Finance
UK Watchdogs Probe Competitiveness of Big Tech’s Digital Wallets
- Consumer usage of digital wallets has soared in recent years
- Two regulators probe fees, risks tied to that increased usage
The regulators found people tend to use digital wallets more for everyday spending than for high-value items.
Photographer: Milan Jaros/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
UK regulators are probing the competitiveness of digital wallets provided by the likes of Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and PayPal Holdings Inc. as well as what risks these new technologies bring for the consumers and businesses that rely on them.
As part of a wide-ranging fact-finding exercise debuted on Monday, the Payment Systems Regulator and Financial Conduct Authority have asked industry participants to answer a series of questions about the wallets that range from what fees providers reap when consumers use the technology to what harms could arise if a digital wallet provider suffered an operational failure.