Stablecoins have seen a resurgence in use cases since July’s passage of the Genius Act, which set up regulatory guardrails for crypto. “There’s been nothing but excitement from banks [around stablecoins] while addressing some challenges in the regulations,” Matt Blumenfeld, global and U.S. digital assets lead at consultancy PwC, told Bank Automation News. “[There are] […]
Stablecoins have seen a resurgence in use cases since July’s passage of the Genius Act, which set up regulatory guardrails for crypto. “There’s been nothing but excitement from banks [around stablecoins] while addressing some challenges in the regulations,” Matt Blumenfeld, global and U.S. digital assets lead at consultancy PwC, told Bank Automation News. “[There are] […]
Stablecoins have seen a resurgence in use cases since July’s passage of the Genius Act, which set up regulatory guardrails for crypto. “There’s been nothing but excitement from banks [around stablecoins] while addressing some challenges in the regulations,” Matt Blumenfeld, global and U.S. digital assets lead at consultancy PwC, told Bank Automation News. “[There are] […]
BNY has joined forces with CommonwealthBank of Australian to provide its customers with near real-time payments for cross-border transactions.
By working with CBA, BNY customers can make and receive payments in about 60 seconds, an Aug. 22 BNY release stated.
(Courtesy/BNY)
BNY will connect its existing international payments services network to CBA’s New Payments Platform to make transactions faster in the last stretch of the payments lifecycle, the release stated.
There are 90 real-time payments networks across the globe, CarlSlabicki, co-head of global payments at BNY Treasury Services, said during an Aug. 13 roundtable hosted by the $30 billion financial institution.
And 80% of businesses plan to increase their cross-border payments in the next one to two years, according to BNY’s Emerging Payment Trends research shared at that event.
BNY aims to serve as the connector for as many global networks as possible — Australia’s New Payments Platform and U.K.’s Faster Payments, for example — to facilitate quicker and secure payments,Slabicki said.
“We can now build that into our capability to say that we can clear [payments] in 100-plus currencies, and we can move money all over the world and in the markets that allow it,” he said.
Edward Jones selects U.S. Bank to provide banking services
Wealth management provider EdwardJones has selected U.S. Bank to provide its customers with checking, saving accounts and credit solutions, according to an Aug. 22 release.
“U.S. Bank has a longstanding relationship with Edward Jones, including maintaining its credit card program,” ArijitRoy, head of consumer and business banking products at U.S. Bank, told Bank Automation News. “Given Edward Jones’ footprint, with more than 15,000 branch offices in the U.S., this partnership will extend our geographic reach beyond our 26-state branch network.”
The strategic alliance allows Edward Jones to deeply integrate customers into its ecosystem while U.S. Bank can increase its deposit base and grow customer acquisition, Roy said.
DeLand, Fla.-based SuretyBank has selected fintech Apiture to improve its digital and mobile banking, according to an Aug. 22 Apiture release.
Apiture will deliver the Apiture Digital Banking Platform to Surety Bank via APIs and will include features like online account openings, money transfers and checking balances, JenniferDimenna, Apiture’s senior vice president of product, told BAN.
Apiture’s API infrastructure also allows it to provide Surety Bank with services from more than 200 fintech partners, including a family banking and financial literacy tool from Greenlight and a real-time fraud detection solution from DefenseStorm, Dimenna said.
“We’re seeing strong demand [for digital banking tools] from both community and regional banks and credit unions as they seek to level the playing field with the largest banks,” Dimenna said. “Consumers and businesses are fueling this demand, expecting the same modern, personalized and intuitive experience in banking as they encounter in other digital experiences.”
Digital account opening and financial wellness capabilities that enable consumers to manage spending and monitor their credit score as well as instant payment services like Zelle are some of the most sought-after digital banking services, Dimenna said.
It will take Apiture six to nine months to bring Surety Bank onboard, and the bank is expected to be live on the platform by the end of October 2024, Dimenna said.
Adyen joins forces with InvoiceASAP for B2B payments
Global payments service provider Adyen has joined forces with invoicing and B2B payments provider InvoiceASAP to offer its customers the ability to generate and pay invoices from a single platform, according to Adyen’s Aug. 21 release.
The Adyen for Platform solution and Adyen’s Cash Out feature will allow customers to make payments and instantly access funds, reducing the multiday waiting period, the release stated.
The solutions will be provided via API and will include a fraud detection and prevention solution powered by network-wide insights and machine learning technology, an Adyen spokesperson told BAN.
“Businesses are always on the lookout for faster and more efficient ways to move money,” Davi Strazza, president of Adyen North America, told BAN. Adyen’s instant payments are one of the main selling points for InvoiceASAP and a growing trend that Adyen is seeing with current and prospective customers, he said.
Visit Bank Automation News’ Transactions Dashboard, which lists the technology selected or acquired by companies in the financial services industry, with a focus on technology that enhances automation.
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NEW YORK — BNY is developing a cross-border instant payments solution to keep up with demand for real-time payments. There are 90 real-time payments networks across the globe, Carl Slabicki, co-head of global payments at BNY Treasury Services, said today at a roundtable hosted by the $30 billion financial institution. And 80% percent of […]
HSBC on Tuesday announced Zing, a transfer app that will launch in the coming days in the U.K., with a wider rollout coming later. Zing is designed for users who do not have an HSBC account, enabling it to use the same approach as fintechs that are building “super apps,” or using enrollment in payment accounts as a way to sell broader financial services.
The launch of Zing places HSBC in a market that banks have largely conceded to companies like Revolut and Wise. But as these nonbanks add more traditional banking and payment services, large banks are more inclined to compete with them — both to defend their existing businesses and to find new audiences.
“Cross-border is going to be a major battleground in payments in the next few years as economies strengthen and the globalization of commerce continues,” said Thad Peterson, a strategic advisor for Datos Insights. “HSBC’s solution is a ‘shot across the bow’ for players who want to compete for international transaction volume.”
Zing will be available on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play platform. Users will be able to store up to 10 currencies in digital wallets with locked-in rates to make payments in local currencies. Consumers can use more than 30 currencies to make international payments using a combination of local and Swift payments.
Zing is part of the global HSBC Group, but it is not a bank. It is licensed as an e-money institution by the Financial Conduct Authority. Zing funds are not deposits and as such are not insured by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the U.K.’s version of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Anyone aged 18 or older can apply for the Zing card and app. HSBC already offers a fee-free multi-currency service to retail and wealth clients through its Global Markets product line, whereas Zing is meant to attract new users.
“A critical element is that Zing is open to non-HSBC customers, although they will obviously try to get you to sign up for their debit card,” said Aaron McPherson, principal at AFM Consulting. “It is a crowded space, but definitely room for another competitor. I just think the group of banks that could do something like this is fairly small; maybe Citi and a few others. Most would probably want to partner.”
The Zing launch follows several other moves at HSBC to expand its digital payments capabilities and to extend access to broader demographics. The bank recently invested $16 million in digital identity firm Yoti, which could help the bank streamline digital ID as a way to enroll new users and authenticate digital payments. HSBC also invested $10 million in Nova Credit, a firm that transfers credit bureau information between countries, making it easier for the bank to offer credit to immigrants.
HSBC did not provide an executive’s comment by deadline. In a release, James Allan, founder and CEO of Zing, said: “Now is the time for a new kind of international payments solution; one that combines cutting-edge innovation with the support of a global bank.”
International payments represent a huge and fast-growing market. Cross-border payments volume is expected to expand from $190 trillion in 2023 to $290 trillion in 2030, according to Statista.
There are a number of companies that offer cross-border payments. Wise has added partners with payment companies in different countries to make it easier for users to make payments in local currencies. Revolut, which has its roots as a mobile payment company, has added dozens of financial services over the past few years as it attempts to build a financial super app. Ripple has used the technology that supports the XRP token to offer cross-border payments for years, and recently rebranded its cross-border payments unit to address Ripple’s attempts to build international networks for digital cross-border payment processing.
There are also traditional transfer services such as Western Union and MoneyGram that are adding partnerships and expanding their use of automation to expand their international payment businesses.
It can be challenging for traditional banks to offer digital cross-border payments, according to analysts. FX and cross-border remittance have long been markets that banks have been willing to cede to others, but as companies like Wise and Revolut have attached more banking-style features, especially cards, it’s clear that banks are taking notice, said Aaron Press, research director for worldwide payment strategies at IDC Insights.
“Banks have a potential advantage if they can gain traction, which is far from guaranteed, as they won’t have to share revenue with partners, which should improve margins,” Press said.
Banks have struggled to match the FX pricing that the specialist startups offer, according to Gareth Lodge, a senior analyst for payments at Celent. “It’s not that they can’t, but more that they don’t necessarily want to,” he said.
There are several reasons for this. Banks may not have a risk appetite, fear the service may cannibalize their own higher margin transactions, or they may avoid the product because the smaller transaction size is not commercially attractive, Lodge said.
Getting into new lines of business can be a double-edged sword for banks, Press said. “There’s a risk that the different investment needs, revenue models and margin expectations will be at odds with the bank’s traditional metrics, which can cause challenges.”
Citigroup’s Treasury and Trade Solutions business is looking to hire someone to lead its global instant payments strategy amid the bank’s restructuring and efficiency efforts. The $2.2 trillion bank’s ideal candidate must have experience in the payments industry, be well versed in industry trends and capable of strategic thinking, a Citi spokesperson told Bank Automation […]
The cross-border payments industry is expected to hit $250 trillion by 2027, up from $150 trillion a decade before in 2017, as adoption grows and technology, including real-time payments, AI and new payment rails, evolves. “Clients, more and more, are demanding efficient ways of receiving and sending money,” Linda Kugblenu, vice president and product solutions […]
PacWest Bancorp is set to merge with Banc of California and raise $400 million in equity from investors, the financial institutions announced Tuesday. PacWest had been in talks with potential investors or buyers since May, following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank. The new entity “will have operational and financial scale […]
Citibank is ramping up its automation efforts and modernizing its platforms to maintain competitiveness and drive down costs. The $1.7 trillion bank increased its technology and communications spend 12% year-over-year in the second quarter to $2.3 billion, according to Citi’s earnings supplement. Spending will continue to climb, Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason said during the […]
Lloyds Bank is continuing its migration to the ISO 20022 and identifying use cases for the network’s data as its capabilities roll out in phases. The $36 billion bank is focused on figuring out how to best receive payments and data via ISO 20022, the open global standard for sending digital payment messages and data […]
Mobile apps now surpass legacy methods for consumers who routinely send or receive cross-border payments in 10 key global remittance zones, according to a new survey Visa released on Tuesday.
Fifty-three percent of remittance users are using a digital app to send or receive funds across borders, Visa said. But about 10% of consumers are still manually carrying cash to recipients in other countries, underscoring opportunities to convert them by improving access and costs, according to the San Francisco-based card network.
Visa surveyed 14,000 consumers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, France, Poland, Singapore, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates online during the last two weeks of December 2022 with assistance from Morning Consult.
Visa lacks data to directly compare digital app use with legacy methods for transferring funds across borders in those countries from recent years. But remittance traffic via mobile devices surged after the pandemic along with digital payments, said Ruben Salazar, global head of Visa Direct, in an interview.
“Recent gains in the migration of cross-border payments to digital methods is a significant win because it’s more secure and less costly for all parties, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement,” Salazar said.
In the 10 countries Visa’s survey covered, around 30% of consumers typically visit a physical bank or branch to initiate a cross-border payment, while about 10% of senders rely on cash, checks or money orders for remittances and about one in 10 consumers moves cash across borders by entrusting it to another person — typically a friend or family member — when traveling to their home country, according to Visa’s survey.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and countries in North America have the highest rates of digital-app adoption for cross-border payments, ranging between 60% and 70% in each market, Visa said.
Countries with the highest proportion of consumers routinely sending remittances across borders via any method include the UAE at 71%, Saudi Arabia at 64% and the Philippines at 48%, according to the survey.
On the receiving end, countries where the highest proportion of respondents reported routinely receiving remittances (through any channel) were Saudi Arabia at 80%, followed by the Philippines at 77% and Mexico at 70%.
Nearly 40% of UAE consumers surveyed who routinely send remittances through any channel cited high cross-border payment fees as a common pain point, and 37% of survey respondents in Singapore complained about difficulties in calculating exchange rates when sending remittances via any channel.
Visa in the last several years has built connections with about a dozen real-time payment networks and about 60 different domestic funds-transfer networks to power instant cross-border payments using its Visa Direct service that consumers access via banks and third-party remittance services, according to Salazar.
Through partnerships with Xoom, Paysend, Brightwell, Remitly and MoneyGram, among others, Visa can “land” cross-border payments in more than 1.2 billion consumer wallets, Salazar said.
Consumers still using legacy remittance methods represent a significant growth opportunity for U.S. banks that support digital cross-border payments, according to Salazar. In addition to those who hand-carry cash across borders to recipients, 10% to 15% of U.S. consumers continue to rely on cash, checks and money orders to transfer funds.
“Many older people are still using manual methods to transfer funds across borders, and U.S. banks could go further to attract more digital remittances by improving the user experience for sending cross-border payments within their mobile apps,” Salazar said.
San Juan, Puerto Rico-based FV Bank has added cross-border payment capabilities to its digital banking offerings to encourage customer retention. The new feature from the private digital bank runs on APIs and can send seven types of currency including U.S. dollars, euros, yen and cryptocurrency to 150 countries, according to an FV Bank release. “At […]
PayMyTuition is revolutionizing the cross-border student payments space with their next-generation technology and has now partnered up with Applied Performance Analytics to expand their impact across North America.
Press Release –
updated: Feb 25, 2020
TORONTO and NEW JERSEY CITY, February 25, 2020 (Newswire.com)
– PayMyTuition, a leading provider of technology-driven global payment processing solutions for international tuition payments, today announced that it has teamed up with Applied Performance Analytics Corp. (APA) and its product, HigherEd Metrics®, to provide its educational institution customers with an affordable, efficient way for students to pay tuition and student fees in North America. APA will integrate the PayMyTuition solution into their current offering to equip their partner institutions with an innovative payment alternative within the student payment space.
“With this new partnership we will be able to deliver APA’s customers, both in the United States and Canada, a next-generation payment solution for student tuition payments, removing the friction that exists within the payment scheme today,” said Arif Harji, Chief Market Strategist at MTFX Group. “APA’s deep expertise in institutional processes and workflows aids in identifying solutions that will save time, resources, and money for educational institutions and we are excited about the opportunity to partner with them to provide this solution to their customers.”
Today, educational institutions are faced with a multitude of challenges when processing international payments including unidentified or missing payments, manual reconciliation processes, and cumbersome payment processes. By partnering with APA to integrate the PayMyTuition platform into one simplified experience, international students in the U.S. and Canada will benefit from a convenient and affordable way to pay student fees and tuition.
“We are thrilled to partner with PayMyTuition to be able to provide this vertical-specific payment solution to our educational institution customers,” said Paula Darling of APA. “We can now offer a superior alternative that puts the customer experience at the forefront, allowing international students to easily make tuition payments not just within the United States, but in all of North America, making the experience more efficient and cost-effective for our clients.”
About PayMyTuition by MTFX
PayMyTuition is part of the MTFX Group of Companies, a foreign exchange and global payments solution provider, with a track record of 23+ years, facilitating payments for over 8,000 corporate and institutional clients across North America. Last year MTFX Group processed over 10 billion in currency exchange across 220+ countries in over 120 different currencies. MTFX has built its reputation on amazing people and great technology. Using a blend of “high-tech” and “high-touch” solutions, MTFX has grown to become a leader in online foreign exchange and global payment services across North America.
About HigherEd Metrics® by APA
Applied Performance Analytics Corp. (APA) was founded in 2017 and has grown its presence in the financial services and higher education sectors located across North America. APA consists of a highly-skilled group of operations management, analytics, and technology professionals that specialize in process automation, scoring, and workflow efficiencies. APA’s predictive analytics and forecasting applications deliver informed decisions that increase financial results. Coupling machine learning methods with workflow and process automation increases efficiency, accuracy, and performance results.
