European Payments Acceptance | Weekly News 14 June

Existing UK POS devices could initiate digital pound payments according to the Bank of England. It could also be feasible to implement offline payments on the same terminals.
BNP Paribas and BPCE announce partnership to jointly acquire payments processing technology for card holders and merchants. Acquiring joint technology would result in the creation of a common processor that would handle all card payments of both institutions. With 17 billion transactions shared between the two organisations, this processor would be the leader in France and would rank among the top three in Europe.
Stripe becomes Accor’s primary payments partner globally. Accor is aiming to enhance eCommerce platform, offering services beyond accommodation including spa services, restaurants, and experiences.
Flexys partners with Acquired.com to support their debt collection payment experience.
Trustly launches recurring payments solution, which allows businesses to accept recurring transactions directly from customers’ bank accounts. The solution combines traditional direct debit and A2A transfers.

Apple launches Tap to Cash in the US a new service that allows users to send and receive Apple Cash by holding two iPhones together without sharing phone numbers.

Nexi and Compass extend BNPL to eCommerce segment whereby PagoLight (the Compass BNPL solution) will be available through Nexi XPay. Merchants can offer their clients the option for deferring online payments, replicating the current solution at the physical POS.
Apple partners Santander’s Zinia for BNPL financing services in Germany. Zinia is Santander’s digital consumer finance platform. The partnership will enable Apple’s customers in the country to access a range of financing options, including split payments of up to 36 months, or deferred payments of up to 30 days

Wise shares dip on forecast for slower income growth. Wise posted underlying income growth of 31% for the year ending 31 March. However, the company is expecting growth of 15% to 20% for 2025, below market expectations.

Mastercard targets 100% e-commerce tokenisation in Europe, to phase out manual card entry and make e-commerce safer and more accessible for everyone.
German banks to shut down paydirekt, the mobile and online payments initiative of Germany’s largest banks, including Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, comdirect, Sparkassen Finance Group, and Postbank. They will now support European Payments Initiative (EPI). In 2021 paydirekt, Giropay, and Kwitt merged under Giropay. With the rise of EPI, the banks have reportedly decided to abandon paydirek/Giropay in favour of supporting the new solution.

Interim head of PSR has declined request to postpone implementation of fraud reimbursement plan. The Payment Association had urged a one-year delay to ensure adequate policies, technology, and systems are in place to prevent lasting damage to the UK’s payment sector.

Settlement to cap credit card fees is likely to be rejected by the judge in the US, despite ongoing work to compromise between Visa, Mastercard and retailers.

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