Building Project Libra's Infrastructure from Scratch
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TRACKER JUNE 2019 Building Project Libra’s Infrastructure From Scratch – Feature Story (p. 8) NEWS AND TRENDS Liquid Group, JETCO to establish Singapore-Hong Kong corridor – p. 12 DEEP DIVE Upgrading cross-border payments infrastructure can boost speed, access – p. 18 2 | © 2019 PYMNTS.com All Rights Reserved 04 08 Financial institutions turn to new Representatives from Mastercard, partners to speed cross-border Farfetch and Women’s World Banking payments and explore blockchain’s — three member institutions of potential the Libra Association formed to oversee Facebook’s Project Libra cryptocurrency network — discuss their hopes for Libra’s emerging infrastructure 12 18 The latest smarter payments An in-depth look at how improvements headlines, including Kasikornbank’s to payment infrastructures are new partnership with InstaReM and resulting in faster, more accessible Banesco Panama’s plans to use international payments, and the Ripple for cross-border payments obstacles that remain to be tackled ACKNOWLEDGMENT The Smarter Payments Tracker is 21 done in collaboration with InstaReM, and PYMNTS is grateful for the Information on PYMNTS.com company’s support and insight. and InstaReM PYMNTS.com retains full editorial control over the following findings, methodology and data analysis. ©© 2019 2019 PYMNTS.com PYMNTS.com All All Rights Rights Reserved Reserved | | 3 PAGE 4 4 | © 2019 PYMNTS.com All Rights Reserved WHAT’S INSIDE Quick international payments require cross-border rails A number of European banks are also looking to link up with that can rapidly shuttle money overseas and domestic new payment systems. The FIs joined a pilot program that solutions that can settle funds as soon as they are avail- enables them to use the pan-European TARGET Instant able. If both systems are not in place, transfers can be Payment Settlement (TIPS) rail to process cross-border delayed and may not arrive when expected. payments made with SWIFT global payments innovation (gpi). The pilot’s goal is to ensure funds are instantly ac- Those who work abroad might use real-time cross-border cessible upon arrival. systems to send money to family members in their home countries, but slow local payment rails could keep funds Financial services companies and FIs are looking to im- tied up and leave recipients waiting for days. Businesses prove their payment offerings with new infrastructure that have access to only domestic real-time infrastructures access, and many are turning not only to partnerships, but can also cause global problems. These firms may struggle also to new technologies like blockchain. to compensate international suppliers on time, which can cause cash flow issues for the latter. AROUND THE SMARTER PAYMENTS WORLD Thailand’s Kasikornbank (KBank) hopes to better support both legs of the payments journey with help from a third Blockchain has caught the attention of several FIs, includ- party with an established infrastructure. The bank recent- ing California-based Ria Money Transfer. The company ly partnered with online money transfer company InstaReM recently joined blockchain network RippleNet to speed up to power remittances in select markets with quicker its cross-border payments and provide greater visibility cross-border funds delivery. The latter firm provides sim- into transfers. ilar services for three of Southeast Asia’s 10 major banks. Blockchain technology is also gaining attention from cred- Banesco Panama has also turned to a third party to facil- it unions (CUs). Credit union service organization (CUSO) itate international payments. The financial institution (FI) CULedger recently integrated an offering from blockchain recently tested cross-border transfers on Ripple’s block- consortium R3 to support both domestic and cross-border chain platform, a move that comes as Panama develops a payments. The move is expected to lower costs and im- domestic real-time payment system. prove processes. © 2019 PYMNTS.com All Rights Reserved | 5 WHAT’S INSIDE Not everyone is ready to support blockchain, however. Executive The Netherlands’ central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, spent three years developing several distributed ledger INSIGHT technology (DLT) prototypes, but recently reported that none has met its goals. The FI added that issues such as high energy consumption make DLT useful only for cross-border payments. What use cases could see greater adoption because of advancements in smarter FACEBOOK’S PROJECT LIBRA payments infrastructure? UNITES COMPANIES ACROSS MARKETS “India and Singapore are … making tremendous Social media giant Facebook launched its Project Libra progress in the area of faster payments. UPI pay- venture earlier this month and established the Libra ments in India are reported to have grown by over Association, a consortium that will ultimately be respon- 55 times in the last two years. Singapore is also sible for building the network’s governing structure and pushing for greater adoption of [Fast And Secure Transfers] payments. establishing supporting infrastructure. For this month’s Feature Story (p. 8), representatives from three member The primary reasons for the increased adoption companies — financial services provider Mastercard, on- of faster payments in India and Singapore are that line luxury retailer Farfetch and nonprofit Women’s World the regulators in both countries have gone beyond just rolling out the payment rails. They have made Banking — outline their goals and agendas as they prepare it easier for individuals and businesses to use to shape the future of Libra. them through overlays. MODERNIZING CROSS-BORDER They have done this by standardizing interfaces, such as BharatQR [and] SGQR, linking the payment PAYMENTS INFRASTRUCTURE FOR infrastructure to easily remembered IDs, like a UPI SPEED, ACCESS ID or a PayNow mobile number, and opening up ac- Cross-border, B2B payments generated approximately cess to the platform, as in the case of Google Tez. $125 billion in revenue last year — a figure that continues [India’s] government also launched [an] app to ini- to rise. FIs and FinTechs need to be ready to support their tiate faster payments and [reduce] fees. business clients with quick, transparent payment methods After seeing strong adoption among P2P usage, and easy currency conversions if they want to remain com- both countries are now increasing adoption of petitive, but traditional correspondent banking options are faster payments for micro and small businesses not cutting it in today’s digital world. transactions, which is the primary focus of their standardized QR launch.” This month’s Deep Dive (p. 18) explores how financial and payments organizations are modernizing the sector by streamlining transactions, improving messaging standards and providing more accurate data. It also examines the quest for common standards that can encourage interop- erability between payment rails and technologies. RAJESH VENKATESH chief product officer at InstaReM 6 | © 2019 PYMNTS.com All Rights Reserved WHAT’S INSIDE 75% Estimated market share of cross-border payments traffic handled by SWIFT gpi 50% Share of Brunei eCommerce consumers who experienced fraud and technical issues with cross-border $40T payments Estimated value of funds transferred over SWIFT gpi in 2018 $3.77T Value of transactions processed on China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment $79B System in 2018 Estimated value of India’s remittances market in 2018 FIVE FAST FACTS ©© 2019 2019 PYMNTS.com PYMNTS.com All All Rights Rights Reserved Reserved | | 7 PAGE 8 8 | © 2019 PYMNTS.com All Rights Reserved Building Project Libra’s Infrastructure From Scratch Facebook made waves this month when it announced PYMNTS spoke with several founding members of Project its Project Libra cryptocurrency initiative. The project is Libra, including financial services provider Mastercard, lux- backed by more than two dozen companies, including pay- ury retailer Farfetch and nonprofit organization Women’s ment giants like Visa and PayPal, rideshare firms such as World Banking, about the network and what it means for Uber and Lyft, eCommerce firms like eBay and Mercado the future of payments. Libre and nonprofits including Kiva and Mercy Corps. BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE FROM The announcement establishes a low-cost ecosystem that SCRATCH will enable Libra cryptocurrency users to make purchas- es both on Facebook and other online marketplaces. The Jorn Lambert, executive vice president of digital solutions system will use the Libra Blockchain, a new payment rail at Mastercard, believes those looking to create a payment that provides a single data structure to record transactions, infrastructure that supports Libra must clearly understand which are visible to others on the network. who controls and governs it. The Libra Association was created specifically to demonstrate that the network will Project Libra is still in its early stages, so its full poten- operate separately from Facebook. tial is challenging to gauge. The network will be shaped by players across many industries that will influence what the “We will work hard to draw a distinction between the two framework and ecosystem will ultimately look like. things,” he said. “We would not participate if we thought © 2019 PYMNTS.com All Rights Reserved | 9 FEATURE STORY one firm was pulling more weight than the others, breaking many aspects of the products and services they use,” Phair trust in the system.” said. “Netflix and Spotify [tailor] recommendations [just] for you. Consumers expect a similar level of personaliza-