Thunes and Visa release new European research on payment interoperability

Hey Payments Fanatic!

A recent survey conducted by Thunes and Visa highlights the conflicted attitudes among Europeans regarding cross-border payment interoperability.

The survey underscores the challenges firms encounter when integrating across various markets and systems.

Despite a majority of respondents expressing confidence in their firm's cross-border payment capabilities, decision-makers continue to face significant challenges, including lost business opportunities due to the inability to integrate with both popular and emerging payment methods.

Looking ahead to 2026, it is projected that 60% of the global population will use digital wallets for daily transactions. However, despite their increasing popularity, digital wallets are considered the most challenging endpoint for cross-border payments.

Additionally, while 97% of respondents believe their current systems are 'completely' or 'mostly compatible' with international fund transfers, nearly 40% reported experiencing business losses due to cross-border payment issues.

Read more interesting info and stats in this in this very interesting report and I'll be back in you inbox tomorrow with more payments updates!

Cheers,

Marcel

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PAYMENTS NEWS

Thunes and Visa surveyed 233 European payment leaders at financial institutions and payment companies in five markets, revealing conflicted attitudes on payment interoperability. Click here for further information

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???? EBANX, a global FinTech leader in cross-border payments, and Ozow, South Africa's leading instant EFT payments provider, announced an expanded strategic partnership to further enhance digital payment solutions in South Africa .

???? IXOPAY appoints Brady Harris as CEO to drive global payments growth. His appointment aligns with the recent merger of IXOPAY and TokenEx, highlighting a significant shift in the payments industry towards a multi-processor payment model.?

???? South Korea’s BC Card starts QR code payment service in Malaysia. The service allows South Korean customers to make payments with Paybooc in Malaysia while reducing the hassle and costs of currency exchange and credit card transactions for users’ convenience.

???? Nuvei partners with Visa to offer Visa Direct in Colombia. Nuvei is the first global payments provider to offer Visa Direct to its customers in the country . The partnership continues Nuvei's first-mover advantage in rolling out industry-leading payments solutions in Colombia.

GOLDEN NUGGET

?? Digital Wallet Apps: how do they work?

Basically, there are 3?? distinct groups of B2C wallet apps:

1?? Pass-through wallets; commonly designed as mobile-first, keep tokens that link to your credit and debit cards instead of storing sensitive data or money directly.

They don’t take part in moving funds. Once a transaction is initiated, such apps just pass encrypted information to a merchant — hence, the name.

In the course of further payment processing, the token travels to a payment network to be decrypted and checked against the actual card or account information in the issuing bank. After verification, the payment gets approved and sent to a merchant’s acquiring bank.

So, only the network and an issuing bank will know the actual card or account details.

Known for high security, pass-through wallets act essentially as extensions of credit and debit cards, so they are more widespread in regions with high card adoption, such as Europe and North America.

Major examples: Apple Pay, Samsung Wallet, Chase Mobile app

2?? Staged wallets; also house tokenized payment details but don’t transmit them anywhere. Instead, they perform transactions in two stages.

At the funding stage, the wallet acquires money from a customer’s bank account, credit line, or other source. Then, at the payment stage, it sends funds to a merchant.

In this scenario, a wallet provider can make additional fraud assessments. At the same time, a payment network or card issuer may know nothing about details of a particular transaction that are disclosed during operations with pass-through solutions.

Staged options often support peer-to-peer transfers and cryptocurrencies and allow for storing funds right in the wallet’s account.

Major examples: PayPal, Google Wallet (former Google Pay), Cash App (the US and UK only)

3?? Stored digital wallets; work as prepaid cards. Before making a transaction, a user must load money to a wallet’s balance from a bank account, debit or credit card, via peer-to-peer transfer, etc.

The availability of funding sources differs across providers, depending on the location and targeted users. A merchant withdraws money directly from the wallet.

Stored wallets are especially popular in unbanked and underbanked countries since they enable people to deposit money without having a bank account.

Major examples: Apple Cash (US only), Alipay (China’s most popular), WeChat Pay, Paytm Wallet (India’s largest platform for instant payments).

The table below made by AltexSoft compares several global digital wallets??

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