Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 2 May 2018
Citi dials up Apple Pay in Asia Pacific
From this date, Citi brings its credit card customers in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore Apple Pay, which is transforming the mobile payments experience with an easy, secure and private way to pay that is fast and convenient. Apple Pay will be introduced to Citi credit card customers in Taiwan later in the year.
Security and privacy is at the core of Apple Pay. When you use a credit card with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element on your device. Each transaction is authorized with a one-time unique dynamic security code.
Commenting on bringing Citi credit card customers Apple Pay, Sergio Zanatti, Head of Cards & Unsecured Loans for Citi Asia Pacific, said, “We continue to digitize our Cards business in Asia and mobile payments is an important component of the digital experience we offer our customers. With Apple Pay, Citi customers who have compatible Apple products can now use their devices to conveniently and securely make payments across a range of merchants.”
BlueVine Announces New $200 Million Revolving Line of Credit With Credit Suisse
BlueVine announced that it has secured a $200 million asset-backed revolving credit facility with Credit Suisse, one of the world’s leading financial services providers. BlueVine will use the capital to expand its highly-successful business line of credit product.
BlueVine, the provider of working capital financing to small and medium-sized businesses, also said it is raising its business line of credit limit to $250,000. Earlier this year, the company doubled its invoice factoring credit limit to $5 million. BlueVine’s total funded volume since founding is expected to top $1 billion in 2018.
“We continue to grow stronger as a technology-enabled financing provider for small businesses addressing their everyday funding needs,” BlueVine Founder and CEO Eyal Lifshitz said. “We’re helping thousands of entrepreneurs reach their business goals with an easy-to-use platform that gives them fast and convenient online access to working capital.”
Ana Sirbu, BlueVine’s Chief Financial Officer, said the new financing will continue to fuel BlueVine’s momentum as a leading player in the FinTech business lending market.
“Capital markets partnerships are critical to our ability to scale and effectively serve our expanding customer base. This financing will support our next phase of growth,” she said. “We continue to build a business for the long-term by offering the best working capital financing solutions to business owners.”
Iwoca scores £50 million in debt financing
iwoca, one of Europe’s fastest growing small business lenders, has raised an additional £50 million in a debt facility provided by a syndicate of banks.
The debt increase was led by NIBC Bank. Existing lenders in this syndicate, Shawbrook Bank and Pollen Street Capital, through one of its credit funds, also participated.
iwoca will use this facility to provide financing to micro and small business customers. This increase comes at a time when the overall value of debt products provided by banks for small businesses is contracting. According to UK Finance, the value of loan facilities approved each quarter by high street banks for businesses with less than £2 million in annual turnover fell by 52.3% between Q1 2012 and Q4 2017, while the total number of VAT registered firms has increased by 23% to 2.7 million over the same period.
Samsung Pay arrives for Starling Bank customers
Starling Bank, the mobile-only bank recently voted Britain’s Best British Bank 2018, has partnered with Samsung Electronics and announced that Samsung Pay is available to Starling customers.
This means that Starling customers with Samsung devices will now be able to use Samsung Pay as a fast and secure way to pay almost anywhere that contactless payments are accepted and without ever having to get their card from their wallet.
Samsung Pay is easy to use. Customers launch it by swiping up from the bottom edge of their smartphone screen. They can use iris, fingerprint or PIN to prove their identity, and simply tap their device on a payment terminal to make a payment. Samsung Pay allows customers to use contactless payment for transactions over £30, subject to merchant policies. Samsung Pay also offers exclusive functionality with TfL, that allows users to set a payment card up as ‘transport card’ to use on all TfL services and most National Rail services in London, allowing them to simply tap their phone against the card reader, eliminating the need to wake their phone.
