Bank of England sets 'resiliency' deadline, Ant adds AI to Alipay

May 1, 2024 11:54 AM

The Bank of England set a date of March 2025 for local banks to establish operational resilience plans, Ant Group is using artificial intelligence to aid shopping, and more.

Here's what's happening around the world.

The Bank of England in London.

Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Bank of England sets March 2025 deadline for payments ‘resiliency’ compliance

The Bank of England's executive director has announced details of operational resilience plans local banks must establish by March 2025, according to the central bank's website. Participants in Britain's financial market infrastructure must meet standards to withstand unexpected service interruptions such as cyber attacks, extreme weather, technical breakdowns and other events that could interfere with financial services, said Sasha Mills, the BofE's executive director, in a speech. She advised the country's payment systems operators to follow the Bank's Operational Resilience Policy to develop continuity programs to continue clearing and settling payments despite operational disruptions. After March of next year, payment services providers must continue to monitor and improve their operational resilience "as risks and technologies evolve," Mills said. —Kate Fitzgerald

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Singapore bank joins Visa’s business-to-business payments network

Standard Chartered Singapore, a subsidiary of British financial giant Standard Chartered, has joined Visa B2B Connect, a digital payment network enabling streamlined account-to-account cross-border payments for corporations, the bank said in a press release. The partnership will rely on application programming interface (API) connections between Standard Chartered and Visa's B2B Connect network to route transactions directly through Visa for processing, removing multiple intermediaries which can add to costs and delays, according to the release. The bank will also act as one of Visa's settlement partners within its network to facilitate general payment flows, including settlement accounts, funds movement and foreign exchange capabilities for Visa. —Kate Fitzgerald

Brite Payments, Shopware team up for instant account-to-account payments

Stockholm-based instant-payments technology firm Brite Payments has teamed up with Germany-based e-commerce shopping platform Shopware to enable instant account-to-account payments for merchants, according to a press release from the two firms. Shopware merchants may activate Pay by Bank services through Brite's instant-payments network that leverages Europe's open banking infrastructure, accessible through a single integration, the release said. Brite connects to more than 3,800 EU banks. Shopware, founded in 2000, is one of Europe's largest open-source e-commerce platforms, supports more than 45,000 mid-market and small merchants in Europe, and it also has operations in North America. —Kate Fitzgerald

China’s Alipay tests AI assistance within its shopping app

China-based Ant Group's Alipay mobile app has launched a pilot of an AI-powered user interface, the Alipay Smart Assistant, that aims to direct Alipay users to more than 30 different types of services available within the app, according to a press release. The assistant, built on Ant Group's Bailing large language AI model that aims to promote the development of trustworthy AI for businesses, can book appointments or tickets for users, based on their preferences for time, date and price. The integration also supports shortcuts for using other AI features within Alipay, including using the Zhixiaobao financial assistant and seeking simple medical advice. —Kate Fitzgerald

Featurespace teams with nonprofit to fight human trafficking

London-based security technology firm Featurespace has agreed to partner with The Knoble, a Duluth, Georgia-based organization founded in 2019 to promote industry collaboration to combat human trafficking and other crimes, the nonprofit said in a press release. Featurespace aims to raise awareness among global financial institutions about ways to help eliminate human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, elder financial abuse and other scams leveraging financial services, said Ian Mitchell, a musician who hopes to bring financial services professionals together with law enforcement, regulators and other NGOs to fight human crimes across borders. —Kate Fitzgerald

Marqeta takes Uber Eats partnership global

Oakland, California-based digital card-issuing provider Marqeta has expanded its global partnership with Uber Technologies' Uber Eats to eight new markets including Canada, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Costa Rica, according to a press release. The move will simplify the process of launching Uber Eats debit cards for food delivery drivers where the San Francisco, California-based food delivery operator operates. Marqeta and Uber have been working together since 2020 to provide real-time wages for Uber drivers via debit cards. —Kate Fitzgerald

JPMorgan-backed digital bank C6 posts first quarterly profit

Brazilian digital bank C6, which is backed by JPMorgan Chase, posted its first quarterly profit in the first three months of the year, according to chief executive officer Marcelo Kalim.

The Sao Paulo-based financial technology firm recorded a profit of 461 million reais ($90.1 million) through March and is projecting a full year gain of about 2 billion reais, Kalim said in an interview.

The bank has made several efforts to increase revenue while keeping expenses stable and decreasing provisions for bad loans. A trend that should continue in the coming quarters, he said.

C6's loan portfolio hit 46.3 billion reais in the first quarter of 2024, a 36% increase year-over-year. The increase occurred mainly in loans backed by collateral, such as payroll and vehicle financing. The delinquency rate has declined to 3.2% from 4.7% a year ago.

The bank expects to keep delivering greater profits without growing its size, Kalim said. C6, which offers lending, banking services and an investment platform with global accounts in dollars and euros, currently has around 3,300 employees and 30 million clients.

Last year, JPMorgan announced that it had increased its stake in C6 to 46% from 40%. For now, there are still no plans to seek a public listing of the shares. —Rachel Gamarski, Bloomberg News