European Payments Acceptance | Weekly News 12 July
European Payments Acceptance | Weekly News 12 July
- After four years of back and forth, the European Union and Apple have finally come to an agreement on their tap-and-go technology. Apple will now allow developers access to NFC technology, avoiding an EU fine. The agreement will last for ten years and requires Apple to report to an independent moderator.
- Square is now offering Tap to Pay on iPhones in France. The solution is offered is the Square POS, Square for Retailers and Rendez-vous Square.
- FREENOW integrates Alipay+ with its taxi cab services in seven European countries. The partnership between FREENOW and Alipay+ aims to augment the travel experience for Asian visitors to Spain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, France, Greece and Austria.
- BR-DGE has launched a global white-label payment orchestration solution for acquirers, gateways, platforms, and other ecosystem participants.
- Ecommpay has partnered with PayPal to launch new subscription feature. The partnership enables merchants to collect recurring PayPal payments alongside existing subscription card payments and direct debits.
IN OTHER NEWS…
BNPL
· UK white label BNPL provider Divido falls into administration marking the ending of its operations. Despite securing USD 45 million in funding, including a USD 30 million Series B round led by HSBC and ING in 2021, Divido faced several financial challenges with continuous losses reported from GBP 343,673 in 2018 to GBP 7.26 million by 2022.
CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT
· Italy prepares crypto guidelines for local financial institutions after acknowledging conflicts between MiCa rules and existing Italian financial laws.
· Hong Kong central bank will parter Banque de France to test interoperability between wholesale CBDC infrastructure. HKMA is to become the first central banking institution outside of the EU to participate in the European Central Bank’s digital euro exploratory project.
· Nuvei has partnered with Mastercard for crypto to fiat conversion. Users can convert supported digital assets to debit, credit and prepaid cards using Mastercard Move’s near real-time money movement capabilities.
EMBEDDED FINANCE
- eBay Seller Capital partners with Liberis in order to launch its Business Cash Advance tool and accelerate small business development. The financing solution is only currently in the US.
FINTECHS
- UK fintech investment was by down 37% in H1 2024 but there was a shift towards earlier stage deals and the average deal size was $10.2 million, reflecting a return to early-stage investments.
FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY
- According to Juniper Research, the number of fraudulent banking and money transfer transactions in the UK will increase 111% over the next five years to 8.8 million in 2029. Despite the UK being one of the most technologically developed Fraud Detection & Prevention markets, it anticipates that additional measures, such as AI-based real-time FDP, will be required to mitigate the growing threat of fraud.
- Monzo is introducing additional app-based security controls, with ‘known locations’ tool, providing users with the option to choose a location that they are required to be in when conducting transfers or withdrawing savings over a particular limit. This launch is to prevent criminals from using customers’ savings after stealing their mobile phones or personal information.
ISSUING
- Travelex expands pre-paid card currency offering adding seven new currencies to its Money Card, now supporting 22 currencies.
SCHEMES
Visa and Mastercard are extending caps on inter-regional fees on non-EU cards for an extra 5 years. For card present transactions, the fees will remain capped at 0,2% for debit cards and 0,3% for credit cards and for card not present transactions the caps will remain 1,15% for debit cards and 1,5% for credit cards.
