Morning Brief 11.7.19: WeChat Pay, Worldline reach a deal for Swiss payments

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

Swiss pay

WeChat Pay has extended its reach in Switzerland through an integration with Worldline, which will support smartphone payments through WeChat's app.
Worldline recently signed a similar deal with UnionPay to reach merchants as part of the Chinese card brand's services for travelers.
WeChat Pay has made Europe a priority over the past year, boosting its merchant acceptance reach by more than 300%. This is expected to get a further boost via Worldline, which automatically updates point of sale terminals to accept WeChat payments.

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Searching for business

Google Pay is expanding its business-specific app in India, launching in Hyderabad following a pilot in Bengaluru.
The deployment is part of a planned national expansion, reports TheHindu, adding it's part of Google's plans to boost faster payments among businesses in India.
Google has used a connection to India's United Payments Interface to power a series of recent payment technology releases, covering transit, consumers, merchants and small businesses.

Visa on the move

Visa will break ground early next year on a new global headquarters near its existing San Francisco operations, moving its business into a 13-story facility within a mixed office/retail/residential project called Mission Rock overlooking the East Bay, according to a press release.
As part of the move, Visa will shut down a small office in Palo Alto and move those employees to the company’s Foster City facility, which will be completely redesigned as a campus for Visa’s technology and product teams, with new space for collaborating. Visa estimates the two projects will be complete in early 2024.

DLT diversions

North Korea used Marine China, a Hong Kong blockchain platform company, to launder money in an attempt to work around international sanctions.
The company's sole investor, Julian Kim, used Tony Walker, an alias, to withdraw funds from banks in Singapore as part of a broader crypto currency scheme, reports Coindesk, citing the UN Security Council.
North Korea has also reportedly used cryptocurrency hacks as a way to circumvent international sanctions over human rights abuses and other violations by Kim Jong-un, the country's ruler.

Ripple's labs

Ripple is collaborating with the National University of Singapore to operate a fintech lab that will focus on blockchain, finance and payment technology; and include industry and academia.
Ripple has similar deals with a half dozen universities in Asia through its University Blockchain Research Initiative, reports Straits Times, adding Ripple has invested $50 million in its academic outreach.
Fintech investment in Singapore has thrived over the past few years due to a friendly regulatory environment, while Ripple has made a variety of investments to extend its blockchain-powered cross-border payments business.

From the web

GoCardless partners with TransferWise to bring low-cost currency conversion to recurring payments
_{TECH CRUNCH | Wed November 6, 2019}
GoCardless, the London fintech that makes it easy for businesses to offer recurring bank payments, has partnered with TransferWise for its currency exchange. The move sees GoCardless utilise the TransferWise API and the money transfer company’s “TransferWise for Business” product, and in turn, provide TransferWise’s FX rates to its own customers.

Federal Reserve Finds Strong Support For Its Real-Time Payments, Concerns Over Timing
_{FORBES | Wed November 6, 2019}
The Federal Reserve Board has asked for comments on the FedNow real-time payments platform by Nov. 7, although if it follows the practice from last year, it may well continue taking comments past the deadline. (To comment, send an email to regs.comments@federalreserve.gov and include the docket number, OP-1670, in the subject line.). “As a reminder, the Federal Reserve Board announced on August 5 that the Federal Reserve Banks will build and operate the FedNow Service, a new interbank 24x7x365 real-time gross settlement service with integrated clearing functionality to support faster payments in the United States.”

How DoorDash's New Payment Scheme Is Really Playing Out
_{GIZMODO | Wed November 6, 2019}
Back in August, amid ongoing backlash, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu announced in a blog post that the company would finally bend to public pressure over its controversial tip-skimming model. Xu claimed at the time that after a wide rollout of this new system in September, dashers would earn higher wages on average. But dashers who spoke with Gizmodo after Xu’s proposal for the overhauled pay model said that they worried that the range for base pay per dash—from just $2 up to $10, according to Xu—could potentially reduce per-delivery earnings. And even though the system began rolling out to dashers in September, the jury’s still out.

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