ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

• iDeal has partnered Rabobank to pilot a new ecommerce feature that remembers customer payments information and makes it easier to make purchases at online stores.
• Worldline Italia to partner with Cassa Centrale Group, they companies have entered into exclusive negotiations for a long-term partnership for acquiring. The collaboration is set to involve the provision of services along the value chain of digital payment acceptance and global acquisition for the 66 Group’s bank affiliates, which own 1,480 branches in Italy.

CORPORATE ACTIVITY

• PPRO raises €85 million to pursue growth in key markets and further enhance its global network of local payment methods. The funding is provided by new and existing investors, including Eurazeo, HPE Growth, Sprints, PayPal Ventures, JPMorgan, Citi Ventures, and funds managed by BlackRock.
• Stripe passes $1 trillion in payments volume in 2023, up 25% on the previous year.
• Revolut’s valuation declines amid licence delays. US tech investor TriplePoint Venture Growth slashed the value of its stake by 18pc at the end of last year, accounts show. The reduction implies the company is worth $23bn, down from $28bn a year ago.
• GoCardless has entered an agreement to acquire Sentenial & Nuapay

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY

• ID fraud to surge by 2025. UK-based database operator Synectics Solutions has uncovered new research indicating that ID fraud represents the most prominent fraud type reported by banks and FIs, accounting for 45% of all adverse contributions made in 2023. This could increase to 50% by the end of 2024.
• Banks to be given more time to investigate APP fraud. UK banks will be given an extra 72 hours to stall payments if they suspect authorised push payment fraud. The UK Government has confirmed that it will introduce a draft bill to deal with APP fraud, where customers are tricked into sending payments to scammers. This follows an alarming rise in the scams, which cost victims £485 million in 2022.

LITIGATION

• Klarna receives USD 733,000 fine for GDPR shortcomings. The violation occurred due to Klarna’s failure to provide adequate information to its users regarding the storage of their personal data. The court stated that the information provided was unclear or difficult to access.

OPEN BANKING & PSD2

• Mastercard launches open banking-powered subscription management tool, that banks can plug into their apps. Smart Subscriptions connects multiple accounts into one central hub using Mastercard’s open banking technology, provided by Finicity. The white-labelled, payment- and network-agnostic tool can be implemented with a single, low-lift API.
• Klarna to launch Open Banking settlements in the UK. Allowing consumers to pay Klarna directly from their bank accounts instead of leveraging a debit card.