HSBC launched a competitor to Wise

Starting off the year with a bang, HSBC launched its global currency conversion app Zing, taking on market leader Wise.

The app comes with an accompanying card and will start its rollout in the UK followed by further destinations worldwide.

Later in the month Wise renewed their attack on high street banks for hidden fees in foreign exchange, but found that Zing had no such fees.

Apple offers to open up NFC payments

Apple was forced to open up their NFC payments for third-party providers to close off antitrust charges from the European Commission.

The case was brought against them in 2022, and could have run them billions in fines.

However, they are not out of the woods yet as they are facing an antitrust class action lawsuit from card issuers in the US and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have taken a stance against this policy.

Big Tech firms fight back over digital wallets regulation

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a US lobbying group representing the interests of Big Tech firms, hit out against CFPB proposals.

The CFPB proposed a new rule in November, which would see non-bank financial companies that handle more than five million transactions per year face the same rules as large banks and credit unions. This would encompass 17 companies including Google, Apple, PayPal and CashApp operator Block. These firms would have to adhere to applicable funds transfer, privacy, and other consumer protection laws.

CCIA said the proposal “fails to clearly identify a specific risk it seeks to address and merely identifies the possibility of ‘new risks’ from ‘new product offerings’ without explicitly stating what those risks might be.”

X plans to launch peer-to-peer payments

X, formerly Twitter, announced in a blog post their intention to launch peer-to-peer (P2P) payments in 2024.

This news came after company ownerhands employee call, obtained by  Elon Musk said in November during an all The Verge, that he aimed for X to manage users’ “entire financial life” to the extent they “won’t need a bank account”.

Revolut launched Mobile Wallets for cross-border payments

Revolut launched its Mobile Wallets service, designed to make it easy to send money abroad.

At the moment this is limited to UK and European customers sending money to Bangladesh (via bKash) and Kenya (through M-Pesa), but is expected to expand.

Mobile Wallets users can send remittances quickly using only recipient IDs such as their name alongside their phone number or email addresses.