The payments news stories in March 2016 were all about fintech! All of the banks seemed to get into an accelerator or innovation lab somewhere or other. And while fintech investment in 2015 reached an all time peak, some interesting regional and industry themes are highlighted in the KPMG and CB Insights report. Mobile Payments new stories were also prominent, with a new battleground in China featuring the already established Apple Pay being joined by Samsung Pay and Huawei Pay. The biggest cyber security payments news story was probably the $80 million theft from the Bangladesh Central Bank account at the New York Fed – it is straight out of a James Bond film! Check out the following top payments news stories for March 2016.
1. Payments News – Cyber Security
- US government indicates 7 Iranians who embarked on a series of cyber attacks on banks between 2011 and 2013
- Online fraud – should banks refund or not, that is the question….
- Hackers steal $80 million from the Bangladesh Central Bank account at the Federal Reserve in New York
- Barclays Identity Services launches in the UK, giving users the ability to verify their identity for government services
- Amex warns their customer of a data breach
- AFP Survey reveals how 73% of American Companies were payment fraud targets in 2015
2. Payments News – Mobile Payments
- Samsung Pay teams up with Union Pay to take on Apple Pay
- Add to the mobile payments mix in China, Huawei Pay – the offering by the biggest handset manufacturer in China
- Apple Pay for mobile websites is on its way according to Re/code
- Android Pay is to launch in the UK in the coming months
- WeChat payments in China, through Tencent Holdings, skyrocket!
- Bulgari get into the luxury smart watch market
- Square introduce Build wih Square, an API based product that will direcly compete with the likes of Stripe and PayPal
3. Payments News: Digital / Crypto-currencies
- ESMA – European Securities and Markets Authority – give a speech at the London Business School / Bank of england conference – “How Imminent is the real Fintech Revolution“
4. Payments News: Banks
- Deutsche Bank will issue an update on its IT revamp this Friday
- Santander constructs a tech heavy advisory board
- Max Tannahill of ANZ talks about bitcoin, banking and what he calls the “Kodak Moment”
- RBS cut jobs as banks seek to “recruit” robot advisors
- Oliver Bussmann steps down as UBS Chief Information Officer
5. Payments News: Fintech
- Office of the Comptroller (OCC) – a bureau of the US Treasury – will issue a paper outlining their view on innovation in banking
- BNP Paribas launches a fintech accelerator in Paris
- UniCredit and Anthemis launch a $200 million fintech fund
- Standard Chartered opens a fintech innovation lab in Singapore
- UBS and Credit Suisse plus a number of others team up to launch Kickstart Accelerator – a Swiss based fintech accelerator
- Square hook up with Facebook to offer small businesses Facebook advertising
- Santander launches voice banking technology to the UK
- Sutor Bank and BBVA enter the bank-as-a-service market through the release of a set of APIs
- European bank demand leads to Ripple opening a London office
- A cashless society in Sweden maybe a further away than first anticipated….
- The Swiss regulator – Finma – aims to facilitate innovation through a number of new measures
- Barclays will launch a fintech hub in Mumbai, India, in the second quarter fo 2016
- Finextra report on some figures released by Ascendant suggesting a slow in UK and Ireland based fintech investment
- KPMG and CB Insights report how fintech funding hit an all time high in 2015
- Finextra outline the goings-on at the failed fintech firm Powa
6. Payments News: SWIFT
- SWIFT to advise banks on security following the Bangladesh Bank hack
- Finextra report Day 1 and Day 2 of the SWIFT Nordics Regional Conference 2016
7. Payments News: Reports
- PwC and StartUpBootCamp launch a fintech report: Accelerating change: London FinTech 2015 – 2016
- PwC release ‘Blurred Lines: How FinTech is shaping Financial Services‘ – the firms analysis of transformation in Financial Services
- The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report Retail Banking: In Tech we Trust – outlines the fintech threats to incumbent banks
- The UK Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) outlines that initiatives to make payment systems accessible is generating positive results
- Moody’s Analytics release their study into The Global Impact of Electronic Payments
- SWIFT and the Canadian Payments Association discuss the benefits of ISO20022
- Citi’s Global Perspectives and Solutions group report on Digital Disruption and How Fintech is Forcing Banking to a Tipping Point
That’s it folks! Let me know below if I missed anything important…