Latest global payments news

April 26, 2023 10:32 AM

In global news this week, Visa halts single-click payments in India, ING uses recycled beach plastic for payment cards and more.

Here's what's happening around the world.

Bloomberg

Visa suspends single-click payments in India

Visa has stopped supporting single-click checkout in India for e-commerce purchases, reportedly for compliance purposes. The Reserve Bank of India recently tightened security regulations for digital payments, reports The Economic Times. Visa's single-click checkout, which allows payments without a card verification code or one-time password, debuted in India in 2019. The card network has since signed partnerships with Paytm, Razorpay and other local digital payment apps in India, as well as food delivery services and other businesses. Visa did not return a request for comment by deadline, but told The Economic Times it is working on an advanced authentication method to adhere to the new rules. —John Adams

Bloomberg Creative Photos/Bloomberg Creative

European banks plan real-time payments network

The European Payments Initiative — backed by more than a dozen banks across Europe — said it will pilot a peer-to-peer instant payment network by the end of this year, beginning in Germany and France, with plans to deploy more broadly next year. The Brussels, Belgium-based coalition has also acquired both Currence iDEAL, a Dutch payments network, and Luxembourg-based Payconiq International's payment solution, EPI said in an April 25 press release. ABN Amro and Rabobank recently joined the initiative, bringing total participants to 16, including BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Nexi, Worldline and DZ Bank. EPI aims to support a cross-European real-time payments network leveraging open banking, the release said. —Kate Fitzgerald

Adobe Stock

ING makes cards from recycled beach plastic

ING in Australia has partnered with the nonprofit Parley for the Oceans to issue a payment card that has 72% recycled material recovered from shorelines and beaches in Australia. ING previously launched recycled plastic card programs in the Netherlands, Romania and Turkey. The bank has also increased its focus on other recyclable materials, as well as virtual cards, to reduce its carbon footprint. ING estimates it will remove about five tons of marine debris to manufacture the new cards in Australia. ING's plan is part of a trend among card companies and banks to boost the amount of recycled materials in their cards. Bank of America has pledged that 80% of its cards will be made of recycled materials, while Mastercard is requiring all new plastic cards to use 100% recycled materials by 2028. —John Adams

ABN Amro debuts financial app for kids

ABN Amro worked with the Swedish fintech Gimi to build a financial literacy app that's designed to foster healthy financial habits in young people. The app is designed for kids between 8 and 13 years of age, and enables them to check balances, set savings goals and communicate with parents about chores or other tasks they can complete to earn money. The app also has education quizzes and games that were developed with the help of higher education officials in Sweden. The Dutch Institute for Family Finance Information assessed the app's content. The bank is attempting to improve financial literacy before people become responsible for paying their own bills. "Many young people are struggling to pay their bills," said Jeroen Bleijerveld, e-commerce and consumer engagement team lead at ABN Amro, in a release. "And the problem has worsened in recent years as a result of the pandemic, inflation and rising energy prices." —John Adams

Cubic expands transit fare platform to South America

Transit technology firm Cubic Transportation Systems has deployed its Umo Mobility platform in Temuco, Chile, making it the system's first deployment outside of North America. A pilot in the Chilean city of about 350,000 people will enable payment choices for transit payments. Options include contactless smartcards, the Umo Mobility app and tickets with prepaid QR codes. Ticketing covers urban buses, regional buses and a shared taxi service called colectivos. The pilot will be followed by a full rollout in June and further expansion. Umo Mobility, which is available in cities in the U.S. and Canada, is part of a broader trend toward moving ticketing and payment for transit outside of the transit networks, creating a more open payment system. There is some traction for transit payments; Discover reports contactless transit payments have increased 120% over the past three years, outpacing transit's overall ridership recovery from the pandemic, which stands at 70%, according to Discover. —John Adams

InComm to build tech hub in Brazil

Atlanta-based payments technology firm InComm is opening a tech hub in Fortaleza, Brazil, that will employ 200 developers and other specialists to advance new payments products and technology in the region, InComm said in a press release. InComm Payments Brazil Technology will build on existing operations in Brazil that InComm has nurtured over the last decade, including Sao Paulo-based InComm Brazil and Porto Alegre-based Todo Cartões, a gift card processing firm InComm purchased in 2020. The new tech hub will focus on local and international payments product development under the leadership of InComm's U.S development teams, the release said. —Kate Fitzgerald

Square enables Android tap-to-pay in new markets

Square has rolled out the tap-to-pay phone payments for Android users in the U.S., Australia, Ireland, France, Spain and the U.K., enabling sellers to accept contactless payments through handsets without add-on hardware, according to a press release. The technology enables smaller-scale merchants to perform tasks including point-of-sale transactions, appointments, invoices and certain business-management tasks through an Android device. —Kate Fitzgerald

Russia plans cross-border payments using digital currency

Anton Siluanov, Russia's finance minister, has announced plans for a payment system enabling the exchange of digital currencies across borders that would be free of any government or corporate restrictions. The move follows news that the Bank of Russia is exploring the creation of a digital ruble as a way to shift away from any reliance on the U.S. dollar. This comes amid economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other nations since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. —Kate Fitzgerald