Insights Archive

February 21, 2022

The Start Of A Revolution? India’s Changing Payments Landscape

The Universal Payments Interface has become a success story for India, but it is financial inclusion that has been the real star of India's payments transformation.

February 21, 2022

Update: Lead Crypto Prosecutor Joins U.S. National Crypto Enforcement Team

The U.S. Department of Justice has appointed Eun Young Choi to serve as the first director of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.

February 21, 2022

Swedbank Off The Hook Over PSD2 Compliance

Sweden’s financial watchdog has told the retail banking giant that it has closed its investigation; however, it warned that there are some areas where strong customer authentication compliance is not up to scratch.

February 21, 2022

Report Shows 'Shocking Scale' Of UK Black Market, Says BGC

UK trade group the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) is urging the government to “consider targeted measures” to protect vulnerable players in the long-awaited Gambling Act white paper.

February 21, 2022

Philippine Senate To Probe Missing Cockfighting Gamblers

The Philippine Senate is set to launch an investigation into rising missing person cases linked to cockfighting and associated online gambling activity.

February 21, 2022

Denmark Reprimands Kindred Again Over AML Policies

The Danish Gambling Authority (Spillemyndigheden) has given Kindred Group’s Unibet brand four reprimands over lax anti-money laundering and due diligence policies and ordered it to fix its risk-assessment policies.

February 21, 2022

DraftKings Shares Plummet After Loss Widens, Revenues Beat Expectations

DraftKings stock tumbled more than 20 percent Friday despite the company meeting its revenue projections, a potential sign of investor impatience with the company’s high customer acquisition spending.

February 21, 2022

Baltic Online Markets Soar Past €400m In 2021

Overall regulated online gambling revenue in the Baltic region jumped by 84 percent year-on-year to €409m in 2021, with exaggerated channel shift helping Latvia and Lithuania to become the latest European markets to pass €100m in annual market size.

February 18, 2022

Week In Brief - February 18, 2022

A short roundup of some of the week's payments news you may have missed. This week we look at UK Finance's response to FCA Consumer Duty proposals, the threat of crypto to global financial stability, new fintech laws in Egypt, BlockFi's settlement with the SEC and the huge rise in dating fraud in the U.S.

February 18, 2022

EPC Launch QR Standardisation Consultation

Hot off the heels of Ant Group’s report on QR codes in the EU, the European Payments Council (EPC) has published a new consultation regarding standardisation in the trading bloc.

February 18, 2022

Ceasefire! Amazon And Visa Reach Global Agreement

After months of negotiations, a clash of the titans row that has engulfed the payments industry and caused wider debate appears to be over, as the companies announced a new arrangement regarding payment fees. However, could further fee regulation be on the cards?

February 18, 2022

New AML Platform To Build TRUST In Crypto Trading

Leading U.S. crypto firms have joined forces to build a platform called TRUST to comply with travel rule requirements and anti-money laundering (AML) rules.

February 18, 2022

Arkansas Mobile Sports-Betting Rules Clear First Legislative Hurdle

Controversial rules that will allow for mobile sports betting in Arkansas but could also keep major national operators on the sidelines cleared the first of two legislative hurdles on Thursday.

February 18, 2022

Swedish Relief As Harsh Measures Left Out Of Government Proposals

Recent government proposals to update Swedish gambling law are a relief because none of the online gambling-unfriendly measures floated over the past few months were implemented, an online gambling trade lobbyist has said.

February 18, 2022

Nevada Regulators Approve Apollo To Buy Las Vegas Sands Strip Casinos

Apollo Global Management received final approval from Nevada gaming regulators on Thursday for its portion of the $6.25bn deal to acquire the operations of the Strip properties owned by Las Vegas Sands.

February 18, 2022

Nigeria Regulator Urges Lawmakers To 'Speed Up' Legal Amendments

The head of Nigeria’s federal gambling regulator wants the National Assembly to speed up the introduction of an amendment to the National Lottery Act that would improve taxation and clamp down on unlicensed operators.

February 18, 2022

News In Brief: February 14-February 18, 2022

More French teenagers are gambling, according to a survey by the national regulator, with very high exposure to advertising a key motivating factor.

February 17, 2022

CFPB‌ ‌Takes‌ ‌Aim‌ ‌At‌ ‌Prepaid‌ ‌Card‌s Used For Welfare Benefits

Latest in the line of recent regulatory announcements, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is now looking at fees and conditions of prepaid cards used to distribute U.S. government payments.

February 17, 2022

China To Allow Fee To Prevent CBDC Bank Runs

Mu Changchun, the People’s Bank of China’s digital currency lead, has given more hints to the world about how the most significant central bank digital currency (CBDC) project in a major economy is evolving.

February 17, 2022

Which? Gives Food For Thought To Using BNPL

The UK consumer association warns that using buy now, pay later (BNPL) to pay for basic food shopping could be a sign of problem debt.

February 17, 2022

Russian Banks Complete First Digital Ruble Test

State-backed financial institutions VTB Bank and Promsvyazbank have conducted the first successful transactions with a digital ruble issued on the test version of the Bank of Russia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform.