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• Denmark Joins TIPS And TARGET2
• Payments Outage At Greggs Forces UK’s Pasty Lovers To Revert To Cash
• Sweden’s Swish Launches Self-Scanning Service
• Impersonation Scams Are On The Rise, Warns UK's Lloyds Bank
• EU Instant Payments Regulation Enters Official Journal
• Consumer Duty A Success So Far, Says FCA In New Business Plan
• GoCardless Signs Agreement To Acquire Australia’s Nuapay
• South Dakota Latest State To Adopt Model Money Transmission Modernization Act
• Major Outage At Sainsbury's Brings Down Contactless Payments
• India Takes UPI To Greece In New Partnership With Eurobank

Denmark Joins TIPS And TARGET2

The European Central Bank (ECB) and Danmarks Nationalbank have  an agreement for Denmark to join the ECB’s TARGET2 (T2) wholesale payment system and the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service. 

“We are very happy to be the first non-euro country to be part of all current TARGET services, offering strengthened IT security and harmonised infrastructure for the Danish financial market," said Christian Kettel Thomsen, Danish central bank governor. 

This will facilitate the settlement of high-value payments in euro and Danish kroner in the T2 system and will make the Danish krone the third currency available for settlement in TIPS after the Swedish krona was included earlier this year.

Danish financial market participants have started testing both systems in preparation for the launch in April 2025.

“We are delighted that Denmark will use the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services platform to settle wholesale and instant payments in Danish kroner,” said ECB president Christine Lagarde.

“This will reinforce the integration of Europe’s financial infrastructures beyond the euro area, bring economies of scale and lay the foundation for cross-currency payments, providing tangible benefits for people in the euro area and in Denmark.”

Payments Outage At Greggs Forces UK’s Pasty Lovers To Revert To Cash

UK bakery chain Greggs has reported a nationwide digital payments outage, which temporarily forced shoppers to switch to cash.

On Wednesday (March 20), Greggs confirmed that it was unable to take card payments due to a software failure. Some branches were forced to close, while most went cash-only.

When arriving at stores on Wednesday morning, some staff said their point of sale (POS) terminals showed that there were no items for sale within the store.

At 2pm in the afternoon, Greggs  on X that it had resolved the outage: “We're sorry if you weren't able to enjoy your usual Greggs earlier.”

“We’ve resolved the technical issue and our shops are open as usual. Bring on the sausage rolls.”

Sweden’s Swish Launches Self-Scanning Service

Swedish payment firm Swish has announced that it has  a new service that allows customers to self-scan their goods directly in the Swish app. 

The service has been piloted for a while, but now it will be possible for retailers to join the service and start offering it to their customers.

To use the service, the customer scans a QR code at the store entrance to check in and can then start scanning the barcodes of their goods, finally paying for the purchase with Swish. The customer then receives their receipt directly in the app.

"We see that consumers appreciate not having to queue and being able to quickly and easily make their purchases on their own in their mobile phones," Urban Höglund, CEO of Swish.

"At the same time, not all consumers want to download a new app and register as a customer as soon as they buy something in a store, and here we believe that Swish has a huge strength."

Impersonation Scams Are On The Rise, Warns UK's Lloyds Bank

New data from Lloyds has shown that  by 13 percent in 2023, although the average total loss declined from £3,400 to £3,000 compared with the previous year.

Of the overall rise in reported impersonation scams, it was fraudsters pretending to be either police or bank staff which rose the most.

Not only were these the fastest growing impersonation scams, but internal Lloyds Bank data shows they were also the most common.

Other frequently impersonated entities include HM Revenue & Customs and large companies such as Amazon.

However, those falling victim to “CEO fraud” were the worst hit financially, handing over an average of £10,918 to each reported scam in 2023.

EU Instant Payments Regulation Enters Official Journal

Following its publication in the European Journal, the EU has today  the new Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) will come into effect on April 8.

From this date, banks and payment service providers (PSPs) across the trading bloc will need to begin their journey to compliance.

By January 9, 2025, for example, they must be able to receive instant credit transfers in euros.

Verification of payee rules will need to be complied with by euro member states by October 9, 2025, and PSPs located in a member state whose currency is not the euro will need to comply by July 9, 2027.

Consumer Duty A Success So Far, Says FCA In New Business Plan

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has  its Business Plan for 2024-25, setting out an “ambitious” programme of work for the final year of its current three-year strategy.

The FCA said it will continue to deliver the 13 commitments in its strategy, which focuses on preventing serious harm, setting higher standards and promoting competition.

The business plan will also build on the FCA’s plans to become a more outcomes-based, assertive and data-led regulator.

The introduction of the Consumer Duty marked a “major shift” in consumer protection by setting higher and clearer standards, the regulator said, and has already led to changes in savings rates and fees.

The FCA also noted that it is making better use of data to spot and stop harm faster and is being tougher on the firms that could cause harm.

It removed more than 10,000 potentially misleading adverts in 2023 and sent out 2,243 warnings about unauthorised firms and individuals.

It also more than doubled the number of firm permissions cancelled, compared with the previous year, for failing to meet its minimum standards.

GoCardless Signs Agreement To Acquire Australia’s Nuapay

GoCardless, a UK bank payment company, has an agreement to acquire Sentenial Ltd, which operates globally under the Nuapay brand, from Australia’s EML Payments Limited.

In a statement, GoCardless said the acquisition will consolidate its position as a key provider to customer segments, including independent software vendors (ISVs) and payment service providers (PSPs).

In addition, by incorporating Nuapay’s offering into its bank payment platform, GoCardless will fast-track the rollout of new disbursement capabilities across new industry verticals.

“Nuapay is an established account-to-account payment provider and open banking specialist with a blue-chip customer base,” said Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder and CEO of GoCardless.

“Its business is perfectly aligned to our growth strategy, and will accelerate our vision to become the world’s bank payment network.”

South Dakota Latest State To Adopt Model Money Transmission Modernization Act

The South Dakota state legislature has passed Senate Bill 58, amending the provisions in Chapter 51A-17 on money transmission. 

The act repeals the previous sections in Chapter 51A-17. It adds the new sections from the Model Money Transmission Modernization Act (MTMA), including provisions regarding examinations, exemptions, acquisition of control and licensing requirements. 

The MTMA is a set of nationwide standards and requirements designed to streamline the state licensing system for money transmitters.

Several states have adopted the MTMA in a bid to create a more consistent legislative framework for money transmission.

States that have enacted the legislation so far include Texas, Georgia and Nevada. 

Major Outage At Sainsbury's Brings Down Contactless Payments

UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has reported a contactless payments outage following an “overnight software update”, triggering a return to cash and chip and PIN payments.

On Saturday (March 16) morning, Sainsbury’s  that it would be unable to deliver the “vast majority of today’s Groceries Online orders” due to the outage.

The outage continued for eight hours until Sainsbury’s  that it had been patched.

During the outage, Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts also stepped in, sharing a statement to all Groceries Online customers via email.

“I want to apologise to you and every customer that has been affected by the issue and to thank you for your patience and for bearing with us,” he said.

“I really understand how important it is for everyone to be able to shop with us conveniently and easily, whenever and however you want to, and I am sorry if you have not received your usual service from Sainsbury’s this weekend.”

India Takes UPI To Greece In New Partnership With Eurobank

The international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has  a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Greece’s Eurobank on enhancing cross-border payments using UPI.

The signing of the MoU marks a first step towards enabling foreign inward remittance transactions from Greece to India via UPI.

It also establishes a framework for cooperation on fund settlement, reconciliation and dispute resolution between the two jurisdictions.

“UPI remittances will be particularly useful to the Indian community in Greece,” said Fokion Karavias, CEO of Eurobank.

“A strategic alliance with NPCI International is also fully in line with Eurobank’s strategic commitment to becoming the bank of choice for Indian businesses seeking to establish themselves in Greece or Cyprus, as an entry point for their EU franchise.”