JPMorgan, Axis partner to boost blockchain-based payments | PaymentsSource

Mumbai, India-based Axis Bank has partnered with JPMorgan to offer its commercial clients near-real-time, 24/7 programmable USD clearing capabilities over Kinexys, Axis’s blockchain platform and digital payment solution. 

Axis is the first India-headquartered financial institution to use Kinexys Digital Payments. Kinexys was formerly known as Onyx.  

“With this collaboration, we are bringing significant value to our clients through streamlining payments, unlocking liquidity and above all, adding further optionality on cross-border payments, utilizing blockchain-based payment rails that are fit for growth,” Neeraj Gambhir, Axis group executive & head of treasury, markets and wholesale banking products, said in a statement.  

Kinexys Digital Payments first launched programmable deposit accounts in 2019 and has logged more than $1.5 trillion in transaction volume since its inception. Over $2 billion of daily transaction volume now flows over KDP, according to the bank. —Joey Pizzolato 

Mastercard, MoneyGram collaborate for real-time payments

MoneyGram has integrated with Mastercard Move, the card network’s menu of money transfer products, enabling faster processing for domestic and international transactions.

Mastercard Move supports MoneyGram’s consumers in receiving funds from about 10 billion endpoints globally. Consumers can access real-time funding from any U.S.-issued Mastercard or supporting bank accounts, mobile wallets and other accounts.

 The partnership also expands MoneyGram’s network, which currently includes more than 200 countries and territories, with 450,000 retail locations and 5 billion endpoints.

Mastercard Move, which combines Mastercard Send’s P2P transfer product and the card brand’s cross-border payments, also recently entered a partnership with Citigroup, with the bank using Move to expand its own international payments network. —John Adams 

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

PayPal launches ad solution in UK, invests in LatAm fintech

PayPal has launched an advertising platform called PayPal Ads in the United Kingdom that uses its troves of data to deliver personalized ads to consumers based on past purchase activity. 

The Ads solution will launch in phases, with consumers beginning to see ads in July. Merchants will receive insights based on relevant users’ scaled shopping intent and transaction data to create and measure ad campaigns. In February, PayPal tapped JPMorgan to take its AI-powered flagship Fastlane checkout system to the bank’s merchant clients in the U.K. and Europe.

The launch comes a week after PayPal Ventures said it invested in Mendel, a Latin American enterprise spend management platform. Mendel’s $35 million Series B round was led by Base10 Partners and supported by existing Mendel investors Infinity Ventures, Industry Ventures, Hi.vc. The company has secured a total of $130 million of debt and equity financing, according to Crunchbase

Mendel, which was founded in 2021 and has footprints in Argentina and Mexico, will use the funds for technology and AI development, talent acquisition and geographic expansion to Chile, Columbia and Peru by the end of the year. It expects to expand to Brazil in 2026. —Joey Pizzolato 

Ripple adds its stablecoin to global pay platform

Ripple has embedded its new stablecoin into the company’s cross-border payment system. The stablecoin, RLUSD, launched in December and has a market capitalization of about $250 million, the company said. 

The company has designed the stablecoin for international payments and has signed cross-border payment platforms BKK Forex and iSend as clients.

Ripple, which used distributed ledger technology for years to execute cross-border payments without the need for correspondent banks, also built a CBDC Platform, a product that enables central banks, governments and banks to issue stablecoins and central bank digital currencies.

Anticipating a friendlier regulatory environment, stablecoins are drawing more attention, with stablecoin issuer Circle planning an IPO. 

Circle and other stablecoin issuers are betting on the passage of the Guiding and Establishing a National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins, or GENIUS, Act. The act is a bipartisan bill that would create a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The GENIUS Act is part of a broader legislative effort to forge a U.S. legal framework for stablecoins, following a similar trend toward regulatory support in the European Union. —John Adams  

Lloyds, SAP unit partner on embedded B2B finance

Lloyds has signed a collaboration agreement with Taulia, part of SAP group that provides  working capital management, to issue virtual Visa cards.

The cards will be accessible via SAP’s Business Suite and will enable Lloyds to expand its reach in embedded finance for business clients. Banks have embraced embedded finance to offer their services through nonfinancial partners in an effort to improve the banks’ ability to expand relationships and sell to a larger range of users.

The Lloyds collaboration involves Taulia using Visa’s application programming interface to embed virtual payment credentials, transaction processing and supplier services into businesses’ enterprise resource planning applications.

 The partners say this will enable businesses to have greater control over spend management and an improved view into how they are using working capital.

Other financial institutions are also taking this approach. American Express recently partnered with Boost Payment Solutions to power virtual cards for business payments while improving the connections between payments data and corporate back offices. —John Adams 

Diebold Nixdorf deploys ATMs in Antarctica

Diebold Nixdorf has installed two ATMs in the U.S. National Science Foundation McMurdo Station in Antarctica. The station is the continent’s largest research facility, housing between 200 and 1,100 residents, depending on the time of year.

 Wells Fargo is operating the ATMs, which will offer a lifeline for residents to access cash to make payment at the facility’s cafeterias, general store and post office.

 The machines are part of the DN Series, which uses machine learning and Internet of Things technology to enable remote monitoring and diagnosis. Only one of the ATMs will be running at any given time, with the other machine serving as a backup to ensure continuity.

 Antarctica does not have a banking infrastructure, making the ATMs the only financial facility in the area.—John Adams  

Bloomberg Creative Photos/Bloomberg

European Payment Alliance turns on instant cross-border transfers

The European Payment Alliance is facilitating instant cross-border transfers for users in Andora, Italy, Portugal and Spain that will allow them to send and receive money using just a mobile phone number. 

Payment providers such as Italy’s Bancomat, Spanish Bizum and Portugal-based MB WAY are participating, and together connect more than 186 financial institutions and serve over 50 million users. EuroPA expects all participating financial institutions to be connected by June. 

Instant mobile transfers have gained traction in countries such as Brazil and India, where government mandated instant-payment flows such as Pix and the Unified Payment Interface, respectively, have helped spur adoption. EuroPA, with its move to push instant cross-border mobile transfers, is aiming to speed up money movement in the region. —Joey Pizzolato 

MyPOS acquires UTP Group

Payments fintech myPOS has acquired U.K.-based payment provider UTP Group for an undisclosed amount. 

UTP provides portable and countertop card machines, tap-to-pay and ecommerce solutions to more than 52,000 clients. MyPOS works with small and medium-sized businesses to over 35 European countries, including Switzerland and the United Kingdom. 

The acquisition comes on the heels of myPOS’s acquisition of French cash register company Toporder in January, which allowed it to expand its footprint in French retail, food and beverage. —Joey Pizzolato