Morning Brief 10.24.19: ING's 'no see' e-notary uses blockchain to vet transactions

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

Notarized

The mix of security and privacy is always tough for payment companies, a challenge ING is trying to solve by adding what it calls a "zero knowledge proof" notary for blockchain transactions.

The notary is designed to evaluate the transaction's validity without seeing the contents, reports Finextra. It uses a stand-in number; the blockchain determines if that number is within a predetermined acceptable range before giving a green light. But the blockchain does not see the actual number.

That's not a new idea in blockchain security, but ING has added other information such as locations and names, enabling the process to use more elements but still not reveal tangible information.

Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg

Transit connect

2019 has been a big year for transit technology as cities globally have rapidly digitized ticketing.
Sydney's been part of that trend, and it's trying to build on that momentum through a new digital payments platform called Opal Connect. The service allows riders to create a single account through the Transit for New South Wales website and link an Opal card, or another card, to book and pay for travel on several different nodes.
The transit authority views the "first mile" of the commute the most challenging for the system.

Battle lines

Hostile nation states are behind a significant amount of payment card fraud in the U.K., using hackers to act as a buffer to hide their political intent.
China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are the primary culprits, according to the BBC, which based its reporting on figures from the National Cyber Security Centre.
As recently as this week, the NCSC reported it uncovered a Russian group's attempts to infiltrate an Iranian cybercriminal ring to attack U.K. universities.

Home base

Fintech Klarna has signed a deal with Wayfair to support installment payments for furniture, lighting and decor sold through Wayfair's e-commerce site in the U.K.
Installment payment apps have grown in popularity, with Klarna's valuation recently passing $5.5 billion in a market that includes Splitit, Affirm and others.
Klarna recently signed similar deals with Abercrombie & Fitch and H&M to boost its profile in the U.S.

From the web

WeChat and Alipay disable Samsung fingerprint payment option
_{ZDNET | Wed October 23, 2019}
Two of China's leading payment giants, who hold more than 90% of the local mobile payments market, have disabled the fingerprint payment method for Samsung's two flagship models, the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 devices, after it was revealed that they had severe fingerprint sensor faults.

Xero, GoCardless expand payment partnership to North America
_{VERDICT | Wed October 23, 2019}
SME business platform Xero has expanded its partnership with GoCardless to streamline the online payment process for North American clients. The GoCardless for Xero payment solution will enable SMEs in the US and Canada to automate payment collection and reconciliation.

Banks are at risk of losing $88 billion in payments revenue due to tech competition
_{MARKETWATCH | Wed October 23, 2019}
A new report from consulting firm Accenture says that $88 billion in North America payments revenue could be displaced by 2025 due to increased competition from real-time payments services, non-banks, and other digital innovators. Nearly all of that risk, $82 billion, is to U.S. banks, with the remaining $6 billion serving as a threat to Canadian banks.

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