The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
Ride share workaround
Sony's payment services division is working with licensed taxi companies to launch a ride sharing app in Tokyo. The service will support QR code and Uber-style stored-credential payments.
The partnerships are necessary because it's
Rivals include Uber, which has made side deals of its own with taxi services; and JapanTaxi, a joint venture between taxi companies and Toyota.
Bitcoin on the card
Using
Cashaa, which also just launched business banking, will support card-based cryptocurrency purchases in all markets except the U.S. Processing fees will be 4% for EU cards, and 5% for non-EU cards.
Several
Amazon Lightning
Consumers can use the Lightning network to make bitcoin payments at retailers including Amazon, which does not accept cryptocurrencies.
Crypto payments startup Moon is providing a browser extension that connects to cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase and produces a QR code to execute the transaction, reports
The Lightning feature, which uses third parties to convert bitcoin to traditional currency, should be workable on any e-commerce site by 2020.
Paytm investment?
eBay is discussing a possible investment in
The investment would be up to $170 million, reports
Paytm has been seeking a new strategic investor since December, according to the Economic Times, adding eBay sold its $1.1 billion stake in Flipkart after
Power play
Alipay estimates more than 300,000 travelers from China visit the Washington area yearly, spending more than $600 million.
The company also hopes to raise its profile for the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, which will host the hockey event.
From the Web
Reuters | Tue April 23, 2019 - Brazil’s antitrust watchdog Cade is investigating four banks in the country for allegedly creating competition hurdles to digital banking newcomer Nubank. Cade said Banco do Brasil SA, Caixa Economica Federal, Banco Santander Brasil SA and Banco Bradesco SA were denying requests to schedule automatic payments from Nubank clients that also were account holders at those banks.
CoinGeek | Mon April 22, 2019 - The Manhattan District Attorney has indicted three individuals who were found to have been selling counterfeit drugs on the dark web. The three sold and shipped the drugs to 43 states in the U.S., using Bitcoin Core (BTC) to launder over $2.3 million.
CNBC | Tue April 23, 2019 - The possibility that multinational businesses may create and transact in their own cryptocurrencies is not “unreasonable” in the medium term, according to Blockchain Capital’s Gavin Brown. The notion that multinationals may issue their own currencies and request that their customers purchase with them is “not that outlandish.”
More from PaymentsSource
JCPenney ended support for Apple Pay in its stores and also removed the mobile payment option from its app, a surprising reversal for a brand that offered Apple Pay in 2015, within a year of its rollout.
In the month since FIS announced its $43 billion Worldpay deal, the company has disclosed little about its timeline for integrating the two large organizations.
As threats from nimble fintechs and global e-commerce companies abound, Visa’s turning to open development tools to place itself in the middle of the innovation, rather than making a solitary counterplay itself.
With European banks facing PSD2’s secure customer authentication requirements, biometrics is taking center stage as a simple solution that doesn’t compromise user experience across mobile payments, banking applications and, of course, on the card.
