ShopKeep Teams Up With Gravity Payments; Singapore Requires Banks To Step Up Verification Efforts

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s requirement to have banks implement stronger customer verification processes in the wake of the cyberattack on SingHealth. In addition, INTL FCStone Ltd.’s Global Payments Division is reporting an increase in Brazilian payments, and U.S.-based ShopKeep has teamed up with Gravity Payments.

INTL FCStone Inc.’s U.K.-based subsidiary, INTL FCStone Ltd.’s Global Payments Division, has seen a large increase in Brazilian payments after upgrading its local regulatory presence in April to an FX bank license, the company said in an announcement. In addition, the company said that its Brazilian operation will process over $1 billion in payments per year at its current run rate.

“We have significantly enhanced our regulatory capability in Brazil, which has led to an immediate three-fold increase in payments to this key market,” Carsten Hils, global head of INTL FCStone’s global payments division, said in the announcement. “We have only scratched the surface of our capabilities in the region, and believe the market opportunity in Brazil for our platform to be substantial.”

In other news, U.S.-based ShopKeep has teamed up with Gravity Payments to offer its point of sale (POS) software with Gravity’s payment processing service, ShopKeep said in an announcement. ShopKeep, which provides its software to 25,000 independent retailers and restaurants, said that Gravity is the first third-party partner to directly bundle and resell its platform with its new wholesale initiative.

“More than ever, what we are seeing is the world of payment processing and point of sale technology converging,” ShopKeep CEO Michael DeSimone said in the announcement. “Traditional payment processors are realizing that great technology is a true point of differentiation, and that they need to couple this technology with payment processing to gain and maintain control of the merchant’s countertop.”

And the Monetary Authority of Singapore has notified banks that they need to implement stronger procedures to verify the identity of customers following the cyberattack on SingHealth, according to reports. While banks in the country already have to use two-factor authentication for online banking and further controls for high-risk transactions, the authority is requiring additional information, such as “one-time password, PIN, biometrics, last transaction date or amount.”