We receive a lot of announcements concerning FinTech products, which we generally do not post, even though many of them are interesting. This week, we are listing some of the best news items in the payments sector. Let us know what you think of this format and if you would like to see more.

Chinese Digital RMB Tax Payments Begin in Beijing

The Beijing Daily reports that the digital payment system under development by the People’s Bank of China began handling tax payments. It’s the latest use case for the system. John Browning, founding partner of Hong Kong commodity and financial futures broker BANDS Financial, provided this quote from the news service:

“The Dongcheng District Taxation Bureau successfully handled the first digital RMB payment commissioned tax collection service in Beijing. According to the Beijing Municipal Taxation Bureau, the tax collection on behalf of rental houses is a breakthrough in the city’s pilot use of digital renminbi to pay taxes. The tax authorities will gradually upgrade and open the use of other locations and other links.”

The Federal Reserve Provides FedNow Educational Resources

The U.S. Federal Reserve released new educational resources to prepare organizations for the 2023 launch of the FedNow service. The new FedNow Explorer site provides information to help you “decide how you want to learn about instant payments, the opportunities they offer and how your organization can get ready” for FedNow.

“If you’re navigating the future of payments for your financial institution, FedNow Explorer offers customized learning paths for those new to instant payments as well as those who are well into their journey. The site covers a range of topics, including instant payment basics, how the FedNow Service works, features and functionality information, use cases, FAQs, readiness roadmaps and more.” A FedNow articles archive is also available.

Paysafe Moves Digital Wallets to the Cloud

Seeking to become a fully cloud-based payments provider, payments platform Paysafe announced that its digital wallets services will be hosted in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. “The move to AWS has enabled Paysafe to scale its Digital Wallet operations to drive increased efficiency and innovation behind its consumer solutions and reduce the deployment time of its merchant integrations by approximately 80%, accelerating time to market for its business customers,” the company reports.

PayEm Launches One Click Reconciliation

In a move to make payments reconciliation faster and easier for finance teams, PayEm now includes a feature that edits and syncs multiple transactions in a single click. The global spend and procurement platform for multinational organizations reports that “the feature grants the option to assign multiple payments to one bill and reconcile it to ERP. Finance teams can shorten the reconciliation process that used to take a few days to one click.”

New York’s New Mayor Takes Paychecks in Bitcoin

While not exactly product news, this item from the New York Times DealBook provides a good look into good old-fashioned competition between cities. “The next mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, is competing with the newly re-elected mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, to attract cryptocurrency businesses by pledging allegiance to Bitcoin. This mirrors the broader rivalry between the cities to attract finance and tech businesses, with Miami drawing many firms away from New York during the pandemic.”