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Welcome to the PaymentsSource Morning Briefing, delivered daily. The information you need to start your day, including top headlines from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
Alipay gets another ticket to America: Mobile payment and marketing platform is collaborating with Alipay, Ant Financial's popular payments service, to allow North American merchants to accept Alipay for travelers. Citcon will provide its mobile point of sale technology, API and software for bot online and offline payments, marketing and analytics. China's Alipay has been lining up partners to expand to North America. It recently collaborated with First Data and Verifone to extend acceptance at payment terminals, and is also expanding availability at U.S. airports through a partnership with travel retail company DFS Group.
The Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Alipay.com Co. website, displayed on a Samsung Electronics Co. tablet, is seen in an arranged photograph in Hong Kong, China, on Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. Alibaba, Chinas largest e-commerce company, will go public in 2014 after talks with Hong Kongs exchange on a proposed corporate governance structure fell apart, said people with knowledge of the matter. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
Disaster giving: Mobile technology has proven useful in powering fundraisingtransactions, and Hyperwallet hopes to take the model a step further by hosting a hackathon to spot ways to speed payments processing for charitable giving, particularly after a disaster. Visa is "supporting" the hackathon, which will take place on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 in Austin, according to a release form Hyperwallet. Developers will use Hyperwallet's sandbox and API integrations and the Visa Direct network, and will have eight hours to complete solutions. Executives from Visa, Hyperwallet and HomeAway Software will judge the competition, which will offer cash prizes.
Prep for Chatbots: Payment companies are rapidly embracing chatbots, and there's signs that's a good idea as the next generation is using chatbots extensively. Nearly two thirds of U.S. consumers aged 18 to 34 have used a chatbot for shopping, according to merchant technology company Retale, which also found that nearly three quarters of the same demographic is interested in using branded chatbots. Also, 71% of the 500 millennials Retale polled said they are interested in using chatbots from consumer brands, while only 18% said they are not. The biggest problem young people have with chatbots is accuracy. Retale reports 55% of respondents said they are frustrated with chatbots' inability to "understand" what the user is looking for.
Brexit plaza: The fallout from last year's Brexit vote on the financial services and technology industries is getting more tangible, or perhaps speculative, depending on the perspective. Amid reports that fintech companies, payment startupsand financial institutions are leaving the U.K., Paris is creating space. Finextra reports Parisian developers plan to build more than a half dozen new skyscrapers over the next half decade in anticipation of picking up business in these industries from London. The buildings, which will total about one million square feet, will include flexible working spaces designed for technology development and other space suitable for financial services companies. The development will be focused near La Defense, the city's business district.
Going digital in Germany, where cash is king How much do Germans like cash? Consider the following common German phrase: "Geld stinkt nicht," which roughly translated means, "money doesn’t stink."
Ant Financial buys stakes in Kakao Pay and Mynt China’s Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba, is continuing its acquisition spree by purchasing stakes two digital payments firms, including South Korea’s Kakao Pay and the Philippines’ Mynt.
The retail giants are kicking the tires on their own currencies. The potential prize is a way to reimagine prepaid cards and gain a key position as new forms of artificial intelligence-powered payments take off.
Primis Bank plans to sell an undisclosed amount of its 19% ownership stake in Panacea Financial, a digital-only lender focusing on medical professionals and veterinarians. The deal should yield $22 million.
The impact of President Trump's tariffs is the top concern for most middle-market American businesses, a new KeyBank survey found. But these firms also view the scrambled landscape as a chance to innovate and restructure.
The Federal Reserve Board banned a former relationship banker in Arkansas after he was caught stealing customer funds; Benchmark Federal Credit Union plans to merge with Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union to form a $2.1 billion-asset institution; Robin Vince, CEO of Bank of New York Mellon since 2022, has been elected chairman of the board; and more in this week's banking news roundup.
