Aug 29, 2024

August 2024: Top five payments stories of the month 29th August 2024 August has seen notable developments in the payments sector, including regulatory actions, acquisitions and new partnerships. Here, we run through five of the top payment stories from August, featuring Apple, JP Morgan Payments, Lemonway, Payoneer and more. Apple set to open up access to NFC tech to third-party app developers Apple opens up NFC technology Apple has announced it will soon grant third-party app developers in a number of locations access to its near-field communication (NFC) contactless payment technology. The company says that starting with iOS 18.1, developers in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the UK will be able to offer in-app contactless transactions “from within their own apps on iPhone, separate from Apple Pay and Apple Wallet”, by leveraging its NFC technology and the Secure Element (SE) chip, which safely stores sensitive information on the device. Following the release of the iOS 18.1 update, supported transactions will include in-store payments, closed-loop transit, corporate badges, car keys, event tickets, home and hotel keys, student IDs, and merchant loyalty and rewards cards. Apple also announced that support for government IDs is planned for the future. JP Morgan Payments expands in-store biometric payments throughout US with PopID JP Morgan Payments is to deploy in-store biometric payment technology among select pilot merchants in the US, through its newly expanded partnership with California-based facial recognition solutions provider PopID. The checkout solution enables shoppers to authenticate payments using the unique features of their face, without the need to present a physical card or digital wallet. The process is powered by PopID, a majority-owned subsidiary of Cali Group which handles enrolment for the solution, while JP Morgan Payments manages payment processing. The pair first debuted the solution in March last year among brick-and-mortar retailers in the US, with South Florida Motorsports – the organiser of the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix – being one of the first notable takers. Lemonway has “certain limitations” placed on its operations in Italy France-headquartered payment services provider Lemonway says it has had “certain limitations” placed on its operations in Italy by the country’s central bank, Banca d’Italia. Specifically, Lemonway writes in a note on its website that the central bank has told the company it “should not engage new Italian partners, offer new products and services to customers and – but only to the extent that shall be indicated by the Bank of Italy by 31 October 2024 – open new payment accounts for customers that carry out transactions over platforms operated by currently affiliated Italian partners”. “Up until that date, Lemonway can keep opening payment accounts for your customers without restrictions,” the company adds. Italian media outlet AziendaBanca reports that the limitations do not impact the services currently provided by Lemonway. Payoneer acquires payroll start-up Skuad in Singapore for $61m US-based paytech Payoneer has acquired Skuad, a global workforce and payroll management start-up based in Singapore, for $61 million in cash. Payoneer says the deal, carried out on 5 August, also includes “up to an additional $20 million of future payments in cash and equity” that are contingent upon Skuad achieving “certain performance and tenure milestones”. Launched in 2019, the Skuad platform seeks to simplify hiring, onboarding, payroll and talent management processes for SMBs. It currently operates in 160 countries worldwide with support for 100 currencies. Payoneer now intends to integrate Skuad’s payroll and contract management offerings into its own solutions, which currently include online money transfer and cross-border payment services for businesses and entrepreneurs across 190 countries. BoE launches discussion paper for payments innovation The Bank of England is seeking feedback on its “ambitious agenda” for the UK’s payments landscape through a newly published discussion paper. The paper seeks to identify the means necessary to strike a balance between the rapid pace of payment innovation against the central bank’s monetary and financial stability objectives. With this, the central bank’s latest publication highlights several key focus points relating to the rate of innovation. Chief among these is the financial stability risks posed by the continued detachment of financial markets from central bank money and the parallel rise of private forms of digital money, such as tokenised deposits and stablecoins. The Bank of England has so far sought to mitigate these risks through the advent of the Digital Securities Sandbox, for which a consultation was launched in April.