“SPENN and Mastercard have today announced a strategic partnership that will enable SPENN Mobile Wallet users – even those without bank accounts – to make safe and seamless digital payments on the Mastercard network including international e-commerce transactions.  Under the agreement, SPENN will launch a Mastercard virtual card, giving its Mobile Wallet App customers new ways to access and pay for products and services at the millions of e-commerce merchants that accept Mastercard. With a Mastercard virtual (non-plastic) payment solution linked to SPENN Mobile Money wallets, consumers and small businesses can make payments to local and global online brands and can pay at over 15,000 Kazang devices in Zambia. This means e-commerce transactions can be done instantly through mobile wallets for a wide variety of payments including travel, entertainment subscription services, and bill payments while ensuring that the customer’s financial data is always secure and private.”

“Global Payments Inc said on Monday it would buy smaller peer EVO Payments Inc. for nearly $4 billion including debt, as the fintech firm seeks to expand its footprint in the business-to-business (B2B) space. Companies such as EVO strive to digitize and streamline B2B payments which are usually more complex than business-to-consumer payments as they involve dealing with several domestic and overseas merchants.”

“ANZ today announced it has delivered a suite of new or enhanced features to its first ANZ Plus product, including BPAY, Pay to a PAY ID and instant access to a digital card. New features also include a Visa dynamic CVV (card verification value), providing customers with an extra layer of fraud protection when shopping online and over the phone. The advanced security feature provides a digital alternative to the static three-digit number on the back of a payment card with a code that automatically updates every 12 hours within the app. New ANZ Plus functionality includes: BPAY: pay bills using BPAY, a bill payment service accepted by more than 45,000 billers. PayID: send payments to a PayID such as a mobile number, email address or ABN. Add digital card to Apple Wallet immediately: instantly set up digital card when joining. Dynamic CVV: provides a digital alternative to the static three-digit number on the back of the ANZ Plus card. Query a transaction: customers can dispute all available transaction types via the self-service option. Age to join reduced to 15 years: so ANZ Plus customers can begin learning how to manage their money and save earlier. Cardless cash: securely withdraw cash from an ATM without your card.”

“Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform, today announced a significant expansion of its credit platform with a new, intuitive dashboard and over 40 new credit APIs that enable customers to design, test, and launch differentiated credit card experiences. Marqeta’s credit platform provides customers with greater flexibility and control than legacy credit solutions, with customers also having the option to leverage First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO)’s leading program management and banking capabilities alongside these new features.”

“Apple has been hit with an antitrust accusation by the European Union over its exclusion of rivals from its Apple Pay mobile payment system. The EU has sent Apple a formal “Statement of Objections” with the preliminary view that Apple has abused its dominant position in mobile wallets on iOS.  “The Commission takes issue with the decision by Apple to prevent mobile wallets app developers, from accessing the necessary hardware and software (‘NFC input’) on its devices, to the benefit of its own solution, Apple Pay,” reads the decision . “Today’s Statement of Objections takes issue only with the access to NFC input by third-party developers of mobile wallets for payments in stores.””

“ATM software has reached a new era. It is now entering the realm of the cloud, as the CEN XFS Standard Committee is pressing forward with its new standard: XFS4IoT. This standard aims to be truly OS agnostic, while also integrating fully into the cloud. By doing this, ATM operators will more easily be able to integrate more complex tools into their machines.”

“Banks are debating a plan to bring Zelle to the checkout at big retailers. The money-transfer service boomed during the pandemic, when people avoided ATMs and replaced cash and checks with digital money transfers. Zelle recorded some 1.8 billion transactions in 2021 totaling $490 billion, both more than double their prepandemic levels.”

“Today, PayPal announced the new PayPal app, an all-in-one, personalized app that offers customers the best place to manage their financial lives. The new PayPal app will introduce new features including PayPal Savings, a new high yield savings account provided by Synchrony Bank, alongside new in-app shopping tools that will enable customers to earn rewards redeemable for cash back or PayPal shopping credit and uncover deals with hundreds of merchants.”

“Qolo , the omnichannel payments platform for Fintech, today announced it has successfully closed a $15M Series A round of funding, led by The Raptor Group with additional participation from other professional investors and strategic partners.”

“The Treasury Department on Thursday announced that it is taking steps to crack down on cryptocurrency markets and transactions, and said it will require any transfer worth $10,000 or more to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. “Cryptocurrency already poses a significant detection problem by facilitating illegal activity broadly including tax evasion,” the Treasury Department said in a release .”

“Codat , the API-based platform for business data, today announced strategic investments from PayPal Ventures and American Express Ventures. Amex Ventures and PayPal join previous investor in Codat’s Series A Index Ventures. Along with the announcement of these new investments, Codat also formally launched its U.S. operations. Codat is the fintech startup powering the small and medium business data ecosystem. Codat’s API connects the tools and services that small businesses need for their operations and handles the heavy lifting of integrations—ultimately leaving providers free to focus on improving their offerings for small businesses.”

“The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC), a membership organization devoted to advancing faster payments in the United States, announced it has launched two new FPC Work Groups: Financial Inclusion and Real-Time Recurring. The newest work groups are in addition to the FPC’s wide range of workstreams on faster payments topics such as education and awareness, cross border payments, fraud, QR codes, regulatory, and directory models.”

“oday, Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: JKHY ), a leading provider of technology solutions and payment processing services primarily for the financial services industry, confirmed that 93 financial institutions are live on its faster payments hub, JHA PayCenter ™. In total, more than 170 banks and credit unions are contracted to leverage JHA PayCenter to connect to The Clearing House’s RTP® network and/or Early Warning Services’ Zelle Network®. Jack Henry’s clients represent most of the financial institutions live on the RTP network to-date.”

“In response to the continued coronavirus outbreak, Apple and Goldman Sachs are allowing customers to skip their Apple Card March payment without incurring interest charges. Apple Card holders should receive an email announcing this “Customer Assistance Program.” As first shared on Reddit , and noticed first by MacRumors , Apple Card customers can skip their March payment without incurring interest charges through the Customer Assistance Program. The email explains:”

“Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) on Monday is set to announce a new business line selling the technology behind its cashier-less convenience stores to other retailers, the company told Reuters.  The world’s biggest web retailer said it has “several” signed deals with customers it would not name. A new website Monday will invite others to inquire about the service, dubbed Just Walk Out technology by Amazon.”

“Revolut , the European banking and money transfer app that now claims over 10 million customers, has partnered with open banking API provider TrueLayer to add bank account aggregation features to its app. The new functionality means that Revolut’s U.K. customers — both consumer and business — can now connect their external U.K. bank accounts to Revolut, enabling them to see all of their bank balances and transactions, regardless of which of their U.K. bank accounts the data resides in. Known as account aggregation, the feature is designed provide a more complete view of your spending and other transactions, and it was one of the early promises of open banking.”

“Outside of in-app purchases in mobile games, subscription revenue from non-game apps helped to boost 2019’s mobile consumer spend — a figure that reached $120 billion globally last year, according to a recent report by App Annie. Now, new data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower indicates U.S. subscription app revenue grew by 21% last year from the $3.8 billion generated by the top 100 subscription apps to reach over $4.6 billion in 2019.”

“Burger King in Venezuela will soon be allowing Bitcoin as a form of payment. According to Cointelegraph , a single Burger King branch, which is located in the Sambil area of Caracas, now accepts Bitcoin as well as altcoins Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB), and Dash. The restaurant also accepts stablcoin Tether (USDT).”

“Adyen (AMS: ADYEN), the global payments platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies, today announced the addition of card issuing to its offering. Adyen Issuing will enable clients to provide virtual and/or physical cards to their customers. Cards issued by Adyen can be used online, in-app, in-store, and can be integrated into mobile wallets. Adyen Issuing will meet various client needs. It gives them the ability to issue cards for a variety of use cases, including: marketplaces paying out to cards that can then be used to pay anywhere, and online travel agencies using virtual cards to make disbursements to their airline and hotel partners.”

“The Financial Data Exchange was launched in October 2018 to unite the financial industry around a single, interoperable and royalty-free standard for consumer and business access to their financial data, addressing common challenges around the way the industry shares account information and enhancing security, innovation and consumer control.”

“Mastercard has entered into an agreement with global retailer WHSmith and its brands Funky Pigeon, Cult Pens and The Card Gallery in a move to launch online payments via a Pay by Bank app (PbBa) offering. PbBa was created by Vocalink, a Mastercard company, and will offer online shoppers a solution which meets PSD2 standards and requirements for strong customer authentication (SCA). Customers can pay using the mobile banking app, without downloading a separate app, and is designed to make online checkout easier.”