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Visa, Square go surfing: Square's already worked the Coachella music festival, and has now picked up the Boardmasters surf and music festival. The event, which takes place in Cornwall, U.K., from August 9-13, will host about 150,000 people, surf competitions and live performances. Visa is one of the event's sponsors, and will collaborate with Square to ensure 100% card acceptance for the first time in the event's 36 year history. The event will have WiFi throughout the grounds, and Visa will equip merchants with more than 350 mobile point of sale terminals to accept Square payments. The two companies hope to improve on last year, when only 5% of payments at Boardmasters were mobile payments. For Visa it's part of a broader strategy to reach millennials through sponsorships, including sponsorship of the World Surf League, which will host a qualifying event at Boardmasters.
Jack Dorsey, chief executive officer of Square Inc., second right, tours the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015. Square Inc. jumped more than 60 percent after the mobile payments company priced its initial public offering low enough to entice skeptics as well as bulls who are confident in its growth prospects. Photographer: Yana Paskova/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Jack Dorsey
Yana Paskova/Bloomberg
Bank of England's taking over 'big payments': The Bank of England will take over the operations of Chaps, the U.K.'s high value payment system, a change that impacts a quarter of the U.K.'s annual GDP. Chaps processes about $90 trillion per year, and is the main way banks move large sums of money between each other. ChapsCo, a bank-operated private sector firm, currently splits responsibility for Chaps with a government agency called HVPS. The Bank is increasing its oversight of large payment systems as part of a broader effort to rebuild the country's real-time gross settlement platform to respond to the large number of startups that are now accessing the U.K.'s payment system. It also endeavors to build an interface to distributed ledger technology and accommodate new standards such as ISO 20022 and the growth of APIs. The Bank of England is working with Chaps and its stakeholders to execute a transition to a direct delivery model, which the bank says will enhance security for the overall large payment system.
Hong Kong plays catch up in fintech: Authorities in the Asia Pacific markets such as Singapore and Australia are changing regulations to encourage financial technology development and the adoption of new payment techniques, forcing other locales to make moves to keep up. Hong Kong's Financial Services Development Council has released The Future of Fintech in Hong Kong, which details how Hong Kong can better embrace fintech and payments technology through development policies and regulations. One of the main strategies is to embrace distributed ledger technology to improve transaction processing and products that require collaboration between banks and other stakeholders. The FSDC acknowledges that while Hong Kong has a long history as a banking center, a status it retains, it has to catch up in the race to demonstrate an openness and flexibility to attract new participants in the market. The report suggest the government should establish a hub for the distributed ledger community, embrace digital currency and accelerate commissioning for distributed ledger proofs of concept.
Canadians ready to dump checks: As Canada preps for a largely digital future for its payments ecosystem, consumers are also getting ready to shed paper. According to the Payments Pulse Survey, two thirds of Canadians are ready to drop checks and half are willing to stop using cash. The survey also found that only 13% of Canadians have adopted e-wallets, suggesting the willingness to stop using paper to pay is more forward-looking. Also, 70% of Canadians are not willing to pay a special fee to use a digital wallet, but 48% are willing to shed a some privacy for the convenience. Even though Canadians are ready to get rid of checks and paper money, there is some change anxiety. The survey found 50% of Canadians are anxious about the arrival of e-wallets, while 66% of Canadians are anxious about the arrival of self-driving cars and the expansion of artificial intelligence.
Samsung Pay Comes on MSwipe; Over 2 Lakh Terminals Now Offer Samsung Pay Frictionless Payments Trakin' the india business buzz • Kanishk Karan Mswipe has today announced that it has enabled Samsung Pay at its terminals. The independent POS merchant acquirer and network provider have said that the partnership will enable tap and pay on the go facility for Samsung Pay users on its 2...
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The National Credit Union Administration, operating with just one board member, has liquidated two credit unions that were recently put into conservatorship. The failures are the first credit union failures since Democrats on the board were fired, leaving Republican Chair Kyle Hauptman.
In a joint letter signed by over 50 bank trade groups, leaders in the banking industry urged regulators to revise bank regulatory thresholds upward to keep up with inflation.
The Senate passed President Trump's tax and spending bill Tuesday, but questions around Consumer Financial Protection Bureau funding, 1071 delay and remittance taxes remain as GOP leaders scramble to pass the bill out of the House before Trump's July 4 deadline.
