Global

Move Over, Armani: Italy’s It Wallet Is the Digital ID Accessory of the Season

Biometric Update

"Bravo to Italy for the forthcoming launch of its digital wallet scheme, clearing the path for a national digital identity program. Reports say the so-called It Wallet will roll out in January 2025, aligned with the framework of the European digital identity wallet (EUDI) and activated through Italy’s electronic identity card (CIE) or SPID digital identity system."

Tags: Europe

Global

Rome Becomes the First European City to Offer Open Loop Transit Payments to UnionPay Cardholders

PR Newswire

"Rome is the first city in Europe to offer contactless payment service to cardmembers boarding public transport by simply tapping with a contactless payment card or mobile phone on turnstiles or authorized readers from UnionPay available through Nexi."

Tags: Europe

Global

China’s Ant Group Doubles Down on Global Expansion With Cross-Border Payments Offering Alipay+

CNBC

"Ant Group is looking to expand into the payments markets of Europe, Middle East and Latin America with its Alipay+ offering."

Tags: Europe Latin America Middle East

Global

European Banks Believe EU SEPA Instant Timelines Are Unrealistic

The Global Treasurer

"New research has revealed that 58% of European banks that do not currently offer instant payments believe the timelines set out by the EU in the new SEPA Instant payments legislation are unrealistic."

Tags: Europe

Global

Ensuring Euro Money Transfers Arrive Within Ten Seconds

Europa

The new regulation aims to make sure that retail clients and businesses, especially SMEs, will not have to wait for their money, as well as to enhance the safety of transfers. Banks and other payment service providers (PSPs) will have to ensure credit transfers are affordable and immediately processed.

Tags: Europe

Global

OKTO and Modulus Forge Key Partnership to Enhance Digital Payments

Contxto

"Expanding in Europe and Latin America, the collaboration aims to revolutionize gaming experiences with secure, rapid transactions."

Tags: Europe Latin America

Global

Volt and Bumper Partner to Bring Open Banking to Major Car Dealerships in the UK and Europe

Volt

"Volt, the global real-time payments platform, announces its partnership with Bumper, a payment platform for car dealerships, to harness the power of open banking and real-time payments so that consumers can pay for vehicle deposits, repairs, parts, services and even purchase vehicles outright."

Tags: Europe UK

Global Standards

Europe’s Payment System’s Big Bang: Inside the ISO 20022 Migration

International Banker

"Rolling out a new common language for global payment data is no small feat. However, the transition is gathering momentum, with one domestic payment system after another converting to ISO 20022 (a standard for financial-information interchange between financial institutions developed by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization) over the past two years, including in countries such as Singapore"

Tags: Europe

Companies Global

Ukraine’s National Bank Initiates Process to Join Euro Sepa Payment System in 2024

Yahoo News

"Ukraine’s National Bank (NBU) plans to kickstart Ukraine’s accession to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) in 2024, chairman Andriy Pyshnyi wrote on Facebook."

Tags: Europe SEPA

Global

Intrum: Millions to Lose Sight of Spending as Monthly Subscriptions and Payment Deferrals Pile Pressure on Household Finances

PR Newswire

"Millions of consumers across Europe are losing sight of their monthly spending and household outgoings, as almost half (45%) of consumers admit to being taken by surprise by how much their subscription fees build up without them realising."

Tags: Europe

Global

European Central Bank Must Gauge Digital Euro Impact on Banks Before Launch

Yahoo Finance

"The European Central Bank needs to measure the impact of the digital euro on the euro zone's banking system before any final decision on its potential launch, Spain's deputy central bank governor Margarita Delgado said on Friday."

Tags: Europe

Global

Amazon Changes Payout Period

Ecommerce News

"Ecommerce giant Amazon has announced that it will make changes to its payout period. Sellers in the United Kingdom and Europe will have to wait until a week after the delivery of an item to receive their proceeds. The change will come into effect in phases in the upcoming month, until September 6th."

Tags: Europe UK

Global

YowPay Launches First Instant SEPA Credit Transfer Solution for European Merchants

Electronic Payments International

"YowPay’s solution generates a unique QR code for each transaction, allowing customers to pay faster and more easily. The buyer then scans the QR code from their mobile banking application and confirms the payment."

Tags: Europe

Global

European Parliament Votes to Boost Instant Payments in the EU and EEA, Urging Banks to Comply

Fintech Finance

"Following a significant vote by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) yesterday evening, measures are being put in place to enhance accessibility to instant payments across the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). This development has prompted a six-month compliance deadline for banks and financial institutions to offer customers instant payments at a cost equal to or lower than standard credit transfers."

Tags: Europe

Global

Payment Services: Revised Rules to Improve Consumer Protection and Competition in Electronic Payments [PSD3]

European Commission

"... What are the main changes being proposed by this revision? These amendments represent an evolution not a revolution of the EU payments framework. The amendments will improve the functioning of EU payment markets by:..."

Tags: Europe

Global

Modernising Payment Services and Opening Financial Services Data: New Opportunities for Consumers and Businesses [European Commission]

European Commission

"The European Commission has today put forward proposals to bring payments and the wider financial sector into the digital age. Today's new rules will further improve consumer protection and competition in electronic payments, and will empower consumers to share their data in a secure way so that they can get a wider range of better and cheaper financial products and services."

Tags: Europe

Companies Global

J.P. Morgan to Take Majority Stake in Viva Wallet

J.P. Morgan

J.P. Morgan announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Viva Wallet, a cloud-based payments fintech company, to acquire controlling interest of approximately 80 percent in the company, subject to regulatory approvals.

Tags: Europe

Global

CaixaBank and Iberpay Launch Request to Pay in Europe

WebWire

"Iberpay is the first CSM (Clearing & Settlement Mechanism) in Europe to obtain approval certificate from the European Payments Council (EPC) to process transactions based on the SEPA Request-to-Pay scheme for its entities."

Tags: Europe

Global

Mesh Payments Expands Across Europe, UK, and Asia to Support Global Enterprises with Unified Spend Management in Local Currencies

PR Newswire

"Today Mesh Payments announced expansion of its unified spend management platform to support global multinational businesses operating in Europe, UK, and Asia in local currencies. Mesh now enables companies to operate globally across international entities, issue local cards and settle in local currencies all from one unified platform."

Tags: Asia Europe UK

Global

European Payments Initiative to Pilot Digital Wallet for Instant P2P Payments in Germany and France

NFCW

"The European Payments Initiative (EPI) is to begin piloting a digital wallet that will enable users to make instant person-to-person (P2P) payments in Germany and France as a first step towards rolling out a unified payment system that will support “a comprehensive range of transaction types” across Europe. The news comes as the initiative — which was originally set up with investment from more than 30 banks and acquirers — has also confirmed its planned acquisitions of Belgium-based payment solution iDeal and Luxembourg-based payment solutions provider Payconiq will go ahead subject to confirmation by national and European authorities."

Tags: Europe

Global

ECB Publishes Progress Report on Digital Euro and Study on Possible Features of a Digital Wallet

European Central Bank

The European Central Bank (ECB) today published the third progress report on the digital euro, as well as the findings of focus groups commissioned by the ECB concerning people’s views on the features of a potential digital wallet.

Tags: Europe

Global

Tranglo Launches Instant SEPA Payout to Europe

Tranglo

"Tranglo today announced the launch of instant SEPA payments to Europe.. It marks the company’s first large-scale expansion in that region and comes amid an influx of cross-border funds in recent years. SEPA facilitates over 43 billion transactions annually, with cross-border payments growing rapidly in the last 10 years. However, cross-border SEPA credit transfers and direct debits accounted only for 3.5% and 4.5% of such transactions in the region, respectively."

Tags: Europe

Global

Viva Wallet Launches Pan-European Payment Solution for e-Commerce and Shop-in-Shop Marketplaces

PR Newswire

"The Viva Wallet Marketplace Solution is unique in providing a pan-European payments platform for all marketplaces, active either online or in the physical world, including shop-in-shop business models. Viva Wallet, as a licensed bank and e-money institution, delivers the payment tools necessary to smoothly operate a European marketplace, while totally complying with PSD2 and the new EU DSA and DMA Acts."

Tags: Europe

Global

European Banking Industry Sets Out a Vision for Digital Euro

European Banking Federation

"In this paper, the European Banking Federation (EBF) – representing the vast majority of the European banking sector – sets forth its initial vision for the digital money ecosystem of the future, where a retail digital euro, a wholesale CBDC and bank issued money tokens would all play a role in enabling innovation, supporting customer needs and ensuring that Europe stays at the forefront of digital finance and the digital economy."

Tags: Europe

Global

EBA CLEARING to Enrich RT1 and STEP2 with Fraud Prevention and Detection Capabilities

PR Newswire

"EBA CLEARING announced today that it will enrich its SEPA payment systems, RT1 and STEP2, with fraud prevention and detection capabilities by November 2023. The Company's new Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection (FPAD) solution will support RT1 and STEP2 users in complementing their fraud-fighting tools and assessments with insights from a central network view."

Tags: Europe

Global Industry

European Central Bank Calls For Input to Create Digital Euro Scheme Rulebook

Ledger Insights

"The European Central Bank is forming a working group that will consult in the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) rule book for the Digital Euro Scheme. All potential digital euro payments will have to comply with the set of rules created with work on the rulebook commencing in February. In December, the ECB appointed Christian Schäfer to manage the digital euro scheme rulebook. Now it’s looking for individuals to join the Rulebook Development Group that Schäfer chairs, but they must represent a stakeholder association. The relevant stakeholders include banks, payment providers, as well as the users of a potential digital euro such as consumers, retailers, corporates or SME users."

Tags: Europe

Global

Cash Remains the Most Frequently Used Means of Payment in Stores but Electronic Payments Grow Further, ECB Study Shows

European Central Bank

“Cash is still the most frequently used means of payment at the point of sale, but its share is declining according to the latest study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area, published today by the European Central Bank (ECB). Cash was used for 59% of point-of-sale transactions in 2022, down from 72% in 2019. It is the means of payment most often used for small-value payments in stores and for person-to-person transactions.”

Tags: Europe

Global

Fluency’s CBDC Technology Meets All Key ECB Foundation Design Aspects for a Digital Euro

prnewswire

“The European Central Bank released on 29th September 2022, their latest progress report on the investigation phase of their digital euro project and elaborates on foundational design features approved by the Governing Council. The report highlights key operational transfer mechanism requirements for the digital euro including:  Online validation by third-parties; Offline functionality (where payee or payer are not connected to the internet) and peer-to-peer validation; Privacy level at least equal to current private sector digital solutions; Compatibility with current regulatory framework.”

Tags: Europe

Global

Revolut Partners with Tink for European Payments

Tink

“Tink, Europe’s leading open banking platform, and Revolut, the global financial super app with more than 18 million customers worldwide, have entered into a strategic partnership for open banking technology.  Tink’s payment initiation services (PIS) technology will allow Revolut users across Europe to seamlessly move money into their Revolut account. PIS enables users to connect to the bank account they want to move money from, and instantaneously authorise and complete the payment without leaving the Revolut app.”

Tags: Europe

Global

Modulr Launches SEPA Instant Service to Supercharge Real-Time European Business Payments

Fintech Finance

“Modulr, the embedded payments platform, has today announced it has launched its real-time Euro payments service, based on the real-time pan European SEPA Instant scheme, which operates 24/7, settles funds in 10 seconds and presents European businesses with significant competitive opportunities. The new service enables customers to build and launch embedded real-time Euro payment propositions via the Modulr API, allowing them to send and receive payments immediately, under their own or Modulr’s regulated status. By embedding real-time payments directly into their software, businesses in the European market will be able to deliver efficient and competitive payment propositions more easily and quickly than previously possible.”

Tags: Europe