The payments landscape continues to evolve and this blog shares some of the topics that caught my attention during the last three months. If you think I’ve missed anything important, do please send an email to technical@treasurers.org.
Regulatory announcements
- The UK government announced plans to publish a National Payments Vision in 2024, in response to the independent Future of Payments Review published in 2023. The objective of the National Payments Vision is to provide clarity on the government’s ambition for UK payments and to guide industry and regulatory activity.
- The European Council adopted a regulation to make instant payments fully available in euro to consumers and businesses in the EU and in EEA countries allowing people to transfer money within ten seconds at any time of the day, including outside business hours, not only within the same country but also to another EU member state. Its key requirements are:
- Mandatory payer's confirmation: Sender institutions must rigorously confirm the match between IBAN and beneficiary names before initiating transfers—an important measure for error prevention and fraud mitigation
- Cost parity: Instant SEPA services will be mandated to be provided at the same cost as regular SEPA transactions, underlining a commitment to fairness and eliminating any potential for unjust pricing
- Universal acceptance: All banks and every payment service provider (PSPs) are now obliged to support SEPA Instant, promoting widespread accessibility and adoption
News items
- Visa and Mastercard reached an estimated $30 billion settlement with the US courts to limit credit and debit card fees for merchants, with some savings likely to be passed on to consumers through lower prices. Under the settlement, Visa and Mastercard would reduce swipe rates by at least four basis points - 0.04 percentage points - for three years, and ensure an average rate that is 7 basis points below the current average for five years. Both card networks also agreed to cap rates for five years and remove anti-steering provisions. Merchants will have more discretion to offer discounts or impose surcharges on cards with higher interchange fees.
- Payment verification solution provider SurePay has announced the launch of bulk check functionality on its UK Confirmation of Payee (CoP) portal. According to the company the new feature is set to enable corporations to conveniently verify up to 10,000 records in Excel format.
Interesting reports
- Adyen and the Centre for Economic Business and Research published their annual retail report. Key findings included:
- 45% of retail businesses globally have been a victim of a cyber-attack or data leak in the last year
- Retail businesses lost an average of $3m each to fraudulent activity over the last 12 months
- The average amount lost per victim is now $808 - an increase of 234%, when consumers scammed in 2022 reported an average of $242
- 54% have actively considered changing their payments provider to one that can offer improved fraud defence mechanisms
