TransferTo Teams Up With Stellar; Bunq Unveils Payment Link Service

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes TransferTo‘s tie-up with Stellar Development Foundation for cross-border facilitation services. In addition, the Netherlands’ bunq has unveiled a payment link service, and the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is warning the public about a firm that is selling digital tokens, reportedly without permission from the government.

U.K.-based The ai Corporation (ai) – along with its suite of payment and fraud prevention solutions – has been re-approved for an eMoney license by the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the company said in an announcement. In addition, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has also re-approved the company for Money Services Business (MSB) status.

On another note, the Netherlands’ bunq has unveiled a new bunq.me service that allows clients of European banks to use a link to collect payments from family, friends and partners, according to reports. With the services, consumers don’t have to use an app and they can use the same link for each payment request they make.

In other news, an Accenture survey found that 66 percent of Australian consumers do not want to share their financial data with non-banking organizations, Accenture said in an announcement. However, the research found that 31 percent of Generation Z members are aware of open banking and willing to share their data with third-party providers, compared to only 7 percent of baby boomers.

And Singapore-based TransferTo has teamed up with Stellar Development Foundation to integrate Stellar’s system for cross-border facilitation services, Cryptovest reported. In addition, clients of Stellar will also be able to access TransferTo’s network.

In other news, the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is warning the public about a firm that is selling digital tokens, Cryptovest reported. The agency said that Freedom Traders Club, which has reportedly promoted its Ploutos Coin through seminars, “is not registered as a corporation or partnership and is not authorized to solicit investments from the public.”

And, in South Africa, Amazon plans to move into an eight-story building in Cape Town, Reuters reported. In addition, the eCommerce company has been advertising jobs in the city: One posting, for example, is for a software development engineer for a project that involves cloud computing, machine learning and big data. The news comes as Microsoft said last year that it was planning on constructing two data centers in the country.