Citi to let customers check their bank account from within Facebook Messenger

Citi joins chatbot arms race, unveils Facebook messenger tie-up that will launch later this year — South China Morning Post — “Citi’s offering will be the first Facebook Messenger-embedded chatbot to let customers access their own financial records and potentially conduct transactions in future. It plans to roll out the service worldwide following its launch in Singapore in March.”


Paytm integrates games, TV, sports and news into its mobile wallet app

Now enjoy news, live TV, cricket, entertainment & games in Paytm Inbox — Paytm — “We have added a host of new features to ‘Inbox’, our in-app messaging service that allows you to chat with friends and family and send/request money at the same time. You would now be able to enjoy in-app live TV, news, cricket, entertainment videos and games on-the-go for free.”


Mastercard to build open banking connectivity hub

Mastercard unveils solutions to underpin open banking transformation — Mastercard — “Mastercard announced today that it is developing a new suite of services to underpin the transformation taking place in the industry as partners ready themselves to take advantage of Europe’s PSD2 legislation… They will incorporate a pan-European directory of third party providers to help banks to ensure that parties seeking access to a customer’s account are legitimate… They will also feature a connectivity hub that will help third parties establish and maintain communication with banks.”




Nordic banks announce KYC joint venture plans

Nordic banks to explore common KYC joint venture — SEB — “Leading Nordic banks DNB Bank, Danske Bank, Nordea Bank, Svenska Handelsbanken and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken have decided to explore the possible establishment of a Nordic Know Your Customer (KYC) infrastructure… The banks intend to set up a joint venture, Nordic KYC Utility… The company will be owned and controlled by the founding banks, however, the plan is that the company will also offer its services to third parties.”


Citigroup to use rewards to turn credit card customers into digital bank account holders

Citigroup won’t use high deposit rates to win digital accounts: executive — Reuters — “Citigroup Inc does not plan to use high deposit rates to attract customers to its new digital bank accounts when it begins marketing this fall, the chief of its global consumer bank said on Tuesday… Instead, the bank will market the accounts nationally to its credit card customers, such as holders of its Double Cash card and cards it issues for American Airlines Group, and Costco Wholesale Corp and Home Depot Inc… Bird said, for example, that offering additional American Airlines mileage credits will attract stable deposits to the bank.”


Bank of America adds AI assistant to mobile banking app

Bank of America delivers first widely available AI–driven virtual financial assistant — Bank of America — “Bank of America is rolling out the first widely available AI-driven virtual assistant of its kind in financial services, Erica, to its 25 million mobile clients… Erica is designed to learn from clients’ behaviours over time, helping them accomplish simple to complex tasks within the mobile banking app with easy-to-follow prompts. Clients can interact with Erica any way they choose, including texting, talking or tapping options on their screen.”


Challenger banks add location-based payments to mobile apps

UK banks are trying out location-based P2P payments — Tearsheet — “On Friday, Revolut introduced a feature called ‘Near Me’ which lets its customers find other Revolut customers using the same feature and send them money without knowing their contact details. On Monday, Monzo rolled out a capability called ‘Nearby Friends’… When the user opens Nearby Friends, Monzo generates a token representing the user through its API, which is then sent to Google Nearby through Bluetooth on the user’s device to ‘broadcast’ it to other Monzo apps within a 90-foot radius.”


Wells Fargo makes it easier for customers to access popular mobile payments services

Wells Fargo reimagines mobile experience with ‘Pay with Wells Fargo’ — Wells Fargo — “Today Wells Fargo & Company announced Pay with Wells Fargo, which will bring to the app’s home screen an option for customers to conveniently select their most commonly used payment features like Zelle, mobile wallets, card-free ATM access code and transfers, even before signing into the app… Longer-term features of Pay with Wells Fargo will be customized based on customers’ personal usage patterns. Customers also will have the ability to customize the highlighted features themselves.”


FNB to roll out biometric ATMs that customers can use to open a bank account

Biometric ATMs extend banking services — IT-Online — “The TouchPoint validates a customer’s identity by scanning a fingerprint placed on the biometric reader and it can detect false fingerprints to prevent fraud. The identity of the customer is then verified with the Department of Home Affairs to ensure the self-service account opening complies with the relevant laws.”


PayPal expands into mainstream banking

PayPal makes a move toward traditional banking — Wall Street Journal — “The San Jose, Calif-based payments company has been quietly reaching out to groups of customers in recent months with an offer to add basic banking features to their PayPal digital wallet. The features include Federal Deposit Insurance Corp insurance for their balances, a debit card that can be used to withdraw cash at ATMs and the ability to direct-deposit their paychecks.”


Four in five Americans want to use one platform to manage all their finances

Digital is the new language of money: Americans predict payment apps will move to the top spot in their wallet and would like to manage their financial lives in one place — Koski Research — “Americans predict that apps will be the most common in-person payment type in five years… More than four in five Americans (84%) say they are interested in managing their money from one online central platform for deposits, spending, and saving.”


Google to take its Tez mobile wallet app global

Google’s Indian payments platform looks for new markets — Financial Times — “Diana Layfield, head of Tez and vice president of Google’s Next Billion Users initiative, told the Financial Times that Google had drawn up a shortlist of three Asian markets and one other emerging market country for Tez’s next launch… Tez initially looked across Latin America, the Middle East and Africa… Countries with “similar characteristics” to India — relatively low credit card penetration and limited access to near field communications systems — were the most attractive to Tez.”


Carriers in Singapore, India, Thailand and the Philippines to link their mobile wallet services

Singtel to launch mobile wallet tie-up with regional associates — The Straits Times — “The Singtel Group plans to roll out mobile wallet interoperability across its network of regional associates in Asia by mid-2018… Mobile wallet customers of Singtel and the group’s various associate telcos would then be able to make cashless payments in their home currency, using their home telco’s app, at physical merchants while abroad… Singtel’s goal is to bring the Philippines’ Globe, Indonesia’s Telkomsel and India’s Airtel on board from the second half of 2018 onwards, pending regulatory approval. Regulators have already given the green light for the partnership between Singtel’s Dash payments app and Thai counterpart myAIS.”




KBC adds third-party services to its mobile banking app

KBC first to incorporate non-banking apps in mobile app — KBC Group — “Starting this summer, customers can use their mobile banking app directly to start a car parking session and pay via the 4411 parking service; check the balance on their meal and eco vouchers (Monizze card) and monitor payments made using the card… In the future, as well, we’ll be continuing to actively seek out partners that can help enhance our banking apps and applications and help increase added value for our customers.”


Study finds consumers are losing interest in digital-only banks

Banking sector continues to evolve as digital-only banks are losing appeal globally — RFi Group — “While consumers showed substantial interests in digital-only banks in previous studies, global appetite for digital-only providers fell from 74% in H1 last year to 63% in H2, and appetite for digital-only main bank has also dropped from 50% to 44%… The findings suggest that traditional banks which continue to ‘up their game’ in engaging consumers digitally will likely be the ones to benefit in the near future.”


Amazon plots move into mobile payments and financial services

Are you ready for an Amazon-branded checking account? — Wall Street Journal — “Amazon.com Inc is in talks with big banks including JPMorgan Chase about building a checking-account-like product the e-commerce giant could offer its customers, according to people familiar with the matter… Converting its shoppers into financial account holders could also aid Amazon as it ramps up its efforts in payments… The company is now trying to bring Amazon Pay to brick-and-mortar stores, according to people familiar with those plans. It is likely to begin with Whole Foods, which Amazon bought last year for roughly US$13.5bn.”