Latest global payments news

The Payments Association has warned that potential payment crime regulations could have unintended consequences and negatively impact the U.K.'s status as a market for new payment technology. The U.K.'s payment regulator has proposed new rules to address authorized push payment fraud, which involves a crook pretending to be a person or business and asking for a funds transfer to a rogue account. The pending rules, which are scheduled to go into effect in 2024, would require all consumers who experience APP fraud to be refunded unless they are found to be grossly negligent. The cost of the refunds would be split equally between the issuing and receiving bank. The Payments Association, which includes about 300 payment firms in its membership, says these rules would encourage people to fake vulnerability to receive compensation. U.K. consumer groups such as Which? support the new regulations. —John Adams

Payment technology firm ACI Worldwide is taking advantage of pending regulations to extend its real-time processing application programming interface to the U.K. and the European Union. ACI's API will enable merchants to offer instant payment technology in line with evolving EU protocols. The European Commission has proposed requiring banks in the Single Euro Payments Area to offer instant settlement through SEPA's scheme, which would create a price floor for real-time payments in SEPA countries. The U.K. is still part of SEPA despite the country's departure from the European Union. ACI has been building its cross-border payments technology over the past year, partly in anticipation of the growth of real-time settlement networks. "Payments need to keep pace with an increasingly digital society," said Basant Singh, global head of ACI's merchant business, in a release. "In our expanding 'always on' transactional world, giving and receiving money electronically should be as instantaneous as handing over cash." —John Adams

Sydney-based fintech Stables has partnered with Mastercard and Circle to launch a virtual stablecoin card that can be used at merchants on Mastercard's network. Circle's USD Coin, one of the world's largest stablecoins in circulation, will be the preferred stablecoin at launch. The card has debuted in Australia, with plans to expand to other parts of Asia and Europe later this year, followed by other markets. Mastercard has aggressively pursued cryptocurrency use cases over the past couple of years, with a particular focus on stablecoins. Stablecoins, which are backed by traditional currency, are designed to avoid the pricing volatility of other cryptocurrencies and are considered the most likely digital asset for payments at the point of sale. —John Adams