Today In Payments: PayPal, Facebook Take Stake In Gojek; Aussie Central Bank May Lower ePayment Costs

In today’s top news, PayPal and Facebook are to take stakes in Indonesia’s Gojek, and the Reserve Bank of Australia is considering cutting costs of electronic payments to encourage eBanking. Also, Wells Fargo will no longer offer loans to independent auto dealers.

PayPal, Facebook Take Stakes In Gojek

PayPal and Facebook are collaborating on a funding round by GoJek, the Indonesian digital payments company, to boost their profiles in Southeast Asia’s financial services sectors and fuel its use among small businesses. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Aussie Central Bank Considers Regulating ePayments Fees

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the country’s central bank, is considering reducing the cost of electronic payments for merchants and consumers as COVID-19 makes eBanking preferable. Bullock has said ATM withdrawals were off  30 percent from March and more than 40 percent one year ago as customers switched to contactless payments.

Wells Cuts Off Lending Services For Independent Car Dealers

Wells Fargo will no longer be giving loans to independent auto dealers, owing to the coronavirus pandemic and its uprooting of normal business life. The main reason the bank was concerned about independent shops was the credit quality of loans from those dealers, according to one source CNBC spoke to.

Talks Over Termination Fee May Threaten Grubhub-Uber Deal

Another major obstacle has emerged in Uber’s bid to buy Grubhub: The food-delivery service wants a big payoff if federal regulators nix the deal. Some Democrats in Congress are calling for a U.S. Justice Department probe of the deal over antitrust issues. Lawmakers were already concerned about the fees such companies charge restaurants and their treatment of workers.

Real-Time Payments’ Real-Time Achilles Heel

APIs have dramatically accelerated B2B payments, but with that comes more risk and bad actors intercepting payments and compromising trust, say Nordea Bank executives Tino Kam and Ulrika Claesson. In this month’s B2B API Tracker, both discuss how the shift to real-time payments necessitates the need for real-time recipient validation.

MercadoLibre: The ‘Amazon Of Latin America’ Spreads Its Wings

It’s one of the hottest retail marketplaces. And it’s one of the hottest payments companies. Meet Mercado Libre, a triple-threat play out of Argentina. Osvaldo Giménez, CEO and executive vice president, tells PYMNTS that mobile is one of the company’s new areas of innovation. Here’s why.

Why Restaurant Recovery Speed Is So Varied

After a dark and difficult few months, there might finally be some light at the end of the tunnel for restaurants as businesses start to reopen nationwide. Major full-service chain restaurants’ transactions were still in decline last week, but it was a lesser decline than in prior weeks. Most sales are coming from drive-thru businesses, lifted further by mobile-order ahead.