Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 24 January 2018
WeChat Pay to launch in Italy
Chinese consumers in Italy will be able to purchase both on line and in store through the app thanks to the partnership signed between the Italian company Digital Retex, Tencent Trusted Partner, and DOCOMO Digital.
WeChat Pay, the mobile payment system implemented by the most popular Chinese app, will launch in Italy in the next weeks. This will be possible thanks to the agreement signed by the Italian company and Tencent Trusted Partner Digital Retex and DOCOMO Digital, the European subsidiary of the digital payment global provider NTT Docomo.
In a few weeks, Chinese tourists visiting Italy will be able to easily purchase their goods both online and in-store through the dedicated app on their smartphones.
Chinese consumers use WeChat for payment purposes and made more than 1 million transactions per minute in 2017. Merchants can have either a dedicated POS or add WeChat Pay to the till systems, while customers will only need a smartphone and a WeChat account connected to their bank account to pay via the scan of a QR code. The code will open the digital wallet in the app and enable the transaction in Chinese currency. A click and a verification code are all that is needed to execute the transaction, the merchant will receive the amount in euros.
BofA Merrill Lynch boosts virtual card capabilities
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA Merrill) has launched an enhanced virtual card capability that uses application programming interface (API) to enable commercial purchasing clients to connect directly to the bank’s virtual card system.
This streamlined and dynamic virtual card solution, known as BofA Merrill Virtual Payables, also leverages new capabilities to create single-use account numbers in real time.
Using API, a purchasing client can also initiate payments via batch file delivery from its accounts payable/enterprise resource planning system or via the user interface.
“We are excited to present to our clients, and the market, continued enhancements and innovations with our card payment methods,” said Hubert J.P. Jolly, global head of financing and channels for Global Transaction Services (GTS) at BofA Merrill. “We are proud to be the first issuer in North America to generate single-use virtual card accounts directly from our processor, resulting in the ultimate combination of flexibility and control.”
Fico signs reseller deal with 4most
Analytics software firm FICO announced a partnership with risk analytics consultants 4most Europe to help European financial institutions comply with banking regulations. 4most, a leading European firm in regulatory risk analytics and programme management, will deliver FICO Decision Central software for analytic model governance to customers, and provide consulting.
Under European regulations, it is increasingly important for financial institutions to document the decisions they make on customers, the factors that drove those decisions, and the performance of the analytic models used to make decisions. With FICO Decision Central, financial institutions can monitor and manage the evolution of every component that goes into making a decision. This gives visibility and control over an entire decision strategy, including data quality, predictive models, optimization models, machine learning algorithms, strategy trees and rule flows.
Japanese crypto exchange bitFlyer launches in Europe
bitFlyer, the Tokyo-based operator of Bitcoin exchange, announced its launch into Europe. Having been granted a Payment Institution (PI) license to operate in the European Union it has become the first Bitcoin exchange to be regulated in Japan, the US and Europe, making it the most compliant virtual currency exchange in the world.
bitFlyer’s launch into Europe comes hot on the heels of explosive growth in Japan and launch in the US in 2017.
VSoft embraces biometrics for Arya digital banking platform
Arya, an intelligent, open architecture digital services platform for both personal and business account holders, today announced the addition of fingerprint authentication for mobile devices and facial recognition for iPhone users to its fully integrated digital banking platform.
Created by the founders of VSoft Corporation, Arya combines both mobile banking and digital banking with native, built-in features including VSoft’s industry-leading mobile deposit in a single solution.
