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- New US FTC ‘Click-To-Cancel’ Rule Will End Subscription Traps
- FSB Consults On Common Format For Reporting Operational Incidents
- Digital Ruble Ready For Launch In 2025, Says Russian Central Bank
- BIS Launches Project Aperta To Leverage Open Finance
- Santander Launches A2A Payments Partnership In UK With Token.io
- Brazil Opens Registration For Drex Pilot Phase 2
- Contactless Payments Surge In Ireland, With Mobile Wallets Taking The Lead
- Hong Kong To Retire The Term ‘Virtual Bank’
- Losses To Romance Scams Double In Denmark
- Japan’s JCB Enables Google Pay For Card Users
New US FTC ‘Click-To-Cancel’ Rule Will End Subscription Traps
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a new ‘Click-to-Cancel’ rule that aims to prevent consumers being caught in subscription traps.
The rule requires sellers to make it as easy for consumers to exit a subscription as it is to enter one.
“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” said Lina Khan, chair of the FTC.
“The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”
Following a consultation on the proposed rulemaking in March 2023, the FTC said it had received more than 16,000 comments from consumers and state agencies, consumer groups and trade associations.
FSB Consults On Common Format For Reporting Operational Incidents
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has a consultation on a new common format for reporting operational incidents, including cyber incidents.
The framework, known as the “format for incident reporting exchange” (FIRE), aims to streamline incident reporting across financial firms and jurisdictions, enhancing global coordination and regulatory oversight.
FIRE seeks to address the current fragmentation in reporting practices by promoting better communication and facilitating a more unified response to incidents that could impact financial stability.
The initiative follows the FSB's 2023 recommendations on cyber incident reporting and includes a structured data model and machine-readable format.
The consultation is open until December 19, 2024.
Digital Ruble Will Be Ready For Launch In 2025, Says Russian Central Bank
The Bank of Russia has its timetable for the phased launch of the digital ruble, the country’s retail central bank digital currency (CBDC).
By July 1, 2025, major banks must offer their clients digital ruble accounts, deposits and funds transfers.
Other banks will have until July 1, 2026 to offer digital ruble services to customers, and credit institutions will have until July 1, 2027.
In addition, the regulator plans to set deadlines for the mandatory acceptance of payments in digital rubles by trade and service companies (TSCs).
Payments for purchases with digital rubles will be conducted using a universal QR code based on the National Payment Card System (NSPK), which will help banks and TSCs avoid additional costs.
The Bank of Russia has sent its proposals to amend the relevant laws to the Russian Ministry of Finance.
BIS Launches Project Aperta To Leverage Open Finance
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub has the launch of Project Aperta, an initiative to reduce payment frictions and costs globally through open finance.
The initiative seeks to connect domestic open finance infrastructures across jurisdictions, enabling seamless cross-border data sharing via application programming interfaces (APIs).
The project will initially focus on trade finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), potentially accelerating processes such as account opening and trade data exchange.
The UAE, the UK, Brazil and Hong Kong SAR are among the jurisdictions in which national regulators are participating in the project’s current phase.
Santander Launches A2A Payments Partnership In UK With Token.io
Santander has a new open banking partnership with Token.io, a provider of account-to-account (A2A) payments infrastructure.
Initially, Santander will leverage Token.io’s infrastructure to offer payment directly from an external bank account as a credit card repayment option.
“With direct A2A payment for card repayments, Santander customers can enjoy a more seamless payment experience than direct debit or manual bank transfers,” said Token.io.
“The solution eliminates error-prone manual data entry and supports biometric strong customer authentication (SCA) for payments made on mobile devices.”
In addition, Santander plans to use Token.io infrastructure to modernise real-time money movement for its retail banking clients.
The partnership was announced during the opening keynote at the Open Banking Expo in London on Tuesday (October 15).
Brazil Opens Registration For Drex Pilot Phase 2
The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) has rules and procedures for the submission of business case proposals from entities interested in participating in the second phase of the Drex pilot, which could become Brazil's central bank digital currency (CBDC).
This phase invites entities to propose business cases for testing, which will be implemented via smart contracts on the pilot platform.
According to the BCB, institutions operating in the financial market that have the capacity to test the proposed business model may participate in the pilot project.
These could include transactions involving the issuance, redemption or transfer of assets, or simulations of financial flows arising from trading events.
There is no cap on the number of business cases selected, with the final choices based on the central bank's technical and operational capacity.
Eligible institutions, meanwhile, are required to submit proposals to the central bank in line with the project’s guidelines, detailing the business case’s potential benefits, privacy measures and any legal or regulatory challenges.
Contactless Payments Surge In Ireland, With Mobile Wallets Taking The Lead
Consumers in Ireland made more than 1.4bn contactless payments, valued at €24.8bn, in the year to the end of June 2024, according to the from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).
For the first time, more than half of these payments were made via mobile wallets rather than cards.
In addition, the report highlights the scale of online and mobile banking, with more than 670m transactions processed, amounting to nearly €7.5trn in value.
“Looking at domestic in-store card payments as a whole, we can see that the volume of contactless payments continues to rise, with some 86.1 percent of all domestic point of sale card payments now contactless," said Gillian Byrne, BPFI's head of payments.
Byrne highlighted in the report that there are a number of regional differences, with Dublin leading the way in terms of the number of contactless payments per capita.
Dublin came in at 395, more than 40 percent above the national average, followed by other cities such as Carlow (329), Limerick (287) and Waterford (282).
Hong Kong To Retire The Term ‘Virtual Bank’
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has that it will soon retire the term “virtual bank” and replace it with “digital bank”.
The move follows an HKMA consultation that put the proposed name change to Hong Kong’s financial sector.
After receiving , the HKMA said that the respondents were “broadly supportive” of the proposal and that the majority agreed with the name change.
The regulator will now amend its "Guideline on Authorization of Virtual Banks" to the "Guideline on Authorization of Digital Banks".
Losses To Romance Scams Double In Denmark
Danes are falling victim to romance scams at an alarming rate, with losses nearly doubling in the first half of 2024, according to new from Finans Danmark. Although the number of reported victims has remained steady, scammers are stealing more money.
In the first six months of 2024, banks in the country registered 217 cases of romance scams. Scammers initially gained DKK20.6m from these attacks, but bank interventions were able to reduce the losses to DKK9.7m.
This still marks a near 100 percent rise compared to the latter half of 2023, and the figures released by the trade association are only representative of cases where victims contacted their banks or were alerted to the fraud by bank officials.
"There is good reason to assume that the number is much higher,” said Michael Busk-Jepsen, director of digitisation at Finans Danmark.
“We know it's a scam that many victims are embarrassed to share with others, and many do not share it with the bank either. Therefore, by all accounts, there is a large number in the dark when it comes to love fraud."
Japan’s JCB Enables Google Pay For Card Users
JCB, Japan’s domestic and international card brand, has that customers with Android devices can use their cards via Google Pay.
Once a JCB debit or credit card is linked to the app, Google Pay can be used to make mobile payments anywhere that JCB Contactless is accepted, including for Transit payments.
JCB said it plans to extend this support to other JCB-brand card issuers both in Japan and other markets.
“With built-in authentication, transaction encryption and fraud protection, Google Pay helps keep your money and personal information safe,” JCB said in a statement.
