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- Singapore Establishes New Network For Fintech Growth
- Online Payment Platform (OPP) Secures UK EMI Licence
- Greece To Mandate Instant Payment Acceptance By Spring 2025
- Spanish Data Protection Watchdog Fines Key Retail Bank
- Hong Kong Partners With Thailand, Brazil On Cross-Border Tokenisation Initiatives
- Danish Regulator Orders Cash Handling Company To Improve AML Practices
- UK Government To Expand On Open Banking With New Data Laws
- India Revokes Authorisation Of UAE Remittance Provider
Singapore Establishes New Network For Fintech Growth
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced the formation of the Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN), which aims to spur fintech growth and innovation in the financial services hub.
Building on Singapore's early fintech initiatives, including a regulatory sandbox, cross-border payment frameworks and digital asset experiments, GFTN will support collaboration on payments, asset tokenisation and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.
GFTN will work alongside the MAS to facilitate industry and policy discussions and will further the MAS' efforts to grow the annual Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) into the premier global event for financial technology.
Online Payment Platform (OPP) Secures UK EMI Licence
Online Payment Platform Ltd (OPP), a specialised payment service provider (PSP) for platforms and marketplaces, has been granted a licence to operate as an electronic money institution (EMI) in the UK.
Under the EMI licence, OPP will expand its capabilities to facilitate consumer-to-consumer (C2C), business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) payments for platforms and marketplaces in the UK. This includes the ability to split payments between different types of platform users.
“The EMI licence allows OPP to add to its product stack with a much-demanded wallet solution, so that users will be able to receive and store funds for future purchases,” said Steve Lavington, commercial director at OPP.
Launched in 2013 from its HQ in Delft, Netherlands, OPP has processed transactions for PayPal, IKEA and Gumtree. It is a subsidiary of French payments firm Worldline.
Greece To Mandate Instant Payment Acceptance By Spring 2025
Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance has confirmed that it will mandate that all businesses are able to accept instant payments using the IRIS payment system by Spring 2025.
Kostis Hatzidakis, minister of national economy and finance, said the move is part of the government's ongoing efforts to promote the use of electronic transactions and to crackdown on tax evasion. He added that 3.3m out of 6m IBANs are already connected to the IRIS network.
The ministry has also been engaged in an effort to ensure that businesses' cash registers are connected to their point of sale (POS). Since the beginning of 2024, more than 407,000 businesses have complied with the directive, with only a 4 percent non-compliance rate.
Finally, in 2025, and following an approval from the EU, Greece plans to introduce mandatory electronic invoicing — another step towards transparency in transactions and tackling tax evasion.
Spanish Data Protection Watchdog Fines Key Retail Bank
The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) has fined Ibercaja Banco, S.A. €300,000 for failing to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The GDPR violations were identified after a complaint was lodged against the bank.
The claim, filed by an individual seeking access to their personal data following a contract cancellation, led to the AEPD's decision.
The regulator found that the bank accessed personal data linked to Experian up to 47 times, from March 2022 to January 2023.
Ibercaja Banco responded by making a voluntary payment of €180,000 after utilising two penalty reductions available under the Commence Agreement, which marks its admission of liability.
Hong Kong Partners With Thailand, Brazil On Cross-Border Tokenisation Initiatives
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has announced the launch of two separate partnerships with the central banks of Thailand and Brazil, focused on the use of tokenisation for cross-border payments using central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The central banks will link up their experimental CBDC infrastructures to explore cross-border payment-versus-payment (PvP) and delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlements for use cases in areas such as trade finance and carbon credits.
The move builds on Hong Kong's Ensemble Sandbox, launched in August this year, which serves as a testing ground for tokenisation experiments across four main areas: fixed income and investment funds; liquidity management; green and sustainable finance; and trade and supply chain finance, including through use of CBDC.
The partnerships also build on a 2019 memorandum of understanding (MoU) on fintech collaboration signed by the HKMA and the Bank of Thailand (BOT), and a 2018 cooperation agreement signed by the HKMA and the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB).
Danish Regulator Orders Cash Handling Company To Improve AML Practices
The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (DFSA) has issued an enforcement decision requiring cash-handling company Loomis' Danish arm to strengthen its anti-money laundering (AML) practices.
Following an inspection in March 2024, the FSA identified serious breaches of money laundering prevention requirements, triggering the regulator to mandate immediate remedial actions.
Key issues include Loomis Danmark’s lack of sufficient enhanced customer awareness measures for high-risk clients, which heightens the risk of inadequate understanding of customer relationships.
The DFSA also noted gaps in the company's records on investigations into suspicious activities, which it said may hinder the timely reporting of these findings to Denmark's Anti-Money Laundering Secretariat.
Loomis has now been required to implement enhanced procedures for monitoring high-risk customers and ensuring thorough documentation of all suspicious activity investigations.
UK Government To Expand On Open Banking With New Data Laws
The UK government has introduced the Data Use and Access Bill to parliament, promising an economic boost of £10bn over the next decade through expanded data-sharing capabilities.
The legislation aims to make it easier for consumers and businesses to share data securely with authorised third parties such as banks and utility companies, supporting smart data models that build on the success of open banking.
Open finance is part of this, and the government says that advancements will allow consumers to benefit from personalised financial advice and market comparisons, potentially cutting costs on services such as banking and energy.
The bill is also intended to open up innovation opportunities for sectors beyond finance, encouraging competition and helping consumers find better deals.
"With laws that help us to use data securely and effectively, this Bill will help us boost the UK’s economy, free up vital time for our front-line workers, and relieve people from unnecessary admin so that they can get on with their lives," commented Peter Kyle, the UK’s secretary of state for science, innovation and technology.
India Revokes Authorisation Of UAE Remittance Provider
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it has revoked the certificate of authorisation (CoA) of UAE Exchange Centre, a remittance provider and previously a regulated payment system operator (PSO).
The RBI did not give details of the reason for the revocation, other than "non-compliance with regulatory requirements".
UAE Exchange Centre was authorised to conduct inbound, customer-to-customer money transfers as an "overseas principal’ under the Master Direction on Money Transfer Service Scheme (MTSS Master Direction).
Following the revocation, which was confirmed on October 10, the firm can no longer process remittances to recipients in India.
