Morning Brief 8.21.20: Ending Swiss dispute, UBS adds Apple Pay

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

Swiss banks

After several months of signaling support, UBS has formally added Apple Pay, ending a holdout that dates back to a dispute between Switzerland's banks and Apple's mobile wallet.

Apple Pay and the bank-backed TWINT mobile wallet had accused each other of interfering with transactions. That resulted in Swiss regulators investigating Apple in 2018. The dispute and investigation were settled, but UBS did not support Apple Pay for about two years; despite saying it would add Apple Pay in April it did not go live until the past few days, according to CultofMac.

Apple faced a similar pushback in Australia, where the largest banks tried to collectively bargain over financial terms in 2017. Since then, Apple's mobile wallet has been a primary driver of Australia's contactless payments surge.

Express lane

Taco Bell has tweaked its restaurant design to emphasize mobile ordering and moving consumers quickly in and out of stores, signaling the chain believes the changes in customer behavior during the pandemic will outlast the crisis.

The new design has two drive-through lanes, pickup shelves, outdoor pickup and moves more technology into the kitchens to support mobile transactions that occur before the customers arrive, reports CNBC. One of the drive-through lanes will be mobile-only, and while the stores will still have dining areas, they will likely be smaller in most locations. The first stores with the new design will open in early 2021.

Other chains have sped new store concepts during the pandemic, with Starbucks accelerating its plans to feature smaller mobile-centric pickup stores.

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Into the breach

Experian's South African division has suffered a data breach impacting 24 million consumers and nearly 800,000 businesses.

A fraudster posed as a client, tricking the credit agency into disclosing the data, reports ZDNet. Local law enforcement found the attacker, seized the person's hardware and deleted the stolen data.

Experian, which over the past year has increased its partnerships with fintechs to extend its data capabilities, claims the data has not been used for financial crimes and the company's infrastructure was not compromised.

Facetime

A group of businesses in Pasadena, Calif. have formed a "face pay" network to boost adoption of biometric payments while reducing physical contact.

PopID is powering the technology, which lets workers and students scan into workplaces and college buildings. Users can add their credit or debit card to their PopID account to support payments.

About two dozen businesses have signed on for the service, mostly fast food and coffee shops. Consumers order and pay at a drive-through, kiosk, display screens or via wait staff using a handheld scanner.

From the Web

Yalochat, a fast-growing conversational commerce startup, lands $15 million led by B Capital
_{TECHCRUNCH | Thursday Aug 20 2020}
Yalochat, a five-year-old, Mexico City-based conversational commerce platform that enables customers like Coca-Cola and Walmart to upsell, collect payments and provide better service to their own customers over WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat in China, has closed on $15 million in Series B funding led by B Capital Group.

DoorDash launches grocery delivery on its app
_{REUTERS | Thursday Aug 20 2020}
DoorDash Inc, the largest U.S. third-party delivery company for restaurants, on Thursday launched a new grocery service, entering an increasingly crowded market dominated by Instacart Inc and Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) Amazon Fresh.

Swiss Crypto Firms Say First Automated, AML-Compliant Bitcoin Transfer Completed
_{COINDESK | Thursday Aug 20 2020}
Three Swiss crypto companies say they’ve successfully completed the first automated Bitcoin transaction that meets anti-money laundering (AML) standards.

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