10.12.18 Your morning briefing

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:

Chinese payment companies blame Apple for breach
Alipay and Tencent say crooks used Apple IDs to access accounts and steal money, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Both companies have recommended consumers change passwords, and said they have reached out to Apple as part of the breach investigation.

Bloomberg reports many Chinese iPhone users have linked their digital wallet IDs to Apple. Bloomberg also translated an Alipay statement saying any payment method linked to an Apple ID may be at risk. aTimes reports Alipay is instructing consumers to contact Apple directly.

Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Transit transfer
Mumbai's Metro One is supporting PayPal for recharge payments, a move that further opens the metro system's payment options.

Commuters can recharge smart cards on Reliance Mumbai's metro website or through an app, in one of PayPal's early moves into transit payments in India, reports NDTV.

Mumbai's metro system is considered one of India's most modern, and was the first to deploy digital payments following India's demonetization in 2016.

Shopping at Shopify
Shopify, which has spent much of the past year improving its digital security technology and adding services for e-commerce merchants that want to establish a physical presence, is accelerating its move into brick and mortar sales.

It has opened its first physical store in Los Angeles in an area that has a high concentration of Shopify's merchant clients, according to TechCrunch, adding there's about 10,000 such merchants nearby.

The bard of NFC
Scotland's National Trust has recreated several of the country's most famous works of art to include historical figures using contactless technology.

That includes a copy of a 200 year old bust of famed poet Robert Burns, who is now holding a contactless card reader, and an updated painting by Pompeo Batoni to feature the goddess Roma holding a contactless card. The technology representations are art—consumers can't use a 'Pay' app to buy something from "Robert Burns."

Finextra reports the trust worked with the Bank of Scotland and Visa on the project, which is designed to boost donations as people carry cash less.

From the Web

Credit card data may 'narc' on legal pot buyers at the U.S. border
Yahoo News | Thu October 11, 2018 - Swiping a credit card for recreational cannabis will be a first for many Canadians next week. But paying for that inaugural lawful drug deal with plastic could risk consequences at the United States border. The privacy agreements of the big five banks, as well as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express make no guarantees that financial data will remain in Canada, beyond the reach of U.S. authorities eager to enforce federal anti-pot laws.

Zuora partners with Amazon Pay to expand subscription billing options
TechCrunch | Thu October 11, 2018 - Zuora, the SaaS company helping organizations manage payments for subscription businesses, announced today that it had been selected as a Premier Partner in the Amazon Pay Global Partner Program. The “Premier Partner” distinction means businesses using Zuora’s billing platform can now easily integrate Amazon’s digital payment system as an option during checkout or recurring payment processes.

Fintech won't drain money away from traditional banks, regulators say
CNBC | Thu October 11, 2018 - The rise of financial technology — more commonly known as fintech — won't threaten the existence of banks and it's the responsibility of authorities to make sure that traditional lenders are prepared for changes in their industry, policymakers and regulators said on Thursday. The comments were made in Bali, Indonesia where the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are holding their annual meetings.

More from PaymentsSource

Female-owned fintechs lag in VC funding, but are more likely to succeed
Companies founded by women receive significantly less than the venture capital available to all U.S. firms, but trends are improving for all startups this year, including for women-owned fintechs.

PayPal's tech and consumer reach melt Walmart's aversion to 'other' wallets
Walmart's PayPal cash service partnership is a previously unheard of mobile wallet collaboration for the retail chain, but a mass of underbanked consumers and a path to future innovation provide a distinct allure.

Worldpay adjusts cross-border tech to offer quicker, cheaper processing
As fintechs and merchant acquirers build cross-border payments technology for e-commerce companies, Worldpay Inc. is expanding its bank-direct service and accommodating faster processing for lower-value transactions.

Even in a global tech wave, payment fintechs should think local
The payment landscape is still very fragmented with local solutions holding their own against global giants and new technologies such as AI and blockchain keeping the payments market very enterprising, writes Eva Murphy Ryan, trade development executive for financial services and technology at Enterprise Ireland New York.