Friday November 8, 2019 –
Here are the new and noteworthy stories we have been following this week.
Global Payments Announces Strategic Partnership with Desjardins Group in Canada
Global Payments is acquiring the merchant services business and portfolio of Desjardins Group and entering into a ten-year marketing alliance agreement; additionally, Global will be winding down Desjardins Accord D in-store POS financing program.
First Horizon National Corporation and IBERIABANK Corporation to Combine in Merger of Equals to Create a Leading Regional Financial Services Company
First Horizon and IBERIABANK are merging to create a new Top 25 banking regional banking entity with $75 billion in assets and $57 billion in deposits.
Citigroup plans on unveiling a digital savings account for American Airlines cardholders
Citi is planning on offering its American Airlines co-branded credit cardholders a high-interest online savings account as part of its strategy to drive new deposits.
Alipay launches international e-wallet, giving foreigners access to mobile payment platform in first for China
Ant Financial is providing foreign visitors to China the ability to use Alipay through a 90-day prepaid card issued by the Bank of Shanghai that can be funded by the visitors international credit or debit card.
Interac Corp. acquires Ottawa-based 2Keys
Interac is acquiring 2Keys, a digital security company that will operate as a subsidiary of Interac and help with the acceleration and rollout of digital ID and support the growth of secure digital commerce.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/interac-corp-acquires-ottawa-based-2keys-897638986.html
Exclusive: PayPal’s move on physical stores
PayPal is taking at another run at in-store payments under its own brand as well as Venmo, possibly leveraging both QR codes and NFC technology.
https://www.axios.com/paypals-move-physical-stores-3311096c-a5f9-4222-8ecf-21eb434bac6e.html
JPMorgan Has a Plan to Help Amazon and Airbnb Look More Like Banks
Chase is building an e-wallet for tech and platform companies allowing them to offer virtual bank accounts to their customers – in return the companies will receive subsidized payment processing and cash management services.
Banks have lost a quarter of the payments franchise to new players – BIS
According to the Bank for International Settlements’ annual Red Book report, non-banks now account for 25% of the institutions offering payment services or payment instruments, up from 14% six years ago.
TransferWise links up with Indonesian, Philippine e-wallets
Money transfer company TransferWise has begun processing international transfers directly into Asian digital wallets starting with Indonesia and Philippines; previously transfers were made to bank accounts.
IBM, Bank of America Team Up on Public Cloud Aimed at Banks
IBM and Bank of America have teamed up to develop a public-cloud computing service for banks that is designed to meet the banking industry’s regulatory and compliance requirements including automated security tools and top-level encryption.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-bank-of-america-team-up-on-public-cloud-aimed-at-banks-11573016461
U.S. Consumer Credit Rises at Slowest Pace Since June 2018
U.S. consumer credit grew at a 2.75% annualized rate to $4.15 trillion in September with revolving balances contracting modestly by 1.2% while nonrevolving debt was up by 4.2%.
