Morning Brief 11.12.19: Credit union, bank trade groups support FedNow

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

Friends for the Fed

FedNow, the pending public option for faster payments that's not expected to be ready for a few years, has drawn strong opinions, mostly over the government's role in speeding payment processing to accommodate e-commerce.
The Fed's venture has picked up some trade group support, as the American Bankers Association and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions have expressed support for FedNow, reports Finextra.
Both organizations say the Fed's plan can help speed payments, and make transactions safer. Though both also caution FedNow must be interoperable with other plans, such as The Clearing House's Real-Time Payments rail.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

Goldman responds to Apple Card bias claims

Amid contentions of gender bias in Apple Card decisioning, Goldman Sachs contends Apple Card credit decisions are "individual" to each applicant.
Goldman's response says the bank evaluates credit scores, income levels and debt levels as part of its decision, adding it's possible for two family members to receive different credit decisions.
An earlier tweet accused the card of producing different decisions for men and women with otherwise similar profiles, a contention Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak backed. New York regulators are looking into the claims.

Stablecoin pro

The Bank of International Settlement has appointed Benoit Coeure as head of the BIS' Innovation Hub, which supports international collaboration on financial technology.
What's noteworthy is Coeure's career path, which includes chairing the BIS' Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure, which includes standards development for payment, clearing and settlement. He also led a stablecoin working group.
His new appointment comes as European central banks are considering developing digital currencies, partly to counter Facebook's Libra project or similar central government digital currency moves in China.

Building boom

Less than a year after acquiring U.K.-based Worldpay, FIS (Fidelity National Information Systems) is spending $150 million to make room for more people at its Jacksonville, Fla. Headquarters. The payments processing company will add 500 new jobs and build a new downtown headquarters building to occupy 300,000 square feet along the city’s riverfront, according to a press release. The expansion will bring FIS’ Jacksonville headcount to 1,200 when the project is complete. FIS employs a total of 55,000 globally.

Proxy battle pushback

Cashless vending machine operator USA Technologies has taken steps to resist an unsolicited takeover by key investors concerned about the Malvern, Pa.-based company’s financial operations. USAT on Monday said it’s amended its bylaws to prevent Hudson Executive Capital from forcing a special meeting in which investors hope to replace most of the company’s board members and adopt a new strategic direction.

Hudson’s plan called for replacing eight of USAT’s nine board members, with new members that would include Hudson CEO Douglas Braunstein, former CFO at JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Ellen Richey, a former top executive with Visa, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

USAT CEO Stephen Herbert recently resigned, but the existing board of directors and management team plan to continue running the company while remaining open to discussions with Hudson, according to a press release.

From the web

Visa Pushes Adoption Of Electronic Payments In Brazil
_{FORBES | Mon November 11, 2019}
Payments giant Visa is pushing its agenda for electronic payments in Brazil and expects local usage of cash will significantly decrease within the next year. According to the company's country manager for Brazil, Fernando Teles, the company's ambition for the medium term is to achieve a result similar to that seen in developed markets, where 60% of payments on average are made through options such as digital wallets and contactless cards.

Most payments stakeholders believe the US is behind on implementing faster payments
_{BUSINESS INSIDER | Mon November 11, 2019}
More than half (59%) of payments stakeholders don't believe the US market is making enough progress toward implementing faster payments, per a report from the US Faster Payments Council (FPC) that polled payments stakeholders including financial institutions (FI), processors, payment network operators, business end-users, acquirers, and fintechs. No respondents feel the US has reached its ideal state regarding adopting faster payments, and 39% said the market is at the beginning of the process, though 50% did report thinking that it's gaining momentum.

Chinese Forex Regulator SAFE Expands Blockchain Cross-Border Pilot
_{COIN TELEGRAPH | Mon November 11, 2019}
Chinese regulator State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) expanded its blockchain cross-border financing pilot program. Local news outlet GlobalTimes reported on Nov. 11 that the system now covers 19 provinces and cities, up from nine. The development is unsurprising given that at the end of October SAFE deputy head Lu Lei said that there are plans to use blockchain and AI in cross border financing with particular attention devoted to risk management applications.

More from PaymentsSource

Is adoption of real-time payments keeping up with fraud?
Faster and real-time payments are finding more and more use cases, but the razor-thin transaction windows are alluring to fraudsters who want to make a swift getaway with stolen funds.

Google's P2P move in Singapore follows India's playbook
Singapore OCBC Bank will use Google Pay to support P2P transactions starting early in 2020, following a similar path as India, where banks have increasingly embraced Google Pay for transfers.

Alibaba's Singles Day swamps similar U.S. e-commerce 'days'
Alibaba's Singles Day e-commerce marketing event set another record, suggesting Asia's giant digital payments market shows no signs of slowing down.

Bias probe or not, the Apple Card is setting a new standard for banks
Despite recent accusations of bias, Apple Card seems to be setting the bar for the credit card industry.