Starbucks' mobile app criticized; Apple Pay adds payment tech firm

January 5, 2024 3:39 PM

This week, a consumer group filed a complaint against Starbucks claiming its mobile app deceptively prevents users from using the full value of their reloadable gift cards, Apple partnered with a new payment tech firm, The Clearing House hired Amanda Stewart as new marketing chief and more in the banking news roundup.

Consumer group claims Starbucks’ mobile app is deceptive

The Seattle-based nonprofit Washington Consumer Protection Coalition has filed a complaint to Washington's state attorney general alleging that Starbucks' mobile payments app used deception to generate $900 million in profits at users' expense over the last five years. The consumer organization claims Starbucks' mobile app — powered by a reloadable gift card — unfairly prevents users from spending the full amount they load to prepaid Starbucks accounts, Android Authority reports. These unused funds — a fraction of the $15 billion customers loaded to Starbucks accounts in 2023 — amount to nearly $1 billion in profits for Starbucks, the report said. Starbucks disputes the claim, saying that consumers can zero-out their Starbucks account by paying with a combination of the app's remaining funds plus cash.—Kate Fitzgerald

Apple Pay expands integrated payment partners

Apple Pay has added payment technology firm exactly as an embedded payment partner. Exactly enables payment acceptance for merchants, and the partnership with Apple is designed to make it easier for merchants to offer Apple's digital wallet as a checkout option. The integration also enabled exactly's clients to access other products in Apple's digital wallet. Exactly's merchants can also access Apple's tokenization to bolster security. Tokenization refers to replacing payment card numbers with a "token" that can only be used for a single transaction, and as such is unusable if stolen. Apple has been increasingly adding financial and nonfinancial products that can be accessed through its digital wallet, part of a financial "super app" strategy. – John Adams

The Clearing House hires marketing chief from Deutsche Bank

The Clearing House has tapped Deutsche Bank veteran Amanda Stewart to head the new marketing office for the New York-based bank-owned organization, whose RTP network faster-payments service competes with FedNow. Stewart's mission will be to align TCH's broad marketing, branding and communications, according to a Thursday press release. Stewart previously spent 20 years at Deutsche Bank, where she served in a variety of executive roles. Most recently, she headed the firm's marketing and brand management for the Americas and led global marketing for its trust and agency services.— Kate Fitzgerald

Swiss finance minister says new rules needed after near-collapse of Credit Suisse

Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said getting UBS Group to buy Credit Suisse was the less risky move and that the government must act to ensure that taxpayers are protected in any future banking crises.

"We have to act, we have no other choice," she said in an interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung. "We have to ensure that a major bank can go under without, in the worst-case scenario, dragging an entire country into the abyss."

Keller-Sutter declined to comment on the new proposals that will be put to parliament in the spring, but said that "unpleasant issues" will be debated. She noted that the billions of francs of liquidity the government guaranteed as part of the Credit Suisse rescue would have been put at greater risk if the bank had been liquidated.

"This has nothing to do with hostility towards systemically important banks, but rather with our responsibility for the Swiss economy," she said.—Fergal O'Brien, Bloomberg News

Bosnia’s central bank appoints first female governor

Bosnia-Herzegovina's central bank has named economist Jasmina Selimovic as its new governor, making her the first woman to head the institution, according to an announcement on the bank's website. Selimovic, who began serving her six-year term on Wednesday, replaced long-serving chief Senad Softic. In the role, she will assume control of bank regulation and oversee the Balkan nation's currency board. Bosnia is now the fourth country in the western Balkans with a woman at the helm of its central bank, following Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro.—Misha Savic, Bloomberg News