News in Brief – March 2018

Players’ Strategy

• MEXICO – Amazon launches their Amazon Rechargeable debit card in Mexico enabling unbanked customers to make e-purchases.
• FRANCE – Mastercard seeks to consolidate their partnership with the leading French incubator for FinTech companies, Swave. A way for this card scheme to further stress their support towards French FinTechs.
• FRANCE – Linxo has just been granted approval by the ACPR to create a Payment Institution called Oxlin. The account aggregation and PFM service will be able to expand their range of services thanks to PSD2 implementation.
• GERMANY – N26 raised 160 million dollars to aim from the UK and US. This roundtable has been led by the Allianz X funds and the Chinese leader Tencent.
• UNITED STATES – American Express announces major changes in most of their business activities. The card scheme plans to decrease merchant commissions on card acceptance. The point is to improve their adoption levels with merchants. However, it may affect their profit and customer satisfaction levels if their cards became less rewarding.
• FRANCE – By way of reaching out for more French and European merchants, AliPay announces a partnership with the POS manufacturer Ingenico. Ant Financial’s payment solution already has several partners in France including BNP Paribas, Galeries Lafayette and Wirecard.

Blockchain & Virtual Currencies

• THE NETHERLANDS A new wallet for crypto-currencies is starting to headline the news in the Netherlands: Rabobit. This project designed by Rabobank should allow its users to link their bank account with this crypto-currency wallet. Only few information has surfaced so far but it appears to be part of their Rabobank Moonshot program for innovative financial services.
• JAPAN – Ripple keeps working with more than 60 Japanese banking institutions on applying their Blockchain to the payment sector and developing an instant transfer app (“MoneyTap”). This solution is currently being tested and should apply to money transfers between accounts held with partner banks.
• CHINA – During the 13^th National People's Congress, the governor of the People's Bank of China introduced a Chinese crypto-currency called DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment). This currency (supposed to be based on the Bitcoin model) should be relying on its own Blockchain.

Mobile Services

• EUROPE – Total partners with Worldline on developing Total eWallet. This e-purse has been tested since October 2017 in Berlin, and is intended to let drivers pay from their mobile phone for their purchases at gas stations and for fuel (choose the type of fuel, unlock the pump and pay). Customers have to store the associated card beforehand (payment card or Total card). Apple Pay should be supported in the future, as well.
• JAPAN – The Japanese banking consortium –which includes Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho and Sumitomo Mitsui– keeps working on standardising QR code-based mobile payments. Their standardisation process should lead them to draft specifications by end-2019. This alliance is open to all banking institutions.
• INDIA – Google’s Tez will soon be enabling their customers to make NFC contactless payments using the cards they stored to their wallet. Additional features (including e-mail based payments) are also considered.
• UNITED STATES – Affirm announces a partnership with Apple. The US start-up focusing on installed payments integrated their solution with Apple Pay. Users will be able to add their Affirm virtual payment card to their Apple Pay e-wallet to make in-store purchases.
• HONG KONG – Mastercard partners with HkTaxi. This app is meant for users to order a taxi in Hong Kong. Mastercard cardholders will now be able to pay their rides through the HkTaxi platform.
• INTERNATIONAL – Revolut focuses on bringing down fraud levels, and enhances their premium offer with one-time use virtual cards. Their customers will be able to generate one-time cards, the numbers of which will be automatically renewed after each transaction, so the risk of misappropriation can be monitored.
• UNITED STATES – Bank of America announces a partnership with PayPal. Following prior work on in-store payments and international BtoC transfers, these groups seek to enable Bank of America customers to add their different payment cards to their PayPal account from the banking app.
• UNITED KINGDOM – American Express just bought out Cake, a British FinTech behind a mobile app for paying restaurant bills from a mobile phone. This transaction could be worth 13.3 million dollars.

IoT & Connected Objects

• UNITED KINGDOM – Barclays partners with several watch manufacturers, including Guess and Timex, on rolling out their contactless payment solution, bPay.

POS Checkout

• FRANCE – Crédit Agricole launches their in-store mPOS service Smart TPE. This tool allows merchants to accept several means of payment: cards, meal vouchers, cheques and cash. It also lets merchants access additional services: inventory management, dashboard and loyalty programs, for instance. The app comes with extra equipment available for rent (card reader, cash drawer, printer, tablet, barcode scanner, etc.).

Credit Transfer & Direct Debit

• THE NETHERLANDS – ABN Amro announces an agreement with the Italian processor SIA on enabling their customers to rely on a real time payment infrastructure. Through this partnership, they may transfer up to 15,000 euros in less than 10 seconds.
• FRANCE – Revolut keeps expanding their range of financial services. They are now enabling direct debits for users in the entire Eurozone. They can then rely on their Revolut card to pay for various kinds of subscriptions.

Source: ADN’co Payments Insight