Аsia
Singtel to sell Dash mobile wallet to Western Union
The Business Times, Posted October 24, 2024
TELCO giant Singtel has inked a conditional agreement to sell its e-wallet app Dash to financial services firm Western Union. The sale is part of Singtel’s ongoing measures to simplify its structure and portfolio to boost innovation and growth opportunities, said Singtel and Western Union on Thursday (Oct 24).
Anna Yip, deputy chief executive of Singtel Singapore, said that the move is in line with the group’s Singtel28 strategy to focus on its core business and competencies.
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Nium and Swift to enable FIs to facilitate real-time payments
IBS Intelligence, Posted October 25, 2024
Nium, the global infrastructure for real-time cross-border payments, has announced that financial institutions can now leverage Swift capabilities and their existing Swift infrastructure to connect to Nium’s global real-time payments network.
This connection provides an efficient and cost-effective solution for financial institutions to connect to Nium’s global infrastructure, eliminating the need for costly and resource-intensive API integrations. Cross-border payments initiated via Swift can be completed on Nium’s network, resulting in faster settlement, end-to-end transparency, and full traceability for the most popular corridors.
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Philippines: Warren Buffett-backed Mitsubishi Acquires Stake in GCash Parent Mynt for $320 Million
Crowdfund Insider, Posted October 20, 2024
Mitsubishi Corporation, backed by Warrent Buffett, is set to acquire approximately 6.5% of Global Fintech Innovations Inc (Mynt), the parent company of the Philippines’ major finance super app GCash, according to regulatory filings.
In a disclosure to The Philippine Stock Exchange, conglomerate Ayala Corporation announced it has agreed to sell half of its wholly-owned subsidiary, AC Ventures Holdings Corporation (ACV), to Mitsubishi for at least 18.4 billion pesos ($320 million). ACV currently holds about a 13% stake in Mynt.
GCash, a ubiquitous finance super app in the Philippines, boasts over 94 million active users. The investment by Mitsubishi, Japan’s largest trading company, is expected to bolster Mynt’s growth both overseas and within Mitsubishi’s extensive Japan-based ecosystem.
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Indonesia’s Investree plunges into crisis as licence revoked amid fraud allegation
The Business Times, Posted October 23, 2024
Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) has dealt a major blow to Jakarta-based peer-to-peer lending platform Investree Radhika Jaya, ordering the company to shut down all operations following a fraud allegation involving co-founder and former chief executive Adrian Gunadi.
While the fraud claim adds to the turmoil, the OJK’s decision was triggered by Investree’s failure to meet the required minimum equity of 7.5 billion rupiah (S$632,987), raising concerns about its ability to continue serving the public.
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Europe
The Paypers unveils the Next-Gen Tech to Detect Fraud and Fincrime Report 2024
The Paypers, Posted October 22, 2024
The Paypers has released the Next-Gen Technologies to Detect Fraud and Financial Crime Report 2024, highlighting how banks, fintechs, and PSPs leverage AI to combat advanced fraud.
Over the last two years, fraud detection and prevention in financial services has faced unprecedented challenges. Factors such as the uncertain economy, ongoing global conflicts, the wider adoption of diverse payment methods, and the development of AI – often used for deep fakes and automating cyberattacks – have contributed to the rise in fraud. According to NICE Actimize’s 2024 Fraud Insights report, authorised fraud grew by 22% in 2023, with the average fraudulent transaction amount surging by 43% to reach USD 3,222.
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Crowdfund insider, Posted October 21, 2024
Unity Wallet (formerly Savl) COO James Toledano believes DeFi has the potential to break Visa’s and Mastercard’s dominance of European payment rails, while also allowing Europe to at least partially free itself from depending on American payment rails. Savi is a self-custodial crypto and Web3 wallet that combines encryption, functionality, and intuitive design.
European customers are increasingly looking to solutions like stablecoins to reduce risk exposure, fees and reliance on poorly performing technology. Toledano said that movement was endorsed by the European Central Bank, whose website states that stablecoins have increasing global use cases and potential financial risk contagion channels.”
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BNPL Saved UK Consumers Half a Billion Pounds in Credit Card Interest According to Klarna Report
Crowdfund Insider, Posted October24, 2024
BNPL or Buy Now Pay Later is said to have saved UK consumers half a billion pounds in credit card interest over a decade, according to an update from Klarna which claims it is now marking 10 years of savings.
Klarna, the AI-powered global payments network and shopping assistant, has announced new data showing that, is celebrating its tenth year in the UK this week.
Ten years ago, Klarna created the UK’s “modern” BNPL industry: short-term, interest-free installment credit. In a decade marked by rising credit card debt, Klarna’s BNPL solution has helped consumers avoid “nearly half a billion pounds in interest payments.”
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Fintech Focused Magnetiq Bank Joins Fintech Hub LT
Crowdfund Insider, Posted October 21, 2024
Magnetiq Bank has joined Fintech Hub LT – an association with a mission to support licensed Fintechs in Latvia and EEA countries. Fintech Hub LT also represents Latvia as a Fintech centre of innovation.
AS Magnetiq Bank, based in Latvia, aims to support Fintechs, e-commerce, and other startups. Magnetiq is part of the Signet Bank Group, the sole shareholder.
Magnetiq says that joining the Fintech Hub LT marks a significant step in its expansion, highlighting its commitment to working with Fintech companies and startups across the Baltics and the European Economic Area (EEA).
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HSBC Launches New Cross-Border Virtual Account Solution for Banks
Fintech Finance News, Posted October 22, 2024
HSBC have launched a new cross border e-commerce payment solution for banks worldwide, enabling their merchant business customers trading on e-commerce sites to seamlessly receive EUR and GBP payments via their local bank account.
Prior to HSBC’s introduction of this virtual account solution, businesses in certain jurisdictions were only able to access EUR and GBP funds using cross-border payments at greater cost to e-marketplace platforms and merchants, due to additional fees and FX rates.
The HSBC virtual account solution also enables Chinese businesses trading on platforms to now receive EUR and GBP payments via their local clearing system and through their own bank accounts, without having to set up foreign bank accounts in those jurisdictions. Merchants can therefore access their funds more quickly and without additional cost.
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USA
Mastercard Expands Product Express Program to More Regions
PYMNTS, Posted October 24, 2024
Mastercard has expanded the availability of Product Express, its platform that helps FinTechs launch card programs and other payment solutions.
Formerly known as Fintech Express, Product Express was introduced in some Latin American markets earlier this year and is now available in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America and more markets in Latin America, the company said in a Thursday (Oct. 24) press release.
“By creating a better experience for all parties, we foster innovation and reduce time to market,” Jennifer Premisler, senior vice president of FinTech solutions at Mastercard, said in the release.
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Mastercard Sees The Future In Cross-Border B2B With Bank-Focused Commercial Payments Solution
Forbes, Posted October 20, 2024
Few parts of the financial sector are currently seeing transformation as significant as the B2B cross-border payments landscape. Buoyed by rising expectations both from a customer and policy perspective, as well as an ever-growing total addressable market, B2B payments providers across the industry are looking to up the quality and capabilities of their cross-border services, creating key opportunities for infrastructure providers such as Mastercard.
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Sibos: Financial institutions are “nowhere near” 2027 G20 targets
Finextra, Posted October 24, 2024
Alan Marquard, executive vice president, applications at Mastercard commented on their current progress towards 2027 goals as reported by FSB in their second annual assessment in a session on G20 targets at Sibos in Beijing: “we’re four years in the journey to 2027, and we’re nowhere near there. I find that completely unsurprising. The metrics were set up as quantitative metrics, but set at a global level without clarity on who was responsible for achieving them.”
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Global Payments to Offer US Merchants Fastlane by PayPal Checkout
PYMNTS, Posted October 23, 2024
Payments technology company Global Payments will offer its U.S. merchants the Fastlane by PayPalcheckout experience.
The new offering marks an expanded collaboration between Global Payments and PayPal Holdings, the companies said in a Wednesday (Oct. 23) press release.
Fastlane enables guest shoppers to complete purchases in as little as one click, according to the release. Compared to traditional guest checkout flows for consumers paying with a card, it can raise checkout conversion rates by 50% and reduce checkout time by 28%.
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Finix raises $75M to take on Stripe as a payment processo
TechCrunch, Posted October 24, 2024
For years, Finix has been slowly chipping away at Stripe – which handles payments for millions of businesses. But after previously helping companies set up internal payment systems of their own, the startup officially became a payment processor in 2023, just like Stripe. Now Finix is gearing up for its biggest push against the fintech giant yet.
In an interview with TechCrunch, CEO and founder Richie Serna says becoming a payment processor was “hugely transformational” for the business, and a main driver of its $75 million fundraise, which it announced on Thursday.
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Apple and Goldman Sachs ordered to pay $89 million after Apple Card failures
CNN, Posted October 23, 2024
The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Goldman Sachs and Apple to pay $89 million, and Goldman was temporarily banned from issuing new credit cards, because of the companies’ mishandling of their Apple Card partnership. The failures left customers with unresolved charge disputes and, in some cases, incorrect credit reports.
Apple neglected to send tens of thousands of Apple Card disputes to Goldman Sachs, the CFPB said. When Apple did inform Goldman of disputes, “the bank did not follow numerous federal requirements for investigating the disputes,” according to the CFPB.
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US moves to ‘open banking’ with Personal Financial Data Rights final rule
Finextra, Posted October 22, 2024
The CFPB says the ruling will help consumers to more easily switch to providers with superior rates and services, lowering prices on loans and improving customer service across payments, credit, and banking markets.
“Too many Americans are stuck in financial products with lousy rates and service,” says CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Today’s action will give people more power to get better rates and service on bank accounts, credit cards, and more.”
Under the provisions, consumers will be able to access and share data associated with bank accounts, credit cards, mobile wallets, payment apps, and other financial products. Consumers will be able to access, or authorise a third party to access, data such as transaction information, account balance information, information needed to initiate payments, upcoming bill information, and basic account verification information. Financial providers must make this information available without charging fees.
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LatAm
dLocal Partners with Fourvenues to expand in LATAM and Southeast Asia
The Paypers, Posted October 24, 2024
Cross-border payment platform specialising in high-growth markets dLocal has partnered with Fourvenues to expand in LATAM and Southeast Asia.
According to the official press release, LATAM and SEA are seeing rapid growth in their entertainment and events sectors. Latin America, for example, will host FIFA World Cup matches in 2030 and other major international events. The region’s entertainment industry is projected to grow by 26%, reaching USD 33 billion by 2029. Similarly, Southeast Asia’s event market is expected to reach USD 1.6 billion by 2028, with a consumer base of 45 million. This partnership will focus on implementing contactless payment systems, preferred by 59% of exhibitors, to support these expanding markets..
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Propel leads $4.3m investment in Akua, enhancing FinTech innovations in LatAm
Fintech Global, Posted October 22, 2024
Akua, a Latin American-based payment processing platform, has successfully secured a seed investment of $4.3m.
Propel led the funding round, with additional contributions from Plug and Play, HTwenty, RallyCap, Flourish Ventures, and ICventures. The investment round also included high-impact angel investors with prior roles at companies like Mastercard, dLocal, Jeeves, and Nubank.
Akua is setting a new standard in the region by developing the first “as-a-service” acquiring processor platform. This platform is cloud-native, highly secure, operates in real-time, and integrates AI to streamline operations for financial institutions and merchants across Latin America.
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With EBANX, Canva invests in local payments to promote digital inclusion in Latin America
PR Newswire, Posted October 21, 2024
Canva, a global visual communication platform, has formed a partnership with EBANX, a global technology company specializing in payment services for emerging markets. The SaaS giant is aiming to grow in Latin America by providing local payment options for the customers. The payments strategy intends to increase digital inclusion in the region and includes local cards and alternative payment methods, such as Pix, the Brazilian instant payment phenomenon that is about to offer recurring features.
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Latin America’s Bitso Comments on Benefits of Using Stablecoins to Boost Savings Potential
Crowdfund insider, Posted October 20, 2024
Latin America’s digital assets firm Bitso recently noted in an update covering the benefits of stablecoins that when consumers have medium- or long-term plans to make any type of purchase or transaction, they tend to create a savings fund that “allows them to achieve their goals.”
For this reason, it is said to be quite common to use digital financial tools with which you can set aside money, but “not all of these services allow you to get the most out of your capital.”
Bitso, the crypto-powered financial services company in Latin America, shares an “effective” way in which people can benefit from an efficient and accessible solution for daily life: digital dollars.
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Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) Releases Details for Brazilian Digital Real Pilot
Crowdfund insider, Posted October 20, 2024
TheBanco Central do Brasil (BCB) recently released a list of the thirteen themes selected for the second phase of the Drex Pilot, the Brazilian Digital Real.
The Executive Management Committee (CEG) reportedly selecte the subjects from 42 different proposals that had been submitted.
A description of the themes and their developers has now been released.
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The Rise of Neobanks: What Nubank’s Expansion Means for Banks in Latin America
Latinia, Posted October 20, 2024
Emerging from the bustling fintech scene of Brazil, Nubank has not only disrupted traditional banking paradigms but has also set its sights on a grander stage—Latin America.
But what does this expansion means for the traditional banking sector ? Is Nubank a threat to the established order, or could it be the catalyst for a new, more inclusive financial ecosystem?
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