Payment News

Google Pay Changes

Google Pay is changing. The existing Google Pay will shut down in the US on 5 April and a new app has to be downloaded if you want to continue paying with Google on your phone.

There is criticism in the media that Google is making this a slightly painful process to do. In addition, the new Google Pay won’t allow you to transfer money, view payment activity or see your balance from a browser. To add insult to injury, it is introducing a new 1.5% or $0.31 (whichever is higher) fee when you transfer money out with a debit card.

When Google changed from Google Music to YouTube Music, it was accused of ending what worked well and replacing it with something less good. It will be interesting to see how it develops the new platform after this initial change over.

Will a Higher UK Contactless Limit Bring Problems?

The UK’s limit on how much can be spent using a contactless card is now £100, although the systems to allow this will take a while to catch up. The Guardian newspaper wrote about this, raising two concerns – the fear of more debit and fear of fraud.

The paper claims that already one in four adults are financially vulnerable and suggested that, because it is so easy to pay with contactless cards, people are more likely to lose track of what they are spending. The speed of payment does not give people time to pause and reflect and there isn’t what is often referred to as the ‘pain of payment’ that comes with parting with cash.

It may also be that people are used to contactless payments being for quite low value purchases, which may lead them to be careless. Perhaps people should be able to set their own limits.

The limit on how much can be spent before a PIN is needed has gone up from £130 to £300. This, and the £100 single transaction limit, may make them more attractive to steal or clone. In the time taken to cancel a card, the full sum can be stolen. It requires vigilance and awareness to check what is being paid and to turn on notifications to see what is coming out of an account.

Making Electronic Payments Easier in India

A tool that allows an NFC-enabled phone to accept payments is being launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), working with the State Bank of India. It is aimed at micro and small merchants with the goal of allowing them to receive electronic payments.

The cost to the merchant is described by NPCI as nominal as it wants this solution to become an everyday point of sale payment tool. A payment limit of INR 5,000, about $68, has been set.

Is Bitcoin a Good ‘Store of Value’?

Is Bitcoin moving to a different place, adopting a different role? US regulators are watching it closely and yet its value continues to grow. Bloomberg Intelligence has even started writing articles wondering whether it could replace gold as it becomes a digital reserve asset, and JPMorgan has suggested it is competing with gold as an ‘alternative’ currency.

One element in its rise in price is funds flowing into it from gold, bonds and stocks, with Tesla’s decision to buy a substantial tranche of Bitcoin being prime evidence of this.

An alternative view was given by the Bank for International Settlements, which has warned that as Bitcoin reaches its maximum supply of 21 million coins, it may ‘break down’.

A more optimistic view of that limit is that it differentiates Bitcoin from assets and markets with uncertain supply and demand, making it a better global ‘store of value’, particularly in a digital world where a physical asset, such as cold, is less flexible.

‘Shades of Sovereignty’ by Paul Wilson

In the context of discussions about CBDCs where sovereignty appears to be an important element of their rationale, the arguments and thoughts put forward in the book are important. The book traces monetary sovereignty over time, particularly since the end of the Second World War.

A snippet from the website says, ‘the author analyses the decision-making of newly independent states in their choice of an appropriate currency, considering the complex factors involved-ranging from the purely economic to questions of security, international recognition, and outright nationalism that have played a part.’

‘He challenges the notion that each country must necessarily have its own currency and explains why some newly independent countries have chosen to adopt the currency of another state. Citing the examples of international currency unions of the nineteenth century and the present day, he contends that sharing a currency does not represent a surrender of political sovereignty. Instead, Wilson argues for a more rational attitude toward money as a facilitator of transactions rather than as a symbol of national identity.’

Paul Wilson was a diplomat with the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and then Currency Sales Director, Managing Director, ID Systems and Director, Government Relations at De La Rue and is currently Director General of the UK’s British-Iran Chamber of Commerce. Paul has written a number of books about currency and banknotes. Shades of Sovereignty will be published by Waterstones in July.

Dream Team to Design a Bitcoin-Backed Banknote

The team: Larry Felix, former Director of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Manuela Pfrunder, designer of the ninth series of the Swiss franc, Thomas Hisschen, engraver of US postage and revenue stamps and the presidential portraits used on the $100, $50, $20 and $5 banknotes and Edmund Moy, 38th Director of the US Mint, who have combined to work together. Larry Felix will be CEO of a new venture, Noteworthy, working with Peter Vessenes. Vessenes was the founding Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation.

The task. to create a physical cryptocurrency banknote. It will need to look and feel and have the security of a real banknote and the highest grade of digital security embedded in it, but users will interact with it through an app.