JCB International Credit Card Co., Ltd.the US subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd., Japan's only international payment brand, and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (NY MTA), the largest public transit authority in North America, are pleased to announce the enablement of JCB Contactless payment acceptance at all OMNY (One Metro New York) contactless subway and bus validator screens.

NY MTA is one of the largest transportation systems in the world and a vital infrastructure not only for locals, but also for travelers. JCB has been one of NY MTA's long-time fare payment options and now enabling contactless payments gives JCB cardmembers the convenience of tapping their cards wherever OMNY, NY MTA's contactless fare payment system, is available.

Sarah Meyer, Chief Customer Officer of NY MTA, commented, "We look forward to working closely with JCB. Huge numbers of visitors from Asia will be able to experience the seamlessness of OMNY when they are visiting New York City. We are excited about being a conduit to contactless users from around the world."

Ray Shinzawa, President & COO at JCBUSA, said, "We are pleased that our JCB cardmembers can now enjoy the added convenience of tapping their cards or smartphones on NY MTA subway and bus validator screens. We respect and appreciate NY MTA's NFC adoption of JCB, a prominent payment brand from Asia. JCB has been leading the NFC interface since 2000's with Felica in Japan. JCB's NFC acceptance is growing rapidly, and JCB is committed to broaden the NFC network to enhance convenience and security in transportation around the world."

Mastercard partnered with cryptocurrency finserv platforms Amber Group, Bitkub, and CoinJar to launch crypto payment cards in Asia-Pacific, per a press release. The cards will convert digital tokens into fiat currency that can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted. The initiative is part of Mastercard’s global crypto card program, which seeks to support native digital currencies as payment tools.

How we got here: The total market value for crypto assets hit $3 trillion, roughly quadrupling from the end of 2020, per Bloomberg—indicating growing demand for digital currencies.

As a result, issuers are looking to capitalize on these assets: Major financial institutions—like JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Capital One—increased crypto talent hiring by 40% in the first half of 2021 compared with the same period last year, per LinkedIn data. Facilitating crypto payments may therefore be an attempt to keep issuers tied to Mastercard’s network as they start thinking about offering crypto services.

The opportunities: Here’s how we think Mastercard could benefit from introducing crypto payment cards in Asia-Pacific.

• Boost payments volume by tapping into crypto demand in the region. Forty-five percent of consumers in Asia-Pacific plan to use cryptos in the next year, according to Mastercard’s New Payment Index. Younger consumers show particular interest in digital currencies: 71% said they are more open to using cryptos than they were a year ago. Introducing payment cards can help Mastercard better serve customers in the region—and increase its payments volume—especially among millennials who are entering their high-earning years and are more likely to spend using cryptos.
• Gain a stronger foothold in the burgeoning crypto payments space through collaboration. In the last year, cryptocurrency exchanges like CoinJar have emerged as formidable players in the digital payments space. Working with these types of providers lets Mastercard take advantage of their already-existing crypto technology and infrastructure—and avoid building it in-house, which can be costly. And it also gets these fintechs on Mastercard’s side before they become competitors.

The bigger picture: In February, Mastercard said it would integrate select cryptos on its network. The card network delivered on that promise with plans to service the Gemini credit card—a few months later, it launched a crypto payment settlement pilot and a blockchain startup engagement program. The company also acquired crypto intelligence and security startup CipherTrace in September.

Related content: Check out our “Blockchain in Payments” report for an in-depth review of crypto use cases, benefits, and challenges—and what payment providers are doing to meet growing crypto demand.

B2B Payments bank, Banking Circle, has joined the Danish national intraday clearing system. Through Banking Circle as a direct clearing participant, Payments businesses and Banks can now pay out and collect payments locally in Denmark on behalf of their customers more quickly and at lower cost than via traditional cross border payment methods. This will enable e-commerce businesses around the world to tap into the growing Danish market.

According to JP Morgan data[i], Danish e-commerce saw double digit growth in 2020, citing Denmark as a nation willing to spend in high amounts online. However, it appears to be a relatively untapped market for cross border transactions, accounting for just 22% of Denmark’s overall e-commerce market. Banking Circle’s investment in establishing direct clearing for the Danish Krone will enable Payments businesses and Banks to extend the services they offer to their e-commerce clients to capitalise on this market.

“Previously, businesses based outside of Denmark and wishing to trade in the Danish market had no choice but to rely on the slow, costly and outdated correspondent banking network,” explained Anders la Cour, Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle Group. “Now, following our significant investment to build the payment rails as a direct clearing participant in the Danish national intraday clearing system, Banking Circle is uniquely able to offer Payments businesses and Banks access to faster, lower cost collections in Denmark

“This new clearing capability and direct settlement on Banking Circle’s own account with the Danish Central Bank - all integrated into our cloud based payments infrastructure for optimum agility  - means our clients can process payments in DKK as if they were local transfers. This reduces the payment friction involved in going through partner banks.”

With this new clearing option, Banking Circle enables its clients to offer their customers payments and collections in DKK in their own name rather than that of the Financial Institution used to send the payment. This is crucial for scaling of accounts, and delivers faster on-boarding, improved payment infrastructures, more ownership of payments and faster, smoother reconciliation.

“Banking Circle is focused on continually developing solutions that tackle the payment pain points and areas of friction to make cross border payments more accessible for businesses of all sizes, and this latest initiative is clear evidence of that mission”, added Anders la Cour. “Cross border payments traditionally can take as much as five working days and cost up to 50 EUR. Our goal is to reduce the cost and increase the speed of payments as far as possible – to five minutes and 50 EUR cents or less. Increasing the number of direct payment rails we offer is a vital part of the journey.”

 
Commerzbank and the employee representatives have successfully completed negotiations on the implementation of Strategy 2024. “Just nine months after the announcement of Strategy 2024, we have finalised the Bank’s target structure in Germany,” said Manfred Knof, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank. “With the agreement on the partial settlements of interests, we have reached an important milestone. We can now continue moving full speed ahead with the transformation. I wish to thank all involved parties for the constructive and successful cooperation that enabled us to achieve this positive result so quickly.”
 
The agreement creates clarity on the structure of all group divisions in Germany. With these new structures, the Bank will be significantly leaner than before. The number of management positions will decrease by around 30%. “All employees now have transparency with regard to the future structures. This creates clear perspectives for the future,” said Sabine Schmittroth, Board Member responsible for Human Resources.
 
With the agreement on the partial settlements of interests, the framework social plan approved in May 2021 will also come into force. Effective immediately, employees can utilise the instruments for a socially responsible headcount reduction. “We offer our employees a wide range of instruments appropriate for the phase of life where they find themselves,” said Sabine Schmittroth. “We’re on the right track to implement the headcount reduction as socially responsible as possible.”
 
The Bank and the employee representatives also completed negotiations on the terms of an in-house collective agreement on the advisory centre that will come into force when the target structure takes effect no later than in the fourth quarter of 2022. The in-house collective agreement permits work on Saturdays and guarantees the continued operation of all advisory centre locations until 31 December 2027. The advisory centre is a cornerstone of the Bank’s strategy in the Private and Small-Business Customers segment. In the future, it will complement the onsite advisory services in 450 branches and the Bank’s online and mobile banking services.
 
Commenting on the agreements, Uwe Tschäge, the Chairman of the Central and Group Works Council, said: “With the partial settlements of interests and the in-house collective agreement along with the site guarantees for the advisory centre, we have ensured appropriate weighting of employee interests in the transformation of Commerzbank. We will continue to exert our influence to ensure that the restructuring gives due consideration to social factors and that the Bank continues to provide dependable working conditions.”
 
With Strategy 2024, Commerzbank is repositioning itself for its customers. The goal of the restructuring is to combine the advantages of a fully digitalised bank with personal advisory services, a consistent customer focus and sustainability. On the way to establishing long-term profitability, the Bank will reduce headcount by approximately 10,000 full-time positions in gross terms by 2024. More than half of the necessary headcount reductions are already ensured and contracted in a socially responsible way.

Large-format retailer and finance company named finalist in the “Best Example of Customer Implementation of Embedded Finance” category

 Provenir, a global leader in data analytics software and risk decisioning, today congratulated its customer Curacao for being recognized as a Tearsheet Embedded Awards 2021 finalist in the Best Example of Customer implementation of Embedded Finance” category for expanding financing services to help generations of underbanked consumers.

The nature of the financial institution is changing and embedded finance turns every app, software, retailer, and business into a bank. Tearsheet’s Embedded Awards are the financial industry’s top awards program focused on embedded finance, recognizing the best, most innovative players in the embedded finance and banking as a service space.

Curacao, formerly called La Curacao, began as a small local retail store in 1980 catering primarily to the Latino community in Los Angeles and has since expanded its retail footprint 13 stores and growing in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Contributing to Curacao’s growth is its ability to offer leading consumer product brands and services, including its own innovative export, travel and money transfer services, all accessible through its Curacao Credit offering.

Curacao has made credit available and accessible to more than two million customers, enabling them to access the products they need to live their best lives today. By partnering with leading technology and data partners such as Provenir, the company continues to open and streamline the channels for customer acquisition and servicing.

“Curacao continues to innovate and evolve its servicing and decisioning platforms to offer consumers hyper convenience and ubiquitous access to services that meet their current and future needs,” said Kathy Stares, Executive Vice President, Americas, Provenir. “We congratulate Curacao on their recognition and look forward to continuing to support Curacao’s growth by delivering real-time risk decisioning technology that enables the company to easily design, build, and deploy solutions to solve complex business challenges such as retail financing and credit card management.”

Provenir’s flagship product, Provenir Cloud Suite, is the industry’s first, true risk-decisioning ecosystem,  powering Curacao’s offerings. The Provenir Cloud Suite provides a comprehensive real-time view of unified decisioning-performance, third-party and historical data, as well as automated analytics. Through one unified digital experience offering four cloud products — decisioning, data, insights and solutions —users can create the platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud solution that best fits their business needs.

CaixaBank's IT team is set for a fraught weekend as it begins its technological integration with recently-acquired Bankia, unifying the computer systems of both banks as well as the data stored on them.

Stori, a Mexican fintech bringing credit cards to the country's middles class, has raised $125 million in a Series C funding round, adding another $75 million in debt financing.

Trulioo report identifies qualities needed for compliance, risk and IT security professionals to build online trust and create a sustainable digital ecosystem

• 87% of organizations report digital identity is increasing in importance

• 73% of compliance, risk and IT security professionals say it’s extremely important that organizations up-level standards for building trust

• Currently, only 15% of compliance, risk and IT security professionals are empowered to operate as ‘Champions of Trust’

• 70% believe digital identity is the foundation to build a sustainable digital ecosystem

Following a $394M Series D financing round earlier this summer to build the foundation for global financial inclusion, global identity verification leader Trulioo is strengthening pathways to create a more inclusive and trust-oriented digital economy. With the ability to verify 5 billion consumers and 330 million business entities worldwide, Trulioo has identified a new type of compliance, risk and IT security leader within companies, the ‘Champion of Trust,’ as a rising force of innovation.
Newly released research from Trulioo defines the traits of this ‘Champion of Trust’ professional — and explores pathways to empower more compliance, risk and IT security professionals to step into this role.

“Champions of Trust possess the skills, vision and commitment to use digital identity as a tool for positive change over the coming years,” commended Steve Munford, CEO at Trulioo. “Organizations will increasingly rely on these leaders to navigate the practicalities of accelerating risk, fraud, and cybercrime while creating a safe, inclusive, and sustainable digital ecosystem.”

Currently, only 15% of all compliance, risk and IT security professionals are operating as Champions of Trust, yet 73% believe it is extremely important that organizations develop more Champions of Trust in the next two years in order to build online trust against the backdrop of accelerating cybercrime and fraud risks.

Digital identity has emerged over the last two years as a key strategic imperative for businesses, with 87% of compliance, risk and IT security professionals reporting that it has become more important to their organization as a result of the pandemic. 

The research is presented in a new white paper published today, ‘Champions of Trust: A new generation of leadership for a digital-first world.’ The research was conducted across 16 countries globally, among more than 400 compliance, risk and IT security professionals, across business functions, in a wide range of industries.  

“The pandemic has highlighted to businesses the importance of online trust in an increasingly digital-first economy. With usage and reliance on digital services set to grow further over the coming years, the need for organizations to manage an increasingly complex and sophisticated risk landscape is critical,” added Munford. “Fortunately, this research suggests that compliance, risk and IT security professionals around the world are ready to step up to meet this challenge, using digital identity to protect customers and build an inclusive and trust-based digital world. Champions of Trust have a critical role to play, not just within their own organizations, but across the wider digital ecosystem.”

Notably, the vast majority of professionals surveyed — whether they come from a Fraud & Risk, Trust & Safety, Compliance or IT background — recognize a deep responsibility to use digital identity as a way to counteract bad actors, improve financial inclusion, and drive positive change within the world. 70% strongly believe that digital identity is the foundation of trust, not just for their organization and customers, but to build a sustainable digital ecosystem.

Champions of Trust

Operating at the highest levels of their professions, Champions of Trust are taking tactical, meaningful steps forward to improve financial inclusion and access to critical services. They are adept at collaborating with stakeholders across business units and advocating for the importance of digital identity as a key strategic imperative for enhancing customer experience, managing risk and driving compliance.

Champions of Trust adopt a global-first perspective on digital identity and are constantly looking to increase their understanding of the unique requirements for commerce across borders to support their organizations’ growth and expansion plans. They take ownership for their own career development and are continually looking to improve their capabilities in order to leave a lasting legacy with their organizations.

Importantly, Champions of Trust operate in organizations with the right culture, leadership and technologies to optimize the use of digital identity to protect customers and increase online trust and transparency. 

Worryingly, the research highlights the potential consequences for organizations that don’t create conditions for Champions of Trust to succeed. These include becoming more vulnerable to fraud threats and security incidents (cited by 52% of compliance, risk and IT security professionals), fractured customer experience (43%), and reputational damage or erosion of customer trust (42%).

Munford concluded, “It’s hard to overstate the role Champions of Trust will play in the coming years. Their contribution will be vital in shaping an inclusive and safe digital ecosystem for the future. As an industry, we owe it to these individuals to do all we can to help them on their journey, ensuring they have the training, support, leadership and tools they need to fulfill their potential and make a positive difference.”

The white paper, ‘The Champions of Trust: A new generation of leadership for a digital-first world,’ is available for download here.  

One of the key problems for owners of cryptocurrency and their heirs is the inability to gain access to their digital assets for technical (lost codes) or physiological reasons (the death of the owner). According to estimates by the New York Times, crypto wallets containing more than  USD 140 billion in assets were blocked for these reasons as of the beginning of 2021. When a  businessperson working in cryptocurrency markets dies suddenly, it is often not only their loved ones who suffer but also their clients. The best-known case is the death in 2018 of Gerald Cotten, the founder of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada, Quadriga CX; as a result, 115 thousand clients lost access to their funds. 

Renaissance Life (https://www.renlife.ru/) has signed a cooperation agreement with the founder of the decentralized financial project Independent Decentralized Finance SmartBank &  Ecosystem (InDeFi SmartBank, https://indefibank.com/), the well-known Russian businessman  Alexander Lebedev. The InDeFi SmartBank project envisages developing and rolling out a  service that will confirm a client’s death and use that information to launch a mechanism for the inheritance of digital rights and assets. 

According to the parties to the agreement, InDeFi SmartBank will take responsibility for developing smart contracts and launching inheritance procedures. This will enable clients, in the event of their death, to transfer their digital assets to the beneficiaries specified by them.  Renaissance Life, in turn, will be responsible for confirming the client’s death. 

This unique collaboration between an insurance company, which has an excellent reputation  and enjoys the trust of its customers, and a leading Russian project in the DeFi technologies  sector should solve one of the main problems facing the crypto industry today. At least 500  thousand people are expected to use this service in the coming year. 

Renaissance Life Insurance Company LLC has been operating in the life and health insurance  market since 2004. The Company reliably meets its obligations to its customers and insured  parties. 

Renaissance Life LLC is one of the largest providers of life, accident and health insurance in  Russia, operating more than 90 branches and agencies throughout the country. Renaissance Life  is a partner of the Podari Zhizn charitable foundation. 

The Independent Decentralized Finance SmartBank & Ecosystem is a decentralized financial  blockchain service launched in 2020. The InDeFi SmartBank team consists of professionals with  years of experience in banking, finance and investment projects; the crypto industry; the public  sphere; philanthropy; and many other sectors.

InDeFi SmartBank develops smart contracts and provides a wide range of services for cryptocurrencies and digital asset management, as well as audit, consulting and marketing  support for innovative projects.