Aljazeera
Nigeria’s central bank has launched a domestic card scheme to rival foreign cards like Mastercard and Visa, hoping to enhance its drive to make Africa’s biggest economy a cashless society and save the country foreign transaction fees. The announcement on Thursday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, follows its launch of Africa’s first digital currency, the e-naira, in October 2021.
Progressive Grocer
A landscape of mixed economic signals surrounds grocers entering the New Year. Inflation has slowed yet remained persistent, affecting everyday purchases like gas and groceries, while supply chains have yet to stabilize...So, how are grocers responding? We see multiple payment trends coalescing around two different themes: optimizing costs for the grocer and offering more choices for the shopper....
Reuters
European Union lawmakers backed a draft law on Tuesday to implement the final leg of post-financial global bank capital rules, adding "prohibitive" requirements to cover risks from cryptoassets....The United States, Britain and other countries are taking similar steps, but the committee used the draft law to introduce new elements, including requiring banks to hold enough capital to cover holdings of cryptoassets in full.
InformationWeek
If 2021 was focused on growth and scale, and 2022 saw cost-cutting and survival as key objectives, then 2023 is a year to aim for stability. A challenging macroeconomic climate is forcing payment issuers and acquirers to prioritize revenue growth and operating efficiency, seen as the top priority by 25% and 24% respectively of respondents.
Reuters
Walmart-backed PhonePe said on Thursday it raised $350 million from private equity firm General Atlantic at a $12 billion valuation, making it India's most valuable payments firm and giving it funds to expand into the lucrative lending space. A second tranche of investments from marquee global and Indian investors is expected to close next month, a PhonePe spokesperson said, declining to give further details.
Reuters
Mastercard Inc and Visa Inc will rely on China reopening to give travel spending a boost, Wall Street analysts said, as the pace of growth in other parts of the world eases from a post-pandemic boom. Executives at the payments companies on Thursday pointed to further room for travel recovery in China, which earlier this month reopened its borders after dropping its stringent COVID-19 control measures.
Reuters
Digital payments firm Stripe has hired Wall Street banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to explore a public listing and alternatives to allow employees to cash out stakes in the private company, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The move, communicated to Stripe employees in an internal memo earlier on Thursday, would give them an opportunity to sell shares in the company either to private investors or in a public market, the sources said.
Cointelegraph
Internet payment processor Stripe is reportedly eyeing a public offering and has set a 12-month timeline to explore the possibility. Stripe has hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to advise on the feasibility and timing of a public-market debut, according to a Jan. 26 report by The Wall Street Journal. A source with knowledge of the matter told the Journal that Stripe's executives will either take the company public or allow employees to sell shares in a private transaction.
The Hacker News
ny organization that handles sensitive data must be diligent in its security efforts, which include regular pen testing. Even a small data breach can result in significant damage to an organization's reputation and bottom line. There are two main reasons why regular pen testing is necessary for secure web application development:...
Biometric Update
The new biometric payment card from Giesecke+Devrient has been launched under the brand name ‘Convego YOU.’ Benefits to issuers include a compelling new offering for high-value customers, an enjoyable user experience, inherently secure authentication, robust onboarding and G+D extensive experience as a partner, according to a company announcement.
PR Newswire
Mastercard and Ubirider, Portugal-based makers of the mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) platform Pick designed to serve riders, transport operators and cities, have entered into an agreement to jointly offer Innovative digital solutions that combine operational, payment and ticketing resources and data for public transport agencies and operators. Through this partnership, Mastercard and Ubirider will look to expand on the early success of the products in Portugal to simplify access and payments for mobility services.
Businesswire
Wise, the global technology company building the best way to move money around the world, launched 15 new partnerships in 2022 and enters 2023 with a total of 60 partners globally. These partnerships are made possible through Wise Platform, which allows banks and businesses to embed the power of Wise into their existing platform. Almost 10 million new customers gained access to Wise, via Wise Platform, in 2022 alone.
ZoodPay
ZoodPay, a leading digital lending platform for e-commerce in the Middle East and Central Asia, has entered into a strategic partnership with Mastercard to launch the first-of-its-kind prepaid virtual installment card in the Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) region. This collaboration will expand financial and digital inclusion, benefiting the underbanked population and those with no credit data or limited access to finance.
U.S. Payments Forum
The U.S. Payments Forum today announces its 2023 Steering Committee and Officers. The group serves as a leadership organization within the Forum, essential in enabling efficient, timely and effective implementation of emerging and existing payment technologies in the U.S. market and beyond. The group is comprised of payments leaders representing top global and domestic payment networks, merchants, issuers, acquirers and industry suppliers. The following members have been elected as Steering Committee officers for 2023...
Bold Commerce
Bold Commerce, the ecommerce technology company that powers checkout and subscription experiences for leading retailers and DTC brands, today announced a new integration with PayPal, the financial technology company that empowers consumers and merchants to join and thrive in the global economy with its payments and commerce platform. PayPal is working with Bold Commerce to bring payments and commerce together as the fintech company moves into the growing headless commerce market.
Clik2pay
Payment service provider Clik2pay announced it has developed an industry changing application which allows any Shopify store to seamlessly offer a direct-from-account payment option to customers. When using Clik2pay, payments are completed safely and securely using Interac e-Transfer™, one of the most trusted money transfer systems in the world.
Klarna
Klarna, the global leader in the generational shift away from credit cards, today announced the launch of Money Story in the US Klarna App - a personal spending summary of 2022 that provides millions of consumers with useful insights into their spending habits and helps them be informed and in control of their finances. Using the animated “story” format popularized by social media, Money Story reveals spending habits to consumers in an engaging and familiar way.
Modern Retail
For one buy now, pay later platform, sizing down its operations may unlock the path to profitability amid changes in consumer spending and a tightening of the BNPL market. Australia-based BNPL platform Zip Co. shut down its operations in the United Kingdom and Singapore late last year. In turn, it decreased its cash burn and ended the year with $78.5 million in cash and liquidity, according to its second-quarter earnings report released Tuesday.
Ledger Insights
There’s been considerable work on the concept of using wholesale (interbank) central bank digital currencies (CBDC) to address the frictions of cross border payments. So far, only one project has taken the alternative route of interlinking multiple retail domestic CBDCs to enable consumers or businesses to make direct person-to-person international payments. To do just that, the Bank of Israel is working with the central banks of Norway and Sweden and the Nordic BIS Innovation Hub on Project Icebreaker, as announced in September last year.
PR Newswire
Launched at Davos during the World Economic Forum week, the Universal Digital Payments Network (UDPN) is a DLT-underpinned messaging backbone focused on providing interoperability between the fast-growing number of different regulated stablecoins and CBDCs, and seamless connectivity between any business IT system and regulated digital currencies. At the Davos launch event, representatives from leading global financial institutions Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, The Bank of East Asia, and Akbank discussed the rapidly evolving world of digital currency, the importance of interoperability, and the need for an infrastructure to support these developments.
EIN News
OnlineCheckWriter.com, a leading b2b payments platform, announced that its customers can now easily integrate their FreshBooks accounts with its platform to handle payments and accounting tasks. The integration allows FreshBooks users to streamline their payment process, from invoicing to issuing payments, all in one place.
J.D. Power
Ever find yourself away from home without your smartphone? It feels like you accidentally left an appendage behind. Modern life virtually requires that each of us has our devices accessible at any time. So how is it that most Americans still find that using a credit card is more convenient than a mobile wallet? According to J.D. Power data, mobile wallet usage among Americans continues to grow in stores, but the percentage of customers that still say it is easier to use a physical credit/debit card than a mobile wallet is on the rise.
Business Travel News
Digital tipping platform eTip is partnering with Visa to speed up the process and adoption of its tool, the company announced. The platform enables guests at hotels and other service industry customers to tip housekeepers, bellhops, valet attendants and other staff with their digital wallet or credit card, including corporate cards. Guests can scan a QR code or NFC tag—or some hotels opt to send the tipping information via text—and can provide their payment information, eTip CEO Nicolas Cassis said. With the new Visa collaboration, eTip can use the Visa rails so that the tip payments can go immediately into the employees' digital wallets, he said.
Biometric Update
A new method for authenticating blind and low-vision (BLV) users via haptic vibrations has been tested by researchers at the University of Waterloo and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Called OneButtonPIN, the new method is described in a study published in the Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction journal and aims to make authentication more user-friendly and secure for BLV individuals.
Reuters
The digital version of the euro currency will be free to use and available to all but the European Central Bank does not want to keep any personal data on its users, ECB board member Fabio Panetta said on Monday. The ECB is working on a digital version of its currency and is in the process of outlining the broader design, also hoping to alleviate concerns that the digital currency could disrupt the financial system and give the central bank too much data on citizens.
Reuters
Germany's cartel office regulator said on Monday it had initiated proceedings against payment company PayPal Europe over the possibility that it hindered competition. The subject of the proceedings was PayPal's rules for extra charges and the presentation of PayPal in the terms of use for Germany, the watchdog said. PayPal did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The regulator is investigating in particular rules that say merchants may not offer their goods and services at a lower price to customers who choose a cheaper payment method than PayPal.
European Central Bank
Our investigation into a digital euro started more than a year ago. Closely involving the European Parliament in the investigation phase has been a priority for the ECB from day one. Over the course of 2022, we regularly discussed key design options in this Committee...People’s payment behaviour is changing at an unprecedented speed: over the past three years, cash payments in the euro area have dropped from 72% to 59%, with digital payments becoming increasingly popular (Chart 1).
Ars Technica
Two new studies suggest that ransomware isn't the lucrative, enterprise-scale gotcha it used to be. Profits to attackers' wallets, and the percentage of victims paying, fell dramatically in 2022, according to two separate reports. Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm that has worked with a number of law enforcement and government agencies, suggests in a blog post that based on payments to cryptocurrency addresses it has identified as connected to ransomware attacks, payments to attackers fell from $766 million in 2021 to $457 million last year.
The Irish Times
Irish-founded payments technology company Stripe has signed an expanded deal with Amazon that will see the fintech process more of the online retailer’s payments. The new agreement will see Stripe become a strategic payments partner for Amazon in the US, Europe and Canada, processing payments for Prime, Audible, Kindle, Amazon Pay, Buy With Prime and other Amazon services. That accounts for a significant part of Amazon’s total payments volume.
PR Newswire
BNY Mellon and Fiserv, a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology, have joined forces to deliver additional capabilities for real-time foreign exchange (FX) rate quotes for payments from U.S. financial institutions. Using innovative application programming interface (API) connectivity, financial institutions leveraging Payments Exchange: Foreign Exchange Services from Fiserv can now seamlessly access BNY Mellon's real-time FX rate quotes in over 120 currencies without the need for additional integration.
