PaymentsNEXT newswire

Welcome to our new weekly PaymentsNEXT Newswire Roundup. Every Friday, our editorial team provides a quick capsule and links to the week’s most relevant payment industry news releases.

News, Technology & Deals

SEON cyberthreat research

SEON’s latest report confirms that Europe leads the world in cyber threat protection
Financial crime prevention experts SEON released its latest ‘Global Cybercrime Report’ highlighting the dangers associated with cyber threats worldwide. The report combines data from three major cybersecurity authorities, National Cyber Security Index, the Global Cybersecurity Index, and the Cybersecurity Exposure Index, to assess the least and most risky countries for internet users. The ten riskiest countries included Afghanistan, Myanmar, Namibia, Libya, Honduras, Cambodia, Mongolia, Ethiopia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Least risky countries included Belgium, Finland, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, France, Sweden, UK, and Portugal. Link

LEXIS-NEXIS Risk Solutions fraud research

Financial fraud executives adopting behavioral biometrics to counter scam attacks
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions published a white paper by Aite-Novarica exploring the challenges in addressing sophisticated fraud threats following increased digital adoption and consumers’ high expectations for online transactions. The white paper, Multifaceted Fraud Attacks: Behavioral Biometrics as a Defensive Tool, explains that most people have been using person-to-person (P2P) payment platforms more frequently since the start of the pandemic. A consumer survey cited reveals 10% of US respondents are using the services less often, along with 9% of UK consumers and 7% in Singapore. Of consumers who had reduced using P2P services, a significant proportion of consumers in the US (43%), UK (46 %) and Singapore (35%) changed their behavior due to fraud concerns. Link

Clickatell chat commerce

Clickatell announces world’s first Chat Commerce Platform as a Service (CCPaaS)
Clickatell, a pioneer in mobile messaging and Chat Commerce, launched the world’s first Chat Commerce Platform as a Service (CCPaaS) that empowers brands to capitalize on chat commerce, an emerging next wave of digital commerce. This ground-breaking platform enables businesses to seamlessly connect, interact and transact with customers on the messaging platforms they already use. Clickatell’s April 2023 release of the first Chat Commerce Platform as a Service delivers full, authenticated commerce experiences within the most widely adopted mobile messaging environments, such as WhatsApp, Apple Messages, SMS and USSD. Link

Setplex chooses Gr4vy payments

Setplex chooses Gr4vy to accelerate time-to-market and expand payments
Setplex selected Gr4vy’s cloud-native payment orchestration platform (POP) to accelerate time-to-market, onboard new merchants, and quickly implement locally preferred payment methods. Gr4vy’s infrastructure and POP enable merchants to access new markets through instances and edges to overcome hurdles around local data privacy. Merchants can access multiple instances of Gr4vy to create redundancy and reduce points of failure. These instances become a merchant’s individualized payment infrastructure with everything needed to connect to leading PSPs and manage everything within their payment stack. Link

TransUnion credit scoring by blockchain

TransUnion, Spring Labs and Quadrata partner to deliver credit scoring to blockchain
In a move that should help lenders make better, more informed decisions on credit applications submitted using blockchain technology, TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) has partnered with Spring Labs and Quadrata to deliver off-chain credit scoring to DeFi and Web3 applications (internet applications based on public blockchains) for the first time. Through this new TransUnion service, off-chain credit data will be delivered to DApps (DeFi Applications) using Spring Labs technology and Quadrata, a digital passport network spun out from Spring Labs. The credit data will be provided at the consumer’s request, enabling delivery of the credit scoring data while maintaining the privacy of the consumer’s identity on the blockchain. Link

Wix offers restaurant process management solutions

Wix expands offerings in Square App Marketplace to streamline operations for restaurant owners
Wix announced an extended integration with Square allowing restaurant owners to easily sync their Wix Restaurants site with their Square account to streamline online ordering directly from the Wix platform to run operations more efficiently and increase revenue. Restaurant owners using Square for Restaurants or Square Point of Sale (POS) can easily manage their catalog directly from the Wix platform, including categories, items, descriptions, images, and full menus. Orders placed through Wix can be sent directly to Square’s system, allowing restaurants to seamlessly connect their Wix online ordering with their existing hardware. Link

PayNearMe supports financial inclusion

PayNearMe celebrates processing $1B in digital loan disbursements to fund low-income, entrepreneurial women for nonprofit Grameen America
PayNearMe, a fast-growing fintech company radically improving the customer payment experience, celebrates processing $1 billion in digital loan disbursements to low-income, entrepreneurial women for Grameen America, a national nonprofit microfinance organization. “During the last two years, we have utilized PayNearMe digital Disbursements to send over $1 billion to thousands of financially underserved women entrepreneurs,” said Marcus Berkowitz, Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Grameen America. Link

DOJ fines Nexway $650,000 for fraud scam

Credit card processors ordered to pay $650,000 in consumer redress for assisting in fraudulent computer repair telemarketing schemes
The Justice Department, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), today announced that the government would collect $650,000 in consumer redress from corporate defendants Nexway, SASU, Nexway Group AG, Nexway, Inc, asknet Solutions AG, asknet, Inc (collectively Nexway), and individual defendants Casey Potenzone and Victor Iezuitov. The defendants’ payment of the $650,000 will result in the suspension of the total monetary judgment of $49.5 million granted by the court. The government alleges that, since Aug 2016, the defendants violated the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) by processing credit card payments for India-based Tech Live Connect and other foreign clients that commit telemarketing fraud via tech support scams. The complaint alleges that Nexway helped its clients open and use merchant accounts to process credit card charges. Link

Financial

FiVerity raises $4 million by VC Mendon Venture Partners

FiVerity raises $4 million to launch anti-fraud collaboration with banks and CUs
FiVerity, creators of the Anti-Fraud Collaboration platform, today announced a $4 million seed financing round led by Mendon Venture Partners, a venture capital investment and strategic advisory firm focused on the intersection of financial technology companies and traditional banks. FiVerity will expand its network of information providers and data while introducing advanced machine learning algorithms which identify fraud methods and compare patterns against those within a financial institution’s systems. Joining Mendon on the cap table are FinCapital, Mendoza Ventures, Service Provider Capital, and Grasshopper Bank. Link

VizyPay 22 percent growth

VizyPay reports First Quarter 2023 results
In the first quarter, VizyPay processed 22% more year-over-year. In total, over $4.5 billion in payments have been processed since 2017. VizyPay’s revenue increased 28% year-over-year. The fintech company was recognized as the No 85 fastest-growing company in the Midwest and the No 2 in Iowa by Inc Regionals with a revenue growth of 187%. The award-winning CDP 2.0 saved merchants over $9 million in unnecessary payment processing fees this past quarter, an increase of 22% year-over-year. Link

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P2P Payment scams – New developments promise change

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