Apple launched its Tap to Pay on iPhone feature in the United Kingdom last month after rolling out the service in the United States in February 2022. 

The app will be available on some U.K.-based card payments platforms, including NatWest’s Tyl, and Revolut, according to Apple’s release.

Using the new app, businesses can accept payments in person from customers who have Apple Pay enabled on an iPhone or Apple Watch, eliminating the need for a contactless card reader, according to the release.  

Tyl customers can download the NatWest Tap to Pay app to process transactions, and the feature will help businesses scale operations and serve a larger client base, James Hodgson, chief product officer at Tyl, told Bank Automation News.  

“We’ve unsurprisingly seen high interest in retail industries like beauticians and fast-food restaurants, as well as on-the-go businesses like taxi firms and tradespeople,” Hodgson said.  

Visa and PayPal also launched tap payment features for phones in 2020 and 2023, respectively, according to the companies. 

 Starling Bank selects Napier for AML compliance  

The London, U.K.-based Starling Bank selected a financial crime compliance company Napier on July 18 to improve its anti-money laundering efforts.  

Napier uses AI to identify payment patterns, flag them for human review and reduce false positives in the process, Greg Watson, chief executive of Napier, told BAN.  

Through the pandemic, digital payments increased 45% and financial crime increased in tandem, Watson said.  

The AI model used by Napier is trained on “swaths” of data about financial crime and money laundering to find transaction patterns that stand out, he said. Napier’s AI flags transactions to assist humans rather than resolving issues by itself.  

The compliance provider serves banks, payment companies, and the gaming industry to fight financial crime, Watson said. Through Napier, Starling could be running the technology in six weeks, Steve Newson, chief technology officer at Starling, said in a release. 

The company is also moving toward offering know-your-customer services during onboarding processes to expand services, Watson said.  

“We believe that there is an opportunity in the marketplace to stitch all together a number of those solutions to provide a more holistic view of client risk,” he said.  

Napier has major headquarters in more than five countries and a headcount of more than 200. Revenues are expected to be more than $25 million for the 2023 fiscal year, he said. 

Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank join forces to fight financial crime 

Santander Bank, BBVA, and CaixaBank have come together to create FrauDfense, which is tasked with fighting financial crime.  

FrauDfense will combine anti-fraud initiatives of the three European banks to prevent digital, payments and admission fraud, wherein a customer’s information is stolen through impersonation, according to a BVVA release.  

Other financial institutions will be able to join the FrauDfense alliance “after an initial phase,” a Santander spokesperson told BAN. 

Moss selects GoCardless to penetrate the UK market  

Germany-based business spend management fintech Moss has selected payment company GoCardless as its direct debit provider for its push in the U.K.  

Moss will integrate GoCardless services to automate corporate card management and expense payments, according to a release.  

“Our mission is to automate spend management to make month-end as seamless as possible for modern finance teams,” Moss CEO Ante Spittler said in the company’s July 13 release. Teaming up with GoCardless “removes one more point of friction for our customer and helps fulfill our ethos of using automation to help SMBs save time and money.”  

DocuSign, Plum, Epson, and Capital on Tap are among the companies using GoCardless services. The company generated revenue of $89.6 million globally between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, of which $71.8 million was in the U.K., according to the U.K.’s Companies House website. 

Papara enters unicorn club with Rebellion Pay acquisition  

Turkish neobank Papara acquired Spanish fintech Rebellion Pay on July 4, making Papara the first Turkish fintech to reach unicorn status. 

The acquisition allows Papara to expand its service in Europe and acquire tech-savvy Gen Y and Gen Z users, according to a Papara release.  

“The business and team stood out to us for a number of reasons, primarily its unrivaled local market knowledge, best-in-class products and, most importantly, alignment of goals to our own,” Papara’s founder and CEO Ahmed Karslı, said in the release.  

Rebellion Pay has raised $7.6 million in funding since its inception in 2017; while Papara has raised $2 million since it was founded in 2016, according to Crunchbase. Rebellion will rebrand to Papara Spain and no staff cuts are anticipated, the release said. 

Visit Bank Automation News’ Transactions Database which lists the technology selected or acquired by companies in the financial services industry, with a specific focus on technology that enhances automation.