“BillBox, a solution provider in the payments and merchant ecosystem in India, has introduced TapTap, a wearable device facilitating contactless payments, in association with NSDL Payments Bank and Visa.    The objective is to accessorise payment and provide convenience to users, the company said. “Now, people should wear money, not carry money in wallets. It is for those who are seeking faster, secure and frictionless payments,” said Viraj Majmudar, managing director and Group CEO, BillBox. “TapTap is a programme manager and fintech in prepaid and gift card programmes. Our B2B & B2C solutions through partnerships with major brands, fashion designers, and enterprise customers will help us in accessorising payments through wearable contactless payment products,” he said.”

“Starling Bank has decided to block all card payments to crypto merchants and restrict other outgoing and incoming crypto-related bank transfers, the bank said in a message to customers on Tuesday.  Starling customers have never been able to hold cryptocurrencies with the neobank, but the announcement means they’ll no longer be able to use a Starling account to withdraw or deposit fiat money into or out of crypto exchanges. “We always review our position in relation to financial crime. We consider crypto activity to be high risk,” the bank said in a message to customers, seen by Sifted.”

“India’s federal government has released a new draft bill for public comment on personal data protection after months of extensive consultations with relevant stakeholders. Labeled the Digital Data Protection Act 2022, the reworked draft bill has been described by the union minister for railways, communications, electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw as balanced in scope and favorable for India’s digital economic growth, reports the Financial Times (FT).”

“Airtel Payments Bank announced the launch of a face authentication-based savings bank account opening for customers. The payments bank said the facility would further ease the account opening, making it seamless and convenient for customers. Airtel Payments Bank is the first Payments Bank in the country to offer this facility.The payments bank said the new facility would help business correspondents (BCs) of the bank to open an account just by undertaking face authentication through electronic know-your-customers (e-KYC).The authentication is processed using a newly developed mobile application by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the payments bank said, adding that, the business correspondent will now only need a smartphone to open an account. The bank will make this facility available across all its 500,000 banking points by the end of this year, it said.”

“Conduent Incorporated, a global technology-led business process solutions company, today announced the launch of its new Digital Integrated Payments Hub enabling businesses and public sector agencies to access secure, faster, and cost-effective options to send, request or receive payments. By integrating the payment capabilities of BNY Mellon’s trusted infrastructure, Conduent’s new Digital Integrated Payments Hub speeds up refunds, rebates, and overpayment remediations from as many as 10 days to a matter of minutes, while providing the ability to conveniently and transparently track transactions. Conduent is the first business process outsourcing provider to offer a centralized platform consolidating different payment processes and systems, including the latest solutions such as Real Time Payments from The Clearing House and Zelle®, reducing the cost of paper checks and creating an enhanced customer experience.”

“New York is taking a first-in-the-nation step to tap the brakes on the spread of cryptocurrency mining, under legislation that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Tuesday. The measure comes amid growing scrutiny of the cryptocurrency industry following this month’s collapse of the FTX exchange. But New York’s measure, which passed the state Legislature in June, is specifically concerned with the environmental aspects of crypto. “I will ensure that New York continues to be the center of financial innovation, while also taking important steps to prioritize the protection of our environment,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in a message explaining her approval. The new law sets a two-year moratorium on new and renewed air permits for fossil fuel power plants used for energy-intensive “proof-of-work” cryptocurrency mining — a term for the computational process that records and secures transactions in bitcoin and similar forms of digital money. Proof-of-work is the blockchain-based algorithm used by bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies.”

“Banking giant JPMorgan Chase’s application for a trademark for a digital wallet with crypto features has been awarded by the U.S. Patent Office after more than two years in application status. JP Morgan has registered a digital wallet brand.  According to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the bank filed a trademark for “JP Morgan Wallet” in July 2020; the filing was finally approved on November 15. The text of the trademark indicates that it can be applied to online services, including cryptocurrency payment processing, the electronic transfer of virtual currencies by an online community, and the exchange of virtual currencies. The trademark does not exclusively apply to crypto services. It can also be applied to other financial services, including virtual checking accounts, Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, e-check processing, and bill payments.”

“Afterpay and Zip have shared differing opinions on new regulatory options put forward by the Treasury will impact the buy now, pay later sector. In the Treasury’s paper, three options are offered. The first would amend the Credit Act to require that BNPL providers check that a certain product is affordable for a customer before it is offered. The second option requires BNPL providers to gain a credit licence and operate within responsible lending regulations. The third, and more strict option, would see BNPL loans enforced under the same laws as home loans, with the tighter checks this brings. Treasury is seeking consultation by December 23, with plans to legislate in 2023. Not surprisingly, Afterpay favours the first, least restrictive, option.”

“Swiss Web3 payment startup DePay announced that they are joining forces with the self-hostable, open-source eCommerce plugin WooCommerce, pushing decentralization further and providing merchants with the ability to have customers send payments directly to their own wallets with tens of thousands of accepted tokens on supported blockchains with on-the-fly conversion. “DePay makes Web3 and crypto payments as straightforward as possible for merchants and their customers, without requiring a custodial approach,” said David Lockie, Web3 Lead at Automattic. “We wanted to offer WooCommerce merchants a wide range of crypto payment providers, and were instantly impressed by DePay’s flexibility across chains and coins, as well as their focus on a great user experience for all parties.”

“Chinese authorities are poised to impose a fine of more than $1 billion on Jack Ma’s Ant Group, said six sources with direct knowledge of the matter, setting the stage for ending the fintech company’s two-year long regulatory overhaul. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), which has been driving the revamp at Ant after the Chinese firm’s $37 billion IPO was scuttled at the last minute in 2020, is the regulator that is readying the fine, said five of the sources.”

“Thunes, a global cross-border payments network, announced that it has partnered with Tencent Financial Technology, Tencent’s fintech arm, becoming the first payment infrastructure partner connecting with it. This collaboration will allow members of Thunes’ global network to send international payments to Weixin users, giving them fast and easy access to the Chinese market. Weixin, with its international version known as WeChat, facilitates one of China’s most popular payment methods Weixin Pay, with the majority of Weixin and WeChat’s 1.3 Billion users concentrated in China. Now existing and new members of Thunes’ global network can send payments to Weixin users in China, creating additional revenue opportunities for them: from a Chinese engineer in East Africa looking to send money to family back home, to young professionals working in the US wanting to transfer money to their parents in China. Thunes’ partnership with Tencent Financial Technology will make it quicker and simpler to make payments from around the world.”

“UnionPay International (UPI) today announced that it has signed a collaboration agreement with Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI). With the partnership, all BNI merchant customers will accept UnionPay card payments and UnionPay Mobile QuickPass service. Furthermore, a majority of Indonesia’s e-commerce platforms will be connected to the UnionPay card network. As a result, UnionPay’s merchant acceptance coverage in Indonesia will reach 95%, with over half of being able to accept UnionPay mobile payments. President of China UnionPay Cai Jianbo and BNI Director Corina Leyla Karnalies attended the signing ceremony virtually. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, UPI has continued to enhance the quality of its services with a focus on widening and strengthening UnionPay’s global payment network. In addition to expanding its services in lifestyle and transport scenarios with the aim of providing consumers with a superior payment experience, the company is also committed to improving access to mobile, online and other contactless payment options. Today, 181 countries and regions worldwide are connected to UnionPay’s acceptance network. Among the 37 million merchants outside of China accepting UnionPay cards, over 20% switched to UnionPay services in response to COVID-19 prevention and control measures. The number of overseas merchants accepting UnionPay mobile payments has tripled since the pandemic.”

Losses to authorised push payment (APP) fraud will double across the UK, India and the US in the next four years, hitting $5.25bn (£4.44bn), with a compound annual growth rate of 21% across the period, according to a report produced by ACI Worldwide, a supplier of payments software, and GlobalData, an analytics firm. In the UK specifically, APP fraud volumes in 2021 were $789.4m, with the potential to rise to $1.56bn by 2026.

APP fraud is defined as a type of scam in which the victim is convinced to transfer money to the fraudster or hand over money for goods that are never received or never existed in the first place.

APP fraud is reaching epidemic levels thanks to the growth of real-time payments, the prevalence of which makes it much easier for fraudsters to get away with it. This is because payments made in real time are transferred instantly and cannot be reversed by the victim. Fraudsters can further exploit this feature to launder their profits, moving payments through other accounts to cover their tracks and lower the risk of being traced.

“The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a consultation paper proposing additional regulatory safeguards, particularly around retail customer access, business conduct measures and technology risk management for cryptocurrency players. The MAS seeks to extend its regulatory focus beyond money laundering and terrorism financing risks, to holistically strengthen the regulatory framework, limit consumer harm and better address fraud protection in light of recent incidents, while acknowledging the need not to hamper digital innovation. The MAS proposes that these new requirements, once issued in the form of guidelines, will apply not only to licenced digital payment token (DPT) service providers licenced under the Payment Services Act 2019, but also to those currently operating under a transitional exemption from licencing while their licence applications are being reviewed (collectively, DPTSPs).”

Ripple, one of the leaders in enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, announced its entry into Africa in partnership with MFS Africa, a leading digital payments gateway. The new partnership will see MFS Africa using Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) solution for crypto-enabled payments to make it easier than ever for consumers and businesses in Africa to make real-time payments with their mobile phones across borders – all powered by Ripple’s financial technology, RippleNet.

“As Apple Pay will likely land in Korea later this month, the long-awaited arrival of the U.S. tech giant’s mobile payment service is drawing mixed views on the industrial landscape of the local mobile payment market dominated by Samsung Pay provided by Samsung Electronics.According to industry sources, Hyundai Card, a local credit card firm under the wing of Hyundai Motor Group, will provide the Apple Pay service from the end of November under a one-year exclusive contract with Apple.”

The use of QR codes has become part of our everyday lives. Invented in 1994 in the manufacturing industry, the QR code sank into obscurity for years, only to make a comeback during the pandemic. Today, touchless payment systems and contactless restaurant ordering are easy with smartphones and these codes.

Consumers value the convenience of being able to conduct activities without getting into close contact with other people. According to research by Scantrust, many also believe that QR codes make brands appear more trustworthy. Gartner sees the trend c­ontinuing: By 2024, 80 percent of order, checkout and payment services will be contactless.

Sure enough, cybercriminals have spotted an opportunity. They exploit weaknesses by substituting malicious codes for legitimate ones, directing users to fraudulent websites or embedding malicious software in mobile devices. Because a QR code obscures the underlying URL, users can’t tell whether the code will take them to the correct destination. In fact, a MobileIron survey found that while 69 percent of users believe they can identify a bad URL by looking at it, only 37 percent can spot a malicious QR code based on its pattern.

“…enterprise B2B payments leader Treasury Intelligence Solutions (TIS) announced the launch of a new domestic payment orchestration program. Using the program, enterprises operating in certain localities, such as the U.S., can leverage TIS to simplify and streamline payment activity across their domestic network of suppliers, vendors, and partners. By analyzing each unique vendor relationship and supplier network, TIS can determine which domestic payment option provides the greatest financial and operational efficiency across ACH, virtual card, check, or wire. Then, TIS provides a streamlined and highly secure channel for enterprises to execute these transactions via integrations with several selected institutional and fintech partners. Payments that are channeled through this workflow are ultimately rewarded through a rebate program that can provide significant savings for companies with high payment volumes.”

ACI Worldwide, a global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, and NTT DATA, a leading global technology company and IT systems integrator, will work together to advance growth into new markets across Europe and Latin America, focusing on the Italian market initially. Under a recently signed partnership, NTT DATA will integrate ACI Secure eCommerce into its technology solutions portfolio, instantly expanding merchant access to hundreds of local and cross-border acquirers and new card, digital and mobile payment methods. Merchants across Europe and Latin America are seeking to modernize their payments infrastructure. ACI Secure eCommerce is a smart, agile, holistic payments orchestration platform that enables merchants to accept new payment methods, prevent fraud and optimize customers’ payment journeys for maximum conversion and at minimum cost. The platform combines a powerful eCommerce payments gateway with sophisticated real-time fraud management capabilities and advanced business intelligence tools. It includes the ACI Mobile Commerce SDK, enabling merchants to offer a mobile checkout experience, the ACI Smart Engage mobile engagement platform and ACI PayAfter, a comprehensive “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) offering connecting customers to more than 70 BNPL lenders.

Tech-savvy Filipinos seek choice above all for their future international money transfer needs, according to the results of a study commissioned by Western Union. Exclusive insights show that while 44% of consumers currently prefer to receive money transfers through digital platforms, almost 70% want to be able to choose how they collect their funds in the future – be it in cash or digitally. The study results, which bolster Western Union’s recently announced ‘Evolve 2025’ (E25) strategy of combining high-value, accessible retail and digital financial services for the world’s aspiring populations, explore consumer sentiment on money movement. More than 2000 consumers across the Philippines who send and receive money internationally were surveyed.

“n today’s global economy, business has no borders, and Canadian companies are increasingly relying on and expecting frictionless international payments in order to succeed. To address this growing need, RBC today launched Swift Go, a new solution that enables Canadian businesses to send cross-border payments of up to $10,000 in foreign currencies with speed, security, predictability and efficiency. Implemented in collaboration with J.P. Morgan and Swift, RBC is the first Canadian financial institution to introduce this capability for its business clients. “By offering cost-effective, fast and predictable cross-border payments, the introduction of Swift Go will make it easier for Canadian companies to plan their cash flow, forecast their liquidity position and do business globally,” said Lisa Lansdowne-Higgins, Senior Vice-President, Business Transformation and Deposits, RBC. “This launch in Canada is one of the many innovative ways in which RBC is collaborating with global leaders in payments innovation, ensuring that our clients have early access to the latest digital payments solutions.” Currently available to clients through the RBC PayEdge™ platform, Swift Go will provide small- and medium-sized enterprises with added flexibility and choice in how they pay suppliers around the world. Key benefits of the new service include…”

“U.S. Bank is using the Real-Time Payment (RTP) network to deliver funds to more than 6,000 auto dealers immediately, so when a customer pays with a loan, the sale hits the dealership’s bank account in real time.  “While the traditional ACH payment method for funding auto loans can take several days – especially when sales are made outside of banking hours – real-time payments to dealers are fast, secure and available seven days a week, including holidays,” the bank said in its announcement.  ACH (Automated Clearing House) networks date back to the early 70s. The U.S. has two — one operated by the Federal Reserve and the other by The Clearing House (TCH), owned by some of the world’s largest banks. TCH introduced its RTP in 2017; the Federal Reserve, after several years of study and discussion, plans to launch its own version in 2023. These are the first new payment rails in the United States in 40 years.   Although the TCH network is open to all federally insured U.S. depository institutions, some smaller banks and credit unions are reluctant to use a system owned by the large banks.”

“Fintech unicorn TrueLayer is partnering with Coinbase to enable UK users to top up their accounts via their mobile banking app. This is part of a broader push into digital assets as the open-banking company eyes adding a stablecoin product to its crypto-focused offering.  Open banking is seen as a challenger to established card-based payment systems through its ability to facilitate account-to-account transactions. For crypto, its use-case has so far been used primarily to enable easy payments from fiat to digital currency. Through this partnership with Coinbase, UK users will be able to link their bank accounts directly to Coinbase, authenticate via a banking app and then confirm payment. This will be rolled out progressively across Europe in the coming months.”

Far from happy at the wealth of choice, 72% of US consumers say there are ‘too many’ subscription services, with the average subscriber now shelling out for five different subscriptions every month.

“Finance teams the world over are grappling with the problem of invoice and payment fraud. Criminals continue to extract hard-earned cash out of businesses, who all too often are unprepared for this rampant type of fraud. It is a subject we research into heavily here at Medius. According to our latest Financial Professional Census, which canvassed 2,750 organisations, the average estimated cost of invoice fraud to middle markets businesses is something in the region of $280,000 per year. In the space of 12 months, these companies reported a combined 34,000 cases, the average finance team spotting one incidence of invoice fraud per month. In addition, many attacks pass under the radar. The UK particularly paints an even more worrying picture. Where, financial professionals estimate over £295,000 is lost annually to invoice fraud per business….What are the most common invoice and payment scams?”

“Meta Platforms said on Thursday its WhatsApp messaging service will introduce a commercial directory and test a payments tool in Brazil, as it bets on business messaging as a potential fresh source of revenue. Brazil, one of the app’s biggest markets, will be the first country to see the new tools deployed outside pilot programmes. “The ultimate goal here is to make it so you can find, message and buy from a business all in the same WhatsApp chat,” Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a video shown at a WhatsApp summit in Sao Paolo.”

“As the world awaits kick-off of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, Visa, the Official Payment Technology Partner of FIFA, has readied a payments network that will enable contactless purchases throughout all official venues, including eight stadiums and the FIFA Fan Festival™. With more than one million fans expected to travel to Qatar for the tournament, Visa has installed 5,300 contactless-enabled payment terminals at official FIFA venues, making FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ the most payment-enabled FIFA tournament ever. Visa will also trial new payment innovations to give fans easy access to simple and secure digital ways to pay. The FIFA World Cup™ provides a global stage for Visa to showcase and test new technologies, enhance the fan experience and leave a lasting impression on the host country. Visa will bring a number of digital payment solutions to Qatar, including several limited pilots to demonstrate how future Visa payment solutions may come to life: Pay with Your Face; Card Art Gets Animated; Accepting Payments Gets Simpler for SMBs; Tap to Ride Around Doha”

“NMI, a leading full commerce-enablement technology company, today announced a product collaboration with Kount, an Equifax Company, and the leader in digital identity trust, fraud, and chargeback prevention, to enhance fraud protection for independent software vendors (ISVs), independent sales organizations (ISOs), and merchant partners. Kount solutions from Equifax are designed to detect and prevent fraud for e-commerce, m-commerce, and card-not-present transactions. Through this partnership, Kount technology will be made available to NMI’s customer base on top of the company’s proprietary solution, NMI Advanced Fraud Prevention, which sets extensive filters to detect suspicious transactions before they are approved. Payment fraud is on the rise, considering merchant losses to online payment fraud are expected to exceed $206 billion between 2021 and 2025. Layering Kount technology on top of the NMI Fraud Prevention platform is designed to provide ISVs, ISOs, and merchants with a greater ability to detect and mitigate fraud through the Kount real-time risk analysis and fraud assessment capabilities. This will also be the first third-party solution available in NMI’s App Marketplace and further expands the company’s ability to support full commerce enablement.”

“The end-to-end passwordless authentication platform from Anonybit, Genie, has received FIDO certification, the company announced. Genie provides a bridge between digital onboarding and user authentication with decentralized biometrics. This allows users to reuse their digital identity, which is trusted across various devices, applications and use cases, Anonybit says. Cryptographic keys are generated according to the FIDO protocol, with the use of decentralized biometrics providing assurance about the identity of the device user. The company says it is building on the foundation of device-centric authentication to include onboarding, identity binding and recovery. “One of the main drivers of FIDO has been the promise of once and for all getting rid of passwords, but organizations also need complementary strategies for account enrollment, binding and recovery to protect themselves and their users at every point of the identity lifecycle,” says Frances Zelazny, co-founder and CEO of Anonybit.”

“Three national and super-regional banks with major Triad operations are participating in a pilot program involving digital tokens that will represent digital dollar transactions. PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Truist Financial Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. are involved in the 12-week proof-of-concept program being managed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The goal is testing a financial platform known as the regulated liability network (RLN) to see if it can accelerate payment transactions. The banks will issue tokens representing customers’ deposits. The tokens will be handled through a central bank reserve on a shared distributed ledger, according to CoinDesk.com.”

“Today the PCI Security Standards Council published a new standard designed to support the evolution of mobile payment acceptance solutions. PCI Mobile Payments on COTS (MPoC) builds on the existing PCI Software-based PIN Entry on COTS (SPoC) and PCI Contactless Payments on COTS (CPoC) Standards, which individually address security requirements for solutions that enable merchants to accept cardholder PINs or contactless payments using a smartphone or other commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) mobile device. The PCI MPoC Standard aims to provide increased flexibility not only in how payments are accepted, but in how COTS-based payment acceptance solutions can be developed, deployed, and maintained. PCI MPoC is a new, flexible mobile standard and program for payment solution development. It provides a modular, objective-based, security standard that supports various types of payment acceptance channels and consumer verification methods on COTS devices. PCI MPoC combines many of the aspects of the existing PCI SPoC and PCI CPoC standards, primarily by including the entry of both PIN and contactless cardholder data on the same COTS device.”

“ADP, a leading global technology company providing human capital management (HCM) solutions, today announced enhancements to its award-winning Wisely® by ADP payment platform with advanced capabilities and innovative features like Earned Wage Access (EWA), designed to give employees more control of their finances, and help employers better attract and retain talent. Many workers today do not have a relationship with a bank or prefer not to rely on traditional banks. As the next generation of employees enters the workforce, they bring with them digital-driven preferences – including increasing dependence on mobile money management tools. Wisely by ADP provides workers with a secure, digital account2 that helps them access their money, spend, plan and save with fewer fees and headaches. Their Wisely digital account2 allows them to put all their sources of income in one place –creating a frictionless user experience for employees even when they change jobs. Wisely by ADP is accessible to all workers, whether they are W-2 or 1099. It’s a compliant, unified payments solution that enhances efficiency – saving employers time and money.   The addition of the EWA feature, offered in partnership with DailyPay, gives employees access to wages they’ve earned before payday at no cost3 right from myWisely.com or the free myWisely® app4.”

“Financial technology companies, long seen as a threat by the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co, are increasingly becoming acquisition targets for traditional U.S. banks as rising interest rates and falling valuations crimp their expansion. The valuations of listed financial technology firms have plunged 70% in 2022, analysts at Jefferies Group said in a note last week. In the same period, the valuations of banks in the S&P 500 are down 33%, while valuations for the S&P 500 are down 23%, according to data from Refinitiv IBES.”