EU Pushes for Instant Cross-Border Payments, WeChat Pay Comes to Spain, Italian Banks to Use Blockchain for Reconciliations

This week (17-21 June) was not as intense as the previous one (you can read the digest for last week at the bottom of this article), yet some really interested developments took place in the FinTech space as always.

Without further ado, let us dive into what has happened in the financial technology space this week.

BBVA Brings WeChat Pay to Spanish Airports

China's WeChat Pay has landed in Spain thanks to a deal with local banking giant BBVA and travel retail operator Dufry.

With some 650,000 Chinese tourists visiting Spain last year, the hugely popular WeChat social media app has identified a demand for its payments service among visitors to the likes of Madrid and Barcelona.

WeChat Pay is now accepted at the World Duty Free stores at the Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport and will soon come to more stores in Madrid and Barcelona.

Carlos Laita, Director of Innovation and Market Development, EMEA, BBVA, said the following after the launch:

Thanks to our partnership with Dufry and WeChat Pay, we can allow Chinese travelers to feel at home when they do shopping at the Spanish airports.

NatWest's Bó Selects Loot Founder and his Team

Bó, the digital bank developed by RBS-owned NatWest, has recruited the founder of Loot, an online banking service aimed at millennials that went into administration last month.

According to TechCrunch, former Loot boss Ollie Purdue will join Bó as its Chief Product Officer, along with 17 of his former Loot colleagues.

Loot ran into trouble earlier this year when it faced funding difficulties. A sale to RBS, which holds a 25% stake in Loot via its Bó operation, was a prospective lifeline but the deal fell through and Loot ultimately ran out of cash. Purdue and his team will reportedly be charged with running the startup bank's product development, branding and marketing, reporting to Bó CEO Mark Baillie. 

Bó, which is built on a new technology stack rather than RBS or NatWest's legacy technology, is expected to launch later this year once its testing is complete. 

Italy's Banks to Use DLT for Reconciliations

The Italian Banking Association (ABI) has revealed that the country's banks will be using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to run its reconciliations as of March 2020, making it the first use of the blockchain among Italy's banks. 

The move is part of the Spunta Project, a programme managed by ABI Lab, the association's research and innovation arm, designed to implement DLT within the country's interbank processes. 

It is hoped that the migration to a blockchain will result in full visibility of the transactions between banks, daily rather than monthly reconciliations, and more effective communication between counterparties in the event of an exception.

News of the DLT move, comes on the back of the ABI's latest survey on the use of IT in Italy's banking sector which reveals that investments in IT increased by 5.7% in 2018 continuing a trend that began in 2014.

The survey also showed that 88.5% of the survey's respondents have an IT budget either in line with or exceeding its 2018 budget. Furthermore, spending is primarily directed towards digital channels and mobile banking services, outward expansion, infrastructure upgrades, data governance initiatives and the management and mitigation of cyber risk.

Churchill Insurance Added to Starling Marketplace

Starling customers can now apply directly from within the challenger bank's app for home insurance from Churchill Insurance.

Direct Line's Churchill brand has been added to Starling's in-app Marketplace, which uses API technology to let customers share data with third parties.

Starling customers who choose to select home insurance through the in-app Marketplace will be directed to Churchill’s quote and buy page after opting in to have some of their details pre-filled. If a customer chooses to convert their quote to a policy, details of the start and end date will be stored within their account with Starling.

Rob Fleet, Director of Partnerships at Direct Line Group, said: 

We are delighted to be working with Starling Bank. We recognize that the platform economy provides significant opportunities to streamline the insurance experience. 

Starling Bank are at the forefront of this movement and this partnership enables us to innovate as we continue to make insurance easier and better value for customers by providing seamless access to our insurance services through transactional APIs.

EU Pushes for Cross-Border Instant Payments

The European Commission is hosting a roundtable in Brussels as part of an ongoing initiative to drive the development and availability of cross-border instant payments for European consumers and businesses.

While instant payment systems spring to life in domestic European markets, the goal of an interoperable cross-border network for consumers and businesses in the EU remains a distant goal.

The event in Brussels is being organized together with the European Central Bank in an effort to identify ways to overcome existing obstacles to harmonization and to ensure cross-border reach of instant payments. 

The ultimate objective of the Commission is to have pan-European instant payment solutions, such as paying for goods with a mobile device or allowing money to move from any account to any account, anywhere in Europe in real time and 24/7. 

Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU Commissioner in charge of financial services says: 

Europe now has a unique opportunity to design a truly European payment solution. I fully support the instant payment initiatives already launched in many Member States. We now need to make sure that we quickly develop a truly European market for payment so that it brings maximum benefits to European consumers, retailers and service providers, and empowers European companies to compete on global markets.

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About: I am a business developer, sales professional, FinTech strategist, as well as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain enthusiast. I'm highly passionate about Financial Technology and Digital Innovation, and strongly believe that it will change the world for the better. Apart from my daily job at a global payments startup where I'm leading company's expansion into Europe , I'm an active member of FinTech community and a TechFin evangelist.

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