Skip to main content

Investments, Blockchain Dominate Payments Infrastructure Headlines



If dog days of summer are upon us, payments infrastructure deals and initiatives show little torpor from the heat.

To that end, PPRO Group, based in the United Kingdom and operating as a cross-border ePayments firm, said in the beginning of the week that it had received a $50 million in an investment round led by PayPal. In its own release, PayPal stated it had been joined by firms, including returning investor HPE Growth Capital and Citi Ventures, in that funding round.

PPRO, for its part, stated that it will use the money to expand its payments platform, including the international presence of its alternative payments-acquiring operations. PayPal said the funding comes on the heels of an agreement with PPRO that will provide a range of payment options for PayPal’s merchant roster, which in turn expands the choices consumers have when making their payments across borders.

PayPal and PPRO said the investment is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

Citi stated this week that it has launched Citi Payment Insights, which is seeks to give the firm’s institutional base real-time payments data, along with the opportunity to facilitate payments on demand through the CitiDirect BE electronic banking platform. Clients are able to gain holistic views of transactions, tied in part to transparency efforts via SWIFT’s gpi initiative, Big Data and APIs. The company said that Royal Dutch Shell is among the early adopters of the banking platform. Management of Shell said that adoption of the platform dovetails with the energy firm’s Cash Management 2020 strategy.

Blockchain: The New(ish) Kid On The Payments Infrastructure Block

No discussion of payments infrastructure would be complete without discussion of blockchain, especially as a conduit of enterprise payments.

Also earlier this week, Oracle debuted its blockchain offering for businesses, which provides firms with both the software and backbone via infrastructure that lets companies set up blockchain networks. The blockchain(s) can then be used to conduct activities, such as supply chain management and tracking the shipment of goods. Fortune had stated at the time that Oracle has been in the midst of piloting that blockchain project, where the pilot had been months in the making. Early adopters include solar firms, the Jordan Investment Bank (with an eye on electronic funds transfers) and food companies.

On another note, payments industry juggernaut American Express is furthering its efforts in the blockchain arena. The company filed a patent that focuses on proof-of-payment technology, which was filed earlier in the month. The patent includes transaction amounts and merchant identifiers that can be linked to public keys, encrypted and stored on blockchains. By way of example, the firm gave the illustration of a digital wallet being used for payments, and a mobile device being used to unlock a hotel room or the door of a rental property.

Beyond the confines of individual company efforts, in examining the potential for payments using blockchain to underpin those transactions, Thailand’s central bank is mulling blockchain as a means to a payments end. Various publications have reported that the Bank of Thailand Governor Dr. Veerathai Santiprabhob has stated that blockchain may be used to manage its own supply chain (vendor) payments relationships, along with document management activities. The governor also stated that blockchain can be useful in protecting data.

#blockchain #BlockchainWithoutTheBlocksAndTheChains #blockchainart #blockchaingirl #blockchainsummit #blockchainmeme #blockchainmatrix #blockchainworkshops #blockchainconsortia #blockchainsa #blockchaintechnogy #blockchainmining #blockchainchile #blockchainandpartner #blockchainwork #blockchainsecurity #blockchaintech #blockchaintshirts #blockchainmovement #blockchaincapetown #BlockchainLab #BlockchainInnovationCongress #BlockchainConference #blockchaintechnologiesconsulting #blockchainrevolution #blockchainadvocate #BlockchainCryptocurrencyConference #blockchainfashion #awepay #paymentgateway

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

12 Startups Utilizing Blockchain Technology in New Ways

Author: Awepay Cryptocurrency created quite the buzz this past year. Although the technology has been around for a few years, 2017 was the year it really took off. Bitcoin, the first application of cryptocurrency technology, hit $20,000 a coin, while coins like Ethereum also saw their prices increase. However, the technology behind these tokens, blockchain, has far more applications than just cryptocurrencies. Through a network of smart contracts that operate utilizing decentralized information on a ledger, blockchain is able to provide unmatched security and speed for data transfers. This means that blockchain technology has an application in nearly every industry where value is exchanged. For this reason, many startups have started to explore how this technology can change the way the world works. Here are twelve of those startups, each of which are utilizing blockchain technology in new ways. Related: 10 Reasons Why Good Customer Service Is Your Most Important Metric ...
6 comments
Read more

EMV transactions: Is it time for you to upgrade?

Even if your business has not yet adopted an EMV-enabled solution, you’re probably somewhat familiar with the technology since it's among the most talked about developments in payments. EMV has proven to be an effective tool to fight card present payment fraud in Canada and many European countries. While EMV is new to the U.S., payment card fraud is not, with nearly $8.5 billion in fraudulent transactions in the U.S. in 2015 alone. What’s more, the U.S. represents nearly 40 percent of worldwide fraud, despite having less than 25 percent of transaction sales volume. EMV defined So what is EMV? EMV technology is based on specifications developed to ensure worldwide acceptance of secure payments by an organization called EMVCo, a group of leading companies in the payments industry including American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, UnionPay, and Visa and supported by dozens of other companies in the industry. EMV has become the global standard for authenticating credit...
Post a Comment
Read more

5 MAJOR BENEFITS OF MOBILE PAYMENTS

Author: Awepay When customers come to the register to pay for their meal or purchases, many can now simply hold up their mobile phones instead of handing over dollar bills or pulling out a credit card. Since mobile payment programs are relatively inexpensive and don’t require sophisticated technical knowledge to implement, many small businesses have been quick to adopt the new technology. “Mobile has really taken away the requirement that you have to build big systems and be a large company to be successful with technology,” says Gene Signorini, the vice president of mobile insights at Mobiquity. “In many ways, it is easier for small businesses to adopt mobile payment programs because they don’t have a large infrastructure to work through so small businesses can jump right in.” Here are five ways offering a mobile payment to your customers will help you increase sales: Integrate and increase incentive programs. One of the biggest benefits of using a mobile payment option i...
Post a Comment
Read more