Viva.com proudly stands as the first among other acquirers such as Adyen, Banque Populaire, Caisse d’Epargne, and BNP Paribas, to activate Cartes Bancaires on Tap to Pay on iPhone.

In a groundbreaking move, Viva.com has announced CB, the leading card and mobile payment and withdrawal system in the French market, can be used with Tap to Pay on iPhone with the viva.com | Terminal app - allowing businesses to take contactless payments from a potential pool of nearly 76 million card or mobile holders with the CB scheme, with just an iPhone and the viva.com | Terminal app. 

Tap to Pay on iPhone with the viva.com | Terminal iOS app is yet another step towards liberating merchants from cumbersome legacy payment terminals, offering convenience, flexibility, streamlining payments and simplifying daily operations. 

With just an iPhone and the user-friendly viva.com | Terminal app, any French business, no matter how big or small, or what industry they are in, can now accept CB cards with Tap to Pay on iPhone; from cafes, restaurants, and retailers, to hotels, taxis, and solo traders, letting customers pay on the spot or on the go. 

How It Works: 
To start accepting CB cards with Tap to Pay on iPhone, merchants are required to download the viva.com | Terminal app on the App Store - on iPhone XS or later running the latest version of iOS. At checkout, the merchant will simply present their iPhone to the customer, who will tap or hold their contactless payment card or device for digital wallets near the merchant’s iPhone. Tap to Pay on iPhone uses the built-in security and privacy features of iPhone to help keep businesses and customer's data private and secure. When a payment is processed, Apple does not store card numbers on the device or on Apple servers. 

Jayne Sibley, who created Sibstar, a debit card and mobile app that helps people living with dementia and their families to safely manage everyday spending, has secured £125K from BBC Dragons’ Den investors, Sara Davies and Deborah Meaden, to further drive financial inclusion and equality.

Southampton-based Jayne, who came up with the concept for Sibstar whilst caring for both of her parents with dementia, appeared on the show on 29th February alongside her life and business partner, Martin Orton, impressing both Sara and Deborah with her unique solution to a problem faced by many families living with the condition. The Dragons were particularly interested to hear about the success Jayne had already achieved with the business since it launched in March 2023 - despite having no previous professional experience in financial services.

Third-party investment has been critical in bringing Jayne’s life-changing brand to market, so when the opportunity to appear on Dragons’ Den came up, she jumped at the chance to secure significant financial and strategic input from the famous entrepreneurs.

Jayne says: “Going into the Dragons’ Den was a hugely emotional experience. I founded the business after experiencing my own parents’ struggles with money as their cognitive abilities declined. I had to open up about some very difficult times, but the Dragons were very supportive and empathetic.

“Securing investment from both Sara and Deborah means the world to me. Not only have two of the most successful female entrepreneurs in the country recognised the potential in my company, but their input and endorsement can only serve to make financial services more accessible for underserved groups in our society.”

Deborah Meaden comments: “Jayne’s idea is so simple, but has the ability to transform lives. I was impressed by how she’d taken her own lived experience and channeled it into making an impressive financial services product that’s already secured a foothold in a sector in which it's notoriously difficult to achieve cut-through. I’m looking forward to being involved in the next stage of Sibstar’s exciting journey. Sibstar is the best kind of investment, one that has the an important reason to be and makes a big difference to people’s lives.”

Sara Davies adds: "In the coming years, sadly, more and more families will be affected by dementia and it’s critical that the business community gears up to serve a wider variety of needs. I think many families out there are going to be extremely grateful to Jayne for addressing a common challenge for people with dementia, and I’m excited to offer the benefit of my experience to help those affected live independently for longer.”

OTP Bank, a listed retail and corporate bank based in Budapest, Hungary, has selected Iliad Solutions as its payment testing provider in a new multi-year deal.

OTP Group currently operates in 12 countries located in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region, namely Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and in the Middle Asia region Uzbekistan, OTP Bank Hungary being the parent company.

OTP Bank will licence t3, Iliad’s flagship enterprise-grade, browser-based digital payments testing platform providing cutting-edge, automated testing options helping drive OTP’s payment capabilities and its position as a leading financial institution.

Ábel Bagaméry, Director, Card payments, OTP Bank said: “Effective payment testing is key to our future success and expansion. Using cutting-edge testing technology helps us achieve this. t3 is one of the most advanced payment testing platforms in the world, we value the opportunity to access its capabilities through this new partnership.”

Anthony Walton, Iliad Solutions CEO commented “We are delighted that OTP Bank has chosen Iliad’s t3 solution as its strategic testing platform to support its next phase of modernisation and digital development. We look forward to working with OTP in a fruitful relationship across the bank’s markets. It’s great to be doing new business in the CEE region.”

Removing friction from the complex process of getting new payment initiatives to market quickly, efficiently and at a reasonable cost has never been more important. t3 helps facilitate a dynamic adoption of digital payments through a simplified and automated testing process to the benefit of all.

Iliad’s products and services are used by leading financial institutions around the globe helping to minimise risk when deploying new payments technology, reducing the costs associated with testing and improving the speed of launching new systems.

Sophisticated controls can be applied to projects at every level, with real-time data available via intuitive dashboard views. t3 allows the testing of complex transactions simply and effectively - tests are fully automated and can run at up to 15,000 transactions per second. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today issued a circular to law enforcement agencies and regulators explaining how companies operating comparison-shopping tools can break the law when they steer consumers to certain products or lenders because of kickbacks. Consumers use comparison-shopping tools to evaluate the costs, features, and terms of many financial products, including credit cards, loans, and bank accounts. However, consumers often encounter manipulated results or digital dark patterns, fueled by behind-the-scenes incentive payments from lenders. The circular explains how these practices may violate federal law and highlights examples of illegal arrangements.

“Americans turn to online comparison tools to find the credit card with the lowest interest rates or best rewards,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “The CFPB is working to ensure that digital advertisements for financial products are not disguised as unbiased and objective advice.”

Digital comparison-shopping tools are widely used in many product categories, from retail goods to travel and financial products. By allowing consumers to compare a variety of competing products quickly and efficiently, these tools have the potential to benefit individual consumers and drive competition across the larger market.

Comparison-shopping tools can help consumers evaluate and find financial products, especially credit cards and mortgages. Consumers often rely on the tools to navigate difficult financial decisions. However, some tool operators take advantage of that reliance and manipulate results. For example, some operators might accept financial kickbacks, sometimes referred to as “bounties” within the industry, to manipulate lists of results displayed to shoppers.

The CFPB previously issued guidance on how real estate and mortgage laws apply to mortgage comparison-shopping. In today’s circular, the CFPB provides guidance on how consumer financial protection laws apply to comparison shopping for other financial products. Comparison-shopping tools can heavily influence a consumer's selection of a financial product. Many digital comparison-shopping tools hold themselves out as providing unbiased and objective advice. The guidance discusses how regulators and law enforcement agencies can evaluate operators of comparison-shopping tools that accept payments from financial firms to manipulate results or suppress options that may better fit the consumer's stated preferences.

Dark Patterns in Comparison Shopping

Dark patterns are a common tool used to manipulate consumers. Operators of comparison-shopping tools may deceive consumers with user experiences and user interfaces that lead people to believe they are the beneficiaries of competition. However, if consumers are being tricked into paying higher prices or selecting inferior products, the comparison-shopping company and the company paying-to-play may be the only ones benefiting from the façade of competition.

The CFPB has warned that dark patterns can violate consumer financial protection laws, and the agency has taken enforcement actions against violators. The CFPB sued ACTIVE Network for illegally cramming consumers with junk membership fees, and sued TransUnion for using dark patterns to make it difficult for consumers to cancel certain subscription services. The Federal Trade Commission has also taken action, including a lawsuit against Credit Karma for tricking consumers with deceptive “Pre-Approved” credit offers.

Increasing Competition in Credit Cards and Other Markets

The CFPB has found evidence of practices that may imply anti-competitive behavior in the consumer credit card market, as well as high levels of concentration in the industry. A recent CFPB report showed that large banks are offering worse credit card terms and interest rates than small banks and credit unions, regardless of credit risk. The difference in interest rates can translate to $400 to $500 in additional annual interest for the average cardholder. The CFPB has also published research showing how the largest issuers have increased their interest rate margins over the past decade, resulting in about $25 billion in additional interest charges in 2023 alone.

To help foster greater competition in this important market, the CFPB is developing a consumer-facing tool that, once finished, will bring more price transparency to credit card comparison-shopping. Consumers shopping for a credit card will have an unbiased way to compare credit card terms and interest rates.

Today’s circular is part of a broader effort to level the playing field too often tilted against consumers across many different markets for consumer financial products and services. The guidance follows an advisory opinion to protect mortgage borrowers from pay-to-play digital comparison-shopping platforms. It also follows efforts to level marketplaces through actions on hard to cancel subscription services, fake review fraud, pay-to-pay fees, and hidden junk fees.

Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform provider, today announced that it has closed on the acquisition of ATEO SAS, a leading provider of post-trade solutions for listed derivatives, expanding TT’s reach into clearing and other middle-office technologies and services. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

ATEO will operate as a global managed service hosted in TT’s data centers. ATEO’s post-trade allocation engine is already fully integrated into the TT order management system (OMS), providing TT OMS clients with seamless access to the functionality.

ATEO’s products include: TEO Derivatives, a global order management system dedicated to pure brokerage environments and used by many of the world’s leading inter-dealer and executing brokers, including the vast majority of brokers in London; the LISA Clearing Engine, a widely adopted trade matching and clearing solution enabling firms to process business across all clearing houses globally and offer tailored services to their customers; and UGO, a set of gateways and standardized clearing application programming interfaces (APIs) providing firms with the ability to develop or feed in-house solutions through scalable trade feed standardization and high throughput for all clearing activities.

David Solo, TT Board member, led the acquisition negotiation on behalf of TT, and Fieldfisher acted as the firm’s legal advisor. NINE58 Advisors served as financial advisor and Dentons as legal advisor to ATEO.

Nium, the leader in real-time cross-border payments, announced today that it is the first non-Japanese company to have secured a Type 1 Funds Transfer Service Provider (FTSP) license from the Japanese Financial Services Agency (JFSA). The Type 1 license authorizes Nium to provide a wide range of financial services, including transferring up to 50 million JPY per transaction via Zengin-Net, Japan's local payment clearing rail, to a Japanese beneficiary account.

In 2021, an amendment to Japan's Payment Services Act lifted cross-border transfer caps for Type 1 license holders, to lower the cost of money transfers in and out of the country. However, since this amendment passed, few companies have been able to meet the high standards for regulatory approval. As a result, businesses have had little or no choice but to use traditional high-cost, low-speed options for cross-border payments.

Nium is the first global company to meet the Type 1 license standards, with the JFSA recognizing its ability to integrate with local payment rails, deliver real-time transactions, provide transparent costs, and offer significantly cheaper rates. Most other non-bank entities, including Money Service Businesses, hold Type 2 licenses, which limits cross-border transfers to only 1 million JPY.

Anupam Pahuja, Executive Vice President of Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa at Nium, expressed the company's excitement about the broader impact of this achievement, stating, "Previously, only banks could transfer large funds, but today, Nium becomes the first true global alternative for large value transfers into and out of Japan. We look forward to empowering banks and businesses worldwide to do more commerce with Japan by providing the speed, efficiency, and transparency of payments that has long been missing from this important global market."

This accomplishment reinforces Nium's commitment to compliance, transparency, and regulatory excellence. It marks a pivotal moment for the company as it expands its footprint and enhances its capabilities in the dynamic markets across APAC. Nium is uniquely positioned to be the partner of choice for several key corridors as it moves forward in its mission to modernize the global payments infrastructure. It recently announced other regulatory approvals across the Asia market, including in India, where it received an in-principle approval for two sought-after payment licenses. Nium seeks to facilitate more real-time transactions and seamless financial interactions between strategic regions in the world. This accomplishment aligns with Nium's commitment to redefining global financial services by providing users with unparalleled access to secure and innovative payment solutions.

"We are very excited about Nium's attainment of the Japan Type 1 license. With this license, we anticipate not only real-time money transfers, but also cost-effective transactions, enhancing the overall ease and efficiency of the money transfer process between Korea and Japan. This will enable both MOIN and Nium to better satisfy our customers, which is the most thrilling aspect for us," stated Ian Ilseok Suh, CEO of MOIN

As Nium expands its operations in Japan, it anticipates fostering local partnerships and contributing to the growth of the Japanese fintech ecosystem. The company remains dedicated to building trust with its users and partners by prioritizing security, compliance, and customer satisfaction.

Railpen, the fiduciary and investment manager of the UK railways’ pension schemes, has appointed BNY Mellon, the global financial services company, to provide a cloud-based data platform that simplifies its data architecture and supports the resilience of its operating model. The platform will deliver greater insights from Railpen’s proprietary data for the purpose of investment reporting and generating analytics.

Railpen is responsible for the safekeeping and investment of around £34 billion in assets for the 350,000 members of the railways pension schemes, one of the UK’s largest and longest established pension funds.

"As part of our strategy to optimise and scale our operating model, our collaboration with BNY Mellon is an important step in achieving our objective of delivering the best possible outcomes for our 350,000 members. BNY Mellon’s data operating platform will help enhance the resilience of Railpen’s investment and functional teams, providing a greater ability to analyse and incorporate new data feeds, and prepare us to benefit from innovations, now and in the future,” said John Robson, Railpen Chief Technology Officer.

As part of the contract, BNY Mellon will provide the railways pension schemes with additional services including custody, investment accounting and front-office support solutions for Railpen’s public and private assets – replacing a legacy solution. 

"For clients looking to data to power their businesses, our 240 years of experience and longstanding focus on developing trusted data infrastructure and analytics tools that address their evolving needs, is helping make investing more effective and easier for them,” said Julie Gerdeman, Global Head of Data & Analytics, BNY Mellon. “Providing greater insights will help Railpen deliver on its commitment to its members across the investment lifecycle, as well as strengthen its risk management and governance practices.”

BNY Mellon recognizes the importance of pension funds in the UK, and across the world, and is committed to developing trusted tools that address evolving needs.

Mastercard and MTN Group Fintech have signed a multi-market agreement that will set in motion a new era of collaboration to connect millions of people and small businesses across Africa with digital tools to transact through secure mobile payments, expanding access to the benefits of the cashless digital economy.

The partnership will use Mastercard’s cutting-edge technology and capabilities to support MTN’s ambition to become Africa’s largest fintech platform for both merchants and consumers. This follows Mastercard and MTN’s recent agreement for a minority investment into MTN Group Fintech - the digital financial services arm of Africa’s largest mobile network operator – that concluded this month.

With MTN's overall subscriber base at 290 million and 60 million active monthly MoMo (Mobile Money) wallets, the agreement will impact 13 markets in Africa including Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Republic of Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.

“Our innovation strategy is based on collaboration. We are very proud of our partnership with MTN that will enable digital commerce for millions of people in Africa. In addition, mobile money solutions can be greatly beneficial for SMEs, enabling growth through seamless commercial operations, wider payments acceptance, access to affordable credit, and secure digital tools,” said Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Market Development EEMEA, Mastercard.

Africa is home to over 1.3 billion people and only about 43% are banked with over 90% of all payments and transactions made via cash. And of the total population, 45% have mobile money accounts. Over the past five years, Mastercard and MTN have joined together to support several mobile money programs across Africa, helping people to make payments through global platforms, thus bringing more people into the financial mainstream.

“When there is a mutual vision – in this case to bring access, progress, financial inclusion, and prosperity to people – the road to partnership is a simple one. We look forward to working with Mastercard as a partner that is also committed to the enablement of more people and businesses through the collaboration into best-in-class apps, superior user experiences, safe transactions, secure remittances, new use cases, and expanded acceptance,” said Serigne Dioum, Group CEO, MTN Fintech.

The collaboration will help strengthen local infrastructure for digital payments, support potential expansion of transactions in the future and drive financial inclusion through access to assets.

Enabling global access for MoMo wallet users

A virtual and physical Mastercard companion card will be added to every MoMo wallet allowing users access to over 100 million acceptance locations globally enabling MTN to scale up internationally.

With this access, Mastercard will also be able to provide its cybersecurity solutions to MTN’s operations with the aim of increasing customer loyalty and trust.

Empowering SMEs with payment acceptance solutions

The agreement will enable SMEs with payments acceptance solutions such as Mastercard’s SME-in-a-Box, a low-cost payment solution that enables small business owners to move their businesses online and accept a range of digital payments from their customers.

SME owners will now be able to access solutions with the opportunity to set up an e-commerce shopfront, including QR enablement, Tap on Phone solutions, and digital card acceptance. This aims to further elevate customer experience, reduce business costs, and open new avenues for growth and innovation.

Expanding reach for remittance solutions

Through the partnership, consumers will now have expanded reach for mobile money remittance services – both inward and cross-border remittances in Africa. The demand for international remittance services is growing with more than US$2 billion in daily processed transactions, equivalent to more than 40% of the GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa. International remittances via mobile money wallets grew by 65% year over year in 2020 to around US$1 billion, with no signs of slowing.

Mastercard is committed to its work with multiple telecommunications network companies across the continent and around the world, to make financial inclusion a reality. The company has pledged to bring 1 billion people and 50 million SMEs into the global digital economy by 2025. The work to provide MTN’s consumers and SME customers with easy and secure solutions, platforms and tools is just one example of work to deliver on this goal.