Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 24 October 2018
iCard and myPOS enable JCB Contactless acceptance in Europe
JCB International, announces the rollout of JCB Contactless acceptance with iCard, a licenced electronic money provider and myPOS Europe Ltd, an FCA Authorised electronic money institution.
iCard is the acquirer of the transactions behind the myPOS Service and the combined deal facilitates the acceptance of JCB’s branded contactless payment solutions, JCB Contactless, with merchants across Europe.
JCB cardmembers will be able to pay for goods and services at merchants acquiring payments using myPOS contactless-enabled payment terminals with a tap of their card or smartphone. This is an important milestone for JCB’s global contactless reach as the company drives acceptance coverage across the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland for its 117 million JCB cardmembers.
Mr. Tsuyoshi Notani, Managing Director, JCB International (Europe) Ltd., said: “This is a significant new partnership for JCB’s advanced contactless payments solution as we look to partner with forward-thinking acquirers and PSPs to drive acceptance for cardmembers across Europe. Both iCard and myPOS are at the forefront of the industry and provide great value to merchants and consumers alike. The additional payment method this deal facilitates will create a streamlined payments experience for JCB cardmembers looking to use contactless to enhance the shopping experience.”
Interactive Investor Agrees to Buy Alliance Trust Savings from Alliance Trust Plc
Interactive Investor, the UK’s second largest investment platform, has agreed to acquire Alliance Trust Savings (“ATS”), from Alliance Trust PLC, for a total consideration of £40m subject to post completion adjustments, and includes Alliance Trust’s office building in Dundee, where ATS is based.
The transaction brings together the two largest fixed price retail investment platforms, combining the content and digital capabilities of ii with ATS’ well-established adviser business and its investment trust heritage.
ii is committed to championing informed investment choice and value for its customers. In an increasing technology and data-driven environment, increased scale will support ii’s sustained investment in technology and talent, enabling the provision of the best customer experience and service in the sector.
ii is majority owned by JC Flowers and currently has £90m of net assets, with assets under administration (“AUA”) of £20 billion and more than 300,000 customer relationships. On completion of the transaction, this is expected to increase to £35 billion of AUA and 400,000 customers. Both ii and ATS customers will benefit from ii’s increased scale, financial strength and profitable business model. By leveraging ii’s growing scale and financial strength the Company will be well placed to make further investment in technology, products, staff and customer services.
Zwipe and Tappy Technologies Launch Biometric Enabled Wearables Payment Partnership and Licensing Agreement
Biometric technology company Zwipe and pioneering wearables technology company Tappy Technologies are proud to announce their partnership to jointly develop and launch biometric enabled wearable payment, access and digital authentication devices.
With this agreement Tappy Technologies will be licensing Zwipe’s core intellectual property, enabling biometric authentication in a range of form factors.
Tappy Technologies is an innovative global provider of tokenization services, providing the most essential elements to enable wearable payment applications for major payment schemes, leading issuers and world-renowned fashion labels serving as the primary manufacturer for some of the world’s most recognized watch brands.
Speaking on the agreement Wayne Leung, CEO of Tappy Technologies said, “we count some of the biggest payment networks, banks and watch brands in the world as our trusted customers and we strongly believe that the future of wearable payments will be biometric. In 2017 brands partnering with us sold over 85 million units, and we expect to see our wearable payment and tokenization platform deployed in millions of units over the next years and we are proud to partner with Zwipe to enable biometric authentication as part of this portfolio next year.” Adding, “at Tappy we have an insatiable appetite for innovation and our latest offering, a unique biometric wearable solution is going to be a game changer in the wearable payment space as it enables second factor authentication in passive devices, offering the most secure & seamless wearable contactless payment experience to our customers.”
Sberbank and Swift sign MoU
During Sibos 2018, Sberbank and SWIFT signed a memorandum of understanding that extends the cooperation on the Alliance Messaging Hub (AMH), a financial messaging platform created by SWIFT.
The parties agreed to enter the second phase of their AMH implementation project, which aims to extend use of AMH to Sberbank’s subsidiaries that are not currently serviced by the bank’s HQ infrastructure, and to support ISO 20022 messaging. The first phase of the implementation of the AMH solution has been ongoing through the joint work of Sberbank and SWIFT experts since the parties signed the initial agreement in 2017.
Sberbank intends to use SWIFT AMH system as a technological solution to facilitate the centralisation and optimisation of processing Sberbank Group’s internal and external payment flows and other financial operations.
