Top Updates of the Week — Payments ??

Hello Payment Nerds!

Launching "Top Updates of the Week", a recap of the most valuable insights that happened in the Payments and FinTech initiatives on a weekly basis (every Friday):

• ?Mastercard is expanding its US ???????????????????????? ?????????????? to provide more payment flexibility at checkout. It works through a single and streamlined platform, players across the ecosystem?will be able to present installment offers for consumers to any eligible credit card from participating issuers. As a result, consumers will be able to spread their purchases out over time with an installment plan that is pre-approved on any eligible credit card. Mastercard will be working with partners from across the issuing and digital payments industry, including Global Payments, Skipify and Splitit, to support this continued evolution.

• ?X Payments delayed after Musk’s X weirdly withdrew application for NY license. Approvals in New York stalled after Walden Macht Haran & Williams (WMHW) sent a letter in September 2023 urging that X be deemed "unfit" for a money transmitter license. In April 2024, X withdrew its application and did not resubmit it, according to the NY Department of Financial Services. It seems possible that X may leverage that court win to resubmit its application for a New York license eventually, but Ars could not confirm if X has any plans to resubmit any time soon. Discover more

• ?Scheduled Pix becomes mandatory. Starting Monday (10/28), institutions participating in Pix are?required to offer their customers the Scheduled Pix feature for recurring transactions. Until now, offering this feature was optional. These rules were outlined in a Central Bank (BC) resolution published in December 2023 and updated in July this year when the BC decided to postpone the launch of Automatic Pix.?Both options target periodic payments but function differently. With recurring Scheduled Pix, the paying user defines the payment instructions. The transaction recipient can be either an individual or a business. In the case of Automatic Pix, businesses initiate the payment “command,” provided the paying user has given prior authorization. This feature is set to launch in June 2025.

• ?Tap to Pay on iPhone expands to more countries. Apple announced the?expansion of Tap to Pay on iPhone to five new European markets : Austria, Czech Republic, Ireland, Romania, and Sweden with new payment partners that include Adyen, SumUp, and Viva. For those new to it, Tap to Pay on iPhone lets businesses accept payments by simply holding an iPhone near a customer’s contactless card, iPhone, or Apple Watch. It's powered by the same Secure Element that makes Apple Pay transactions private and secure, so businesses can count on seamless and safe transactions every time.

• ?Visa plans to lay off around 1,400 employees and contractors? Visa is restructuring its global operations and will cut roughly 1,400 roles by year-end, according to sources familiar with the decision,?as part of its effort to streamline international business . Employees learned in an internal announcement last week that the company planned to cut jobs, though exact details weren’t provided, the people said. Roughly 1,000 of the cuts are expected to eliminate technology positions, while most of the rest will focus on merchant sales and global digital partnerships roles, they said.?

This is all for this week! Enjoy the weekend ????

??By Arthur Bedel ?? ?? , Marcel van Oost and Connecting the dots in payments...