Spanish banks to build blockchain customer identity verification platform

The Niuron banking consortium will develop a platform to verify the digital identity of clients — Europa Press (translation) — “For banks, the benefits of this platform translate into an increase in speed, cost savings, reduction of fraud, reduction of operational risk and improvement of the prevention of money laundering. The client, on the other hand, decreases the time necessary during a registration process and has control and sovereignty over their personal data, thus improving their experience.”



What's New in Payments

One in five organizations say they have experienced a payments data theft in the last year

One in five organizations has experienced payments data theft over the past 12 months — ACI Worldwide — “36% of organizations believe they are at a greater risk of data breach than a year ago. 44% agreed with the view that: My company would not invest in fraud solutions that add friction to the customer experience.”


What's New in Payments

Swedish central bank issues cashless society warning

‘Being cash-free puts us at risk of attack’: Swedes turn against cashlessness — The Guardian — “The Riksbank governor, Stefan Ingves, called for new legislation to secure public control over the payments system, arguing that being able to make and receive payments is a ‘collective good’ like defence, the courts, or public statistics… ‘It should be obvious that Sweden’s preparedness would be weakened if, in a serious crisis or war, we had not decided in advance how households and companies would pay for fuel, supplies and other necessities.’”


What's New in Payments

American Express files faster blockchain payments patent

Systems and methods for blockchain based payment networks — USPTO — “A system, method, and computer readable medium (collectively, the ‘system’) is disclosed for a payment network using a blockchain-based ledger that is configured to execute payment transactions in response to blockchain requests… In various embodiments, the system may assess a risk associated with the transaction. The system may also approve the transaction in response to the risk associated with the transaction being acceptable. The system may also transmit a notification (eg a push notification) to the payee digital wallet that the transaction was successful.”


US carriers set out joint mobile authentication platform plans

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon unveil next-generation mobile authentication platform details — AT&T — “This highly secure solution will deliver a cryptographically verified phone number and profile data for users of authorized applications with their consent. Authentication security is strengthened by processing unique attributes such as a network verified mobile number, IP address, SIM card attributes, phone number tenure, phone account type and more. In addition, advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities will be used to help assess risk and protect customers. Registered developers will be able to submit applications through a system using private and permissioned blockchain technology to help ensure application integrity.”


What's New in Payments

China’s central bank to begin testing QR code payments registration and settlement regulations from April

China’s central bank to standardize QR code payment — Xinhua — “The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced plans Wednesday to regulate QR code payment to contain risks arising from the popular service. Payment institutions must obtain proper permits to offer barcode-based payment services, according to a document released by the PBOC. Both banks and non-banking payment institutions must channel cross-bank transactions involving barcodes through the clearing system of the PBOC or other legal clearing houses… The standards will be put into trial use from April.”











NFC World

Aconite adds HCE and EMV token support

Aconite

EMV and NFC payment software specialist Aconite has added support for host card emulation (HCE) and EMV tokenization to its product offering, enabling issuers to “operate an HCE and token-enabled service, including real-time data preparation, distributed EMV transaction processing, remote CVM management and mapping risk scores to card/token profiles.”... More