The payments news stories in February 2016 were all about mobile payments and blockchain. From a mobile payments perspective contactless payments data for 2015 became available in the UK and grew three-fold, we passed the billion (transactional – Mastercard) and trillion (value – Citi) marks, which is a trend which we will undoubtedly see across the other banks in the coming months. We also saw Apple Pay hit China and various voice and touch biometric authentication methods become available. The Chinese New Year saw traditional cash gifts going digital and there seems to be an all out assault on cash (see below call for the removal of high denomination notes). All the banks are piloting something or other with blockchain and the CB Insights notion of fintech death by 1000 cuts seems to be more relevant than ever. Or is it… Deutsche Bank have a thing or 2 to say about that! Check out the following top payments news stories for February 2016…
1. Payments News – Cyber Security
- MasterCard to introduce Selfie Pay
- HSBC launches voice recognition and touch security authentication
- Visa Europe launch payment tokenisation service
- Chip and PIN celebrates 10 years in the UK
2. Payments News – Mobile Payments
- Data by the UK Cards Association highlights how spending using contactless cards trebled in 2015
- Number26 – a German mobile bank – and TransferWise team up
- Citi processes over $1 trillion in transaction value in institutional mobile banking
- The Mobile World Congress 2016 happened – see the Wired article on the best tech
- Apple Pay fees for Chinese banks are half what US banks pay
- Visa expands Visa Ready Partner Program to include Internet of Things companies
- The number of MasterCard and Maestro contactless payments in 2015 passed the 1 billion mark
- Paym release an update for 2015 – see how Paym fare…
- Chinese New Year is changing, Chinese Red Envelopes are now going digital
- Pocopay, a mobile banking service goes live in Estonia, the Netherlands and Spain
- The Telegraph reports the arrival of Android Pay to the UK in March
3. Payments News: Digital / Crypto-currencies
- Deloitte share details of a remittance proof of concept initiative between Royal Bank of Canada and Ripple
- JP Morgan tests blockchain technology – YOU NEED TO READ THIS !
4. Payments News: Banks
- BBVA bring on board Shamir Karkal to head up their Open API platform – i’m interested in API’s, more on this later
- BBVA are on a roll, and invest $250 million in Propel Venture Partners, a fintech venture fund
- Deutsche Bank release a whitepaper on their vision of the Future of Fintech
- ANZ Bank (Australia and New Zealand) Chief Shayne Elliot aims to transform the 180 year old bank
5. Payments News: Fintech
- Hong Kong finance secretary outlines fintech investment plans
- Stripe launches Atlas, making it easier for entrepreneurs to do business in the US
- UK Fintech investment soars according to stats by Innovate Finance
- The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) deliver a speech on regulation and innovation
- Deutsche Bourse lanuches Frankfurt fintech program
- Ripple share how they and XRP can cut banks global settlement costs by up to 60%
- Powa Technologies goes into administration
- Visa has a 9.99% stake in Square, interesting….
- An Open Banking Working Group (OBWG) Report publishes report outlining the need for a Open Banking Standard – YOU NEED TO READ THIS!!!!
6. Payments News: SWIFT
- The European Central Bank release a RTGS (TARGET2) Services Consultative Report on the future of Europe’s financial market infrastructure
7. Payments News: Reports
- The Harvard Kennnedy School release a working paper into the case for the elimination of HIGH denomination notes
- Ernst & Young evaluate Switzerland’s role in an increasingly Fintech world – This is worth a read!
That’s it folks! Let me know below if I missed anything important….