Card Networks Team Up for Simple Checkout; Paysafe Plays the Lottery: News Roundup

PaymentFacilitator’s News Roundup is a curated mix of the past week’s news and articles from around the web, including company announcements, global payments news, and other coverage and analysis of topics relevant to payment facilitators.

Buyers and Sellers

Indian PF Pine Labs is among those in talks to buy the Asia business of German payments provider Wirecard following the company’s bankruptcy filing. Wirecard has about 20,000 merchant customers in markets including India, Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, although it is likely to lose some of those as it deals with the fallout from its accounting scandal. From Economic Times.

Indian payment gateway and payment facilitator BillDesk is on the market. It is looking to sell off its entire business. The company currently handles 50 to 60% of the country’s billing transactions, but it lacks a complete integrated payment system to compete with the global companies entering the market. The company also tried to sell off its business in 2018, holding talks with companies like PayU and PayPal. From Livemint.

Putting the Brakes on Global Dominance

A group of 16 European banks is looking to unseat Visa and Mastercard. The group is planning a “truly European” payments system that would begin operating in 2022. It hopes to unify a fragmented system and eventually control at least 60% of the region’s electronic payments volume. From International Business Times.

The latest draft of India’s ecommerce policy has ramifications for big tech companies like Google and Amazon. The government is considering appointing an ecommerce regulator and requiring government access to source codes and algorithms to guard against unfair competition. India wants to promote locally based companies and reduce the dominance of global tech giants. From Bloomberg.

Funding Financial Inclusion

Indonesian fintech startup Payfazz has raised $53 million in funding. The company is focused on improving financial inclusion for Indonesians, many of whom do not have bank accounts or access to other financial services. It offers mobile financial products and a network of agents to reach consumers in rural areas for services including bill payments, loans and payments for offline retailers. From TechCrunch.