I haven’t been posting much recently, most of May was spent preparing for a wedding (not mine!). Anyway creating this payments news summary was a good way to catch up and see what was going on. The spotlight was yet again on Cyber-security (WannaCry), mobile payments went from strength to strength with various deployments (Android Pay, Samsung Pay, AliPay), banks continued to go digital with new offerings and there are plenty of reports to read at your leisure. Check out the following top payments news stories that caught my eye during May 2017:
1. Payments News – Cyber Security
- Hackers exploit weaknesses in the Signalling System (SS7) – the method used by mobile phone operators to exchange information between one another – to fraudulently authorise payment transfers
- Macau implements ATM facial recognition to combat Chinese money laundering
- Barclays launch a £10million UK national digital safety initiative
- The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has launched a 2 month consultation to combat internet trading hacks
- WannaCry ransomware attack hits 74 countries
- Google and PayPal collaborate to make mobile shopping easier for customers by using their fingerprint
- The BBC trick the HSBC voice recognition security system
- Bank of England governor Mark Carney is tricked by email prankster
- Barclays chief Jes Staley is tricked by email prankster
2. Payments News – Mobile Payments
- Bank of America survey reveals P2P Payments are the New ‘Social Norm’
- Samsung Pay launches in the UK
- Payments UK forecast that debit cards usage will overtake cash by the end of 2018
- Digital payments can facilitate financial inclusion say delegates at the Payments Canada Summit in Toronto
- AliPay lands in Hong Kong
- Android Pay arrives in Taiwan and Canada
3. Payments News: Digital / Crypto-currencies
- Bitcoin is ready for take-off!
- State of Delware is proposing changes that would enable Law amendments and maintenance of corporate records using blockchain
- Citi invest in Axoni – a provider of distributed ledger technology to the financial services industry
- R3 rival Enterprise Ethereum Alliance continues to grow
- R3 attracts largest investment ever for DLT
- Representatives from Bank of Canada and Payments Canada debate: Could DLT underpin an entire wholesale payment system?
4. Payments News: Banks
- ING kick start digital banking in Germany
- BNP Paribas partners with Station F (in Paris) to help launch their start up accelerator program with Plug and Play (the BNP Paribas Silicon Valley based global innovation platform
- HSBC introduce an online platform – HSBC LinkScreen – offers lending applications
- European Banking Federation asks European Commission to ban screen-scraping
- European Commission asks European Banking Federation to reconsider screen scraping ban
- BBVA launches an Open API Market
- Bank of America is banking on data
5. Payments News: Fintech
- German and European companies collaborate to create a cross-industry platform for online registration, e-identity and data services
- KPMG acquire Matchi – a global fintech innovation and matchmaking platform which connects FIs, banks and insurance companies with Fintech companies and solutions worldwide
- American Express unveil “Amex skill for Amazon Alexa”
- China’s central bank sets up a fintech committee
- 6 years after being founded, TransferWise breaks-even
- Paytm Payments Bank will launch next week!
- TransferWise will introduce multi-currency accounts
- WorldPay demo making payments inside as virtual reality world
- BNP Paribas rolls out virtual reality based services
6. Payments News: SWIFT
- Finextra cover the SWIFT Business Forum in Stockholm
- SWIFT launch a Information Sharing and Analysis Centre portal
7. Payments News: Reports
- Future of European Fintech issue Manifesto for the impact of PSD2 on the future of European Fintech
- Nasdaq report on The Promise of Market Reform – Re-igniting America’s Economic Engine
- Bank of England publish a Blueprint for a new RTGS service for the UK
- MuleSoft release the Connected Consumer Report 2017
- Finextra report on The next big wave: How financial institutions can stay ahead of the AI revolution
- Interesting Finextra read – Bank/fintech collaboration can take transaction banking to new heights
- HSBC Study – Trust in Technology
- Deloitte publish – The Future is Here – Project Ubin: SGD on distributed ledger
- Better than Cash Alliance publish How Digitizing Agricultural Input Payments in Rural Kenya is Tackling Poverty: The Case of One Acre Fund
- Accenture publish – Fintech – Did Someone Cancel the Revolution
That’s it folks! Let me know below if I missed anything important…