Europe

A top official at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions defended tougher underwriting rules blamed recently for a slump in the nation’s housing market, but left open the possibility that regulations could ease if conditions change.

In recent years, new machine learning algorithms and big data have reduced fraud losses to an extent — however, their impact has been relatively limited, in part because the industry has been reluctant to use them. But the use of such technology is soon likely to become far more widespread in the U.K., and across the EU.

EU states such as Belgium, Lithuania and Ireland are offering e-money institution, payments institution or banking licenses to fintechs, which can be passported across Europe, in anticipation of the U.K. losing its ability to do so after Brexit. But there is no cross-border deposit protection for European consumers holding accounts at EU banks with passported licenses.

Regulators are handing out fines for GDPR violations, that while relatively small can have a large impact on the push for sharable identity by drawing attention to how large companies use data.

Digital banking and payments provider PrePay Solutions is partnering with PayQuicker to help with currency conversions in payroll management programs globally, and to expand PayQuicker's capabilities for its clients' international workers.

For the U.S. to move forward, education will be required to teach users how to utilize new technology to manage their finances, says Katy Gibson, vice president of product applications at Envestnet Yodlee.

Ten weeks remain until Great Britain is set to leave the European Union, but the chaos of the entire Brexit process brought much of the British credit union industry's regulatory priorities to a halt.

British payments technology company Moorwand is offering the first UnionPay prepaid cards in the U.K. on its UPayCard branded prepaid platform, with a larger roll-out planned for consumers and corporations during the first quarter of 2019.

As perhaps the world's most wide-reaching, comprehensive data protection rule, the General Data Protection Regulation is having a ripple effect that almost seemed inevitable.

Japanese credit card brand JCB has signed several deals to expand its global acceptance online and at the point of sale.

In the past few years the Chinese government has loosened restrictions on foreign travel, enabling millions of its citizenry to visit foreign lands. Along with a greater ability to travel is the enhanced prosperity Chinese consumers have reaped at home — and now bring with them on vacations to purchase foreign goods.

Two German companies, Wirecard and the startup givve, are expanding their partnership to develop more programs for companies to deliver employee benefits via prepaid cards.

Europe has also taken active measures to support the innovation of platforms and applications, writes Donika Kreava, strategic communications manager at Dentacoin.

The European data sharing regulation, PSD2, is often seen as a compliance burden for banks — but if used correctly, the rules provide a path to boosting digital payments revenue.

After three months of testing its cryptocurrency wallet, Plasma Bank has launched PlasmaPay globally with an emphasis on Southeast Asia and South America.

London-based TransferGo is using Ripple’s blockchain platform to support digital money transfers from Europe to India. But TransferGo isn’t the first remittance company to work with Ripple — and it isn't on the same path that others have taken.

In a continued effort to expand beyond China's borders, China UnionPay will reportedly work with a U.K. company to issue issuing virtual corporate cards next month in Europe.

Processing.com has 25 acquiring banks lined up as its transaction network, creating a safety net for dealing with high-risk merchants.

Under TrueLayer’s Payment Initiation license, its forthcoming Payments API could enable third parties such as online retailers to have consent-based access to customers’ bank accounts in order to take payments for goods and services. This would provide e-commerce merchants and service providers with a lower-cost alternative to accepting credit or debit card payments.

Understanding the obstacles of payment gateways and how to navigate them can help you expand your business and scale profits efficiently, writes Olivier Schott, founder and chief marketing officer of Scalefast.