Irish ATMs giving out too much money, Singapore regulates stablecoins

August 16, 2023 11:54 AM

Bank of Ireland ATM glitch spurs mistaken withdrawals, Stablecoin issuers get rules in Singapore, ANZ is looking for money mules, and more.

Here's what's happening around the world this week.

Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

No free money

A technical glitch at Bank of Ireland on Wednesday resulted in some withdrawals beyond consumer balances, funds the consumers will have to give back. The issue resulted in a surge in transfers of about $640 from the Bank of Ireland to Revolut, according to The Guardian, which reported Revolut is investigating the matter. The ATM mistake also resulted in long lines at the bank's machines in Ireland, resulting in the police being dispatched to provide crowd control. Bank of Ireland said it has fixed the glitch and is in the process of correcting the erroneous withdrawals — meaning the consumers are having the money clawed back. However, it also reported delays in these fixes as well as normal bank operations that were continuing into Wednesday afternoon. The bank instructed consumers who may face financial difficulty because they withdrew too much money to contact the bank. —John Adams

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Singapore releases rules for stablecoins

Stablecoin issuers in Singapore will be required to meet standards for capital and stability under regulations released Tuesday by the The Monetary Authority of Singapore. Stablecoin issuers must be able to provide redemption at par within five business days upon request. Other requirements include maintaining adequate liquid assets to avoid insolvency and mandatory disclosures such as audits of reserve assets backing the stablecoin. Singapore is one of the first jurisdictions to provide regulations for stablecoins, which are a form of cryptocurrency that is designed to mitigate volatility by backing the crypto with reserves such as U.S. dollars or Treasuries. The U.S. is still developing regulations for stablecoins. —John Adams

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Coinbase expands in Canada

Cryptocurrency company Coinbase has partnered with Vancouver-based financial institution The Peoples Trust Company to provide digital transfers through Interac, Canada's national debit card network. This follows Coinbase's March registration with Canadian regulators to operate a cryptocurrency company in the country. Coinbase also opened a Canadian development hub with more than 200 staff who are building financial services and payment products. Crypto Ventures, Coinbase's VC arm, has invested in several Canadian startups, including Horizon Blockchain Games, MinervaAI and payments fintech Zapper. Coinbase's core business was originally a cryptocurrency exchange, though the company has added more payment products over the past several years. —John Adams

India plans AI-powered transactions on its national payment rail

The Reserve Bank of India is developing features for the national United Payments Interface that use artificial intelligence to power conversational payments and to streamline credit decisions. The features, which will be available in smartphones and feature phones, will enable users to execute payments verbally on the UPI system in English and Hindi. The UPI is a central bank-supervised digital payment network that has drawn support from multiple banks, as well as companies such as Western Union and Google, which use UPI to expand their reach in areas where they do not have a physical presence. Voice-enabled payments are one of several uses emerging for generative AI. —John Adams

Mastercard invests in telco-powered fintech in Africa

The MTN telecom group plans to sell a minority stake in its African mobile money unit to Mastercard. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, though MTN's fintech unit is valued at about $5.4 billion, according to Reuters. MTN operates more than a dozen mobile money businesses in Africa. Mobile money apps are a primary way to boost access to financial services in emerging markets, which often don't have mature payment processing systems or bank branch networks. Mastercard and MTN agreed to co-develop remittances and other international transfer products. Mastercard has also partnered with local banks to expand access to payments in Africa, while Visa in 2022 pledged to invest $1 billion in Africa over a five-year period —John Adams

Fime to help launch Bangladesh’s national payments service

Bangladesh Bank has chosen Fime, a firm with global experience testing and certifying payments technology, to help the Asian nation's central bank establish a domestic payment card network, according to a press release. The agreement calls for Fime to work with Bangladesh over the next six years to help design, build, test and certify a payment system that incorporates financial inclusion, sovereignty and security. Fime, based in Antony, France, previously played a key role in developing the RuPay card payment network, which launched in India in 2014 under guidance from the National Payments Corp. of India. —Kate Fitzgerald

ANZ gets tougher on money mules

Melbourne-based ANZ plans to deploy new security that will detect "mule accounts," or accounts that are set up to execute financial transactions that are tied to theft or fraud. Crooks set up a person or other entity to receive stolen funds and then transfer the funds to another location in an attempt to give fraud the appearance of legitimacy. The bank will use artificial intelligence and forms of machine learning to enhance its existing behavioral analysis and biometric systems in an effort to determine if an account is acting as a mule. ANZ conducted a pilot of the new technology in April, which successfully identified about 1,400 high-risk accounts. The new system will be introduced by September, and ANZ plans to add staff to help detect mule accounts. —John Adams

SumUp debuts in Australia

Payments fintech SumUp has launched in Australia, where it plans to sell a mix of payments hardware and software to potential business clients. Australia is the 36th market for the London-based SumUp, which said it was attracted to the country's fintech market, noting that it is one of the largest in the world. SumUp is initially offering Air, its card reader, for about $40 with a 1.75% fee per transaction. SumUp will also accept Visa, Mastercard, Google Pay and Apple Pay; it will offer American Express and JCB in 2024. SumUp will compete with local payment companies, as well as U.S. firms such as Block, which acquired Australian buy now/pay later and payments firm Afterpay in 2021. —John Adams