Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, said this week that offline payments needed to be a top priority for both the public and private sector amid mounting geopolitical pressures in Europe.
Offline payments refers to the ability to perform a card transaction when the internet is unavailable. Paying offline is limited in Sweden and does not support tap-to-pay or mobile phone payments. Riksbank, in its
Riksbank Gov. Erik Thedéen said in a statement that the central bank had put together a group of "relevant stakeholders" and would have a solution in place by July 1, 2026.
"In light of the deteriorating security situation in Sweden and our neighboring region, both public and private actors need to urgently step up their efforts to create a payments market that can withstand disruptions," Thedéen said.
The report said the public "also has a responsibility to safeguard their ability to make payments in the event of a crisis or, in a worst-case scenario, war."
The central bank also said that maintaining cash usage, increasing access to payment accounts, enabling instant payments "to a greater extent" and boosting the speed of cross border payments were also a priority. —Joey Pizzolato
Australian group teams with Google to counter cards
Australian Payments Plus (AP+) is collaborating with Google to support "least cost routing," enabling merchants to route payments through the eftpos network, which enables transactions to be processed in an alternative to major international card networks such as Visa and Mastercard.
ANZ and Suncorp Bank are the first two issuers to go live with AP+, with other deployments scheduled for the next few months. Bank-issued debit cards can be used for Google Wallet payments, which will enable least cost routing.
AP+ is a consortium of Australian payment firms, merchants, banks and other financial institutions. The consortium supervises Australia's
The Google partnership comes as banks add more payment options, such as
Gaming e-commerce player Xsolla boosts international payments
Xsolla, which sells services that enable video game developers to fund, launch and monetize their products, has expanded the number of payment methods that it offers in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The new payment methods include Fawry Cash, Aman, Masary, Momken, Vodafone Wallet, Orange Cash Wallet, and Mobile & Banking Wallets in Egypt; Sadad in Saudi Arabia; eFAWATEERcom in Jordan; and STC Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) in Bahrain. Xsolla contends that the gaming market MENA region is underserved and has low trust in payment methods based outside of the area.
"With a tech-literate, youthful population and the rapid adoption of digital wallets and mobile payments, the MENA region is a golden opportunity for developers seeking to grow revenue and deepen player engagement," said Chris Hewish, chief strategy officer of Xsolla, in a release.
This expansion is part of the Los Angeles-based Xsolla's strategy to expand globally lead in game commerce innovation by addressing the complexities of regional payments. Xsolla has also partnered with PayPal to
U.K. banks total 803 hours of IT outages in last two years
A parliamentary committee
Common reasons for the outages included issues with third-party suppliers, disruptions caused by systems changes, software malfunctions, hardware issues, configuration errors, database problems, human error and security issues.
Despite the outages, many of the nine banks, which contributed to the Treasury Committee's report by providing letters with information about their own outages, reported better than 99.9% service availability. For example, Santander reported 99.98% service availability since January 2023.
Several banks have compensated customers for the inconvenience and stress caused by IT outages. For example, Barclays said it expected to pay between £5 million and £7.5 million in compensation for an outage that occurred at the end of January and start of February.
The chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Meg Hillier, said the data shows "even the most successful banks and building societies hit technical glitches," and that it is "critical" for them to "react swiftly and ensure customers are kept informed throughout." —Carter Pape
North Korean hackers cash out on a fifth of $1.5 billion ByBit heist
Hackers associated with Lazarus Group, a North Korean threat actor, have successfully laundered the equivalent of at least $300 million of the $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency the group stole from crypto exchange ByBit.
The heist took place two weeks ago, and both ByBit and other crypto exchanges began blacklisting wallets associated with the heist within minutes of the incident occurring.
Despite the quick action, the criminals have converted at least $300 million into unrecoverable funds, crypto investigation firm Elliptic
"I imagine they have an entire room of people doing this using automated tools and years of experience," Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, told the news outlet. "We can also see from their activity that they only take a few hours break each day, possibly working in shifts to get the crypto turned into cash."
The heist occurred when ByBit began transferring funds between what it believed was its own digital wallets. In reality, the hackers had tricked Bybit employees, including CEO Ben Zhou, into approving a series of transactions that put the money into the control of Lazarus Group. —Carter Pape
Best Buy Canada partners with PingPong for cross-border payments
PingPong has signed a deal with Best Buy Canada to provide cross-border payment flows to the retailer's marketplace.
Following the partnership, Best Buy Canada will begin expanding internationally and making payments to foreign sellers, according to a PingPong release.
"Our new partnership with PingPong is a key part of our international growth strategy," Sherry Zah, vice president of Best Buy Canada's Marketplace business, said in a statement. "PingPong's global network and ecosystem will unlock new revenue streams for us as we look to expand our marketplace to new international sellers."
PingPong, which supports transactions in more than 100 currencies and operates in over 200 countries and regions, also provides Wish and Wayfair with cross-border payment services. —Joey Pizzolato
Barclays inches closer to merchant acquiring divestment
Barclays is one step closer to offloading its merchant acquiring business,
The London-based bank is in the final stages of a £650 million ($843.1 million) deal with Brookfield Asset Management that would initially allow the Canadian investment firm to acquire 10% of Barclays' merchant acquiring business. Brookfield would acquire 80% of the business over the next three years, leaving Barclays with a 10% stake.
The bank's merchant-acquiring arm sells terminals, gateways, foreign exchange services and data through card and digital wallets, according to its investor presentation.
The deal will cost Barclays £400 million to help return the business line to sustainable growth, and another £250 million in regulatory capital for deal approval.
Barclays has been working to
