The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:
More mobile
T-Mobile has added Apple Pay as an option for monthly bill payments for customers who are also iPhone users. It's also offering 3% cash back as a lure.
That will open new recurring payments for Apple, and will expand an existing partnership that allows Apple Pay at T-Mobile's retail stores, explains
There are still some limitations, as Apple Pay can't be used to buy handsets or tablets on T-Mobile's website.
Crypto laundering
Autocrats often use
The indictment does not identify the cryptocurrency, though Venezuela's crypto is called Petro.
New hire
MineralTree has hired Fiserv payments veteran Gary Brand to be general manager of financial institution channels, where he'll be responsible for selling MineralTree's white label accounts payable technology to B2B customers.
At Fiserv, Brand was director of payment and communication strategies, where he led strategy for billing, payments and other products for lending, utilities, government and telecommunications.
Vijay Ramnathan, president of MineralTree, positioned the hire as part of a coronavirus response, saying banks are under pressure in a low interest rate environment to draw fees from new products, such as automating B2B payments.
Central digital dollar
The Digital Dollar Project has formed an advisory group to boost its lobbying efforts for a U.S. central bank digital currency.
The project has recruited Accenture, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Riksbank to act as architects and innovation patterns, reports
The coronavirus stimulus package briefly included language about a "
From the web
FORBES | Thu March 26, 2020
For companies like PayPal, which have a big eCommerce business, they could emerge even stronger after the pandermic. That’s the assessment of Macquarie’s Dolev who said investors should use any weakness in the payment stocks as a buying opportunity.
VERDICT | Thu March 26, 2020
Smart2Pay has included Ant Financial’s Huabei credit solution to its payment methods portfolio. The new feature will give Smart2Pay’ merchants an additional means to tap into the Chinese market.
TECHCRUNCH | Thu March 26, 2020
Platform giants such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and other platform providers should let customers pause payment until the worst of the first wave of the COVID-19 economic disruption passes. Revenue has stopped flowing in, capital markets like venture debt are hesitant and startups and small-to-medium sized businesses are at risk of either having to lay off huge numbers of employees and/or shut down.
More from PaymentsSource
The coronavirus pandemic has had an immediate and negative impact on many businesses including financial services firms and fintechs, with long-lasting repercussions as consumers change how they use their money and companies adapt to managing a remote workforce.
Transit systems are suffering a dramatic loss in ridership, and must find a way to welcome back riders after the coronavirus pandemic ends, since many commuters will have canceled their monthly passes.
Payments technology is a relative bright spot as coronavirus’ economic fears hit venture capital, since an emergency can be a catalyst for early-stage innovation designed to ease digital commerce.
When a business accidentally pays an invoice early, due to inaccurate due dates, a change to the delivery date or some other issue, everything changes, says Celonis' Southard Jones.
Canada’s small businesses have lagged behind the U.S. in adopting digital commerce for a variety of reasons, but coronavirus might send things in a new direction.
The financial services industry has seen ISO 20022 grow steadily over the last 15 years. What began as a small pocket of countries tackling migration has now become widespread adoption for domestic and international payments.
