U.K.

Facebook has informed users of its P2P Messenger money transfer option in the U.K. and France that the service will no longer be available as of June 15.

Two months after Mastercard lawyers urged an English appeals court to follow the lead of antitrust judges that had tossed out a multi-billion pound class action lawsuit from U.K. consumers over credit card charges, that appeals court has ruled against the credit card giant.

French card issuer Prepaid Financial Services has partnered with Google to allow its customers in the U.K. to add their prepaid cards to the Google Pay mobile wallet.

With the U.K. government still at stalemate over Brexit, the prospect of leaving the European Union without a deal remains a very real possibility. Despite some recent agreements, this could have major implications for the U.K. payments industry.

Contactless transit fare systems are drawing lots of investment despite several false starts in the U.S. But new numbers out of London show there are clear and multiple benefits if the infrastructure can catch up.

The speed of technological change is forcing Britain’s retail payments authority Pay.UK to redesign its core infrastructure.

International payments provider Currencies Direct is offering a new online platform for batch payments to help clients making multiple payments in different currencies.

Visa’s proposal to buy Earthport — which already survived a brief bidding war with Mastercard — is getting a closer look by the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog group.

The U.K. government is consulting with train operators on smart pay-as-you-go ticketing. The goal is to enable consumers to travel across the U.K.’s entire railway network by tapping in and out with contactless cards or smartphones instead of paper tickets.

The U.K. prepaid gift card market is experiencing strong growth among consumers who buy them as gifts and for self-use, as well as among businesses that purchase them for customer loyalty programs and as employee incentives.