Payments news

Payments headlines

Mastercard expands Engage platform

8 h

Mobile payments firm Settle enters Bulgaria

8 h

ANZ to extend Samsung Pay offering with eftpos choice

8 h

PayPal confirms acquisition of Curv

8 h

L3COS wins $85 million deal to build smart marketplace for AgriDex

11 h

Fortu Wealth taps Currencycloud for cross-border payments

13 h

Paysafe preps move to the cloud with Microsoft Azure

13 h

Mode appoints Jonathan Conway as chief technology officer

13 h

Tide to introduce Payment Acceptance in platform expansion

13 h

Nets Group completes the $2.85 billion sale of account-to-account services business to Mastercard

05 Mar

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Fintern taps AI and Open Banking to enter consumer loans market

Fintern, a UK-based fintech startup, is aiming to shake up the market for low-value consumers loans with the launch of credit technology that bypasses credit scores in making lending decisions, focusing instead on affordability.

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Icici registers one million users from other banks for mobile payments super app

Entering a golden age for Embedded Finance

Plaid beta tests payroll authentication tech

PayFazz and Xfers combine to create South East Asian payments network

Íslandsbanki launches carbon tracking app

Amazon opens cashierless store in London

Ripple touts private version of XRP ledger as CBDC problem-solver

Salary-on-demand startup Minu raises $14 million

Airwallex scores Hong Kong SVF licence through acquisition of UniCard

ThinkSmart basks in the glow of BNPL boom

EBAday 2021 - 28-30 June - Save the date!

EBAday 2021 - Save the date! Join us on 28-30 June – Payments Transformation in 2021 - The Road to Success

Payments blogs

Financial Services Regulation

A Rude Awakening: fraudsters are now fearless

John Bertrand

John Bertrand - Tec 8 Limited - London

Fintech

The Global Rise Of The Digital Asset Infrastructure Providers

Sean Salloux

Sean Salloux - Baanx Ltd - London

Blockchain in Banking and Financial Services

The Hot Term Crypto Bank: Bogus or Inevitable Milestone in the Global Financial System Development

Yuliya Barabash

Yuliya Barabash - SBSB - Kyiv

Fintech

Is VISA a colossus on clay feet?

Maxim Kazakov

Maxim Kazakov - Open Transaction Systems - Moscow

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Latest TV

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Entering a golden age for Embedded Finance

Dr. Roland Folz, CEO, Solarisbank talks to FinextraTV about the top trends in embedded finance, the rewards start-ups, SMEs, and large corporates can reap from contextual banking, and what’s next in this space.

Transitioning to digitally powered, end-to-end, platform-driven corporate banking

Torsten Pull, Senior Vice President, General Manager Corporate Banking, Finastra, speaks about Finastra’s latest corporate banking research ahead of Finastra Universe. We learn about moving beyond the traditional relationship model and what it takes to transition to digitally powered, end-to-end, platform-driven corporate banking post-pandemic.

Tackling tough legacy transactions in the transition from LIBOR

Stephanie Vaughan, Global Legal Practice Director at iManage RAVN, speaks to FinextraTV about the deadline for transition from LIBOR and what regulatory hurdles are left to jump now the Bank of England and the FCA have set out clear expectations for regulated firms to remove their reliance on LIBOR in all new business and in legacy contracts.

How Digital Identity can help social inclusion & economic growth in 2021

Martin Wilson, CEO of Digital Identity Net, speaks about the ways digital identity will help address the challenges society faces post-pandemic, how banks are using it in their favour when competing with big tech and fintech, and where we can expect to see practical digital identity solutions being developed in 2021.

The long read

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Sebastian Zawada

Are financial infrastructure partnerships the future of banking?

Sebastian Zawada - Finextra Research

Discussion

Is VISA a colossus on clay feet?

Howard Elsey

Howard Elsey

It'll work in the EU as the EU have had the schemes in their sights for some time - hence SEPA. SEPA was a fundamental building block toward this and regulation (PSD2) helps their case. But there's where it then becomes difficult. Like it or not the card schemes are the only truly global networks. And yes, there were built on top of various bank networks but they joined them and provided a convenience and trust through their scheme rules. Tech is fallible but people are too and the rules address both. That's why they are such huge global brands and all of these factors are huge - for the consumer - an interested party that wasn't mentioned in the article. Can Visa be toppled? Yes. Will they be? Well, a bit behind their competitor MasterCard, but they are trying. They don't own rails as MasterCard do. They have tried to make significant acquisitions to help but have been thwarted. So the jury is out but there'a long game to play and the consumer has a lot of sway. They don't change habits or likes so easily. The young can and do but will their new habits be life long? And do they have the power of money in comparison to the more habitually entrenches older generations?

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Is VISA a colossus on clay feet?

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan

It's a free world, there's nothing stopping anyone from doing anything but, in the real world of business, it's customary for companies to do more of what works and less of what does not work, so that they maximize shareholder value and / or stop themselves from squandering away their limited resources and die. So, yes, even if the jackpot is still there, it doesn't mean new companies should waste time trying to do something that killed so many of their ilk earlier. Espeially since there are so many other jackpots out there offering better chances of success. In the extreme case, despite all of the above, if a company is hellbent on being delusional, the community can avoid platitudes on the way of the company committing harakiri and, instead, at least provide some guidance, however impractical it might be, for the company to achieve success. As I'd done in my comment below Mastercard bids to bypass own rails with Pay by Bank app promotion: "A new PSP with 2X Rewards and 0.5X MDR of Visa / MasterCard will be highly disruptive. It won't be profitable. But that hasn't stopped VCs from funding disruptive startups."

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Is VISA a colossus on clay feet?

Gerard Hergenroeder

Gerard Hergenroeder

There have many attempts to bring alternatives to Visa and MasterCard. As a former employee of both entities I know they are a market force with lots of money and a brand that is trusted. To start a new global brand and technology platform would cost billions of dollars. Technology has indeed taken quantum leaps. If they had to do it all over again their solutions would much more superior than the current two message system. i remember when it took 4 weeks for an international transaction to clear. Both have made significant steps in their authorization and clearing systems. But much more needs to be done. I would advise both Visa and MasterCard to build their next generation solutions using a single message while at the same maintaining in parallel their two message system for some period of time.There are newer technology solutions in the market; e.g.. Faster Payments.

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Is VISA a colossus on clay feet?

Maxim Kazakov

Maxim Kazakov

If somebody failed trying to do something, there is no reason not to try again mainly because the jackpot is still there.

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Featured

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Klarna confirms mammoth $1 billion fund raise

2020 Fintech funding down on 2019 but on the way back up

Ex-Mastercard exec invests in subscription terminator Subaio

European banks seek technical partners to help build rival to Visa and Mastercard

The long read

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Retired Member

How Will Authentication Evolve in the Age of SCA?

Retired Member

Payments Analysis

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NextGen Nordics Webinar - Changing Payments: P27, Europe and beyond

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NextGen Nordics Webinar - Changing Payments: P27, Europe and beyond

Join us for this Finextra webinar to hear from payments experts discuss changing payments: P27, Europe and beyond.

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On-Demand Webinar - The trends driving digitalisation in corporate banking

Why aren’t corporate treasurers receiving the same benefits of digital in their corporate life that are abundant in the retail experience?

Payments Modernisation: Interoperability fuels the transformation of Cross-Border Payments

/research

Payments Modernisation: Interoperability fuels the transformation of Cross-Border Payments

Correspondent banking as we view and use it today is the result of a slow and natural evolution.

Elsewhere...

The long read

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Paige McNamee

A new paradigm for capital markets

Paige McNamee - Finextra Research