NCR is now two companies, Revolut adds security pros

ByJohn Adams, Kate Fitzgerald, Bloomberg News

October 18, 2023 11:34 AM

This week in global news: NCR has completed the spinoff of its ATM business, Revolut doubles its number of fraud-fighters in two years, China builds a zone for digital yuan users, and more.

Here's what's happening around the world.

NCR completes spinoff of ATM unit

NCR has executed its planned separation into two companies, with the ATM-focused NCR Atleos now trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NATL and the digital commerce-focused NCR Voyix trading under VYX. NCR announced in September 2022 that it would split following a review of the company's operations. The digital commerce firm is expanding faster with double-digital yearly growth, while the ATM business is expanding at about 5% yearly. By separating, the ATM business will carry less debt and a less expensive development model. NCR has upgraded its payments business over the past several years, adding more e-commerce and digital payments options to compete with Amazon, Stripe, Apple and other technology companies that sell to merchants. NCR's ATM spinoff will focus on an ATM-as-a-service strategy that enables institutions to outsource ATM management, upgrades, compliance and other functions. —John Adams

Revolut

Revolut beefs up crime-fighting unit

The U.K. fintech has doubled the headcount in its financial crime unit over the past two years. The company has more than 2,500 crime-prevention employees scattered across six locations covering a third of Revolut's workforce, focused on product development, data science, customer support, operations and anti-money laundering. Revolut attributes the growth to the company's own expansion, reaching 35 million globally and approaching one million in the U.S., and the overall payment fraud threat. Revolut contends that its team has prevented more than $300 million in fraud over the past 12 months. "We increasingly see fraud being perpetrated by sophisticated, organized and ruthless networks of criminals," said Aaron Elliot Gross, head of financial crime and fraud at Revolut, in a release. "In order to stay ahead of the curve, we are committed to investing in top talent in this space." Revolut faces a regulatory probe in the U.K. over a potential violation of regulations that govern identifying suspicious payments, and is also trying to obtain a banking license in the U.K. Revolut's PR office said the security hires are not linked to regulatory or licensing issues. —John Adams

Lam Yik/Bloomberg

China plans city for digital yuan

The Chinese government has opened an industrial zone designed for the country's digital yuan and other payment innovations. Located near Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the zone will incentivize people and tech firms to relocate with the promise of low-cost loans and free rent, according to Cointelegraph and local media reports. Commercial banks can also receive financial incentives to set up offices in the zone, along with developing uses for China's central bank digital currency. There are only nine tenants of the district at launch, including offices for Chinese payment technology companies such as Hengbao and Wuhan Tianyu Information. China is considered to be further along than most large economies in developing a CBDC, with the digital yuan deployed at recent Olympic Games and other sports festivals, as well as in testing with large retailers such as McDonalds and Starbucks. —John Adams

Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

Paytm fined $650,000 over laundering compliance violations

The Reserve Bank of India has cited Indian financial institution Paytm for "know your customer" violations, which refers to regulations governing anti-money laundering activities at banks and other financial institutions. The central bank fined Paytm about $650,000. Paytm did not properly monitor payments, perform risk profiling for firms receiving payout services and did not identify all payment recipients, the RBI said. Paytm also did not report a cyber breach in the time allotted and enabled a connection to IP addresses outside of India without performing the proper customer identification process, according to the Times of India. Paytm, which offers a variety of financial services in India, says it is near profitability, and the company's founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, is considering raising his stake in the company. —John Adams

Gabby Jones/Bloomberg

U.K. crypto regs slow Binance

Binance has stopped onboarding new customers in the U.K. while it works to comply with new regulations in cryptocurrency marketing. The regulations require the government to authorize cryptocurrency marketing programs, or require the cryptocurrency company to partner with a registered third party. Binance is seeking to partner with a registered company, according to Reuters and local U.K. media. Binance did not comment by deadline. Last week, the new U.K. regulations resulted in more than 140 warnings from the Financial Conduct Authority to cryptocurrency firms in less than a day. The regulations are designed to educate consumers on the risks associated with cryptocurrency investing while ensuring marketing does not mislead consumers, the FCA contends. —John Adams

Bloomberg News

Etsy teams with Payoneer to accept payments in more markets

Third-party e-commerce selling platform Etsy, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., has teamed with New York-based digital commerce provider Payoneer to extend Etsy Payments to sellers in key international markets, according to a press release. The integration adds a streamlined approach for Etsy sellers in Ukraine and Thailand to immediately accept payments via credit and debit cards, PayPal, Etsy's own gift cards and Etsy Credits. Sellers in India, Japan, Argentina, Chile and Peru will gain the same capabilities by the end of this year. Etsy Payments, which launched in 2012, reaches sellers in 40 countries, according to the release. —Kate Fitzgerald

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Peruvian bank partners with i2c to issue digital cards

Banco de Credito, one of Peru's largest banks, has teamed with digital card-issuing vendor i2C, based in Redwood City, California, to power digital banking unit iO, a sister firm owned by parent company Creditcorp, according to a press release. Through iO, the bank expects to roll out Visa-branded credit cards to 20,000 consumers within the next four months, including a virtual version for online purchases and a physical card for in-store acceptance. Users may earn cash-back rewards for purchases using iO's new card. Creditcorp, also based in Lima, serves about 20 million consumers through diversified financial services companies operating in Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Panama and the U.S. —Kate Fitzgerald

Kuala Lumpur skyline

Annice Lyn/Bloomberg

London fintech teams with BigPay to expand in Asia

Kuala Lumpur-based financial services app provider BigPay has tapped London-based payments processor Thredd to help extend the app's reach beyond its home market of Malaysia and Singapore, according to a press release. BigPay will soon be available to consumers in Thailand, with plans to reach Indonesia and the Philippines early next year. The regional expansion plans come after BigPay, which provides diversified financial services to 1.4 million consumers, recently announced plans to support payments on budget airline AirAsia's Superapp. —Kate Fitzgerald

Jason Alden/Bloomberg

European payments giant Nexi soars as CVC said to weigh bid

Nexi jumped as much as 19% after people with knowledge of the matter said CVC Capital Partners is in the early stages of considering a potential bid for the European payments firm. The buyout group has been evaluating Nexi for some time, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Shares in Nexi hit an intraday record in early trading on Wednesday. The stock was up 10% at 12:17 p.m. in Milan, giving the company a market value of €8.3 billion ($8.8 billion). Other investment firms have also been studying Nexi, the people said. Buyout funds could end up partnering on a joint bid for the company given the size of the potential deal, some of the people said. Nexi is among a number of possible targets being studied by CVC, the people said. It hasn't yet made a formal approach to the Italian firm, and there's no certainty it will proceed with a bid, they said. —Sonia Sirletti, Jan-Henrik Förster, Daniele Lepido and Swetha Gopinath, Bloomberg News