Korea to let payment companies offer international money transfer services
Financial authorities in Korea have approved fintech companies to be able to international payments. Initially this will be limited to $3,000 and a maximum of $20,000 per account per year. Korea is a very mobile forward country and we would expect to see some interesting products develop from the initial 40 or so companies that are estimated to launch something.
To be allowed to offer money transfer services, the fintech company will be required to have more than 2 billion won of capital and a debt-to-equity ratio that is less than 200%.
Transferwise links with ApplePay
Money transfer fintech unicorn Transferwise has linked with ApplePay. Apple has already inked deals with large numbers of banks across the Europe, Asia and North America. In the US, all the major banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citi and JP Morgan Chase accept ApplePay. In the UK, the big high street banks such as Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays and Natwest all already accept ApplePay.
Users of Apple devices will no longer need to upload their payment information when sending money via Transferwise. This innovation is in line with Transferwise focus on ensuring the most frictionless customer experience and minimising any opportunity for customer drop-off. Over 10% of Transferwise's transactions via its mobile app are funded via ApplePay.
We would expect other payment companies to follow suit and adopt ApplePay in the coming months too.
Royal Bank of Canada utilises Voice
The Royal Bank of Canada has pushed into the voice activated product space by offering customers the opportunity to pay bills just by telling an app to transfer the money. Personal banking clients will be able to ask Siri via iPhone or iPad to pay their bills. "We're providing more convenient solutions to support our client's payment needs," said executive vice president of Cards, payments and banking at RBC, Sean Amato-Gauci.
