The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:
Building block
Chinese tax authorities have granted permission to Tencent to develop standards for blockchain supported invoices, giving the company's international payments strategy a boost.
Regulators in the U.K., Switzerland and Brazil also back Tencent's project, reports
Tencent's project started as an anti-fraud initiative, but has added more business use cases over time. While China has taken a hard line on cryptocurrency, China's government has asked the country's financial companies to develop blockchain services.
Fake selfies
Jumio is testing a real-time automated ID verification system that relies on a mix of visual aids for authentication.
The company is using what it calls liveness detection to determine if photos, videos or 3D masks are being used to create an online account instead of smartphone images, or selfies.
Jumio launched its own "
Short horizon
IBM and central bank think tank OMFIF predict a central bank somewhere in the world will produce a consumer-usable digital currency within the next five years.
Numerous
IBM and OMFIF say the initial central bank currency will debut in a small economy and will be geared toward a specific policy or use case. The central bank currency will also likely include partnerships with private firms.
Last mile battle
Amazon is offering free grocery deliveries to Prime members via its Amazon Fresh service in around 2,000 markets, the latest in a series of salvos in Amazon's battle with Walmart.
The e-commerce giant is removing the $14.99 monthly fee and is offering one and two-hour windows as well as links to local Whole Foods inventory, according to
Cryptoransom
Johannasburg's cyber networks are shut down after hackers sized the city's computers and demanded payment in 4 bitcoins, or about $38,000 depending on the day.
The city has refused to pay the ransom, and is trying to restore the system, reports
From the web
TECHCRUNCH | Tue October 29, 2019
TrueLayer, the London startup that’s built a developer API platform for fintechs and other adjacent companies to utilise open banking, has agreed to a strategic and commercial relationship with Visa. Francesco Simoneschi, CEO and co-founder of TrueLayer, tells me the Visa partnership will enable the fintech to work with a “huge network” of businesses and banks to help them develop open banking services and applications that will “provide tangible benefits” to customers.
VERDICT | Tue October 29, 2019
US-based payments technology firm BlueSnap has acquired Armatic, an accounts receivable and invoicing automation services provider. With this acquisition, BlueSnap aims to address the challenges in the global B2B payment processing market, which largely runs on paper invoices and cheques.
REUTERS | Tue October 29, 2019
Apple faces more regulatory woes in Europe as EU antitrust regulators ask online sales companies whether they have been told to use its mobile payment service instead of rival services, an EU document seen by Reuters showed. In a questionnaire sent in August, the European Commission said it had information Apple may have restricted online payments for the purchase of goods and services made via merchant apps or websites, in breach of EU antitrust rules.
More from PaymentsSource
Mastercard is aggressively building a business payments ecosystem as it keeps an eye on political headwinds it has little control over.
Ripple isn't a part of Facebook's Libra. It's more likely to be a rival, and it must be careful to make sure that lawmakers see the distinction.
PayPal is adding rewards to its Venmo credit card in a way that seems to echo Apple's strategy with Apple Card.
Despite some skepticism by community banks of The Clearing House’s real-time payments network, it announced Tuesday that 15 small institutions have joined.
