03.07.18 Your morning briefing

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:

Securing shared data for PSD2
Citi and Kabbage are among the founding members of a consortium set up by the World Economic Forum to improve cybersecurity in the fintech and data aggregation industries.

This is of particular importance as the complex compliance requirements of the Payment Services Directive (PSD2) start to ramp up, placing pressure on banks, fintechs and data aggregators to shore up security.

The WEF seeks a framework that can be used to measure the strength of companies’ cybersecurity as they support data sharing through open development tools.

Bloomberg News

Creating a digital collectable
The Central Bank of Lithuania is inviting blockchain developers to design a digital collector coin to be part of an annual event for the bank that will include other limited edition coins to commemorate prominent people, events and other notable parts of Lithuanian culture, Phys.org reports.

The hackathon to create the coin will occur in May, and final decisions on design, mintage, price and issue date will be made after the close of the contest.

China’s antisocial crypto crackdown
China has taken several steps to rein in bitcoin and other crypocurrencies, with the latest step being a possible ban on some exchanges’ channels on WeChat.

Caixin reports it has confirmed the government halt, which WeChat has denied. The news site also reports the halt is part of a broader government crackdown on services that still offer cryptocurrency to Chinese investors.

Cash hauler sheds paper
Companies of all sorts are shedding paper, even firms that draw revenue from hauling paper money.

Total Armored Car Service is offering online cash and coin ordering, removing paper faxes and order forms for companies that require large quantities of cash hauling, such as ATM and self-service vending operators.

Total Armored estimates this move will save thousands of staff hours per year as spreadsheets, invoices and other documents migrate to the internet.

From the Web

Google is bringing messaging to its Tez payment app in India
TechCrunch | Wed Mar 7, 2018 – Messaging and payments continue to converge in India after Google added chat features to its Tez payment app in India. The move follows the introduction of peer-to-peer payments inside WhatsApp in India, its largest country worldwide with over 200 million users, last month and it now allows users of Tez to communicate directly with contacts via the app.

Amazon could become the third-biggest US bank if it wants to: Bain study
CNBC | Tue Mar 6, 2018 – Amazon could rival the nation’s big banks in as few as five years, capitalizing off its digital prowess and massive consumer base, according to a Bain & Company report. “We could imagine Amazon’s banking services growing to more than 70 million U.S. consumer relationships over the next five years or so — the same as Wells Fargo, the third-largest bank in the US.,” wrote Bain’s Gerard du Toit and Aaron Cheris.

It’s Just a Matter of Time Before Litecoin Overtakes Bitcoin
The Motley Fool | Tue Mar 6, 2018 – Though Litecoin is often described as “bitcoin-Lite,” and is considered to be in cooperation not competition with bitcoin, it most definitely has the tools to push aside bitcoin and become the go-to medium of exchange for digital currency users. To begin with, the processing times aren’t even close. HowMuch.net recently examined maximum transactions processed per second and found that bitcoin maxed out at seven per second, compared with 56 for Litecoin.

More from PaymentsSource

The startup that’s digitizing the Windy City
Chicago’s government agencies are a mess of disconnected legacy systems that smacks of old-school municipal malaise and revenue loss as people trek to midcentury government facilities and wait in line to pay.

How ‘cyborgs’ can win at the fraud fight
Security risk management works best when artificial intelligence and humans work together, writes Suresh Dakshina, a president at Chargeback Gurus.

Comdata, Noventis team on digital supplier payments
Comdata, a major issuer of fuel cards in North America, has established a partnership with payments processor Noventis to expand the range of Comdata’s suppliers that can accept payments through virtual cards to further reduce reliance on paper checks.

Fiserv launches anti-fraud service to address false declines
Fiserv is rolling out a fraud-detection and decisioning service for issuers from Mastercard that aims to increase the accuracy of card transactions they approve or reject based on potential fraud.