As we reported previously in FinTech Wire #10, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and its Chinese version—Douyin, is serious about entering the e-payments market. Back in 2020, the company acquired payments and insurance licenses and applied for a “TikTok Payments” trademark, which sparked rumours about the release of such a service. Well, we didn’t have to wait long to see it happening. “Douyin Pay” feature was launched already for the 600 million daily users of the app, however, TikTokers still have to wait for this option to become available in other regions.

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Bitpanda, Europe’s leading platform for trading digital assets and metals, will very soon release its first debit card called Bitpanda Card, facilitated by Visa. How will it work? The card will be linked to every single asset the users have in their portfolio, meaning that they be able to pay online or in physical stores with any digital asset available in the Bitpanda app. Contactless payments via Google Pay or Samsung Pay will also be possible. What is more, there will be no card fees or monthly fees. A true gamechanger? We’ll see!

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In the previous issue, we informed about the public consultations regarding the introduction of digital euro thorough the Euro zone that closed on 12 January. And this time we learned that the ECB and European Commission teamed up to discuss the matter further. The aim of this working group is to assess the possibility of releasing the digital euro in addition to the cash and payment options offered by the private sector, taking into account the possible technical, legal, and policy issues. We also learned that the ECB will decide whether it’s a good idea to kick off the project in mid-2021. Time to get excited? Well, we better wait a few months.

Read more about Chinese efforts to release a digital currency

A UK-based payments infrastructure provider PPRO made it to the presitgious group of FinTech unicorns valued over $1bn following an investment of US$180m. The company operates since 2006 and has a long history of collaboration with leading payments platforms: Citi, PayPal, or Mollie. PPRO’s platforms takes care of the entire transaction process, from processing, acquiring, collecting, reconciling, to settling payments. The platform’s transaction volume reached an impressive 100% year-on-year increase in 2020. Well done, PPRO!

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The French use less and less notes and coins, partially due to Covid-19 pandemic, and partially due to rapid digitalisation of payments. People shop online of choose contactless payments in physical locations. Even before Covid-19, the use of cash was declining: between 2012 and 2019, it fell around 20%. As a result, the Bank of France announced that by 2022 it will close 14 of its 37 centers that stock currency and deal with replacing damaged notes and coins. 

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