Аsia
Cashfree Payments rolls out NPCI-Certified UPI Switch
The Paypers, Posted October 15, 2024
Cashfree Payments has received certification from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for its UPI (Acquiring) Switch, which has now begun processing transactions.
The UPI Switch facilitates communication between core banking systems and NPCI’s UPI infrastructure, ensuring reliable and efficient transaction processing.
The system supports up to 12,000 transactions per second, enabling businesses to manage high-volume payment events such as major sales and sporting events without experiencing disruptions or payment failures. It also offers improved success rates – up to 5% higher – while giving businesses control over UPI payment acceptance, including faster onboarding, instant refunds, and better visibility into transaction failures.
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Aspire obtains in-principal approval for the MPI licence from MAS
The Paypers, Posted October 15, 2024
dtcpay and Visa have announced a strategic partnership to upgrade digital payments in Singapore.
This collaboration will integrate dtcpay’s digital payment technologies with Visa’s global network, providing access to 130 million merchants across over 200 countries. The initial phase will introduce the dtcpay Visa Infinite card, allowing users to convert digital currencies into fiat at competitive real-time rates. The card will be available for public registration in Q4 2024.
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Wise becomes first foreign firm to gain direct access to Japan’s payment clearing network
Reuters, Posted October 17, 2024
British fintech firm Wise (WISEa.L), opens new tab has won approval for direct access to Japan’s bank payment clearing network, becoming the first foreign financial company to do so, it said on Thursday.
The move could put pressure on banks including megabanks such as Mitsubishi UFJ (8306.T), opens new tab and smaller players such as SBI Shinsei and Sony Bank in the competitive market for remittances.
Fees for cross-border payments, which are typically processed by banks, have fallen in recent years but remain high.
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Europe
Klarna adds features to AI-powered assistant
Fintech Finance News, Posted October 16, 2024
Klarna, the AI-powered global payments network and shopping assistant, has signed a strategic, multi-year agreement with a subsidiary of funds advised by Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited for the on-going sale of substantially all of Klarna’s short-term, interest free product receivables in the UK. Klarna will still own all consumer-facing activities, including underwriting and servicing.
Over the past three years, Klarna has been building an efficient and robust capital offloading platform to support its compounding network growth. This partnership represents the latest addition to these platform capabilities, allowing Klarna to fund over £30B of volume through the life of the transaction.
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Revolut tops fraud leaderboard by a country mile
Finextra, Posted October 15, 2024
The firm, which received a provisional UK banking licence in July, was at the centre of nearly 10,000 complaints to the UK’s leading reporter for fraud and cybercrime, Action Fraud, according to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made by BBC Panorama.
Revolut was comfortably ahead of second-place Barclays, which was named in almost 8,000 filings despite having about double Revolut’s customer numbers in the UK. Rivals Monzo and Starling were named in almost 5,000 and just over 1,000 reports respectively.
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European Payments Commission Rulebook May Cause Challenges for Banks
Crowdfund Insider, Posted October 17, 2024
Last week, the European Payments Commission (EPC) posted the Verification of Payee (VOP) scheme rulebook following a public consultation. The rulebook is for payment service providers (PSPs) in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). This applies to the EU Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) and the validation of a payee for credit transfers. Future versions of the VOP rulebook may cover other payment instruments.
CI received a comment from Pratiksha Pathak, Head of Payments Services atRedCompass Labs, on the rulebook and possible challenges for banks. She believes the time limit to provide verification and other deadlines are difficult for banks to overcome.
UK’s Digital Bank Zopa Bank Teams Up with John Lewis Money to Provide Personal Loans
Crowdfund Insider, Posted October 16, 2024
Zopa Bank has reportedly teamed up with John Lewis Money, the financial services arm of John Lewis Partnership, in order to provide personal loans to its 23 million customers.
The partnership will see Zopa embed in the John Lewis Money website its personal loan product, giving the retailer’s customers “more finance options” that are transparent.
Customers are able get a personalized loan quote in “3 minutes with no impact to their credit score,” with most customers accessing their money in under 2 hours once their loan has been approved.
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New ‘buy now, pay later’ rules to protect UK shoppers from 2026
The Guardian, Posted October 16, 2024
Shoppers who use “buy now, pay later” loans are to get new safeguards against unaffordable borrowing and credit card-style protection for their purchases, under rules outlined by the UK government.
However, campaigners have questioned why the BNPL changes will not take effect until 2026, warning that consumers need to be “wary” in the meantime.
In recent years the market for BNPL has boomed, with many big retailers teaming up with lenders such as Klarna and Clearpay to allow consumers to spread the cost of their purchases.
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Barclays takes over GM card business from Goldman Sachs
Finextra, Posted October 15, 2024
The GM credit card portfolio, which launched in 1992, has the largest customer base of any automaker in the United States. The new partnership will serve to further scale Barclays’ credit card portfolio in the US and build upon a growth strategy which is centered on establishing partnerships with America’s top brands.
As part of the partnership, Barclays will be acquiring the card program’s receivables from Goldman Sachs last next year. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Goldman beat out competition from Barclays in 2020 to buy GM’s credit card business in a multi-year deal worth around $2.5 billion.
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USA
Apple says support for redeeming rewards with more partners is coming to Apple Pay
TechCrunch, Posted October 17, 2024
On Thursday, Apple celebrated 10 years with Apple Pay and announced how the service will evolve in the future, including features like redeeming rewards and expanding installment loan options. In addition to Apple Pay’s newly added support for loan options from Affirm in the U.S., and Monzo Flex in the U.K., the iPhone maker shared that starting today, support for Klarna will go live in the two countries including both at checkout online and in-app with Apple Pay.
Further down the road, the company says it will expand access to installment loan options to include those from eligible credit or debit cards, including those from Citi and Synchrony in the U.S. and other participating issuers with Fiserv. Outside the U.S., these options will also include ANZ in Australia, DBS in Singapore, CaixaBank in Spain, and, in the U.K., HSBC, NewDay, and Zilch — some of which had been announced previously.
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Crowdfund Insider, Posted October 15, 2024
PitchBook has shared key insights that focus on developments in the Fintech and payments ecosystems.
The PitchBook report pointed out that Fintech performance has rebounded with shares of public fintech firms closing higher during Q3 of 2024, tracking the “broader” stock market’s rebound.
PitchBook also mentioned that early concerns about rising inflation as well as potential rate hikes caused market fluctuations, but a late-quarter rally followed the Federal Reserve’s decision to slash interest rates by 50 basis points.
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Stripe in Advanced Talks to Acquire Stablecoin-Focused Fintech Platform Bridge
Bloomberg, Posted October 17, 2024
Stripe Inc., the payments company founded by billionaire brothers Patrick and John Collison, is in advanced talks to acquire venture-backed fintech platform Bridge.
Stripe has been in talks to acquire the San Antonio, Texas-based company, according to people familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified sharing private information. No final decision has been made, the people said, and either party could still back out of the deal.
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Swift unveils AI-powered real-time fraud barrier
Finextra, Posted October 16, 2024
Available from January 2025, the new service follows a successful pilot with financial institutions across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East
The new capability builds on Swift’s existing Payment Controls Service — used by many small and medium-sized financial institutions — by drawing on pseudonymised data from the billions of transactions that flow over the messaging network each year to identify and flag suspicious transactions so that action can be taken in real-time.
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LatAm
Stori launches a fixed-term investment product in Mexico
LatamList, Posted October 14, 2024
Mexican fintech unicorn Stori launched Inversión+, a fixed-term investment product offering an annual return rate of up to 15.5%.
Customers can access Inversión+ with just 100 pesos and choose between 90, 180, or 360 days investment periods. At the end of the investment period, the invested amount and returns will be transferred to Stori Cuenta+, available for reinvestment or withdrawal.
Stori is a neobank that targets the underserved population and offers products like a high-yield savings account and a credit card with a 99% approval rate.
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Brazil continued to dominate the LatAm FinTech market in Q2 as deal activity dropped by 77% YoY
Fintech Global, Posted October 3, 2024
Ultravioleta, Nubank’s (NYSE: NU) high-income customer experience, launches today a series of Bank Deposit Certificates (CDBs, from the acronym in Portuguese) with more competitive yield rates than those already available in the app.
According to the website, Ultraviliot card cashback may grow at twice the value of the Interbank Deposit Certificate (CDI).
The expansion of CDB offerings for Nubank Ultravioleta customers aims “to impact investors seeking security, high returns, and a variety of maturity terms.”
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Mono: Driving fintech infrastructure for companies in Latin America
LatamList, Posted October 9, 2024
he Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban) has called on the government to enforce the planned ban on using credit cards for betting sooner than initially scheduled.
Isaac Sidney, President of Febraban, expressed concern to the Brazilian publication Folha De S.Paulo about the increasing use of credit cards for betting, emphasising the potential risks this poses.
Brazil is set to launch a nationwide regulated betting and gaming market this year, under legislation introduced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Regulations include a ban on the use of credit cards for fixed-rate betting, covering sports betting and online games.
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BNKA launches new payments function for LATAM migrants in Europe
Fintech Futures, Posted September 30, 2024
BNKA, a multicurrency wallet service for Latin American migrants in Europe, has introduced new payment functionalities through its mobile app.
The development enables users in Europe to pay for basic services, such as electric, water and gas bills, in their countries of origin.
“The update allows migrants to manage their payments quickly and securely, eliminating the need to contact third parties or coordinate with family members to make payments in their place,” a translation of the company’s statement reads.
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Nasdaq expands Nubank partnership to drive FinTech growth in LATAM
IBS Intelligence, Posted September 24, 2024
Nasdaq has announced that it has expanded its digital bank financial technology presence in Latin America. It has agreed to provide its AxiomSL regulatory reporting solution to Nubank, a digital bank with over 100 million customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.
The agreement extends Nasdaq’s existing partnership with Nubank, which includes providing the technology that underpins the bank’s treasury function, managing its fixed income and money market operations, and the bank’s regulatory reporting obligations in Colombia.
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