Actors’ strategy - The crisis is moving the lines

• FRANCE – Feedback: Swile doubles its losses
• FRANCE – BPCE merges Payplug and Dalenys to gain strength in the payment market
• FRANCE – Free takes on cash with Stancer Pay

The economic crisis is not the only factor, but we can see that it is moving the lines: more difficult access to financing, more mistrust of the business model of start-ups. Swile, for example, was forced to publish its results after the acquisition of Bimpli, with significant losses being pointed out. Things are also moving at BPCE, the French bank that has decided to bring its payment activities together to create a single pole that can compete with players such as Adyen or Stripe, which are becoming increasingly threatening. But crises also create opportunities. This is the gamble taken by Free, which, after the telecoms, also wants to break prices in the payment sector. The operator is adopting a very aggressive stance, with an offer that is 2 to 3 times less expensive for merchants. Its strategy also consists of not penalising small-value transactions and not charging a subscription fee for the Eftpos terminal (a flat rate with no commitment). The players most concerned will be those involved in mobile payment, such as SumUp and Zettle, but also banking players. Iliad does not intend to stop there and is expected to develop other offers, from fractional payments to the development of e-commerce sites, including a mobile-to-mobile payment offer on iOS.

Cryptocurrencies - The difficult road to acceptability

• INTERNATIONAL – « The Merge », the green revolution of the Ethereum blockchain
• FRANCE – New developments for the ECB's Digital Euro
• FRANCE – The Bank for Manufacturing Industries wants to reindustrialise France through DeFi

Several news items have shaken up the crypto world this month. First, a long-awaited event that is nevertheless described as a technological feat. It is the switch of the Ethereum blockchain, the second largest cryptocurrency in terms of trading volume, to a much less energy-intensive validation protocol, the famous "proof of stake". This operation demonstrates the growing importance of ecological issues. The second, which also concerns Ethereum, is a court decision in which the SEC considers that the cryptocurrency must answer to an American territoriality. This opens questions about the possibilities of regulation. This is the message that central bankers J. Powell and C. Lagarde at an exchange organised by the Banque de France about decentralised finance, which is causing increasing concern. At the European level, an important step has been taken for the digital euro. The ECB unveiled the partners with whom it wished to work to develop use cases for its digital euro prototype. This announcement caused a stir, as the American e-commerce giant, Amazon, is expected to participate in the e-commerce part of the project. This choice raises questions not only from the point of view of digital and banking sovereignty, but also from the point of view of the RGPD. And, at a more local level, Defi also serves industrial interests, with the birth of Banque Industrielle Manufacturière, a fintech that wants to reconcile crypto-finance and household savings to support French-style industrial and responsible innovation.