The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | Sept 30th

By Gaia Lamperti

September 30, 2022

Banks
Deals of the Week
Digital Euro

The Weekly Wrap

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements. For Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

Paym, the mobile payment service launched by fifteen of the UK’s biggest banks and building societies, is shutting down after eight years. Launched in April 2014, the service enables users to transfer payments through their banking app to any other account via the recipient’s email address.

Paym can also be used to receive payments from business clients or club members. Customers can make payments through their mobile banking or payments app by selecting the user’s phone number from their contacts or entering it manually. It currently has around 5.8m registered users, of whom around 500,000 use it regularly.

However, its design can no longer keep up with the current evolution in payments technology and services and, according to the official press release, UK consumers are shifting towards newer forms of mobile payment and access to faster payments through online banking. New registrations to the service have fallen in recent years by 10% in 2021 and 14% in 2022 which led to its definitive closure, expected in March 2023.

As for the closure process, the banks involved with the platform, which include the likes of Barclays, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank and NatWest, will maintain an open line of communication with their customers before the closure date to make them aware of the changes and what it means for them.

Deals of the week

AccessFintech raises $60 million in Series C round
Bridge Money raises $5.8 million in seed funding
Finastra and Visa jointly announce global BaaS offering
BR-DGE partners with Vyne to improve payments experience
Thought Machine announces partnership with Trade Ledger
eToro and OpenPayd partner to launch embedded finance proposition
HPS announces partnership with Visa

Be on the lookout for

The digital euro, but not until 2026. In a document on the progress of the initiative, the European Central Bank (ECB) says a number of steps will need to be taken before a digital euro can be introduced, including an analysis of how financial intermediaries could provide front-end services, how the currency would be distributed to users and how payments would be settled.

For this reason, EU citizens are unlikely to see the digital currency until 2026, at the earliest. The Governing Council will decide in autumn 2023 whether to start a “realisation phase” to develop and test the appropriate technical solutions and business arrangements necessary to provide a digital euro.

Events & Appointments

IBS Intelligence is a proud Media Supporter at the Small Biz Banking Conference. The event will return in person at JW Marriot, Nashville, from 3th-4th October, focusing on the biggest challenges and opportunities that come with serving small businesses, including credit risk, client engagement and the consolidation of B2B spending tools. Book your spot today using our promo code IBSVIP.
The biggest FinTech meet in MENA will happen 10th- 13th of October at the Dubai World Trade Centre and will highlight the latest tech innovations, products, and regulations that will lead to the transformation of the Banking and Financial services sectors.