Payments round-up: 4 December 2017
Betas, big numbers and the big match. Our latest payments round-up features Emma Technologies, Yolt, and Visa and the football World Cup in 2018.
London-based Emma Technologies has started rolling out invites to join the closed beta for its mobile app. Its app, for Android and iOS, “helps consumers avoid overdrafts, find and cancel subscriptions, track debt and save money”.
The firm is trying the integrated approach, citing that “people tend to have multiple accounts, several contracts, different credit cards and the challenges of having everything under control keep growing”. Emma wants to put an end to this via the popular medium of open banking. In terms of the beta, the company has given priority access to users who signed up on its website. Emma is currently available only in the UK and works with NatWest, Halifax, Lloyds, Nationwide, Barclays, HSBC, First Direct, Santander, TSB, RBS, Metro Bank and Co-operative Bank.
Yolt, the money app owned by ING, says it has reached 100,000 registered app users in less than six months of open beta in the UK. Yolt allows users to view their accounts and credit cards in one place. Other features include setting budgets, tagging purchases and comparing options for international money transfers.
Like Emma above, Yolt looks to embrace open banking – which is “just around the corner”. As an example of how its API integrations work, Yolt cites its recent link up with UK challenger Starling Bank.
In “celebration” of the final draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, Visa, the “official payment service partner” of FIFA, has released travel and spending data for the 2018 World Cup. Throughout the venues, Visa will offer point of sale terminals that accept a Visa credit or debit card and a range of digital payments, such as those made via phone or watch.
Based on spending trends and insights from Visa, it projects that Russia will host an additional 300,000 to 500,000 international visitors during the months of June and July 2018, on top of a baseline average of 4.3 million total international visitors to Russia during that same time period over the past four years. Wisely, Visa didn’t offer up any projections as to who will win the cup. In my view it won’t be England. Based on previous trends, they’ll probably lose to a canal.
