phos today unveiled a pilot project with Mastercard, introducing an innovative mobile solution that enables merchants to accept contactless payments on Android mobile devices without the need for any additional hardware. Simple and effective, the solution will enable millions of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to accept cashless payments and grow their businesses.

• Exclusive research from Barclays Corporate Banking reveals the contrasting views of nearly 2,000 financial services leaders from across the globe on the key drivers of collaboration, innovation and cybersecurity
• More than two-thirds of businesses identify collaborating and partnering with FinTechs as the preferred approach for traditional banks in the future
• China will be king for innovation in the next five years, but India is still set to be a player
• Business approaches to cybersecurity are not robust according to more than half of all respondents

It’s no secret the payments world is immensely complex. But the extent of the testing and certification behind the card in your wallet would likely surprise many.

The processes and standards in place to ensure our payment cards are robust, secure and work in harmony with the rest of the ecosystem are given little spotlight, but they’re invaluable to the payments world’s smooth operation.

In line with the UK-Israel Tech Hub’s TeXchange 2020, Leumi UK’s “Game of Thrones: How to survive the trending battles in global technology”, organised alongside the group’s technology banking arm, LeumiTech, took place on the 5^th February. Convening a number of influential figures from across the industry – including senior representatives from Google, Facebook and Amazon – the event fostered an open discussion on the trends and challenges shaping the tech landscape in 2020. Yifat Oron, CEO at LeumiTech, moderated the discussion.

Nets, a leading player in the European payments industry, today announces its acquisition of Polskie ePłatności (“PeP”), a leading Polish merchant acquirer with an installed base of more than 125,000 point-of-sales terminals, offering a broad set of payment solutions for SME merchants.

The transaction values PeP’s Enterprise Value at EUR 405 million.

R3, the enterprise blockchain software firm, has appointed former IBM and Amazon Web Services executive, Dorothy Copeland, as Global Head of Partner Ecosystem & Alliances.

The Emerging Payments Association (EPA), which celebrates collaboration and innovation within new and existing finance companies, has published its first report to address the issues from the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

Global technology solutions provider Wolters Kluwer has been quietly expanding its Minnesotan HQ for its award winning Compliance Solutions business and other businesses that sit within its Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Division, growing staff numbers by 25% compared with 2017. Wolters Kluwer now has 717 staff working in Minnesota, nearly a 25 percent increase from 575 full time employees in 2017, a figure confirmed by the GRC Division’s Global Director of Corporate Communications.

Paysafe, a leading specialised payments platform, has today announced an expanded strategic partnership with Mastercard. The new agreement is designed to support Paysafe’s growth and card acceptance in the European Economic Area (EEA) with a particular focus on Paysafe’s card issuing solutions, including its Skrill Prepaid Mastercard® and NETELLER Net+ Prepaid Mastercard®.

Wirecard, the global innovation leader for digital financial technology, and Klarna, a leading global payments and shopping provider, announced today the launch of a new enhanced joint payment solution. All three Klarna shopping methods, Pay Now, Pay Later and Klarna Financing, can now be embedded into merchants’ checkout via a single integration through the Wirecard digital financial commerce platform to boost average order value, conversions and hence fuel growth for merchants.