Latest news with #Eurozone
Bloomberg
3 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Economists Warn ECB to Avoid Delaying Over Last Two Rate Cuts
The European Central Bank will lower interest rates twice more, according to a Bloomberg survey, but respondents warned it shouldn't wait too long between those moves or investors will conclude that its easing campaign is already over. Respondents predict quarter-point reductions on June 5 and at September's meeting, when new quarterly forecasts should shed more light on the effects of US President Donald Trump's reordering of global trade. That would bring the deposit rate to 1.75%, where the poll sees it settling through the end of 2026.
Finextra
14 hours ago
- Business
- Finextra
A crisis of trust: European and global verification brings safety to payments
0 This content has been created by the Finextra editorial team with inputs from subject matter experts at the funding sponsor. Verification of Payee (VoP) has rapidly become an essential aspect of banking and payments, ensuring security and safety in payments transactions. By October 2025, all European Payments Service Providers (PSPs) using SEPA instant and non-instant transfers will need to verify payee account details before processing payments. As the EPC's deadline is fast approaching, PSPs must urgently implement the VoP scheme or risk falling behind regulatory compliance and industry standards. The European Instant Payments Regulation and EPC VoP scheme requires all credit transfers across the Eurozone to be accompanied by a match of the account beneficiary's name. To comply, almost 5,000 European financial institutions will need to introduce a Routing and Verification mechanism (RVM) to make VoP requests and responses. Shedding light on the subject, Finextra spoke to Michael Moon, head of strategic market development at iPiD. This article outlines the main challenges facing VoP adoption, the solutions offered by third-party providers, and what VoP adoption will accomplish for the faster payments industry, both nationwide and on a global scale. Moon states: 'In the instant payments era, if you don't have the protections against the fraud and mistaken payments, your business is going to become a lot harder to operate.' Why is the VoP scheme essential? As instant payments increase, so does fraud and so must global verification confirmation services, as Moon points out. The impersonation and manipulation tactics that are being used by fraudsters to authorise payments have created what Moon labels a 'crisis of trust.' Verification of the payee is of critical significance to prevent fraud, and so the VoP mandate is arriving at a critical time to accompany instant payments growth as it continues to skyrocket. According to Moon, 'the world has been introduced to faster payments for many years now. Instant payments are incredibly pervasive across many countries in the world. Certainly in Europe, there have been efforts to increase instant payments. 'More recently, the European Commission introduced a regulatory package known as the IPR, or Instant Payments Regulation, and that came from dissatisfaction in Europe with the level of adoption of instant payments in the market. What the regulation made clear is that, if you are a payment service provider in the business of making credit transfers, you need to offer the ability to both send and receive payments on an instant basis,' states Moon. Recognising the potential risks that accompany speed, the regulator, with the benefit of international evidence such as the UK's Faster Payments system, acknowledged that instant payments inevitably leads to greater fraud risks. As such, the widespread adoption of instant payments could not be pushed forward in isolation, without appropriate safeguards. Hence, the VoP mandate was born. VoP, while not a silver bullet, has had a direct result on clamping down on fraudsters. In 2023, the UK's equivalent initiative Confirmation of Payee (CoP) led to a 17% decrease of APP fraud in 2023. According to data from Fortra in 2025, 77% of businesses uses CoP to prevent fraud and 96% agree that CoP is effective in reducing fraudulent transactions. Challenges to satisfy the approaching deadline A major challenge that financial institutions will need to overcome is managing their time wisely. Meeting the 9 October deadline requires phases of testing to be completed by July to ensure full readiness by the autumn, which sets PSPs on a tight timeline for preparation. Furthermore, global cross-border fragmentation adds another layer of complexity to meeting the deadline. Organisations that operate in multiple markets have more regulatory requirements to navigate. Moon added that large banks and payments firms that have a significant portfolio of corporate clients will also have to manage the complications of providing verification services for them as compared to individual customers. Third party providers can offer verification and validation schemes that understand and can streamline the transaction process. Moon points out that institutions looking to standardise their services across multiple markets and customer bases can gain support from third party providers that are best placed to serve their validation needs: 'These third party suppliers can help with the specific processes of making VoP requests and responding to those requests, as well as integrating with and orchestrating transaction activity with various services that need to be consumed to perform this. For example, there is a centralised electronic addressing service, the EPC Directory Service, which is a digital address book that identifies the recipient of these requests. Third parties, the RVMs, are the traffic police; sending, receiving, and responding on behalf of the payment service providers.' Moon mentions how these third parties can offer a Know Your Payee (KYP) scheme aimed at standardising responses and solving dissonance in global transactions. Using iPiD as an example, Moon highlights how global KYP providers do the work of connecting services and creating a standardised response to the sender of any validation or verification request: 'Financial organisations get the benefit of global coverage and reach to different verification services and actually standardising that back into their environment, so they don't need to deal with the different levels of capturing and presenting data.' Moon further explains that there are two forms of verification services that can be provided to PSPs: A lite provider that directs the traffic, managing requests and responses. A full provider which offers more in-depth features that manage the level and scale of verification activity throughout Europe, such as having records of history and transaction activity to ensure a request was made and provide evidence of that request and transaction if needed. The liability scheme that is soon to be introduced will hold PSPs accountable for any loss due to fraud or scams, which is why it is key to have evidence of transactions and transparency through the VoP scheme. Outside of scam and fraud, major inefficiencies such as mistaken payments and amending errors in the payments process can be resolved through VoP protocols. Moon emphasises that improving defenses against scams both at a local level and a global level are essential, as verification is being introduced in various forms in different nations. Moon concludes: 'As you move money faster, the risks of losing money to fraud and scams, particularly with the commensurate level of digitalisation in payment services, fraud losses and risks increase. We expect that all payments, whether they are local, in a single country like the UK or within the European marketplace, or payments that are conducted cross border and globally, we see all those payments having an upfront form of validation or verification. We think that is a necessary way to operate in the future.'
Zawya
20 hours ago
- Business
- Zawya
Euro zone bond yields up as investors exit safe havens after court blocks Trump tariffs
Euro zone government bond yields inched up on Thursday, as investors ditched safe havens for riskier assets after a U.S. federal court blocked most of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. Investors moved away from bonds, gold, and safe-haven currencies such as the yen and Swiss franc after the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that Trump overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from the United States' trading partners. The Trump administration has appealed the ruling, which does not include sectoral levies, and could seek other legal avenues for Trump to impose tariffs. "(The court ruling) removes some uncertainty, but it adds some," said Kenneth Broux, head of corporate research FX and rates at Societe Generale. Though the news provided a relief boost to stocks and the dollar, he said, the situation nonetheless remained very unpredictable. Germany's 10-year government bond yield, the euro area benchmark, rose 3.5 basis points (bps) to around 2.58%. It fell to around 2.51% on Tuesday, its lowest level since May 8. "What we are seeing is some dispersion in bond markets," Broux said, with the recent rise in yields highlighting not only supply and demand constraints but also fiscal dynamics. Long-term bond yields have risen this month on growing concern about rising debt levels among big economies such as the United States and Japan. German 30-year government bond yields edged up nearly 4 bps to around 3.08%, while the 2-year government bond yield, more sensitive to European Central Bank policy rates, rose 2 bps to 1.82%. Markets have fully priced in a 25-bps interest rate cut from the ECB when it meets next week. They also indicated a deposit facility rate at 1.71% in December, from 1.55% in mid-April. Italy's 10-year yield rose 3 bps to 3.58%, leaving the spread between Italian and German yields around 97 bps. U.S. Treasury yields also rose on the day, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note up over 5 bps to 4.533%.
Iraqi News
2 days ago
- Business
- Iraqi News
Europe May Allow Bulgaria to Adopt the Euro in 2026
Follow-up – INA Eurozone officials announced that the European Commission is likely to give Bulgaria the green light on June 4th to adopt the euro starting in 2026. This decision makes Bulgaria the 21st country to join the single currency area. According to Reuters, the European Commission is scheduled to issue a report on Wednesday on whether Bulgaria meets the criteria for adopting the euro, which is now used by 347 million Europeans in 20 countries. Three senior eurozone officials said they "expect the Commission's report on Bulgaria to be positive." Bulgaria has been striving to convert its currency from the lev to the euro since joining the European Union in 2007.
Iraqi News
2 days ago
- Business
- Iraqi News
EU May Allow Bulgaria to Adopt Euro in 2026
Eurozone officials have announced that the European Commission is likely to give Bulgaria the green light on June 4th to adopt the euro starting in 2026. The European Commission is likely to give Bulgaria the green light on June 4 to adopt the euro currency from the start of 2026, several euro zone officials said, making Bulgaria the 21st country to join the single currency area. The Commission will publish a "convergence report" next Wednesday on whether Bulgaria meets the criteria to adopt the euro, now used by 347 million Europeans in 20 countries. Three senior euro zone officials said they expected the Commission report to be positive for Bulgaria, which has been striving to switch its lev currency to the euro ever since it joined the European Union in 2007.
