8.30.17: Your morning briefing

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

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:

Is Apple Pay a non-starter in China? Apple will accept WeChat Pay for payments for app and music sales, following a similar move to accept Alipay. While the move will help Apple drive revenue for in-store spending, ChinaMoneyNetwork reports it also means Apple Pay's not likely to gain a substantial share in the market. Apple Pay launched in China in 2016, and thus far has about 1% of the market, compared to Alipay's 53% of the third party mobile payment market and WeChat Pay's 40%. At the same time, Alipay's support has proven effective for Apple, enabling Apple Music and iCloud's users in China to increase 12% in just the past three months to 185 million users.

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Digiliti tosses back lifeline: Troubled remote deposit capture company Digiliti Money has said no to a takeover bid from digital payment company Urban FT. Urban FT had performed due diligence which valued Digiliti at $10.5 million, and placed an offer earlier this month, just after Digiliti reported it faced bankruptcy and a possible restatement of earnings because of irregularities in its financials. Digiliti made a counteroffer to Urban FT, which Urban FT considered "unreasonable and unacceptable" given Digiliti's circumstances. Urban FT did say Digiliti's business is "fundamentally good" and that it would leave its offer on the table until the end of August.

The Singapore code: Singapore's Payments Council plans a standard QR code for payment initiatives, digital wallets and banks. The council has formed a task force with banks, payment companies, technology firms and government agencies to write standards for the code by Dec. 31. QR codes are a relatively old technology, though Singapore considers them cheaper and less labor-intensive to deploy than the alternatives — a rationale that is echoed by other major mobile payment schemes that use QR codes instead of NFC. The council's aim is to circumvent the proprietary QR codes that are in circulation, a status quo that makes it harder for the various contactless technology initiatives in Singapore to work together.

UAE banks turn to Visa to boost mobile adoption: Al Hilal and Visa have entered into a collaboration designed to spur migration toward contactless payments in the United Arab Emirates. The bank has launched three Visa payWave debit cards with added encryption to protect user to enable payments without sharing card information with retailers. There's also a marketing component that offers access to airport lounges and discounts at hotel chains, golf courses and deals at merchants across the country. Visa also hopes to boost its contactless network in the UAE, where about half of the point of sale terminals accept payWave cards, according to a Visa release.

From the Web

American Express targets debt-leery consumers with new card features
Reuters | Wed Aug 30, 2017 - American Express Co is unveiling a new option that could tempt young, budget-conscious consumers into taking on credit card debt. On Wednesday, the No. 1 U.S. card issuer by spending will roll out a feature that will allow customers to borrow for big purchases like furniture, medical expenses, airplane tickets or weddings, while separating those balances from everyday items like $2 cups of coffee. American Express is also adding a feature that will allow customers to immediately pay for small purchases from their bank accounts.

An Inside Look at Kim Dotcom’s Bitcoin-Based Payments Platform
Fortune | Tue Aug 29, 2017 - Kim Dotcom may be spending much of his time fighting extradition from New Zealand to the U.S., where he faces copyright infringement and money laundering charges, but he's also busy working on the successor to Megaupload, the online storage service that got him into this trouble. As Fortune reported on Monday, Dotcom is looking for popular YouTube stars to test his new micropayments system, Bitcache. Now he's giving Fortune a sneak preview of K.im, a new online storage service that lets creators upload their files and make money every time people download them.

E-commerce sets to thrive in BRICS countries
China Daily | Tue Aug 29, 2017 - E-commerce is set to prosper among the BRICS countries and become a major fabric connecting their nationals, according to the latest report by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. By 2022, gross merchandise volume generated via online shopping portals will skyrocket 340 percent from last year to reach $3 trillion in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the research arm of the world's largest e-commerce platform, Alibaba, said in a report released on Tuesday. That figure would represent 59 percent of global e-commerce transaction value in five years, up from 41.8 percent a year ago, according to AliResearch.

More from PaymentsSource

European regulation becomes a catalyst for fintech investment in the U.S.
New European standards require greater data sharing to accommodate faster transaction processing, mobile payments and other digital efforts — a trend that is also inspiring new collaborations across the pond.

Cross-industry collaboration can end AML data 'paralysis'
Issuers are collecting overwhelming amounts of data in an effort to improve anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) functions, an update advocated by The Clearing House (THC).

'PIN on glass' won't easily crack the U.S. market
Square Inc.'s addition of mobile chip-and-PIN in the U.K. and Australia markets is setting a precedent that some in the U.S. are loath to follow.

Apple Pay ranks highest in awareness, with others at its heels
Among consumers who currently use at least one mobile payment app regularly, 29% say they have used Apple Pay in the past month, while 23% indicate Visa Checkout was their payment app of choice.