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- US Regulator Says Amazon Execs Knew Of Shady Subscription Conduct
- SumUp Launches New Early Payouts System For UK Merchants
- Nigel Farage Account Was Not Closed Due To Political Views, Says FCA
- US Lawmakers Seek To Add Credit Card Bill To Defence Bill
- Dorsey Back In Charge As Square CEO Calls It Quits
- Finastra’s Instant Payments Solution Goes Live At Banque Delubac & Cie
- Revolut Given Extension On Annual Statement For Second Year Running
- Musk Mulls Mandatory Subscription Payments For All X Users
- FedNow Has 'Much To Learn' From India’s UPI, Says Bolt CEO
- EBANX Expansion Looks To Tap Into India’s 'Booming' Digital Payments Market
- Three Arrows Co-Founders Hit By Nine-Year Prohibition Orders
- Peru Achieves QR Code Interoperability
- TikTok Fined Over GDPR Non-°ϲʹ In Ireland
US Regulator Says Amazon Execs Knew Of Shady Subscription Conduct
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has three senior Amazon executives in an amended complaint which accuses Amazon of a years-long practice to enrol consumers into its Prime programme without their consent.
In addition to the company, the FTC’s amended complaint now charges former and current senior vice presidents for Prime, Neil Lindsay and Russell Grandinetti, and the company vice president overseeing the Prime subscription programme, Jamil Ghani.
According to the agency, the executives were “fully aware” of the issues surrounding consumers being subscribed to Prime without their consent and then facing significant hurdles when trying to cancel.
For instance, the complaint alleges that Amazon created a “labyrinthine cancellation process” for Prime that the company called “Iliad”, the name of Homer’s epic about the long, arduous Trojan War.
The three executives knowingly “slowed, avoided and even reversed” user experience changes that they knew would reduce non-consensual enrollment because those changes would negatively affect Amazon’s bottom line, the agency said.
SumUp Launches New Early Payouts System For UK Merchants
Point of sale (POS) device maker SumUp has a new feature in the UK that will allow merchants to access their payments as fast as seven hours following a sale.
7AM payouts, as the feature is known, ensures that any payment received before midnight will be paid into a merchant’s nominated bank account by 7am the next day.
In a statement, SumUp said that 7AM payouts are inclusive of weekends and public holidays, with no additional fee charged.
However, the feature is only available as part of the SumUp One subscription package, which will cost merchants £29 per month.
“We have always made it easier for merchants to get paid, and what can simplify business more than releasing funds even faster than before,” said Michael Schrezenmaier, CEO of SumUp Europe.
“Faster funds access is crucial for merchants amidst the UK’s cost of living crisis, and will give merchants more control over their money, aiding cash flow management.”
Nigel Farage Account Was Not Closed Due To Political Views, Says FCA
Based on initial data, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that banks, building societies and payment companies, did not close accounts between July 2022 and June 2023 “primarily because of a customer’s political views”.
In the , the FCA noted that unlike other jurisdictions there is no right to an account in the UK. However, the Payment Accounts Regulations ban financial institutions from discriminating on the basis of political views.
'While no bank, building society or payment firm reported to us that they had closed accounts primarily due to someone’s political views, further work is needed for us to be sure,” said FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi.
The FCA said the most common reasons for closing an account were because it was inactive or because there were concerns about financial crime.
Although the regulator did not name any specific persons, the announcement comes after former UKIP leader Nigel Farage said his Coutts bank account had been closed due to his political views.
Subsequently, on September 5, the FCA opened a separate review into the treatment of politically exposed persons (PEPs).
US Lawmakers Seek To Add Credit Card Bill To Defence Bill
Supporters of the US Credit Card Competition Act are seeking to attach the bill to a defence budget bill, congressional records .
On September 13, Republican Senator Roger Marshall, one of the main sponsors of the credit card bill in addition to Richard Durbin, introduced an amendment to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
The military spending bill passed the House on July 27 and is now being considered by the Senate.
The American Bankers Association (ABA) and ten other associations sent a to House and Senate leaders, urging them to reject the attempt.
Previously in July, Marshall was seeking to attach the legislative proposal to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act. Although that attempt was unsuccessful, the Kansas Republican said he “secured assurances” that Congress would vote on the proposal.
Dorsey Back In Charge As Square CEO Calls It Quits
The CEO of Square has resigned following a major global outage that cost merchants up to $2.4bn in lost and failed transactions.
In a to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Square’s parent company, Block, confirmed that Alyssa Henry will step down on October 2 after nine years in the job.
Henry will be replaced by Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chair of Block, bringing him back to the same position he held when Square launched in 2009.
One day before Henry’s resignation was announced, the company continued to struggle with outages, with multiple Square services knocked out in Ireland, as per Square’s .
Finastra’s Instant Payments Solution Goes Live At Banque Delubac & Cie
Banque Delubac & Cie, a provider of specialist banking solutions in France, has Finastra Payments To Go, a new service that enables financial institutions to handle instant payments.
In a statement, Finastra said the software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution will allow Banque Delubac & Cie to provide other institutions with access to Europe’s TARGET Instant Payments Settlements (TIPS).
“Payment services providers (PSPs) in all 27 countries in the EU will soon be required by regulation to enable the sending and receiving of instant payments, any time or day,” said Sylvie Boucheron-Saunier, global chief revenue officer for payments at Finastra.
“The rapid time to value and our close collaboration has ensured that the solution meets the bank’s needs and ambitions for success.”
Earlier this month, Finatsra also Finastra °ϲʹ as a Service on Microsoft Azure. Some features of this solution are bundled into Finastra Payments To Go, including AI-powered transaction monitoring from Israeli data analytics firm ThetaRay.
Revolut Given Extension On Annual Statement For Second Year Running
Revolut has been an extension to submit its annual results for a second year running, while also awaiting a final decision on its UK banking licence application.
Revolut’s 2022 results were due by the end of September this year, but the company has received an extension until the end of December 2023 from Companies House, just as it did for its 2021 results last year.
The neobank’s financial statements have been a cause for concern over the last two years, and questions still remain over £477m of revenue from its 2021 annual report that its auditor, BDO, was unable to account for.
Revolut applied for a UK banking licence in 2021 and is yet to receive a decision.
Musk Mulls Mandatory Subscription Payments For All X Users
X owner Elon Musk has said he is considering introducing a “small monthly payment system” to the platform to prevent bots from posing and posting as humans.
In an with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Musk suggested that the monthly fee would be lower than the $8 per month that X currently charges for Blue, its premium subscription service.
“It’s a longer discussion, but in my view this is the only defence against vast armies of bots, because as AI gets very, very good, it’s actually able to pass these sort of CAPTCHA tests better than humans,” he said.
In August, it was that X has partnered with Israeli company Au10tix on an automated ID verification service for subscribers.
The feature, which in several markets this month, is optional, and requires users to take a selfie and a photo of a government-issued ID.
FedNow Has 'Much To Learn' From India’s UPI, Says Bolt CEO
The CEO of ride-hailing app Bolt has said the US should look to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as it rolls out FedNow, its long-awaited instant payments system.
Writing in an for Fortune, Maju Kuruvilla said the success of UPI in India can be attributed to technological simplicity, interoperability and its mobile-first approach — all of which can be emulated by FedNow.
He added that if FedNow succeeds in gaining similar levels of adoption as UPI, it could eventually serve as the United States' “speedy payments backbone”.
“FedNow is designed to accelerate transactions for the digital age, bringing to businesses and banks the fast payments that consumers enjoy through mobile services such as Zelle or Venmo,” he said.
“Perhaps most importantly, UPI shows that a government can get substantial things done, even with widespread public skepticism and within a boisterous democracy.”
EBANX Expansion Looks To Tap Into India’s 'Booming' Digital Payments Market
EBANX, a fintech that specialises in providing payment services in developing markets, has announced that it will be expanding its operations to India.
In a , EBANX said it will enable global merchants to offer their Indian customers the most-used local payment methods, starting with UPI instant payments and card payments.
“EBANX aims to bridge the gap between global businesses and Indian customers, enabling secure, convenient and localised payment experiences across industry verticals like SaaS, digital gaming, social media, digital ads, streaming and online retail,” it said.
“As the company continues its mission of expanding into rising markets, this strategic move reinforces EBANX's commitment to empowering businesses, customers and entire ecosystems worldwide.”
After growing its footprint to 15 Latin American countries over the past decade, and, more recently, to three countries in Africa, EBANX said the India entry will be followed by further expansion in Asia.
Three Arrows Co-Founders Hit By Nine-Year Prohibition Orders
The co-founders of bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) have been issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Under the prohibition orders, Zhu Su and Kyle Davies are banned from performing any regulated activity and from taking part in the management of any firm that is regulated under the Securities and Futures Act 2001 (SFA).
According to the MAS, Su and Davies failed to put in place a framework to identify, monitor and address risks associated with the crypto investments that were under their management.
The prohibition orders build on reprimands that were already handed to Su and Davies for providing false information to the MAS and exceeding the maximum threshold of assets under management for a registered fund company.
Last summer, 3AC fell into bankruptcy following the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin, as covered by Vixio.
Peru Achieves QR Code Interoperability
Peru’s private clearing house, the Cámara de Compensación Electrónica (CCE), that QR codes are now interoperable across all payment processors.
As reported by Vixio, digital payments in Peru have faced several challenges. Sending money is often too costly, electronic money acceptance is low and digital wallets do not interoperate with each other.
For example, last May, regulators pointed out that Yape, the largest digital wallet in the country, was interoperable with only 20 percent of other financial system participants and its closest competitor, Plin, could interoperate with 15 percent only.
For years, the CCE has been working to promote digital payments and break down these barriers.
Last September, the clearing house said it was working on a Pix-like payment service, which has “an experience very similar to that of a digital wallet”.
According to the CCE, digital wallets can now process all QR codes which will help increase financial inclusion in the country.
TikTok Fined Over GDPR Non-°ϲʹ In Ireland
The Irish Data Protection Commission has a €345m fine for TikTok.
The fine is due to its handling of children’s personal data between July 31 and December 31, 2020.
The DPC has also reprimanded the Chinese tech company and given it three months to fully comply with its obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The DPC is also investigating TikTok over the transfer of personal data to China, something being probed by authorities in the US as well.
