Today in the payments news roundup, SWIFT and Microsoft have teamed with Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) to finalize the pilot of the Cloud Connect payments solution. Also, Amazon and top technology companies have unveiled the Voice Interoperability Initiative, and Mastercard is joining Pay.UK’s Request to Pay bill pay service.
Amazon Among 30 Firms Launching Voice Interoperability Initiative
Amazon and top technology companies announced the Voice Interoperability Initiative to ensure that voice-enabled devices provide customers with flexibility and choice via multiple, interoperable voice services. More than 30 companies are supporting the effort, with the inclusion of global brands such as Amazon, Salesforce, Bose, Spotify, Sonos and Baidu, among others.
SWIFT and Microsoft have teamed with Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) to finalize the trial of the Cloud Connect payments solution. Cloud Connect hosts SWIFT infrastructure and enables payment transfers through Microsoft Azure. The new solution will reportedly service SWIFT’s 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 nations.
Amazon Launches Virtual Health Clinic For Employees
Amazon has rolled out a virtual health clinic with in-home follow-ups for Seattle employees. Amazon Care provides non-emergency checkups and primary care in addition to prescription deliveries and in-home/in-office doctors’ visits.
Mastercard Joins Pay.UK’s ‘Request to Pay’ Service
Mastercard is joining Pay.UK’s Request to Pay service to provide bill payment options to customers. The company’s Request to Pay solution will roll out in Q1 of 2020, providing billers and customers with a clear line of communication in the U.K. market and allowing for the sending and receiving of payment requests and payments themselves. Users can choose to pay in real time or with their cards.
Dr. Alexa? How Voice Assistants Can Cure Patient Billing’s Ills
Doctors spend portions of patient visits making notes that will help the clinics bill the patients later, but the administrative work of billing can be a distraction. The right kind of IoT devices could help fix this problem, according to Noah Auerhahn, CEO and co-founder of Robin Healthcare.
Visa Partner Launch Eyes $17T Digital Payments Opportunity for FinTechs
The world still has 1.7 billion unbanked consumers who remain nearly wholly paper-dependent when it comes to making payments, despite all the progress that has been made. Matt Dill, Visa’s global head of strategic partnerships and ventures, told Karen Webster in a recent conversation, “What we see, around the world, is that the digitization of the consumer is complete.” Dill continued, “The digitization of payments, on the other hand, is not.” Closing that gap is the aim of a new initiative rolled out by Visa called Visa Partner.
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