What's New in Payments

Facebook’s WhatsApp to offer in-chat payments in India

WhatsApp in-chat payments feature is bad news for digital wallets, payment companies in India — FactorDaily — “Instant messenger WhatsApp is readying an intuitive in-chat payments feature, ahead of a likely December launch in India… This will be the first time that WhatsApp is introducing the payments feature anywhere in the world… The Facebook-owned company has partnered with three banks – State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, three of India’s biggest banks, to launch the feature, FactorDaily has also learned.”


Canadian bank lets customers use learning AI to transact in Facebook Messenger

ATB Financial rolls out world’s first full-featured virtual banking assistant on Facebook Messenger — ATB Financial — “What makes ATB’s virtual assistant unique? Far beyond a Q&A chatbot, its sophisticated banking transaction abilities offer robust personal financial management tools tailored to fit the needs of each individual customer. Customers can seamlessly pay bills, view account balances, send Interac e-Transfers or transfer money between accounts, as well as perform cross-currency money movement all from within their Messenger platform… The virtual assistant is always learning. The more customers engage with it, the more it will be able to do.”


What's New in Payments

Facebook signs up for Visa Token Service

Facebook joins the Visa Digital Enablement Program — Visa — “Visa today announced that Facebook has joined the Visa Digital Enablement Program (VDEP), which offers a commercial framework to make it easier for partners to access Visa’s token services and other digital capabilities globally. Facebook will use the Visa Token Service to help accelerate the availability of secure, payment-enabled services through its digital properties.”


What's New in Payments

Facebook Messenger adds PayPal P2P payments

Send money to friends and family in Messenger with PayPal — PayPal — “We’re excited today to announce an expansion of our relationship with Facebook with the addition of PayPal as a funding source for peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, right in Messenger… We are also introducing our first-ever PayPal customer service bot for Messenger, so PayPal customers can seamlessly receive payment and account support directly in the app.”


Citi Bot to answer customer queries via Facebook Messenger

Citi launches first Facebook Messenger banking chatbot in Singapore that provides customer account information — Citigroup — “Citi Bot will be able to address a range of common customer needs, including account-specific enquiries such as checking of account balances and transactions, providing credit card bill summaries, rewards and points balances and answering frequently asked questions… The second phase of the Citi Bot will introduce more new features such as card activation, ability to lock and unlock credit cards and transaction alerts for cards.”


What's New in Payments

OCBC Bank launches mobile keyboard to enable cashless payments directly from any mobile app

OCBC Bank launches mobile keyboard to enable cashless payments directly from any mobile app — OCBC — “The OCBC Keyboard can be used within any mobile app or browser – for instance, within Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram or Chrome – to send money instantly to anyone with a bank account in Singapore… Payments are completely secure as they are authenticated with the sender’s mobile banking credentials.”


What's New in Payments

ACCC to question Apple on Westpac chat app payments ban

ACCC to question Apple on Westpac chat app payments ban — Australian Financial Review — “Technology giant Apple’s controversial decision to order Westpac Banking Corporation to disable a mobile banking feature that let customers make payments in chat apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger has caught the attention of Australia’s competition watchdog, amid concerns it could be attempting to remove rivals to its own upcoming service.”


BBVA integrates its financial services into social and messaging networks

BBVA integrates its financial services into social and messaging networks — BBVA — “BBVA customers can now interact in Spain with the bank via social networks and instant messaging services. BBVA has developed two new tools, Chatbot and BBVA Cashup, which allow customers to access financial information via Facebook and Telegram, and also to make payments via Bizum from Whatsapp or any messaging service.”


Disconnected experiences put customer loyalty at risk

Disconnected experiences put customer loyalty at risk — MuleSoft — “Nearly half of UK consumers (48 per cent) would be happy for banks to share their banking transaction history with a trusted third-party if it gave them a more personalised banking experience… Nearly a third (30 per cent) of UK respondents would consider using Amazon, Google, Facebook or Apple for banking services if it was offered, rather than using their standard bank.”






What's New in Payments

Westpac launches payments keyboard for chat apps

Westpac Keyboard

Customers of Australian bank Westpac will soon be able to use an innovative replacement for the default keyboard found in social messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to make P2P money transfers to friends, family and businesses as well as send cardless cash codes to recipients for ATM withdrawals. More


Facebook strengthens security with Fido-compliant authentication

Facebook

Social media giant Facebook has added the Fido Alliance’s Universal Second Factor (U2F) specification to its platform to strengthen its range of two-factor authentication methods which have previously been offered through an SMS service or by a code generation feature inside the Facebook mobile app... More