Morning Brief 8.30.19: Paytm plots move into mobile health care payments

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

QR Rx

Paytm is planning a mobile health care payments venture, attacking one of the more difficult transaction types to automate given the complex mix of consumers, billing and third parties involved in health care payments.

The platform will use QR codes, with the belief that it's the most usable form of contactless payments, reports inc42. QR codes will be placed at medical facilities, similar to Paytm's strategy to build payments at India's local kirana stores.

Paytm has diversified rapidly over the past year, adding entertainment services, education payments and staff to accommodate expansion of its Paytm Mall unit.

Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg

Amazon fire

U.K. payments and financial services fintech Revolut is collaborating with the WWF and The Rainforest Alliance to provide a digital payment rail for donations to fund the firefighting effort in the Amazon rainforest.

Revolut's in-app Donations feature allows users to round up digital card payments and donate the difference. The donations in this case will fund medical assistance, firefighters and other safety measures.

As cash and check usage declines, digital payment processing has proven to be a useful way to remove friction from charitable giving by creating a more direct route between the donor and the cause.

Mobile money

Johannesburg-based mobile provider MTN is launching a mobile money service in Nigeria, bringing a successful financial inclusion model to its largest market.

MTN earlier released a mobile money service in Ghana, reports Africa News, adding the Nigerian deployment includes transfers and other payments through mobile phone connections.

Safricom's MPesa is the most widely known mobile money service, which has been in operation in Africa and other emerging markets for years, attracting partnerships from Alipay and Western Union.

Building block

PNC has gone live on RippleNet, giving the blockchain company a major win in its effort to build a real-time cross-border payments network that includes large U.S. banks.

The bank had been working on its connection to Ripple for more than a year, and the deployment will allow consumers and businesses in the U.S. to receive real-time payments from outside the country.

Ripple has also partnered with MoneyGram and other global financial institutions to execute cross-border transactions without requiring third parties such as correspondent banks.

From the Web

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