Recently Morgan Stanley published research sharing that digital payments penetration in India could increase from 5% today to 20% in 2027; the e-commerce market could reach $200 billion with 475 million shoppers by this time; the author delves deep into the Chinese and Indian payments markets, sharing why America could miss out on India’s fintech revolution. Source
International money transfer firm TransferWise announced a $280mn series E raise; investors in the round include Old Mutual Global Investors, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford and Richard Branson; they plan to use the funds for expansion to the Asia Pacific region by having a full set of products available in India and opening offices in Tokyo and Sydney. Source.
The US Department of Justice has approved the real-time Payments network after a yearlong antitrust review; the Clearing House, a consortium of the biggest banks in the US, was pleased by the news as they plan to launch their leading system later this year; this is seen as a step in the right direction of helping to modernize the US payments system. Source.
The Federal Reserve released a report on its initiative to provide real time payments by 2020; the report was created by a task force of over 300 industry contributors; the report, titled, "The U.S. Path to Faster Payments: A Call to Action" outlines payment processing proposals, the task force's vision and goals for the initiative; details on the payments initiative can also be found at FasterPaymentsTaskForce.org. Source
Swedish fintech Klarna Bank has launched a free P2P payments service; the new service is called Wavy and is available for consumers across 31 European markets; the service allows for simplified payment redemption with the receiver able to redeem the funds directly to their bank account. Source
Cross River Bank is looking at new opportunities in business payments; Ben Isaacson of Cross River Bank stated, “Payroll is predominantly set up for traditional salary, ‘regular’ employees. There’s a real opportunity to innovate on that front; businesses can change how their employees get paid to be more consistent with how they’re working.”; they are also looking at how they can better improve payments to suppliers for their customers; Cross River Bank currently works with some of the biggest names in fintech and prides itself as being a technology-first bank. Source
Speaking on a panel at the annual meeting of the Institute of International Finance in Washington, CEO Jes Staley stated, “There are some tectonic shifts going on, driven by tech and the geopolitical environment…All the banks are very focused on the payments space. That may be where the battleground of finance is fought over the next 15 years.”; cybersecurity is also a top concern for financial firms and the co-head of Deutsche Bank AG’s corporate and investment bank expressed concerns on whether regulators are holding fintech firms to the same regulatory standards. Source
Google is expected to launch a mobile payments app in India next week; Google Tez, which means fast in Hindi, will offer a comprehensive set of payment options beyond existing products like Android Pay according to Banking Technology; it also plans to support Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Paytm and MobiKwik. Source.
Chinese marketplace lender Hexindai has added a payments function to its mobile app; firm has partnered with China UnionPay for Quick Pass; QuickPass allows platform investors to use funds for payments at merchants in the China UnionPay network. Source
Alibaba has reportedly increased its bid for payments company MoneyGram; Alibaba initially announced the acquisition in January which will broaden its payments network; new terms of the deal increase the offer price to $18 per share from $13.25 and have been approved by the board of directors; the increased deal value follows a competing bid from Euronet Worldwide. Source