Latest Payments News: Payments Outage At Greggs Forces UK’s Pasty Lovers To Revert To Cash, and more

Catch up on six of the stories our payments compliance analysts have covered lately, and stay up-to-date on the latest news.

Denmark Joins TIPS And TARGET2

The European Central Bank (ECB) and Danmarks Nationalbank have signed an agreement for Denmark to join the ECB’s TARGET2 (T2) wholesale payment system and the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service.

“We are very happy to be the first non-euro country to be part of all current TARGET services, offering strengthened IT security and harmonised infrastructure for the Danish financial market," said Christian Kettel Thomsen, Danish central bank governor.

This will facilitate the settlement of high-value payments in euro and Danish kroner in the T2 system and will make the Danish krone the third currency available for settlement in TIPS after the Swedish krona was included earlier this year.

Danish financial market participants have started testing both systems in preparation for the launch in April 2025.

“We are delighted that Denmark will use the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services platform to settle wholesale and instant payments in Danish kroner,” said ECB president Christine Lagarde.

“This will reinforce the integration of Europe’s financial infrastructures beyond the euro area, bring economies of scale and lay the foundation for cross-currency payments, providing tangible benefits for people in the euro area and in Denmark.”

Payments Outage At Greggs Forces UK’s Pasty Lovers To Revert To Cash

UK bakery chain Greggs has reported a nationwide digital payments outage, which temporarily forced shoppers to switch to cash.

On Wednesday (March 20), Greggs confirmed that it was unable to take card payments due to a software failure. Some branches were forced to close, while most went cash-only.

When arriving at stores on Wednesday morning, some staff said their point of sale (POS) terminals showed that there were no items for sale within the store.

At 2pm in the afternoon, Greggs announced on X that it had resolved the outage: “We're sorry if you weren't able to enjoy your usual Greggs earlier.”

“We’ve resolved the technical issue and our shops are open as usual. Bring on the sausage rolls.”

Sweden’s Swish Launches Self-Scanning Service

Swedish payment firm Swish has announced that it has launched a new service that allows customers to self-scan their goods directly in the Swish app.

The service has been piloted for a while, but now it will be possible for retailers to join the service and start offering it to their customers.

To use the service, the customer scans a QR code at the store entrance to check in and can then start scanning the barcodes of their goods, finally paying for the purchase with Swish. The customer then receives their receipt directly in the app.

"We see that consumers appreciate not having to queue and being able to quickly and easily make their purchases on their own in their mobile phones," Urban Höglund, CEO of Swish.

"At the same time, not all consumers want to download a new app and register as a customer as soon as they buy something in a store, and here we believe that Swish has a huge strength."

Impersonation Scams Are On The Rise, Warns UK's Lloyds Bank

New data from Lloyds has shown that impersonation scams rose by 13 percent in 2023, although the average total loss declined from £3,400 to £3,000 compared with the previous year.

Of the overall rise in reported impersonation scams, it was fraudsters pretending to be either police or bank staff which rose the most.

Not only were these the fastest growing impersonation scams, but internal Lloyds Bank data shows they were also the most common.

Other frequently impersonated entities include HM Revenue & Customs and large companies such as Amazon.

However, those falling victim to “CEO fraud” were the worst hit financially, handing over an average of £10,918 to each reported scam in 2023.

EU Instant Payments Regulation Enters Official Journal

Following its publication in the European Journal, the EU has today confirmed the new Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) will come into effect on April 8.

From this date, banks and payment service providers (PSPs) across the trading bloc will need to begin their journey to compliance.

By January 9, 2025, for example, they must be able to receive instant credit transfers in euros.

Verification of payee rules will need to be complied with by euro member states by October 9, 2025, and PSPs located in a member state whose currency is not the euro will need to comply by July 9, 2027.

Consumer Duty A Success So Far, Says FCA In New Business Plan

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its Business Plan for 2024-25, setting out an “ambitious” programme of work for the final year of its current three-year strategy.

The FCA said it will continue to deliver the 13 commitments in its strategy, which focuses on preventing serious harm, setting higher standards and promoting competition.

The business plan will also build on the FCA’s plans to become a more outcomes-based, assertive and data-led regulator.

The introduction of the Consumer Duty marked a “major shift” in consumer protection by setting higher and clearer standards, the regulator said, and has already led to changes in savings rates and fees.

The FCA also noted that it is making better use of data to spot and stop harm faster and is being tougher on the firms that could cause harm.

It removed more than 10,000 potentially misleading adverts in 2023 and sent out 2,243 warnings about unauthorised firms and individuals.

It also more than doubled the number of firm permissions cancelled, compared with the previous year, for failing to meet its minimum standards.

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