- Key insight: Walmart’s OnePay is expanding into digital assets.
- Look forward: A number of banks and other firms are looking to tap into demand for cryptocurrency.
- What’s at stake: Gaining a share of a market that’s still developing.
OnePay, the Walmart-backed fintech, is planning to offer cryptocurrency trading and custody services on its app,
OnePay is working with Zerohash, a business-to-business-to-consumer fintech that specializes in providing infrastructure for crypto, stablecoins and other digital assets.
The move comes as OnePay looks to broaden its offerings and get more users on its platform. Walmart’s OnePay was designed to be separate from the retailer with a focus on providing banking services to underbanked populations, an area that overlaps with segments of Walmart’s retail clientele. Last month, it started
Lloyds’ barcode cash deposit product hits 3 million pound
U.K. consumers are taking to the barcode cash deposit program
PayPoint is a U.K.-based multichannel payments and retail company that allows customers to pay bills, access cash services, send packages and purchase vouchers. PayPoint also offers rewards programs and payment services to businesses.
The barcode cash deposit allows Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers to deposit cash into their debit account without the need for a traditional branch. Consumers can deposit up to 300 pounds per transaction.
More than 3 million pounds (about $4 million) have been deposited using the barcode cash deposit feature at PayPoint locations since August, Lloyds said. PayPoint has over 30,000 retail locations, with more than 3,000 of those accepting debit account deposits, according to the company.
The jump in deposits at PayPoint comes as Lloyds prepares to continue to close branches across the country in its push toward digital. The banking group said it planned to close another 136 branches this year. —Joey Pizzolato
Global Payments takes ‘Genius’ to school
Global Payments’ gradual rollout of its
Beyond checkout, Genius technology includes inventory management, a variety of hardware such as portable point-of-sale terminals and support for cards, mobile wallets, gift cards and other options. Earlier versions of Genius designed for restaurants, retailers and enterprises were introduced earlier this year.
The payments revamp also follows
Angel Navarrete/Bloomberg
BBVA, Visa intro artificial intelligence for DIY cards
Spanish customers that have BBVA accounts and an iPhone 15 Pro or later model can access Apple Intelligence’s Image Playground to help design Visa-branded payment cards.
Apple suggests several basic designs as a starting point, and the consumer then adds input, which AI then turns into a card design that is updated in the BBVA app wallet. BBVA is starting with virtual cards, but plans to add physical cards in the near future. There are no limits to the number of designs, though there are parameters such as copyright and suitable content rules. BBVA has also been active in deploying AI internally.
The bank recently announced a
Mastercard extends open banking in Germany
German fintech Vobapay will add Mastercard’s open banking technology, enabling Vobapay’s clients to offer account-to-account payments at the point of sale.
Vobapay says the benefit is executing payments without requiring card details, which improves the user experience. While A2A payments are an alternative to credit cards, Visa and Mastercard have both
Mastercard has grown its open banking product offered through its Finicity subsidiary through a series of
Coinbase adds P2P for stablecoins
Cryptocurrency company Coinbase has enabled USDC transfers, providing an alternative to P2P apps such as the bank-led Zelle, PayPal’s Venmo, and Block’s Cash App. Consumers can send the USDC stablecoin through email addresses or sharable links, with no fees and instant availability.
The feature appears as a “Pay” tab in the Coinbase app, with a search function for users’ contacts.
Coinbase has made several moves to enhance its ability to compete with payment firms and banks as stablecoins start to gain ground among legacy financial institutions. Coinbase has developed a
The cryptocurrency company has additionally enabled users to lend USDC stablecoins and access yields of up to 10.7% through an on-chain integration. And it partnered with Meta, Kraken, Ripple, Gemini and other technology firms to improve
India’s UPI adds biometric authentication
India’s instant payment scheme, the Unified Payments Interface, is gearing up to add biometric authentication,
UPI users will be able to use facial recognition or fingerprints to approve payments made through the platform as early as Oct. 8, Reuters said. The biometric data will be stored under Aadhar, India’s identification system.
Banks and payments companies have been leaning into
Ramp creates an AI agent designed for accounts payable
Ramp is launching Agents for AP, a specialized AI agent designed to automate certain tasks commonly undertaken by companies’ finance departments.
Agents for AP will be able to code invoices, streamline approvals with “informed recommendations,” apply card payments and will also combat fraud, according to Ramp.
“Ramp’s Bill Pay was already automating the majority of the AP process, and Agents for AP are now handling more complex workflows — nearing 100% automation in certain cases,” said Karim Atiyeh, co-founder and CTO at Ramp, in a statement. “This is only possible with agents that can source, understand and apply years of contextual knowledge to make decisions on crucial details like GL codes and approval recommendations.”
The launch comes months after