Canada plans for open banking, Mastercard expands in Asia

Canada's government is preparing legislation to promote open banking development, Mastercard has gained approval to process payments in China, and more.

Here's what's happening around the world.

Canadian government plans open-banking push in 2024

The Government of Canada plans to introduce legislation early next year to drive the broad development of open banking to create transparency for consumer finance, Betakit reports. Plans call for creating a road map to guide financial services data-sharing and collaboration with Payments Canada, which operates Canada's existing payment clearing and settlement system. The administration also plans to provide funding to bolster payments regulation within Canada. Payments Canada is currently spearheading Canada's rollout of real-time payments. —Kate Fitzgerald

Mastercard receives approval to process payments in China

The People's Bank of China has given formal permission to Mastercard to begin processing payments in China through a joint venture, Mastercard NUCC Information Technology, Mastercard said in a press release. Mastercard has worked for years to establish a payment-processing presence in China. The country's central bank initially approved Mastercard's application in February 2020 to set up a domestic payment card clearing institution in China, and this week said the supporting infrastructure and regulatory requirements are complete. —Kate Fitzgerald

Ex-Revolut execs launch web3 wallet

A team of 11 executives with experience at Revolut, Coinbase and Spotify have jointly launched Zeal, a digital wallet startup whose product is designed to manage users' daily finances by combining everyday finance with crypto, digital currencies and web3 activity. The startup, based in London, aims to provide a secure way to instantly transfer digital currencies from Polygon to a bank account for free, according to a press release. Zeal, which currently is operating in an invitation-only mode, is set to roll out widely early next year. —Kate Fitzgerald

Visa, Remitly commit to five-year cross-border payment collaboration

Visa and Remitly, a Seattle-based international money transfer firm, have agreed to collaborate for the next five years on cross-border payments powered by Visa Direct, the card network's virtual debit product, Visa said in a press release. The two companies will work to support near-instant cross-border transfers for Remitly's customer base in more than a dozen countries including the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia. They will use Remitly's proprietary network that encompasses more than 4 billion bank accounts, 1.2 billion mobile wallets and 450,000 retail locations. Visa Direct reaches more than 100 countries. —Kate Fitzgerald

Mastercard, NEC collaborate for facial-recognition checkout in Asia

Mastercard has formed a strategic partnership with NEC Corp. of Japan to develop a biometric checkout approach using NEC's face-recognition technology, according to a press release. The move comes after the Purchase, New York-based Mastercard last year launched a pilot of its Biometric Checkout Program in Brazil, enabling customers to check out at stores by smiling or waving to pay. Mastercard and NEC signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together on facial recognition and liveness verification processes to be used for checkouts on a global scale. —Kate Fitzgerald

Stripe-backed Nigerian fintech Paystack cuts overseas staff

Paystack, a Nigerian fintech startup and unit of Stripe, is reducing its operations in Europe and the Middle East to expand in Africa, as it seeks to refocus its business. It's cutting 33 employees in Europe and the United Arab Emirates, where its engineering hub is located, to enable it "localize costs and get closer to customers," CEO Shola Akinlade said in a statement posted on X. "We're changing our operating model to prioritize locating team members within the markets we serve," he said.

No team members in Nigeria and the operating markets in Africa will be impacted, the firm said in emailed response to questions. The payment processing and services provider this month announced expansion into Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt and Rwanda, bringing to seven its countries of operation on the continent, in addition to Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. —Emele Onu, Bloomberg News

Philippines eyes use of digital currency in sovereign bond sales

The Philippines' Bureau of the Treasury is looking to team up with the central bank to expand the use of digital currency to the sale of government securities as it explores the merits of blockchain technology.

The Southeast Asian nation raised 15 billion pesos ($271 million) on Monday through its first-ever tokenized Treasury bonds, tapping the blockchain-based Distributed Ledger Technology Registry.

"We're testing the capability of the DLT," Deputy Treasurer Erwin Sta. Ana said in a phone interview late Monday. "We are looking to collaborate with the Bangko Sentral in their central bank digital coin program. There's room for integration between our DLT Registry and the BSP's CBDC," he said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has been experimenting with the use of central bank digital currency, or CBDC, for large-value financial transactions as it explores the technology's benefits, risks and policy implications. As it stands, the DLT registry, which points to the location where the securities are registered, addresses just half of the bond sale process.

The National Registry of Scripless Securities, or NRoSS, allows participants to monitor the cash leg of securities transactions settled on the Philippine Payment and Settlement System, or PhilPaSS. "It's just the security leg for now. The cash component is still in the traditional NRoSS-PhilPaSS cash settlement," the treasury official said.

Tokenization remains a developing sector but is drawing the interest of a growing number of governments and companies. In February, Hong Kong sold HK$800 million ($103 million) of inaugural digital green bonds using Goldman Sachs' GS DAP platform, touting the step as the first tokenized green bond issued by a government globally. —Ditas Lopez, Bloomberg News