LBG, Santander, Paypal, Square and Soldo in Payments this week
- Banco Santander has set a Q1 2018 launch date for the introduction of same day mobile international payments for personal customers using Ripple’s distributed ledger technology. Plans for the live roll out of the technology, which the bank has been piloting with staff for 18 months, were revealed in the bank’s 2017 earnings presentation
- JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup have banned customers from buying bitcoin on their credit cards, citing the high price volatility of cryptocurrencies
- Lloyds Banking Group has announced a ban on its customers using credit cards to purchase Bitcoin. The ban, starting today, applies to Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA customers
- TransferWise has partnered with Seedrs in a deal through which it will process the equity crowdfunding platform’s international payroll. 04022018WEB42
- Alibaba has agreed to acquire a 33% stake in Ant Financial. The new arrangement sees the current arrangement between the two businesses, where Ant Financial pays 37.5% of its pre-tax profits to Alipay in royalty and technology service fees, come to an end
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s US-based commercial clients can now make payments in local currencies to payees who hold PayPal accounts The payments, which are initiated through the bank’s global digital disbursements product, can be made from the US to PayPal account holders in Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the Philippines
- PayPal is to be replaced by Amsterdam-based Adyen in 2020 as the primary payments provider for eBay
- Square has introduced a new service that allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin across its Cash payments app
- Soldo commissioned research has found that more than £102.6bn remains unreconciled annually within UK corporate systems. Of the 4,000 SMEs surveyed, nearly a tenth said 10% of monthly spend is unreconciled and more than a third admitted to taking on burdensome administrative processes to identify and reconcile company spend
- MyPOS has launched its merchants’ service, which offers a mobile POS terminal with a free online account and prepaid business card, in the UK. Customer payments are stored in the merchant’s e-money account, enabling the merchant to spend new funds immediately via their card, or to make an online transfer to another account. Founded in 2014, myPOS now claims 40,000 users across Europe
- Revolut has officially launched its cryptocurrency feature, allowing all Revolut customers to buy, hold and exchange cryptocurrencies in-app in seconds
- American Express has acquired Mezi, an AI-powered travel assistant app that helps users plan and book trips
- Klarna has announced a partnership with Maplin, the UK technology retailer. The service allows Maplin customers to use Klarna’s services to either pay for purchases at a later date or spread the cost over time
- ING has agreed to acquire a majority 75% stake in Payvision. The deal will allow ING’s business clients to accept payments through any channel, including online stores and retail terminals, and through any device. Payvision’s technology supports more than 150 currencies across the US, Europe, Asia and the Pacific
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