Global news roundup

May 11, 2022 9:42 AM

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In global news this week, the U.K. debates a plan to protect cash, the EU sets a timeline for its Digital Markets Acts, PayPal and Standard Chartered invest overseas, and more.

Here's what's happening around the world.

U.K. considers law to protect cash

There's much discussion in the U.K. over whether underserved communities have proper access to cash as digital payments grow and the expense of managing paper bills increases. A new Financial Services and Markets Bill was introduced during the opening of Parliament to ensure the availability of deposit and withdrawal locations and the sustainability of cash. It also includes a provision that would require banks to reimburse victims of push payment scams, in which a scammer tricks a consumer into sending money to an account controlled by the crook. "We are reforming our financial services sector now that we have left the EU to ensure it acts in the interests of communities and citizens, creating jobs, supporting businesses, and powering growth across all of the U.K.," said John Glen, economic secretary to the Treasury, in a news release. —John Adams

New European rules for 'Big Tech' pushed to early 2023

The European Union plans to start enforcing the Digital Market Acts, which is designed to more heavily regulate large mostly U.S.-based technology firms, in the spring of 2023. That's a delay from the original target date of October, reports The Verge, which attributed its reporting to comments at the International Competition Conference. The EU Commission and Parliament in March agreed on the new rules, which tighten antitrust regulations and apply to firms that have a market capitalization of more than $82 billion and a social platform or app with at least 45 million monthly users. That includes Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon, which would face fines of up to 10% of their revenue if found in violation. The EU is currently investigating Apple's payments policy for potential antitrust violations. —John Adams

Standard Chartered expands investment in Japan

SC Ventures has entered an agreement with Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings to expand the bank's investments in new business categories and regions. SC Ventures, which is Standard Chartered's fintech ventures arm, will collaborate with SBI to find startups in blockchain, crypto assets, artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics and other innovations. SBI has geographic coverage in its home market as well as other Southeast Asian countries, while SC Ventures has experience in Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Asia. The two firms also plan to create themed ecosystems to scale specific products across multiple companies, such as decentralized finance, small-business banking and Web 3.0. —John Adams

PayPal's VC arm invests in startups in Egypt, Mexico

PayPal Ventures was part of a group of firms that has invested $50 million in Paymob, a Cairo-based firm that allows merchants to support digital payments through websites or in stores. Kora Capital and Claypoint were the other lead investors in the Series B round, which brings Paymob's total funding to more than $68 million. Paymob's products include an omnichannel point-of-sale system, buy now/pay later lending, and card payments in stores. PayPal Ventures also in the past week led a $111 million Series B round in Xepelin, a Mexico City-based B2B financial services firm that supplies financial services for small businesses in Latin America. The recent investment in Xepelin followed a $230 million Series A round in 2021, one of the largest Series A rounds in Latin American history. —John Adams

London payment firm xpate bulks up

Cross-border payment firm xpate, which competes with fintechs such as Block and Stripe, has added about three dozen staffers with expertise in e-commerce, cloud infrastructure and other financial services technology. The hires increase the four-year-old company's headcount to 135. Its recent projects include the launch of a merchant acquiring platform called Links and a core banking system that supports real-time payment processing. It is also developing a data warehouse as part of a strategy to provide analytics, automatic reconciliation of third-party transactions, and a customizable payment page for its merchants. —John Adams

Bank of Ireland provides bank-switch guide

Responding to what it says is a higher rate of people changing banks, the Bank of Ireland has launched a "Big Move" campaign that offers information on closing old accounts, opening new ones, changing recurring payments and applying for credit products. Other features include access to templates for letters to payroll at employers. The campaign, which costs about $5 million, will appear on television, radio, print, outdoor display, digital and social media. The ads will additionally direct consumers to more detailed guides, a phone line and a website. The Bank of Ireland said the pace of bank churn is creating challenges for utility companies, government agencies and businesses. —John Adams

Afterpay, Adyen expand partnership in Europe

Dutch payment processor Adyen is looking to increase its competitiveness in the buy now/pay later market by making Afterpay's services available to Adyen clients in the U.K., France, Italy and Spain. Afterpay, which is an Australian subsidiary of Block, is known as Clearpay in the U.K. and Europe. Afterpay and Adyen have an existing payment processing partnership in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Europe, the U.S. and the U.K. The two firms additionally have an existing merchant-focused BNPL partnership that includes Adyen retailers such and MandM Direct, Revolution Beauty and Superdry. —John Adams

Klarna debuts global flexible work policy

The Swedish fintech Klarna has enacted a new policy to allow employees to work remotely within their country of employment (or state/province in the U.S. and Canada), as well as to work abroad for up to 20 days per year at a Klarna office outside their home country. The option to work abroad is meant to promote global team building and career growth. Klarna, a pioneer in buy now/pay later lending, will also provide a financial contribution and equipment for employees to upgrade their home workspaces. —Daniel Wolfe