The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | Nov 11th

By Puja Sharma

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Palm Pay & WeChat: The Next Big Thing!

Tencent continues to expand its focus on the Middle East with a strategic partnership with Balance, an e-wallet provider in Dubai. This partnership will bring cutting-edge technology to Balance, including palm payments and the popular WeChat mini-app solution (TCMPP).

Tencent has committed to the region, and Tencent Cloud has experienced over 80% business growth, driven by strong interest from both the public and private sectors in digital transformation and cloud-based innovations.

Tencent Cloud, by entering a new partnership with Balance, is now also looking to help revolutionise the Middle East payment landscape. Balance will integrate the Tencent Cloud Palm Verification capability into its payment system, enabling secure and seamless identity authentication for payment authorisations. The authentication will occur within Balance’s private, dedicated environment, ensuring a fully compliant and secure payment ecosystem.

Balance is also working on incorporating the TCMPP platform into its app, which would provide brands and users with solutions for accessing a host of essential daily services and products through a single interface.

Nium has partnered with Ecobank Transnational Incorporated to enable seamless cross-border payments across 35 African markets for more than 32 million customers. This partnership aims to revolutionise the region’s payment landscape by enabling faster, more efficient international payments for businesses and consumers alike.

Nium’s real-time payments infrastructure will be integrated into Ecobank’s existing banking operations, empowering Ecobank to enhance its services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Ecobank will connect its existing Swift workflows to Nium, gaining access to real-time transfers, updates, clearing, settlement, and payment tracking without the need for complex API integrations.

This will significantly reduce waiting times for cross-border payments, enabling businesses to make faster payments to over 220 markets, including over 100 countries with real-time capabilities.

Ecobank is a critical financial partner in sub-Saharan Africa. Through this partnership, Ecobank’s customers across the region will benefit from an enhanced payment experience that allows faster and more efficient cross-border transactions, unlocking new opportunities for SMEs to connect with global markets.

Credit Cards as a Service

EaseMyTrip.com, one of India’s online travel platforms, has formed a strategic partnership with Hyperface, Asia’s Credit Cards as a Service (CCaaS) platform.

This collaboration aims to enhance EaseMyTrip’s card management capabilities by providing comprehensive card solutions for its existing and new customers.

Hyperface will provide EaseMyTrip support for the entire customer journey, from new customer onboarding to hyper-personalised campaigns for existing customers to elevate customer engagement through enhanced digital-first experiences. The partnership will benefit EaseMyTrip’s co-branded credit and debit card programs in collaboration with existing bank partners.

Beyond elevating existing card programs, EaseMyTrip and Hyperface are actively working towards launching new co-branded credit card programs. These initiatives are curated to benefit EaseMyTrip customers by offering tailored benefits and rewards. Hyperface’s CCaaS platform offers brands a comprehensive solution for launching, managing, and scaling their credit card programs.

NatWest has partnered with Capco, the global management and technology consultancy, to ensure a smooth transition for its systems and clients as the financial industry prepares to adopt ISO 20022 for payments and reporting.

The collaboration facilitates customer, operational and infrastructure opportunities through the development of Bankline Direct Digital, the new strategic ISO 20022-compliant cloud-based architecture behind Bankline Direct.

Bankline Direct is a cash management solution for large corporate and financial institutions that fully integrates with Treasury Management Systems and Enterprise Resource Planning platforms to automate payment processing and data reconciliation. It also provides connectivity to UK and European payment schemes.

The transition to Bankline Direct Digital streamlines connectivity ensures long-term regulatory compliance and alignment with global standards, boosts resilience and security, and offers scalability while supporting enhanced decision-making and business intelligence.

What is the Buzz

Visa has announced support for four new African FinTech startups as part of its commitment to invest $1 billion across the continent. This initiative is aimed at driving innovation, expanding digital financial inclusion, and enhancing payment systems within the region. The selected startups, based in diverse sectors across Africa, reflect Visa’s strategic focus on fostering a more connected and accessible financial ecosystem. This investment is part of Visa’s broader efforts to accelerate digital commerce and empower local businesses, ensuring that more Africans can benefit from the growing digital economy.