Major Tech Companies File Legal Action Against Apple
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Five Big Tech companies filed legal petitions protesting Apple’s new app store policies related to Payments for services. Meta, Microsoft, X, Spotify, and Match Group have challenged Apple's app store policies, particularly criticizing its handling of a federal court mandate to permit alternative payment methods.
These tech giants, alongside Epic Games, oppose Apple's decision to impose a commission on external app store payments, arguing against Apple's tight grip on third-party software. Apple's app store commission, which can reach up to 30%, is contested by developers as excessively high despite Apple's claims that the fees support user security and privacy.
In response to a 2021 court ruling, Apple agreed to let developers use outside payment systems but faced backlash for announcing a 27% commission on such transactions.
The ruling aimed to offer cheaper payment alternatives to consumers, but Apple's recent actions have drawn criticism for effectively maintaining the status quo and introducing further restrictions on app developers.
Earlier, Epic Games sought enforcement of the 2021 decision through legal action, indicating ongoing efforts to compel Apple to relax its control over app distribution and payments.
In a joint amicus briefing filed Wednesday, Meta, Microsoft, X and Match Group argue that Apple’s response essentially leaves in place the existing rule governing how software makers steer users to alternative options.
To be continued..
Read more FinTech updates, including a crazy crypto scam from The Netherlands, below and I'll be back in your inbox on Monday.
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BREAKING NEWS
🇬🇧 Virgin Money and Nationwide boards approve takeover terms. Nationwide Building Society's proposed takeover of Virgin Money looks set to move ahead as the boards of both lenders have agreed a recently tabled £2.9bn deal. Bosses at Nationwide have been looking over Virgin's books since the 220p per share offer was first suggested earlier this month, and now the pair have firmed up a preliminary agreement.
#FINTECHREPORT
Digital Onboarding: “Benchmarking Assessment of European Retail Banks"👇
FINTECH NEWS
🇺🇸 Ramp CEO says the FinTech startup is just scratching the surface. Eric Glyman recently stated this on the TechCrunch Found podcast adding that despite how much his unicorn corporate card and expense startup has grown so far, it’s only tapped in to 1% of its potential market share. This observation comes amidst the broader growth of the FinTech sector over the past five years.
🇰🇾 Neobank Meld is going to create tokenized financial products to offer retail investors the opportunity to lend and borrow digital assets against the RWAs. For clarity, RWAs in crypto are digital assets representing real-world tangible assets like stocks, bonds, or derivatives outside the blockchain ecosystem.
🇺🇸 US start-up Frich Money enters pilot partnership with MSU Federal Credit Union. Frich Money CEO and co-founder Katrin Kaurov writes on LinkedIn that the new partnership with MSUFCU will enable the credit union to help “better serve the next generation of members”. MSUFCU believes Frich Money can help bridge the “awareness gap” between Gen Z and credit unions.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇵🇱 BLIK, Poland's most popular payment method, is now implemented in Mangopay. The announcement states that this will provide greater support for platforms and marketplaces in Poland. The modular solution from Mangopay was designed to allow marketplaces to choose and create specific payment infrastructure tailored to their needs.
🇸🇬 Thunes signs new deal with Visa to broaden its global reach. Thunes’s latest deal with Visa builds on a collaboration that began last year, and which has also seen the US giant invest in the business. The recent announcement will extend the number of markets in which Visa can make payments into digital wallets from 78 to 108.
🇺🇸 Five Big Tech companies filed legal petitions protesting Apple’s new app store policies related to Payments for services. Meta, Microsoft, X, Spotify, and Match Group have challenged Apple's app store policies, particularly criticizing its handling of a federal court mandate to permit alternative payment methods.
🇻🇳 Vietnam’s QR code revolution puts pressure on digital wallets. Tap-to-pay methods (mainly QR code payments) have become popular in Vietnam, a surprising turn in a country where cash made up 70% of transactions just a few years ago. FinTech companies are not the sole drivers of this transformation.
🇬🇧 UK set for soaring digital wallet adoption. The UK is approaching a seismic shift in how people pay, with digital wallets set to comprise half of all e-commerce spend and nearly a third of POS transaction value by 2027, according to a report from Worldpay.
dLocal and Ebury expand partnership to offer efficient payment solutions in Africa’s largest markets. The collaboration provides Ebury customers with cost-effective, reliable, and diversified payment options, and aims to transform payment solutions, rapidly unlocking opportunities across Africa's largest markets.
🇪🇸 ING and Mastercard partner to make payments easier and safer for consumers when shopping online through Click to Play, a simple and intuitive way of paying. Click to Pay is now available on ING´s app and website in Spain and will be rolled out in other European countries later this year. More here
🇲🇾 E-payment transactions rise 24% to 11.5bil in 2023. Bank Negara Malaysia highlighted that credit transfer services formed the largest share of e-payment transactions with a 43% share. The central bank said the acceptance of e-payment transactions among businesses, especially among small-sized enterprises, continued to gain traction.
🇩🇪 Berlin-based Micropayment and Tink combine for Pay by Bank. Micropayment has launched Tink’s Pay by Bank product for merchant checkouts, working together on promoting and growing the adoption of this payment method across Europe. Read more
🇺🇸 Amazon uses Stripe Terminal to power payments for Just Walk Out technology in Australia 🇦🇺 and Canada 🇨🇦. Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology is designed to be an effortless shopping experience. The guest enters the store by using their credit card or mobile wallet at the entry gate.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇺🇸 Onsite at FinTech Meetup, The FR met with Michele Alt, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Klaros Group, and a former regulator at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to talk about what will BAAS look like in a year?
🇦🇺 Swift announced it has been selected to build a service that will reduce the risk of misdirected payments and increase defences against payment fraud, providing Australians with more confidence when sending money. Swift was chosen by Australian Payments Plus (AP+) to build confirmation of payee, which is a security measure that helps protect consumers from fraud by confirming the identity of the payee before a payment is made.
🇬🇧 Pockit launches Income Advance product. The service will help meet the growing demand for affordable creditamong the large cohort of UK consumers excluded from mainstream lending products, allowing Pockit’s customers to better manage their cash flow without turning to unlicensed and high-cost short-term lenders.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇳🇱 Alexey Pertsev, the Tornado Cash developer who has become a symbol of state overreach on crypto crime, laundered more than $1.2 billion in dirty money, according to an indictment by Dutch prosecutors. Pertsev, scheduled to stand trial in the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch beginning March 26, “made a habit of committing money laundering,”
🇺🇸 Kraken unveils a qualified custody solution for crypto in the US. Kraken Financial is authorized to offer digital asset custody and deposit accounts for institutions. As per its charter, Kraken Financial holds all deposits in full-reserve, making it the natural service provider through which Kraken Institutional can offer qualified custody.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇵🇭 Philippine neobank Zed introduces pioneering “no-fee” credit card, securing $6m in funding. This innovative offering eliminates several common charges, including foreign transaction fees, interest, and annual fees, marking a potential shift to more accessible financial services for the financially underserved in the region.
🇺🇸 SoFi CEO explains convertible debt offering: ‘We did this deal from a position of strength.’ In a Wednesday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, SoFi CEO Anthony Noto explained why the online personal finance company issued a convertible debt offering, saying it was a way to lower debt costs.
🇬🇧 AccessPay secures $24m in funding. This latest round of capital will be instrumental in driving AccessPay’s focus on profitable growth while bolstering its commitment to increasing revenues in a sustainable manner. A significant part of the funding will go to AccessPay's R&D efforts, ensuring ongoing value creation for its enterprise clients.
🇨🇿 Prague-based Flowpay raises over €2 million to make SME financing more accessible through embedded finance. This newly acquired investment will allow Flowpay to scale beyond the Czech Republic, enhance its technological capabilities and offer its services to a wider range of SMEs.
🇺🇸 VCs double down on FinTech Coast, which aims to be the Brex for ‘real-world’ industries. Coast describes itself as the “modern financial services platform for the future of transportation.” It compares itself to the likes of Ramp and Brex in that it has developed expense management software for fleet operators and their employees.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
🇪🇸 Finom, a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) banking service, is set to open an office in Barcelona, Spain, as part of its expansion strategy to become a key player in the European market. The firm plans to grow its Barcelona office to 100 employees by the end of the year, seeking talents in backend engineering, data engineering, and customer support.
🇺🇸 Goldman’s Cohen heads for exit as GreenSky deal closes. GreenSky is now owned by an investor group led by Sixth Street. Stephanie Cohen, Goldman’s global head of platform solutions, is leaving the bank for IT firm Cloudflare, where she will be chief strategy officer, she wrote Monday on her personal LinkedIn.
🇮🇱 Bank One Zero is preparing for the planned structural change. The technology and product operations will be split from the bank into a sister company under a joint holding company, ahead of the bank's expected expansion into Europe. Gal Bar Dea, founder and CEO of the bank, will be promoted to CEO of the group and will head the technology company, which will provide services to the bank in Israel and continue the expected activities abroad.
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