Latest global payments news

PhonePe reportedly sours on Indian BNPL deal

PhonePe, a Walmart-backed mobile payments firm in India, has backed out of a deal to acquire ZestMoney, a buy now/pay later lender, reports Economic Times. PhonePe was reportedly concerned about ZestMoney's business model and debt. The deal had been reportedly worth about $200 million. Like in the U.S., BNPL lending has come under scrutiny in India, with regulators concerned the practice is causing consumers to quickly accumulate debt, causing a risk of default. PhonePe is an important venture for Walmart, which plans to use PhonePe's payment technology as a model for development in other markets. PhonePe has a valuation of about $12 billion, compared to ZestMoney's $450 million valuation, according to the ET. Walmart did not provide comment for this story. —John Adams

EY fined for auditing missteps in Wirecard scandal

The German division of global accounting firm EY was fined $544,000 by Germany's accounting-industry watchdog for EY's role as auditor of international payments firm Wirecard, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020 after $2 billion disappeared, ABC News reports. The EY unit is also barred from serving new companies "of public interest" for the next two years. The German government late last year launched a trial against former executives of the Munich-based payments firm. —Kate Fitzgerald

Singapore, Malaysia integrate payment systems

The Monetary Authority of Singapore and Bank Negara Malaysia are enabling shoppers to make cross-border payments by scanning QR codes at physical points of sale. The agreement covers brick-and-mortar and e-commerce transactions in both currencies, and is designed for commuters between Singapore and Malaysia; an average of 300,000 people cross between the two places daily. An additional update will allow real-time P2P transfers between Malaysia and Singapore by using the recipient's email address. Singapore's MAS is also involved in several real-time cross-border payment and central bank digital currency projects with other countries. —John Adams

UAE brings in third parties for CBDC project

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has hired the law firm Clifford Chance, blockchain group R3 and the G42 Cloud security service to support the country's central bank digital currency. The next phase in the project, which will take about 15 months, will include building a rail for cross-border trades, a connection to India's CBDC project and proof-of-concept for domestic CBDCs. The project is developing both a wholesale CBDC, which is designed for large payments between parties such as banks; and a consumer and merchant-focused retail CBDC. The UAE has worked on other CBDC projects over the past year, including cross-border CBDC payment connections to Hong Kong, China, Thailand and the Bank for International Settlements. —John Adams

NAB adds new prompts to battle fraud

In an effort to reduce scams, Australia's NAB will provide personalized messages in real time to consumers if a transaction is out of character. A consumer may receive a text message if they purchase cryptocurrency for the first time, for example. The bank is concerned people may be distracted and susceptible to fraud. The personalized messages are among the 64 projects underway at NAB to reduce financial crime, an initiative that includes monthly web seminars on how to spot phishing attacks, hacks and other fraud. Payments fraud in Australia is declining, according to the Australian Payments Network. The network reported card fraud of 54.7 cents per $10,000 spent in 2022, down from 57.8 cents in 2021 and 73.8 cents in 2018. —John Adams

NatWest applies open banking to cut plumbers' payment fees

NatWest has implemented variable recurring payments at Williams, the U.K.'s largest independent plumbing and heating merchant, as part of a pilot designed to lower overall transaction costs. VRP enables clients to initiate a series of payments of different amounts at different times on behalf of individual users — in this case, the plumbing and heating contractors who work for Williams. VRP uses open banking to connect the contractors' accounts to Williams and NatWest. Williams contends the fees the organizations pay for accepting card payments have gone up more than 600% over the past five years, and open banking enables account-to-account transfers at a lower cost. —John Adams

JCB expands European card acceptance via Fiserv

Tokyo-based JCB will expand the reach of its international payment card network to thousands more European merchants through a collaboration with Fiserv, JCB said in a press release. The pact will enable merchants in Fiserv's network in the U.K., Germany and Poland to accept JCB cards in stores and online with support for contactless cards. JCB says it has about 150 million cardholders. —Kate Fitzgerald

U.K. firm invests in South African payments startup

Cape Town, South Africa-based omnichannel payments gateway Peach Payments has raised $31 million in series A funding from London-based investment firm Apis Partners to continue the startup's product development and expansion in the region, multiple outlets report. Last month, Peach Payments announced an open-banking collaboration with Capitec, enabling online shoppers to fund purchases directly from their bank accounts. Founded in 2012, Peach Payments also operates in Kenya and Mauritius. —Kate Fitzgerald