Banks in South Korea will be able to add a wide range of non-financial services to their mobile apps, including food ordering and delivery, following changes to the country’s financial regulatory system due to be introduced by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in July 2021... More
Regulation
India increases contactless limit by 150%
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is to raise the limit for contactless card transactions from Rs2,000 (US$27) to Rs5,000 ($67.67) from 1 January 2021, an increase of 150%... More
Lebanon to issue digital currency in 2021
Banque du Liban, the central bank of Lebanon, is preparing to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) next year, the bank’s governor Riad Salameh has told a meeting of the Lebanese Depositors Association... More
India bans mobile payment providers from launching new proprietary QR codes
Payment system operators in India can no longer issue new proprietary QR codes for mobile payments, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced... More
EU to report on its investigation into Apple Pay next week?
The European Union is to publish a report next week that will provide further information on the results of its investigation into Apple Pay and could lead to new legislation forcing Apple to provide more open access to the NFC chip in its devices, according to “documents obtained by Bloomberg”... More
European Commission opens preliminary investigation into Visa’s staged digital wallet rules
The European Commission has opened a preliminary investigation into Visa’s rules regarding staged digital wallets, the payments network has revealed in a note added to its latest quarterly filing... More
Central bank blocks WhatsApp payments in Brazil
Brazil’s central bank has “ordered Visa and Mastercard to suspend the start of activities or immediately stop using the WhatsApp application to initiate payments and transfers”... More
Financial Conduct Authority to add new protections for consumers’ funds
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is to tighten up its regulations “to ensure payments firms are adequately protecting customer funds” amid concerns that the impact of Covid-19 will affect their financial viability... More
Swedish government regulates online payment options
A new amendment to the Swedish Payment Services Act means that online merchants must now present non-credit options ahead of any options that involve the consumer taking out credit... More
NXP explains how NFC healthcare labels and packaging can be used to combat the spread of Covid-19
PARTNER NEWS: NFC-based intelligent labels and packages offer “the safety and security necessary to help tackle the spread of Covid-19 while giving scientists, medical staff and patients the ability to interact with products so they can verify authenticity, check expiration dates and even gain useful insights into the nature of the virus,” NXP has explained... More
UK extends strong customer authentication deadline
Strong customer authentication and coronavirus — Financial Conduct Authority — “In the exceptional circumstances of the Covid crisis, we are giving the industry an additional six months to implement strong customer authentication (SCA) for e-commerce. This will minimise potential disruption to consumers and merchants. The new timeline of 14 September 2021 replaces the 14 March 2021 date.”
McKinsey: Coronavirus will cost the payments industry $165bn
An analysis of the global payments industry by McKinsey & Company predicts that Covid-19 will result in a loss of revenues of between US$165bn and US$210bn in 2020 — and sets out “ten fundamental changes to the payments ecosystem that will help all of us find a new normal.” More
India to relax mobile wallet KYC rules
‘Low KYC’ norm to help mobile wallets retain their customers — Economic Times — “In a move set to bring relief to scores of mobile wallet firms such as Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay and their several million users, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will allow wallet service providers to continue operating their millions of non-compliant know-your-customer (KYC) accounts which earlier faced cancellation… An estimated over 200m mobile wallets ran the risk of being cancelled by the regulators, once the deadline to upgrade their non-compliant accounts to ‘full KYC’ accounts expires on February 29.”
New York City bans cashless stores
New York City has joined New Jersey, Philadelphia and San Francisco in passing legislation that makes it illegal for stores, restaurants and other retail outlets to not accept cash... More
China publishes face recognition payments guidelines
The Payment & Clearing Association of China (PCAC) has published a set of guidelines that regulate how payments providers making use of face recognition to process payments at the point of sale (POS) should manage the protection of consumer data... More
India requires banks to let cardholders opt in to contactless payments
Card issuers in India are to be required to ship all new cards to customers with contactless functionality switched off by default — and also provide cardholders with a range of easy ways to toggle their card’s contactless support on or off... More
One million Brits now use open banking
The number of consumers using open banking has doubled in the past six months to more than one million, the UK’s Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) reports, and there are now a total of 204 regulated service providers — up from 100 at the end of 2018... More
Germany passes law forcing Apple to open up Apple Pay
Apple warns of risks from German law to open up mobile payments — Reuters — “A German parliamentary committee unexpectedly voted in a late-night session on Wednesday to force the tech giant to open up Apple Pay to rival providers in Germany… The legislation, which did not name Apple specifically, will force operators of electronic money infrastructure to offer access to rivals for a reasonable fee.”
EU antitrust chief examines Apple Pay
Apple Pay “has attracted regulatory scrutiny” from the EU’s Competition Commission due to “several expressions of concern about the US tech giant’s mobile payment service,” Reuters reports... More
UK issuers and merchants to get extra 18 months to implement Strong Customer Authentication
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has agreed to give card issuers and merchants an extra 18 months to implement Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), the new customer identity verification regulation which forms part of the EU’s revised Payment Services Directive II (PSD2)... More