This month the payments news stories seem to be dominated by PSD2, Open Banking and all things blockchain. In particular stories of multiple Ripple initiatives here, there and everywhere! Plenty of interesting reading, with some noteworthy reports too. Check out the following top payments news stories for February 2018:
1. Payments News – Cyber Security
- Natwest reveal how human emotions (desire, excitement, trust, fear) are exploited by scammers
- UK Payment Systems Regulator outlines next steps in order to protect people from Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams
2. Payments News – Mobile Payments
- EBay ends PayPal relationship and hooks up with Adyen
- MasterCard launches MasterPass QR bot for Messenger enabling small business in Africa and Asia to accept electronic and mobile payments – focusing initially on Nigeria
3. Payments News: Blockchain / Digital / Crypto-currencies
- Square allows users of its Cash payments app to buy and sell bitcoin
- Banks ban customers from buying digital-currencies using their credit cards
- European Commission launches the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum
- Santander to introduce same day mobile international payments using Ripple
- Chinese Payment Service Provider, LianLian, joins RippleNet to deliver faster payments in China
- Abu Dhabi kicks off the creation of an electronic-Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) utility with major UAE financial institutions
- UAE Exchange and Ripple link up to enable faster cross-border payments across the Middle East
- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will hook up with Ripple to improve payment processing in the Kingdom using xCurrent
- ABN Amro Clearing Bank offers blockchain based solution to eliminate escrow account management costs
- Ripple builds payments corridors in India, Brazil and China
- Bank of England Governor Mark Carney on bitcoin – “it has pretty much failed thus far..”
- R3 launches Legal Center of Excellence (LCoE) as a platform for blockchain technology
- UK Treasury Committee launches inquiry into digital currencies and DLT
4. Payments News: Banks
- Bank of America hooks up with PayPal to enable payments in local currencies to PayPal account holders
- Belfius, a Belgian bank, enables payments via Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp
- Credit Suisse introduce Amelia, a virtual assistant to help employees with tech problems – using AI software provided by IPsoft
- Deutsche Bank continues its open source journey, releasing “Waltz” software code that enables companies to better understand their IT environment
- Citi sets up a London based innovation hub
- BBVA partners with Azlo, a digital banking unit to help better serve entrepreneurs
- Lloyds Banking Group announces £3 billion investment over next 3 years in people and the move to digital
- Virgin Money to launch its own digital challenger banks
- Barclaycard trials Dine and Dash at a London based restaurant
5. Payments News: Fintech
- Alibaba to buy 33% stake in Ant Financial
- Innovate Finance research reveals record VC investment in the UK Fintech sector in 2017, globally 2nd to the US
- Starling Bank adds fintech companies to its Marketplace
- Australia goes live with real time payments with the launch of New Payments Platform (NPP)
- HighRadius – a fintech SaaS company – attracts investment from Citi Ventures and PNC
6. Payments News: Europe – SEPA, PSD2, MiFiD 2
- European Commission – DRAFT: FinTech Action plan
- Berlin Group publishes NextGenPSD2 Framework v1.0
- CA Technologies & Finextra – PSD2: A Strategic Game-Changer With A Long-Term Impact
- Finextra reveal how Open Banking is shaking things up in the UK
- Future of European Fintech (FoEF) on bank APIs under PSD2
7. Payments News: SWIFT
- Hack at India’s City Union Bank looks similar to the the 2016 Bangladesh Bank heist
8. Payments News: Reports
- Yves Mersch. European Central Bank, talks cryptocurrencies
- Invest Lithuania – Lithuanian Fintech Report 2017
- Australian Government – Open Banking: Customers, Choice, Convenience, Confidence
- Greenwich Associates – Institutional Investors Spend More on Trading Technology, Less on Traders
- ECB – Speech by Yves Mersch – The role of euro banknotes as legal tender
- KPMG – The Pulse of Fintech – Q4 2017
- Wired – The Wired Guide to Blockchain
- Bank for International Settlements – Sound Practices: implications of fintech developments for banks and bank supervisors
- Finextra – How Open Banking will blow core systems out of the water
- Capgemini – World Fintech Report 2018
- Fintech Innovation Lab – MIND THE GAP: ADDRESSING CHALLENGES TO FINTECH ADOPTION
- GSMA – 2017: State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money
That’s it folks! Let me know below if I missed anything important…