European Union

Competition between hundreds of national and global payment systems forces everybody to continually adapt, up their games, culling weaker and underperforming systems and inviting the search for better mouse traps, says Intrepid Ventures' Eric Grover.

Fintech bank and payment services provider LHV is now providing real-time payments in the U.K. through the country's Faster Payments scheme, allowing it to handle U.K. currency in addition to euro payments in the Single Euro Payment Area through SEPA Instant.

From Malta to Belgium, the past three years have served as something of a shopping market between payments-based fintechs seeking alternative jurisdictions through which they could still be licensed within the EU, and investment agencies hoping for a piece of their business.

The 10 largest publicly traded euro-area lenders will see their capital requirements stabilize in 2020 after years of increases, according to recent filings. That may create space for higher dividends and buybacks, bolstering banking stocks.

When the European Union began developing the Single Euro Payments Area more than a decade ago, it didn't include a vision for real-time payments and the potential for a third European payments scheme.

As 2020 dawns, a new decade will soon bring new levels of friction for contactless customers as a result of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), a key part of the European Union’s drive to reduce card fraud across Europe.

Open banking transactions are not initiated by a consumer but are coming from another financial services company. This could make some fraud detection models in place today obsolete.

The adoption of payment cards over cash varies by nation, but debit ruled nearly everywhere on the continent.

As anti-money laundering requirements tighten in many jurisdictions, financial institutions and fraud prevention platforms are ditching legacy AML solutions for newer technology — but alternatives aren’t easy to come by yet.

Even though security vendors and payments providers are telling merchants they are ready to provide compliance for PSD2 on Sept. 14, a significant challenge remains in the learning curve and technology needs for merchants.