Payments news in January 2016 pretty much continues where we left off in 2015. And in case you’re not sure where we left off, we can summarise it in 1 word – fintech. The buzz is all about technology and its well worth keeping an eye on the payments trends that consultancies like McKinsey are talking about. It is exactly these trends that can be seen in this months various payments news stories. Start up companies and banks are all talking mobile, digital, blockchain and user experience. The tech debate even reached the World Economic Forum, with the Fourth Industrial Revolution being the main conference theme. Cybersecurity will undoubtedly continue to be a recurring global and cross industry theme. Check out the following top payments news stories for January 2016…
1. Payments News – SEPA
- This is just a reminder that the February 2016 SEPA deadline is now upon us, and you should have by now updated all of the niche products to the SEPA equivalent
2. Payments News – Cyber Security
- HSBC experienced DDoS attack on Friday 29th January, which resulted in the many online services being unavailable
- Banco Nacional of Costa Rica to roll out facial recognition, by FacePhi, technology to authenticate its customers
3. Payments News – Mobile Payments
- Visa launches Visa Commerce Network enabling merchants to deliver personalised offers and coupons which should help to grow customer numbers and loyalty
- PayPal adds record number of new users
- Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg talks about payment partnerships
- Barclays to support Apple Pay from April 2016
- Visa Europe announces that the UK is a cash-second nation
- CaixaBank partners with Samsung Pay in Spain
- UK Cards Association data reveals that contactless payments reached £1 billion in November 2015 – the first time to do so in a month
- Public transport shows growing interest in contactless – from buses in the UK to the subway in New York
4. Payments News: Digital / Crypto-currencies
- Bank of America gets into blockchain with a view to “figuring it out”
- European Parliament contemplate the risks and benefits of virtual currencies
- PwC creates a 15 strong blockchain team in Belfast
- 11 banks complete a blockchain connectivity experiment under the R3CEV consortium
- David Birch – Consult Hpyerion – calls for calm
5. Payments News: Banks
- Bank IT systems dont appear to be up to the job says UK Treasury Select Committee Chairman Andrew Tyrie
- BBVA adopts Agile Methodology
- Lloyds launches the Lloyds Digital Banking Group – “the UK’s leading digital bank”
- US Federal Reserve gives IBM the contract to modernise its ACH platform
- BBVA hires Derek White as Global Head of Customer Solutions – he was previously Barclays’ Chief Design & Digital Officer
- JP Morgan prepares switch from Bloomberg to Thomson Reuters
6. Payments News: Fintech
- The next generation ATMs, or eATMs, that allow you to access your account via an app
- 3 barriers holding back Fintech in the Netherlands
7. Payments News: SWIFT
- SWIFT Institute challenges UK universities to share ideas that may help banking and financial services – this year focusing on remittance flows from the UK
- Following the lifting of EU sanctions, Iranian Banks will reconnect to SWIFT
8. Payments News: Reports
- The Bank of England deputy governor made a speech about modernising the UK’s real time gross settlement system (RTGS)
- Citi and Imperial College London launch a Digital Money Index
- A Global Study shows increasing security risks to payment data and a lack of confidence in mobile payments security
- IMF releases a report on Virtual Currencies and Beyond – Initial Considerations
- Fiserv release a whitepaper study on the ROI of Mobile Banking
- The World Economic Forum predicts the Future of Jobs as a result of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
- TransferWise launches a report – Future of Finance: How Technology is Democratising the Financial Services Sector
That’s it folks! Let me know below if I missed anything important….