The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:

Pushing back

Walmart, Home Depot and other retailers have met with federal regulators to express concerns about Visa and Mastercard's push to use EMVCo standards to support a "single button" for online payments.

The card network button is seen as a potential threat to PayPal, but The Wall Street Journal reports the retailers are concerned the button will prevent them from routing debit transactions to lower cost networks, a potential violation of the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd Frank Act, which requires merchants have more than one debit network to route transactions.

The networks' argument for the single checkout experience is it will simplify checkout by making it similar to in-store payments; and it will also simplify payments for merchants by avoiding choosing among different mobile wallets. Visa and Mastercard have also said the single checkout experience won't prevent different mobile payment apps from competing.

Google Pay picks up support in Japan

Shortly after adding support for transit ticketing and web payments, Google Pay has expanded its availability in Japan.

Two Japanese prepaid cards, Suica and WAON, will support Google Pay for adding funds and managing accounts. The payment app will be available on all Osaifu-Keitai eligible phones, and e-money cards nanaco, Rakuten, Edy, Suica and WAON can all be used with Google Pay.

There's a tie-in to Google's earlier moves into transit payments, as Google Pay can also be used to pay on transit systems where Suica is accepted.

Ask for coffee

As Starbucks tests voice assistants to shorten order times, Alibaba is also developing a voice system designed to shorten queues.

Alibaba's research unit, the DAMO Academy, has demonstrated a smart ordering system, in which consumers make vocal orders into an automated kiosk, which can also change orders in real time, reports the South China Morning Post, which is a subsidiary of Alibaba.

In a demonstration, the voice ordering system took an order of 34 coffees in 49 seconds. A human barista took 2 minutes and 37 seconds to complete the same order.

Blockchain and Go

Payment companies have found myriad uses for blockchain technology, the latest being the actual point of sale.

Melbourne, Australia-based TillBilly has announced an initial coin offering for a blockchain-supported payment system. Merchants will receive a point of sale machine using prepaid cards or BILL, Tillbilly's own cryptocurrency, with a discount of about 50% over traditional credit card fees.

An app will provide a view of transaction history, receipts and loyalty points. The ICO hopes to fund the installation of 100,000 terminals.

InAuth makes its PSD2 play

Technology vendors are lining up with products to turn PSD2 into a revenue stream as banks seek ways to share data under the new standards.

Authentication company InAuth has updated is technology to include malware, root and jailbreak detection; and geolocation analysis with encrypted messaging.

The features are designed to help businesses comply with PSD2's enhanced authentication requirements. Called InAuthenticate, it's designed to embed with mobile devices to vet ID for payment authorization, transfers, account changes and other functions.

More data sharing

ABN Amro's investment arm is taking a minority stake in Ockto, a Dutch startup that helps consumers and businesses collect and share data.

Ockto's app accumulates data from government sites to support taxes, benefit and pension payments and also makes the data available to banks and other financial institutions. The data is presented in the app, then submitted to other parties through an online connection.

ABN Amro's fintech venture fund has also made investments in bank, cloud lending and blockchain startups.

From the Web

Sinemia, a MoviePass competitor, launches cardless ticketing

TechCrunch | Thu May 24, 2018 - Sinemia is further differentiating itself from its main competitor, MoviePass. The moviegoing startup is launching a new feature today that gets rid of the need for people to have a physical card in order to purchase movie tickets.

To lure millennials, Apple, Ikea and Uber are pushing branded credit cards

CNBC | Thu May 24, 2018 - Millennials looking to pay with plastic have more options than ever. Most recently, word spread of a new credit card courtesy of Apple and Goldman Sachs, which may be introduced as early as next year.

PayPal starts deeper integration with Google; users can now pay directly in Gmail, YouTube and more

TechCrunch | Thu May 24, 2018 - Google earlier this year rebranded all of its payment services under Google Pay to help it double down on making transactions across its platform more frictionless (and more used). Now comes another development: PayPal and Google are kicking off a deep integration, where users who add their PayPal details to their Google Play accounts will be able to pay bills and for other items, using PayPal, without logging in and without leaving the Google services.

More from PaymentsSource

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Investor sees blockchain as key to GDPR compliance

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Visa invests in bringing open tech to a global market

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