The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
China pay
The state-owned Bank of China is working with China Union Pay on a national mobile payment app.
The BoC will then launch a national campaign to promote the security of the new mobile payment system. As part of the initiative, the
Almost a unicorn
U.K. mobile payments fintech
But it's also proven adept at raising money. The company is approaching a valuation of about $1 billion, reports
Monzo has lined up a fresh $150 million round from Accel Partners and other investors, which would make the fintech's valuation about four times what it was in the fall of 2017.
Ripple adds more exchanges
Ripple has added to its network of exchanges that convert currencies into Ripple XRP asset and back into another currency in a cross-border transaction.
Bittrex will be an exchange for U.S. dollars, while Bitso will handle Mexican Pesos and Coins.ph will process Philippine Pesos.
A healthy start
While companies in the U.S. work to streamline a paper-intensive
Ant has sent out about 600,000 blockchain medical bills to patients over the past two weeks, reports
Ant is deploying a blockchain to support medical bills to prevent "multiple" reimbursement scams, or the multiple submission of claims. The ledger does a better job of tracking claims, according to Ant.
From the Web
The Times | Sun August 19, 2018 - Garry Lyons, a former Mastercard executive and boss of payments company Orbiscom, has raised more than €10.5m for a new fintech venture. Lyons’s Shipyard Technology Ventures has raised €5m from former employer Mastercard. A US investment vehicle called Circle Squared Alternative Investments has also backed the new company.
The Times | Mon August 20, 2018 - NHS hospitals lost nearly 10,000 patient records last year, according to figures released under freedom of information laws. The mislaid records, both paper and electronic, prompted concerns over the implications for patient safety and data security.
The Guardian | Fri August 17, 2018 - Greater Change, a social enterprise in partnership with Oxford University, has come up with one such solution: homeless people sign up to a service that provides them with a QR code that cashless givers can scan with their phones to transfer money.
More from PaymentsSource
After 20 years of working with a clunky, time-consuming 3-D Secure authorization method for online purchases, the wheels are finally in motion to get the upgraded 2.0 version in place for merchants and banks, granting access to more data for spotting fraud.
Earlier this summer, Visa experienced a significant system failure in the U.K. This outage caused Visa card payments to be rejected at the point of sale all across the country. Ten hours elapsed before systems were fully restored, and social media exploded with consumer outrage over the inconvenience.
To date, payments companies have feared common biometric methods such as fingerprint or iris scanning are unreliable and susceptible to hacking. However, there’s growing evidence that finger vein ID could prove more palatable.
After warnings of an impending major ATM cash-out had bank security teams working overtime last weekend, crooks made off with over $13 million over the weekend in a double attack on India’s venerable Cosmos bank.
