Okay, this is a bumper edition of the best payments news stories in January, 2017. There has been plenty happening at the start of 2017; AliPay or Ant Financial is freely expressing its global ambitions, India is going digital with blockchain and digital payments initiatives, banks are embracing various technologies while at the same time struggling with legacy, fintech gets robotic and machine learning, there are a couple of cybersecurity incidents and there is a deluge of financial services related reports. Check out the following top payments news stories for January 2017:
1. Payments News – Cyber Security
- National Australia Bank accidentally sends customer bank account details to a ‘bad’ email address
- Prof Richard Benham predicts a major bank will fail as a result of a cyberattack in 2017
- US data breaches in 2016 reach an all time high, up 40% from 2015 according to a report by Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) and CyberScout
- The FT reported that an international criminal gang brought down digital services at Lloyds earlier this month
2. Payments News – Mobile Payments
- Paytm recieves permission from Reserve Bank of India to launch Paytm Payments Bank
- Daimler Financial Services buys PayCash in preparation for a Mercedes Pay launch!
- AliPay aims for 2 billion customers in 10 years
- AliPay or Ant Financial – Alibaba’s payments arm – aims to have 2 billion customers in 10 years
- Ant Financial buys MoneyGram for $880m
3. Payments News: Digital / Crypto-currencies
- YES Bank implements a blockchain vendor financing solution
- India’s Axis Bank will use Ripple’s network for cross border transactions
- Deloitte launches Blockchain Lab in New York
- 7 European banks join forces to develop a blockchain based trade finance platform called Digital Trade Chain
- Nasdaq build and conduct a successful proof of concept e-voting blockchain platform trial at their Estonia Tallinn
4. Payments News: Banks
- Cash withdrawals hit a record high leading up to Christmas
- Commerzbank launches #openspace – a digitalisation platform for SMEs
- HSBC creates tech advisory board
- HSBC cut back branch network, and move IT jobs offshore
- Rabobank partners with ACI Worldwide to implement real time payments
- DBS Bank’s POSB launches online chat banking on Facebook Messenger
- Starling Bank joins Faster Payments as a direct partner
- the Post Office and UK banks link up to provide local banking services
- Citi launches Mobile-PASS, an app-based mobile login solution for Citidirect BE – to be rolled out in Asia Pacific
5. Payments News: Fintech
- Chinese companies establish a $1.5 billion fintech fund
- Indonesia issues fintech rules
- Accenture and Blue Prism to roll out robotic process automation (RPA)
- Dubai launches Fintech Hive at DIFC supported by Accenture
- Brussels and London establish a fintech bridge
- Accenture selects 20 startups for its FinTech Innovation Lab in London
- EBA Clearing starts testing pan-European instant payments system
- The Consumer Financial Data Rights (CFDR) group aims to improve consumers right to access their financial data through 3rd party platforms
- London will hold an international Fintech conference in April to showcase Britains fintech sector
- Nasdaq CEO, Adena Friedman, discusses the Future of Fintech at Goldman Sachs
- Robo advice firm Scalable Capital speaks out against Bank of England Governor Mark Carney
6. Payments News: SWIFT
- SWIFT delves into blockchain for its Global Payments Innovation (GPI) initiative
7. Payments News: Reports
- PwC DeNovo outlines 5 potential FinTech surprises for 2017
- The US Treasury departments OCC releases a report detailing risks facing national banks
- Yves Mersc from the ECB talks about “Technological innovations in payments and beyond”
- McKinsey report on “Blockchain Technology in the Insurance Sector”
- The RBI’s Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology releases a Whitepaper – Applications of Blockchain Technology to Banking and Financial Sector in India
- McKinsey report: A brave new world for global banking
- Accenture report: Banking on Blockchain: A Value Analysis for Investment Banks
- Finra report: Distributed Ledger Technology: Implications of Blockchain for the Securities Industry
- ENISA report: Distributed Ledger Technology & Cybersecurity – Improving information security in the financial sector
- Citi Report: DIGITAL DISRUPTION – REVISITED: What FinTech VC Investments Tell us About a Changing Industry
- Dr Jens Weidmann speaks at the G20 conference “Digitising finance, financial inclusion and financial literacy
- Federal Reserve report: THE U.S. PATH TO FASTER PAYMENTS FINAL REPORT PART ONE: THE FASTER PAYMENTS TASK FORCE APPROACH
That’s it folks! Let me know below if I missed anything important…