News in Brief – February 2018

Players’ Strategy

• INTERNATIONAL – eBay officially chooses Adyen instead of their long-time –and once payment subsidiary– PayPal. Adyen will be acting as a main payment service provider for eBay for reasons to do with cost-effectiveness for their merchants. PayPal will remain a proposed option until July 2023, but most payments processed through the eBay platform will be dealt with by Adyen by 2021.
• THE NETHERLANDS – ING is buying 75% of Payvision’s capital. This payment service provider is valorised at 360 million euros. ING will be focusing on international omni-channel payments and diversifying their range of services for merchants.
• SINGAPORE – A consortium has been founded by seven players long invested in the field of QR code-based payments: Diners Club, EZi Wallet, EZ-Link, Liquid Pay, Mastercard, UnionPay International and Wirecard. Together, they will be making sure their respective solutions are interoperable, and streamlining in-store payment processes. Dedicated EMVCo-compliant SG QR specifications are already in place in Singapore.
• UNITED STATES – The interbank credit transfer service Zelle reported 75 billion dollars in transfers over the past six months (twice as much as their main rival, Venmo), with 247 million transactions.
• FRANCE – The French business expense management specialist Spendesk just raised 8 million euros from Index Ventures and some business angels. This investment will allow them to design new products and keep expanding in Europe. The FinTech should soon hire new profiles, as they aim to double their workforce.
• SPAIN – After implementing their service in France, Orange Bank aims for Spain. The mobile carrier’s banking subsidiary should open its Spanish branch during S2 2019.
• FRANCE – Arkéa’s subsidiary Monext reports their 2017 results and claims 2.5 billion transactions (+25% year over year), roughly 122 billion euros. They hold 40% market shares on the French e‑payment sector and can count on 7,500 merchant customers. For 2018, Monext plans to further focus on their omni-channel approach, and feature offers such as “Payline shortcut” (their one click payment option).
• AFRICA – The French start-up Care Labs, behind Chèque Santé, announces a partnership with KAISSA to aim for several African markets: Burkina Faso, Congo, Mali, Togo, Morocco and Ivory Coast. This agreement will help them rollout Chèque Santé and their CarePay TP solution in these regions. Care Labs is already established in Niger and Tunisia.

Blockchain & Virtual Currencies

• INTERNATIONAL – Credit Agricole, through Crédit Agricole Payment Services, selected Ripple’s Blockchain to streamline and speed up cross-border transfers. End customers would initiate the transactions from their mobile phone. A test phase will be carried out for six months. They will be covering transfers from Swiss francs, for 90,000 customers living in Switzerland, between the Caisse régionale Crédit Agricole des Savoie and Crédit Agricole Next Bank in Switzerland.
• UNITED KINGDOM – Revolut presents Revolut Crypto: a service allowing its users to buy, sell and store crypto-currencies. This feature concerns Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin, as well as 25 national currencies already covered by their mobile app. Interested customers may register to the waiting list. Revolut insists on how fast their solution is, exchanges would only take 30 seconds. This service has been underway for several months, and was first tested in the end of 2017 with their Premium customers.
• UNITED STATES – Just weeks after announcing their partnership with MoneyGram, Ripple manages an agreement with Western Union. The international transfer company will be testing Ripple’s XRP crypto-currency, via the new xRapid service. Their goal is to lower transactions’ costs and speed up their processes: a few seconds vs 15 minutes to 1 hour with other virtual currencies (including Bitcoin).

Mobile Services

• THE NETHERLANDS – The P2P repayment app Tikkie leads the Dutch market (86% market share) and now has more than two million users (the 1 million milestone had been exceeded last August). According to ABN AMRO, 440,000 requests on average are sent each week. Their ambitions for this service are still high: partnerships are expected to be announced in 2018 (to address the charity sector, for instance). And they are also implementing Tikkie in stores.
• UNITED STATES – Apple is crafting a new service enabling merchants to rely on iMessage to connect with their potential customers, present their products, or even accept payments. This new feature (“Business Chat”) could be launched by this spring. A test phase involves Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s and Wells Fargo.
• FRANCE – Lydia just raised 13 million euros and intends to expand their European reach. This Series C round table is led by CNP Assurances (in line with their Open CNP program). Lydia attracted one million users in France, the UK, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
• FRANCE – Google Pay, which results from the merger of Android Pay and Google Wallet, could be rolled out in France in April 2018. A first partnership with a local banking institution would be in place.

POS checkout

• FRANCE – BNP Paribas partners with the start-up Paytweak, on allowing their merchant customers (for their Mercanet offer) to send payment requests using a secured link via e-mail, SMS or instant messaging services. This link directs their final customers to the merchant’s payment page, enabling them to complete their transaction.
• UNITED KINGDOM – Ingenico will be rolling out Google Pay Smart Tap with their merchants. This solution allows customers to store coupons, gift cards and loyalty cards in their Google Pay wallet app, and redeem them at checkout through NFC connectivity. This service will first be tested in the UK.
• EUROPE – During the Mobile World Congress, Ingenico showcased a new range of payment terminals for smaller merchants. First, a POS device which connects (via the audio jack) to the merchant’s mobile phone (PIN on Glass technology); it is meant for micro-merchants (only few daily transactions). Second, their new touch-screen tablet Axium D7 is presented as a connected cash register, with additional app-based services from partner providers.

Credit Transfer

• FRANCE – Foncia chooses Edenred Corporate Payment to manage rent collections and fundraising campaigns for their 1.4 million customers (co-owners and tenants). The selected payment solution relies on credit transfers: each customer is provided a customised IBAN to make recurring payments. This process makes it possible to automatically identify each payment.

Source: ADN’co Payments Insight