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Welcome to the new PaymentsSource Morning Briefing, delivered daily. The information you need to start your day, including top headlines from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
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Brexit's fintech fallout: Venture capital being put into the U.K.'s financial technology sector dropped sharply in 2016, falling to $783 million from $1.2 billion in 2015, Finextra reports. The wire service attributes the dip largely to the summer's Brexit vote, citing the Pitch Book for Innovate Finance, which compiled the numbers. Innovate Finance noted global financial technology investment increased 11% year over year, reaching $17.4 billion. China was the top country, with $7.7 billion, while the U.S. was third at $6.2 billion.The U.K. has scheduled an international financial technology conference in April to attract more investment in London's financial technology hub.
View of The Houses of Parliament at dusk.
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Caixa goes to the bots: One of the first banks to use the mobile phone agnostic payment technology Host Card Emulation, CaixaBank is now diving headlong into bots to power rewards, special offers and other merchant services. The bank's mobile-only unit, ImaginBank, has launched a chatbot, focusing on special offers to users of Facebook Messenger. Finextra reports the service includes more than 100 offers, primarily loyalty deals for restaurants, leisure activities, travel, hotels and cultural events, and consumers can ask the chatbot directly to find offers in a specific area, or make a request via a written message. Consumers can also sign up for notifications and can access ATM locator maps.
Polish regulators score an own goal: A group of banks in Poland have been infected with malware that reportedly came from the country's own government. According to the U.K. Register, local banks recently noticed suspicious activity and unauthorized files on their computers. The problem stems from the servers at the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, where a local file was compromised and malware was installed. The Register reports malicious information was shared among 20 banks in Poland, making it the largest web attack ever executed on the Polish financial system. No personal account information has been found to be compromised, according to the Polish government, which is continuing its investigation.
Have funding, will travel: Finnish Business-to-Business e-commerce startup Enterpay has drawn funding from NFT Ventures to fuel an international expansion, reports Good News from Finland. Terms of the funding were not disclosed, and Enterpay intends to use the funding to expand to other countries, hoping to bring automation to a market that often still relies on manual payment processing. The Finland-based company provides merchant services that more closely resemble a consumer e-commerce platform, including real-time purchases with no preregistration required, relying instead on digital invoicing. Its strategy also involves collaborating with banks to build a market presence.
How Are Mobile Owners Making Purchases Using Their Devices? Marketing Charts, Stats, Facts & Trends • Marketingcharts Staff Some 78% of mobile media users surveyed last year across 9 countries reported having made a purchase using their mobile phone during the prior 6 months, according a Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) study.
Bill Clerico's WePay Out To Build Category Defining Payment Platform Forbes • Bruce Rogers, Forbes Staff Bill Clerico and a buddy, then in their early 20s, created a digital system to make it easy for friends to collect money from each other when splitting the dinner check, collecting rent, or dispersing payments from a ski trip. They would...
MTN Ghana Introduces ‘MTN Yello Save’ with Fidelity Bank Mobile World • Akin Naphtal MTN Ghana has partnered Fidelity Bank to introduce another mobile money innovation that allows customers to send money directly from their MTN mobile wallets into a Fidelity account for savings. The innovative product dubbed “MTN Yello Save.".
Comdata’s payments app tackles new federal truck-driving safety rule Payments increasingly are the anchor connecting diverse business functions, including in the commercial trucking industry, where tools built into fleet card apps are helping to cut costs and paperwork for fuel taxes, workplace safety and other functions.
Can Samsung Pay benefit from India's cash crisis? Little-noticed during India’s cash-crunch late last year — triggered by the government’s demonetization of about 80% of its currency — was Samsung Pay quietly testing the waters in India with an eye to opening up vital new digital payment options in a nation that relies heavily on cash for everyday transactions.
John Adams is executive editor of payments for American Banker. John interviews top executives in the payments, cryptocurrency and fintech... Read full bio
The Federal Communications Commission proposed a $4.5 million fine against Voxbeam Telecommunications, which it accused of facilitating fraud scams. Many of the calls spoofed phone numbers belonging to American banks.
After French authorities stopped a bomb plot against a Bank of America office in Paris, security experts warned banks to step up their preparations for terror attacks.
