use at least one of the private services to make mobile payments.”

“Amazon has plans to accept the cryptocurrency bitcoin by the end of 2021, according to an anonymously sourced report in the London newspaper City A.M. And while this is just the word of one anonymous “insider” at the Seattle-based mega-retailer, bitcoin’s price skyrocketed overnight and it’s creating a lot of buzz in the world of cryptocurrencies—a world built on little more than buzz.”

“QR codes — essentially a kind of bar code that allows transactions to be touchless — have emerged as a permanent tech fixture from the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurants have adopted them en masse, retailers including CVS and Foot Locker have added them to checkout registers, and marketers have splashed them all over retail packaging, direct mail, billboards and TV advertisements.”

“Global analytics software provider FICO today released its analysis of UK card trends for May 2021, which suggests that some consumers are practicing pragmatic financial management, as well as continuing to make use of savings accrued during the pandemic. There are, however, warning signs of the financial pressure growing for those already in debt. Whilst the effects of a full month of retail and hospitality re-openings were reflected in a further rise in card spend, the increase was just 4 percent compared to the 12 percent increase seen in April. This suggests that consumers foresee future pressure on income with the prospect of furlough support and payment holidays ending.”

“BioCatch, the global leader in behavioural biometrics announced it has entered the implementation stage of its offering that will enable financial institutions to leverage BioCatch’s behavioural biometric-based solution to support their journey to compliance with PSD2’s implementation of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), a regulation that requires multi-factor authentication for online transactions. BioCatch’s behavioural biometrics industry best-practices solution improves banks and financial institutions’ customer experience by applying machine learning to provide superior consumer protection while reducing friction in the digital journey.”

“Through a seamless integration to Oracle MICROS RES 3700 and Simphony platforms, Appsuite and TableSafe offer gift cards, loyalty and CRM together with pay-at-the-table in a premium end-to-end solution for dine-in restaurants. The integrated experience allows restaurants equipped with Oracle MICROS to maximize their existing POS and deliver next-generation hospitality features to strengthen their bottom line.”

“RocketFuel (OTC: RKFL) (“RocketFuel” or the “Company”), a global provider of one-click online payment options using Bitcoin and 50+ other cryptocurrencies, today announced that it will be making its payment solution available to be used by licensed cannabis dispensaries and merchants. Integrating RocketFuel into the merchant’s payment checkout will ensure that, unlike the typical cash transactions which come with security and logistical problems, merchants can accept crypto payments from users who have cryptocurrencies in a private wallet or in certain crypto exchange accounts. This service will even cover online delivery orders if they fall under permissible local regulations. RocketFuel will be compliant with FinCEN guidance on providing financial services to the cannabis industry.”

One of the biggest players in Britain’s fast-growing ‘buy now pay later’ finance sector will announce on Friday that it has secured funding from Goldman Sachs and the owner of the Daily Mail.

Sky News has learnt that Zilch has struck a deal to raise $110m (£80m) in debt and equity from Goldman’s asset management arm’s private credit team and DMG Ventures, a division of Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT).

“It’s pretty easy for individuals to send money back and forth, and there are lots of cash apps from which to choose. On the commercial side, however, one business trying to send $100,000 the same way is not as easy. Paystand wants to change that. The Scotts Valley, California-based company is using cloud technology and the Ethereum blockchain as the engine for its Paystand Bank Network that enables business-to-business payments with zero fees.”

“The Canada-based company got its start in 2008 as the payment processing company Zomaron, and rebranded itself as Paystone in 2019. Today it provides electronic payments and customer engagement technology to businesses, particularly those that provide services, CEO Tarique Al-Ansari told TechCrunch.”

“Consumers in Poland will soon be able to use their Android NFC device to make tokenized contactless payments at the point of sale (POS) directly from their bank account via their mobile banking app without needing a debit or credit card. Polish mobile payments service provider Blik is making the contactless functionality available in the apps of six of the 17 banks that support its mobile payments solution.”