Morning Brief 10.10.19: PayPal loses millions on Uber investment

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:

Tumbling dice

PayPal warned investors it expects to lose $228 million from its strategic investments in Uber Technologies and MercadoLibre, as those companies suffered setbacks in the third quarter of this year, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

PayPal earlier this year made a $500 million investment in Uber just before the ride-sharing app's poor IPO, and a $750 million investment in MercadoLibre, which recently suffered a stock decline. The Uber investment has declined 34%.

Uber has accepted PayPal for payments for about six years, and PayPal is Uber's largest payment processor in the U.S. and Australia. The two companies also collaborate on payment technology, such as Uber's digital wallet.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

License in Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has given Rapyd a remittance license, providing a new market fresh off of the company's $100 million fund raise.

Rapyd uses partnerships with local payment providers and an API-accessible financial service network to sell technology to merchants, online banks and others.

Rapyd earlier this year forged bank partnerships in Singapore to connect to PayNow, Singapore's national P2P network.

In transit

Masabi has partnered with NEORide to link 13 Ohio transit agencies to a single fare system.

Called EZfare, the multi-app cashless system will work across multiple agencies and will support software-based updates.

Masabi, which has offices in New York and London, has been working to standardize transit payments technology to ease upgrades for platforms that often rely on tailored systems, creating longer upgrade cycles.

Local option

China's government has taken a hard line on cryptocurrency, though Binance has found a way to support bitcoin purchases by accepting and converting traditional currency through AliPay and WeChat Pay.

P2P crypto transactions from China will be the main payment type, reports Coindesk, adding that's the main crypto activity in China's tough regulatory environment.

Binance is also working with local companies to build a rival cryptocoin to Libra, and hopes to use the Alipay/WeChat Pay support to expand its network in China.

From the web

Nordic banks agree to fund common payment service
_{REUTERS | Wed October 9, 2019}
Six of the Nordic region’s biggest banks have agreed to invest in pan-Nordic instant payment system P27, aiming to integrate payment services in the region into a single platform to help boost business. The platform would allow individuals and businesses to instantly send money from a mobile phone or corporate bank account to other countries in the region.

Report says workers are biggest data-security threat
_{CHICAGO TRIBUNE | Wed October 9, 2019}
Headlines about cybersecurity breaches and data theft from government agencies and companies such as Caribou Coffee, Target and Medtronic in recent years can inspire fear of bad guys exploiting the internet from dark places on the web. However, most of the online swiping comes from insiders.

The Internet of Payments Has Arrived
_{FORBES | Wed October 9, 2019}
While many Internet of Payment (IoP) transactions will be characterized by payment volume being displaced from another channel (e.g., a credit card transaction at the fuel pump now being made in the vehicle), an opportunity for net new payment volume is also at hand. By 2022, $7.5bn in new transactions is expected to be driven into the US through IoP experiences.

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