Payments

For any emerging technology, skepticism is natural and blockchain will need to prove itself before it is widely adopted, writes David Hanson, co-CEO of Ultra.

The Bank of Lithuania has been courting fintechs which need an EU payments or banking license to operate in Europe. In July 2018, it introduced an e-licensing tool that makes it cheaper and quicker to submit the information necessary to obtain an operating licence.

New architecture for real-time payments went live in recent months in key global markets, expanding B2B payment options for financial institutions and their corporate customers.

By improving STP processes for small business, these players will greatly expand their reach of serviceable suppliers, resulting in higher revenues and better service for the clients they serve, writes Blair Jeffrey, COO of Noventis.

International e-commerce is booming these days and so too are the opportunities—and challenges—for payments players.

Visa is providing payments support for contactless vending machines dispensing high-fashion accessories at an event during New York's Fashion Week.

Ingenico Group has agreed to collaborate with Toshiba to expand payment types at the point of sale in grocery, pharmacy and other multi-lane environments.

British Airways is investigating the theft of data including personal and credit-card details from customers who used its website and mobile app to make reservations.

Transactions are becoming just one part of an ecosystem that includes CRM and business management, according to Ryan Ahern, payments solution manager at Ingenico Group, North America.

When Salesforce added new features to its Sales Cloud platform, it opted to not only improve the prospect marketing and selling aspects of generating sales in its CRM platform, but to also include a billing capability.

Blockchain technology has the potential to change the healthcare industry, placing the patient, at the center of the system by providing added security, privacy and interoperability to health data and payments, writes Donika Kraeva, strategic communications manager for Dentacoin.

It’s possible for all types of companies to live in tandem and ultimately, benefit from this new business ecosystem, writes Khalid Fellahi, senior vice president and general manager of Western Union Digital.

Uber’s latest app update adds a stored-value account that incentivises riders to dive deeper into the Uber ecosystem — and away from their bank or mobile wallet provider.

Counter to the trend — pioneered by Amazon — of launching cashierless technology in small stores to keep traffic under control, the U.K. supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has launched a trial of cashierless mobile shopping in one of its busy London stores, Clapham North Station Local.

By transforming a traditional treasury into a cashless economy, cities will open the doors to wider and faster adoption of more complex smart city innovations, writes Sumeet Puri, senior vice president and global head of systems engineering at Solace.

Giro Zrt, a Hungarian financial services industry organization that operates a domestic automated clearing house payments network, is teaming with the payments service provider Nets A/S to create a national instant payments service.

Minal Hasan, a lawyer turned prominent fintech venture capitalist, has strong views on founder dramas, cryptocurrency, and why banks need to step up their technology game.

Discovery Ltd. is on track to start a South African bank by the end of this year after agreeing to buy FirstRand Ltd.’s stake in a credit-card venture, a transaction which had delayed the lender’s launch.

The loyalty and rewards landscape is in a state of flux. Consumers are being bombarded with a bewildering range of options, and they are primed to jump ship when a better offer comes along – perhaps half have switched to a new credit card in the past year.

Google has a validated and ready to roll out mobile payments model that it has developed in less than one year, writes Daniel Döderlein, CEO and founder of Auka.