Morning Brief 11.6.19: Paytm sheds one-time passwords for most payments

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

Not one time

User experience glitches like redirects and connection timeouts are enough for Paytm to waive one-time passwords for certain payments.
The move applies to transactions less than INR2,000, or about $28.31, reports Verdict in the U.K., adding most of Paytm's transactions are that size or less. Paytm is also making an instant payments play, allowing consumers to enable the "OTP-less" cards with partners such as Uber and Zomato.
Paytm, which faces increasing competition from Facebook, Google and Walmart, also recently drew $2 billion in investment form Ant Financial, Softbank and Discover Capital Management, bringing its valuation to more than $16 billion.

Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg

Taking a trip

Digital wallet YouTrip is taking its popularity with fintech VC for a ride, expanding outside of its native Singapore market, reaching Thailand through a partnership with Kasikornbank, a Thai financial institution.
YouTrip will be have an addressable market of more than 11.6 million consumers, reports Straits Times, adding the app has set a goal of signing up 400,000 users in its first year in Thailand.
YouTrip recently partnered with Mastercard, enabling it to deliver payment features directly to users.

ID keys

Interac, which operates Canada's national debit system, has acquired 2Keys, a security company that serves government agencies, banks and corporates, to bolster Interac's digital ID strategy.
The acquisition quickly follows the release of research from Interac that found consumers want more advanced ID projection, though still rely on older methods.
There are other digital ID projects in Canada, including the blockchain-based Verified.Me project. The initiatives are still distinct, though representatives of both have said interoperable ID is the goal of both projects.

Managing expectations

Libra could take years, or even decades, to evolve, according to Kevin Weil, vice president of product at Calibra, the company that oversees the Facebook-affiliated cryptocurrency project.

Weil said the project won't have social media's scalability, according to CNBC, which quoted a speech Weil gave at the Web Summit in Lisbon.

Libra has not yet come to market, but its path to launch has been rocky, beset by political pressure and high-profile departures of some of the initiative's original partners.

From the web

Eurozone Banks Moot European Payment System To Rival Visa, Mastercard
_{INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES | Tue November 5, 2019}
Twenty European banks are working on setting up a pan-European payment system to challenge the dominance of Visa, Mastercard and technology companies such as Google and PayPal, European banking and government sources said Tuesday. The banks have been working on the project jokingly code-named PEPSI (Pan European Payment System Initiative) for a few months, four sources involved in the project told AFP.

Visa makes strategic investment in LISNR, a start-up that wants to rival technology used by Apple Pay
_{CNBC | Tue November 5, 2019}
LISNR, a start-up that is using ultrasound technology as a mobile authentication and mobile payments solution, has received a strategic investment from Visa, and the financial services giant and LISNR will now begin to deploy the technology in merchant mobile wallets and with the everyday mobile transactions consumers are making. The Cincinnati-based start-up announced on Tuesday that Visa took part in a recently closed Series C venture capital fundraising and is now working with LISNR on commercial beta-testing of its mobile payments technology with retail merchants.

TransferWise links up with Indonesian, Philippine e-wallets: CEO
_{REUTERS | Wed November 6, 2019}
Money transfer company TransferWise has begun processing international payments into Asian digital wallets in a move that its CEO says reflects their growing use as an alternative bank account. TransferWise’s move in the Philippines and Indonesia is a shift in how the company does business in Asia, as in most other countries it provides cross-border payments only between bank accounts, Chief Executive Officer Kristo Käärmann said in an interview.

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