ADN’co Payments Insight – March 2019

Mobility – Open Payment Gaining Momentum

• INTERNATIONAL – Visa and Planeta Informática team up to boost contactless payments in the transport industry. Read more
• FRANCE – One year after launch: first figures released for Open Payment service in Dijon. Read more

Payment cards are increasingly considered as alternatives to transport tickets. Contactless use cases are growing in several cities worldwide. In line with their success in London, this technology soon reached France, as well. Roughly 100 cities had opted for this featured by the end of 2018. The new town scheduled to join this move would be Rio: its subway network will be the first to rely on the option crafted by Visa and Planeta Informática.

The market for Open Payment is gaining ground and is expected to grow two-fold (at least) within two years according to the French payments specialist Ingenico.

Crypto-Currencies – Plans Resumed

• UNITED STATES – Facebook works on their Facebook Coin: a virtual currency to be made available for Messenger and WhatsApp. Read more
• INTERNATIONAL – SWIFT tests a Blockchain-based e-voting option along with several large scale banking institutions. Read more
• UNITED KINGDOM – Aave introduces a mobile app enabling its users to pay their bills using cryptocurrencies. Read more

After much turmoil caused by Bitcoin volatile nature, Blockchains keep feeding multiple plans. Facebook opts for a DLT-based approach to build their own cryptocurrency. The British FinTech Aave, for its part, intends to boost crypto-assets and increase their popularity with a new mobile app.

Blockchain technologies are growing strong in worldwide transactional networks, with support from Swift, which stresses further intent to bet on this market.