Payment

WhatsApp will within weeks roll out cashback rewards to lure more Indians to its peer-to-peer payments service and is testing similar incentives for merchant payments, two sources said, as the company seeks to compete with rivals including Google.The latest move comes days after WhatsApp won regulatory approval to more than double its payments offering to 100 million users in India, its biggest market with more than half a billion users overall.WhatsApp will before the end of May launch the cashback offer of up to Rs. 33…

Meta is continuing the Meta-fication of its brands by renaming Facebook Pay, its payment system available across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to Meta Pay. The change is set to happen “soon,” according to a blog post from Stephane Kasriel, Meta’s head of commerce and financial technologies, and is the latest indication that the company formerly known as Facebook is all in on the metaverse. “We’re focused on enhancing the payments experiences we already provide with Facebook Pay where we’re seeing good…

Google is beefing up the financial safety aspect for its Chrome browser and Android smartphone users. Say hello to virtual cards, a system that replaces the actual bank-assigned unique number for a credit or debit card with a virtual set of numbers. The idea is to keep the original card information safe as users are no longer required to manually enter card details every time they make an online purchase. Announced at the Google I/O 2022 event, the virtual card system has been designed for the autofill system on…

The federal government has denied a claim by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) that the government owes its members half a trillion naira, a debt the group says could worsen the latest round of fuel scarcity in the country. Fuel queues returned this week to some cities across the country, including the federal capital Abuja, with many residents having to buy petrol from roadside hawkers at prices as high as N400 a litre against the government-set range of…

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Tuesday informed that they have set up a 24*7 helpline to aid with digital payments products and services. The helpline is called DigiSaathi and it will also be accessible on WhatsApp all the information customers need related to digital payment products and services. The DigiSaathi was launched on behalf of a consortium of payment system operators and participants comprising banks and non-banking financial entities, NPCI said.…

Match Group, the company behind popular dating apps such as Tinder, Match, and OkCupid, is suing Google over its restrictive billing policies on the Play Store. In its complaint, Match Group claims Google “illegally monopolized the market for distributing apps” on Android by forcing apps to use Google’s own billing system and then taking a cut of the payments. Match Group’s complaint plays off an earlier lawsuit Epic Games filed against Apple in 2020, alleging that Apple engaged in “anti-competitive” behavior by…

The changing of auto-debit rules by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has impacted many users especially those with recurring payments. One such set of users are Apple App Store, Apple ID users that requires monthly auto debiting of a fixed amount to run the services smoothly. Earlier, we used to add our credit or debit cards to the portal and it tends to debit the recurring amount every month when it’s due but the change has tumbled it. Like the Apple users, Netflix, Google and other…

CEO of Apple Tim Cook attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 94th Oscars at the The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California on March 27, 2022.Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty ImagesEurope's antitrust regulator accused Apple of restricting rivals' access to its payment technology, a move that could potentially compel it to change how the company's system works and open it up to a large fine.The European Commission said in a press release Monday that it had "informed Apple…

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (or ACM) has reportedly rejected Apple’s proposed App Store changes that would let dating app developers use third-party payment systems, according to 9to5Mac and the Coalition for App Fairness. The Dutch regulator ordered the change in December and has been going back and forth with the company over how it should be implemented — and charging Apple millions in fines along the way. Now, Apple could face further penalties. According to a journalist’s tweet translated…

EU antitrust regulators charged Apple on Monday with restricting rivals' access to its NFC chip technology in a move that could result in a hefty fine for the iPhone maker and force it to open its mobile payment system to competitors.The European Commission said it had sent a charge sheet known as a statement of objections to Apple, detailing how the company had abused its dominant position in markets for mobile wallets on iOS devices."We have indications that Apple restricted third-party access to key technology…