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Payments:Unpacked Newsletter
Bitcoin and United States Notes
There was once a new currency that allowed for anonymous transactions and was issued in a fixed total amount in order to stabilise its value. However, it was a fiat currency, not pegged to gold or another fixed asset. Not surprisingly this novel currency was highly volatile in value, constantly rising and falling. Its introduction... Continue Reading →
The next generation standard for UK retail payments
The migration of the payments industry to the ISO 20022 standard, not just within the UK but globally, will have a profound impact on the data carrying capability of payment systems. Whilst the fundamentals of a robust and resilient clearing and settlement mechanism will remain, the ISO 20022 standard will take the exchange of data... Continue Reading →
From Morse code to Monzo
Raconteur have been thinking about the history of Fintech. Innovations in the financial sector have transformed the way we save, spend and trade. Banking systems, which once relied on London bank clerks meeting in the Six Bells tavern to exchange cheques, are now automated thanks to advances in technology. Customers have also benefitted, with a slew... Continue Reading →
A staple for anyone in the payments industry
Have you subscribed to the Payments:Unpacked newsletter yet? Here's a reader recommendation....
Digital solutions where size no longer matters
Credit card usage has grown exponentially since the launch of Barclaycard in 1966 and card payments overall from the first debit card, also from Barclays, in 1987. The move from paper vouchers to electronic processes led to greater growth in businesses offering card acceptance but entry and fixed monthly costs still meant that, until relatively recently,... Continue Reading →
Request to Pay partnership supports appointeeship and deputyship services
Fintech company Answer Pay and The Money Carer Foundation have teamed up to launch Request to Pay functionality to help support for older and vulnerable people across the UK. Answer Pay connects payment services providers to Request to Pay services through a simple integration. Answer Pay is the first certified provider of Request to Pay... Continue Reading →
From Post to Pounds and Pennies | How Post Office Protects UK Cash
Why reports of the death of cash are greatly exaggerated As the determined march towards a digital economy continues, cash might seem almost old-fashioned at times to those now so used to paying by debit card or online. Indeed, the days in which our wallets and purses were packed with a busy assortment of notes... Continue Reading →
Goodbye MT and hello MX – a guest blog from Santosh Rajagopalan
The year was 1973, the world was changing rapidly. The United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland entered the European Economic Community, The first American prisoners of war were released from Vietnam, The Exorcist premiered for the first time and the world of payments changed forever and for the better. Banks back then had a big problem... Continue Reading →
Don’t miss a trick
As Black Friday approaches, HSBC has enlisted magician Troy von Scheibner to show Brits how fraudsters play mind games designed to gain victims' trust and pressure them into handing over personal information. Don't miss a trick Purchase scams - where fraudsters trick shoppers into paying in advance for goods or services that are never received... Continue Reading →
Confirmation of Payee – PSR’s response to Call For Views
Today (21 October 2021), the Payment Systems Regulator has published their findings from the call for views issued in May 2021 about Confirmation of Payee (CoP). Introduction APP scams and accidentally misdirected payments can cause significant harm to consumers. Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is a service that aims to prevent certain types of scams and misdirected payments... Continue Reading →
From 4 million to 40 million Open Banking Users
Tim Waterman, Chief Commercial Officer, Zopa argues that awareness of the consumer benefits needs to be improved for the next leg of growth for open banking. Reports show that we are nearing 4 million open banking customers in the UK. Although this sounds like a large number, should we be patting ourselves on the back?... Continue Reading →
Fraud: a ‘national security threat’…why?
Grab a pastry and find out why from Steve Goddard at Featurespace. Steve writes: In March, a bakery owner in South West England received a curious SMS from her bike courier. The baker, whose canelés are famous in her city, supplies pastries to nearby cafes and other bakeries. She relies on couriers to get fresh pastries... Continue Reading →
Promoting a UK pound based CBDC
The Digital Pound Foundation has been formed as an independent body to promote a UK pound based CBDC. Chaired by Jeremy Wilson, the independent forum is backed by Accenture, CGI Group and Ripple and will push for the implementation of a digital pound and digital money ecosystem. The Digital Pound Foundation argues that the adoption a CBDC will... Continue Reading →
HM Treasury: Payments Landscape Review
The HMT payments landscape review has just been published and outlines the government’s vision is for a payments sector at the forefront of technology and innovation. Underpinning this vision are the government’s high-level aims for payments: UK payments networks that operate for the benefit of end users, including consumers. a UK payments industry that promotes and develops... Continue Reading →
When Helsinki was the epicentre of mobile – the old people will remember Nokia
A Guest Blog by Michael Boevink My first encounter with mobile payments was actually SMS and this was with Coca Cola in 1997. Coca Cola is credited with launching the world’s first digital payment system back in 1997 with several vending machines in Helsinki. The soft drink giant created a digital payment processing system where... Continue Reading →
Connecting the future
The Emerging Payments Association announced its rebrand to The Payments Association during the EP Awards ceremony on the 6th October, with the name change taking effect throughout the month. The association has seen significant growth over the past few years and has increased its volume of members by 20% in the last year alone, welcoming names such... Continue Reading →
Correspondent Banking: Wires, walks, town, diggers and funders
My first experience of the City, banking and payments was in correspondent banking - this type of banking might be unknown to some so let’s start with a definition. Investopedia describe correspondent banking as: The term correspondent bank refers to a financial institution that provides services to another one—usually in another country. It acts as an... Continue Reading →
Simpler, safer and more empowering
Interested in Request to Pay but want to find out a little bit more? Four articles that help unpack Request to Pay. Pay by Link or Request to Pay? Peter Cornforth, Answer Pay’s Commercial Director asks, if Pay By Link is so straight forward then why has it seen more success? He suggests that the... Continue Reading →
What’s the Chase?
Tanya Thourani has been reflecting on Chase’s entry into the UK’s current account banking marketplace: Source: Tanya Thourani Tanya asks: Will you value a modern offering from an established financial institution or a more established offering from a modern institution?Last month, JPMC launched a digital retail bank in the U.K, challenging the British rivals (Neo +... Continue Reading →
Central Bank’s are focussing on CBDC’s
In the latest issue of the e-Pound:Unpacked newsletter, we take a look at the creation of the UK’s Central Bank Digital Currency Taskforce, see which Central banks are discussing CBDCs and look at the New Zealand central banks consultation on the future of money. Central Bank Digital Currency Taskforce Source: HM Treasury HM Treasury have published the... Continue Reading →
Contactless control
Lloyds Banking Group customers will be able to set their own limits when the new £100 ceiling on contactless card payments comes into effect in October. The upcoming hike in the contactless spending limit on consumer debit cards has raised fears that they could become a target for fraudsters, who can escape unchecked for at least... Continue Reading →
A guide to Variable Recurring Payments
A guide to Variable Recurring Payments in open banking from Yapily Yapily have been unwrapping Variable Recurring Payments; What are Variable Recurring Payments (VRP)?Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) are a huge milestone for open banking. This allows variable payment amounts to be collected on an ongoing basis and, when fully mandated, will act as a smarter, flexible... Continue Reading →
Are Direct Debits doomed?
Nancy McCaw at ORG has been thinking about whether the revised NPA scope and timeline means that Direct Debit is now doomed. Nancy writes: The recent Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) determination that Pay.UK must revise both the scope and timeline for the introduction of the New Payments Architecture (NPA) was no great surprise to industry observers. Progress... Continue Reading →
Growing digital payments
Join me on Wednesday 6th October at 11am at Access All Areas, The Access Group’s virtual event next week, where I’ll be talking through how the pandemic has accelerated digital and how to optimise your payments for this new landscape and grow your revenue. Sign up here: https://dash.hubilo.com/#/event/6506/1541651/session/78936/basic-details
A question of trust
Ahead of last week’s Money2020 event Anne Boden (CEO over at Starling Bank) has been gathering her thoughts on trust in the banking industry and the future of embedded finance. OK, I’ll say it. A lot of people don’t trust banks. This was, in great part, a motivation for the creation of Starling. Dissatisfaction with banks was... Continue Reading →
Rydych chi wedi mynd y tu hwnt i’ch terfyn gorddrafft #Cymru
Customers of HSBC in Wales may soon be able to ask for a loan in their native language after the global bank announced that it was offering Welsh lessons to branch staff in the country. More than 50 branch staff have volunteered to take lessons in the language, including online instruction and live tutorials with fluent Welsh-speakers.... Continue Reading →
Five years on: The UK’s retail payment infrastructure
An insightful and timely Point of View on the challenges of renewing the UK’s payments infrastructure by Phil Kenworthy, Director of Payment Systems Consultancy Ltd, and previously a CEO of CHAPS Scheme and a member of the Access to Cash Review. In July 2016, the U.K. Payment Strategy Forum (under the umbrella of the Payment... Continue Reading →
Request to Pay: a key addition to modern-era digital payments?
Direct Debits were created in 1964 to make collecting payments from ice cream vendors easier. Given the state of technology and UK roads (there was only one motorway!), considerable time was required to shuttle paper between processing centres, hence the 3-day processing cycle, which over 50 years later still persists. A guest blog by Lee McNabb,... Continue Reading →
Ten things you should know about LINK and the use of cash in the UK
LINK is the UK's cash machine (ATM) network and the busiest ATM transaction switch in the world. Effectively every cash machine in the UK is connected to LINK, and LINK is the only way banks and building societies can offer their customers access to cash across the whole of the UK. All the UK's main... Continue Reading →
PSR strategy for a changing world
The PSR has been consulting on a new proposed five year strategy - views were required to be submitted by the 10 September 2021 and the PSR propose to use the feedback received to finalise their strategic approach and ensure that they focus on the right outcomes and, ultimately, publish a strategy that is balanced... Continue Reading →
Monetising digital grazing
Ex-Ripple and Visa executives unveil global retail micropayments network for Web 3.0 pingNpay, a global micropayment network backed by blockchain technology, has announced that it will make its network operational next year. The start-up plans to create a new category of high frequency, low value payments (below $20 per transaction) aimed at unlocking new digital retail... Continue Reading →
How Request to Pay is empowering payer decisions
Before exiting the house, most of us today reach of our wallet, keys, and mobile phone. Strange to think there was life without mobile phones in the 1980’s. Stranger still, that Britain’s first mobile phone call was allegedly made across the Vodafone network on 1 January 1985 by veteran comedian Ernie Wise. A guest blog by... Continue Reading →
Kids Money, just another Minecraft!
Bank accounts for kids has come up, time and time again over the years. Nigel Walsh has looked at them with interest in the past, but never had the need to make a decison - until now.... We are pleased to feature this Guest Blog by Nigel Walsh Long gone are piggy banks, the regular... Continue Reading →
World’s first variable recurring payments hackathon
Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) are one of the latest ideas in open banking, some say that they might rival Direct Debits. Open Future World, Ozone and UK Finance have decided to host the world’s first open banking Hackathon, with sponsorship from Accenture, Mastercard, VOLT and Worldpay from FIS. The hackathon will focus on financial institutions can use... Continue Reading →
Bacs, Faster Payments, the NPA and Specific Directions
In issue 5 of our New Payments Architecture Unpacked newsletter we shared nine takeaways from the Payment Systems Regulator’s (PSR) decision on lowering the risks to delivery of the New Payments Architecture but have you ever thought about how the PSR compels the scheme operators to act? Regulatory Tools The PSR has a number of regulatory tools... Continue Reading →
How Can Open Banking Make Direct Debits More Secure?
In this thought piece Nick Raper at Nuapay asks how can Open Banking make Direct Debits more secure? As well told in a previous blog by Mike here, Direct Debits first emerged back in 1968, when a Unilever employee invented a solution to the problem of collecting variable payments from thousands of ice-cream sellers. The employee, Alastair... Continue Reading →
Happy St. Lubbock’s Day
Bank Holidays in the UK were introduced in 1871 by banker and politician John Lubbock, the first Baron of Avebury. As well as his banking and political activities Sir John was also a scientific writer and tried to teach his dog to read. According to Horace G. Hutchinson in the Life of Sir John Lubbock,... Continue Reading →
How Request to Pay safeguards the UK’s 24 million financially vulnerable
In an era of individualism and empowerment, how is the payments industry responding to the needs of vulnerable households? This article explores how Request to Pay balances biller priorities with consumer and small business needs. The Choice Factor In the United Kingdom today, one in six working households—or 17.4 percent— are living in poverty, 1.5 million consumers are in water poverty, over 20 million... Continue Reading →
City Payments Tour
From the inbound CHAPS queue to CEO of the UK's systemically important payment schemes - recollections and reflections from a career in payments (all with the City's moto 'my word is my bond' intertwined). https://youtu.be/Q4tNkIyRQB8 Walking around the City of London reflecting on my career in payments. Recollections may, of course, differ but the City's... Continue Reading →
Compare and Contrast
In this week's Payments:Unpacked newsletter from Mike Chambers at Northey Point you'll find: Request to Pay Vs. Open Banking It would be really interesting to do a compare and contrast of Request To Pay Vs Open Banking powered services that will do similar soon with Variable Recurring Payments… From a customer and a biller perspective. This... Continue Reading →
Confirmation of Payee Commitment
Banks committed to deliver Confirmation of Payee extended capability by end 2021 In response to a recent call for views from the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), the SD10 firms (a group of the major banks: Lloyds Banking Group, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Nationwide and Santander who were initially directed by the regulator to... Continue Reading →
Request to Pay VS Open Banking
It would be really interesting to do a compare and contrast of RTP Vs open banking powered services that will do similar soon with VRP... From a customer and a biller perspective. This was an observation made in response by Chris Higham to a recent LinkedIn post by Mike Chambers at Answer Pay. The original post is at: https://lnkd.in/dECzVCM4 So... Continue Reading →
Integrated Payment Systems – digital solutions where size no longer matters
What started with a pepperoni pizza in 1994... Credit card usage has grown exponentially since the launch of Barclaycard in 1966 and card payments overall from the first debit card, also from Barclays, in 1987. The move from paper vouchers to electronic processes led to greater growth in businesses offering card acceptance but entry and fixed... Continue Reading →
Swiping left on magnetic stripes
Vicki Hyman at Mastercard has been writing about the end of the magnetic stripe on our debit and credit cards: In the early age of modern credit cards, they had to write down account information for each card-carrying customer by hand. Later, they used flatbed imprinting machines to record the card information on carbon paper... Continue Reading →
A couple of quid on a debit card versus a couple of coppers in a bucket?
East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH) offer care and support for children and young people with life-threatening conditions and support families across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. They offer families flexibility and control over where they receive their care and support, including where their child dies; at home, in hospital or at one of three hospices... Continue Reading →
Changing the landscape
Software is eating the world Arguably, the biggest change to our daily lives in our lifetime has been the proliferation of mobile telephony and the always-on socio-digital culture. Mobile phones have become key to identifying ‘us’ in a world of digital. Their multi-colour covers define us. Their notifications punctuate our lives. And, unsurprisingly, we want... Continue Reading →
Click and Collect your Cash
In the midst of a digital payments revolution it is all too easy to discount physical notes and coins as being an historic artefact with no place in today's payment mix. However, despite a 38% week on week decrease in the use of the UK's ATM's (2019 vs 2021) the Financial Conduct Authority state that... Continue Reading →
Stablecoins (explained in 10 minutes)
10-minute explainer on Stablecoins by Dave Birch from the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation There are about $117 billion of various sorts of so-called stablecoin out there - and some serious folk worry about the systemic implications. Not (necessarily) Dave Birch, who acknowledges that there are scams, and that there is a need... Continue Reading →
Will China’s story of going ‘cashless’ foretell the West’s digital future?
The first banknotes were issued in China during the reign of Emperor Hien Tsung (AD806-82) and now China is at the forefront of digitising notes and coins into a retail CBDC. Will China’s story of going ‘cashless’ foretell the West’s digital future? Checkout Cashless: China's Digital Currency Revolution by Richard Turrin. More about Cashless: Cashless is the... Continue Reading →