P2P Payments Push Forward
In the P2P showdown, who will be left standing? See how early entrants like Venmo and Square Cash stack up against Zelle and Apple.
Analysis
U.S. Sen. Warren Questions Big Banks on Arbitration
As expected, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) is not going to let the CFPB’s final rule on arbitration agreements go down without a fight. The ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protections wants big banks—not just their lobbyists—to address the issue.
Is this the end of fintech as we know it?
In the age of the internet, fintech dominates finance. In the UK, the sector is currently worth £7 billion, employing around 60,000 people with figures set to increase. The industry is definitely awe-inspiring, but as the lines between traditional banking services and fintech blur, fintech could disappear entirely.
Plaintiff Appeals U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal Decision in £14 Billion Suit
Former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks is appealing the U.K.’s Competition Appeal Tribunal’s decision not to certify his claim in a proposed £14 billion (US$18.2 billion) class action lawsuit against Mastercard over interchange.
Interview: Matteo Cassina, Saxo Bank – is digital banking the new Big Brother?
Amid the hustle and bustle of MoneyConf in Madrid, Banking Technology managed to grab a coffee with Matteo Cassina, global head of sales at Saxo Bank. Conversation turned from the demise of bank branches to the rise artificial intelligence (AI) and open banking.
How Banks Can Attract More Millennials
Take a lesson (and an infographic) from the Ohio University School of Economics on how to approach millennials and turn them into lifelong customers.
Time to act: EU Funds Transfer Regulation 2015
The EU Funds Transfer Regulation 2015 (FTR 2015), which has been in effect since 26 June 2017, aims to deliver full traceability of payments. A lack of regulatory clarity is, however, leading to significant implementation hurdles that require urgent action from all stakeholders.
Sharing Funds across Families, Groups and Small Business with Prepaid and Mobile
Prepaid is having a renaissance thanks to real-time mobile and web account access that’s enabling a number of disruptors to offer prepaid solutions for a new set of customers.
Payments: Australia gives Swift instant results
Off the back of its involvement in Australia’s New Payments Platform (NPP), Swift has entered the instant payments market in Europe, with plans to launch a gateway solution in November 2018. The solution will enable instant payments to be made over the Swift network using a single gateway to connect to multiple instant payments systems across Europe.
CFPB Overdraft Disclosure Protoypes Could Foreshadow Regs
The CFPB has released a new overdraft study, along with four prototypes of “Know Before You Owe” disclosures, which the bureau is testing, possibly ahead of regulating checking account overdrafts.
Getting to experience thinking
“We’ve got a great idea we think you’re going to love.” Despite its manifest flaws, this is the approach that has long dominated the development of new products and services. While introducing products that people love is an exemplary goal, real omniscience has proven to be distressingly rare.
Banks Look to Immediate Payments to Drive Revenue
Banks are investing in immediate payments to drive revenue, while focusing their IT investments on fraud prevention and operational efficiency, according to new benchmark data from ACI Worldwide and London-based consultancy Ovum.
Three Under-Tapped Markets and Use Cases for Prepaid Cards
Prepaid issuers should look to certain banked consumers, P2P and mobile wallet users to gain top-of-wallet status with a whole new set of customers.
New in regtech: digital ID verification
It’s no secret that increased regulations are a significant pain point for commercial and community banks. According to Thomson Reuters Global Cost of Compliance 2016 Survey, more than one-third of participating financial institutions reported spending at least an entire day each week keeping track of regulatory changes. The good news? Regtech, or regulatory technology, is […]
Billers Beware: CFPB Warns Companies against ‘Tricking’ Consumers into Expensive Pay-by-Phone Fees
The CFPB issued a bulletin July 31 warning companies about tricking consumers into expensive pay-by-phone fees. The bureau says it’s concerned about companies potentially misleading consumers about the purpose and amount of certain pay-by-phone fees or “keeping them in the dark” about much cheaper payment options.
Interview: Ben Brabyn, Level39 – high rise
In the beating business heart of London, Banking Technology met Ben Brabyn, head of tech hub Level39, for an exclusive interview on Brexit, rivalry and how success isn’t a zero-sum game.
Connecting Brands and Consumers through Alternative and Mobile Payments
Recent research from Blackhawk Network reveals that mobile and contactless payment options can help brands to engage with consumers by driving traffic and incremental sales, reducing shopping cart abandonment and supporting customer acquisition.
Digital currency: the future or the biggest flop?
From Bitcoins to even newer (and lesser known, but rising) forms of currency, will this level the playing field for people in the future, or is this all just a sham that will die down? As things get digitised, what do we need to know about digital currencies, and does this mark the demise of traditional forms of currencies?
On the Fintech Frontline: Three Key Areas Driving Payments Forward
For any organization regularly processing card-not-present (CNP) payments, boarding the fintech bandwagon is a must. There are three key fintech developments—APIs, regtech and cybersecurity strategies—you need to embrace (or face disruption).
House Passes CRA Repeal of Arbitration Rule
The U.S. House of Representatives voted on July 25 in favor of HJR 111 to repeal the CFPB’s final rule on arbitration agreements. The vote was 231-190, but the companion resolution in the Senate may be on the back burner for a while as the Senate focuses on budget and health care battles.
Open letter to EU decision makers on PSD2 RTS – figo
This open letter from German fintech figo is not about the usual pros and cons of this debate, but intends to provide the European Council with actual solutions, i.e. smart trade-off ideas that could mean an end to the everlasting screen scraping debate and eventually the RTS process.
Bold statement four: statements from around the bleeding edge of innovation
Welcome back to these pages – and the almost final installation of a series that was started some months ago, talking about some of the grand sweeping statements that we hear, and make.
U.S. House to Vote on Arbitration Rule Repeal Tomorrow
As promised, Congressional Republicans have introduced joint Congressional Review Act resolutions to repeal the CFPB’s recently finalized rule on arbitration agreements. The House is expected to vote July 25 on its version of the resolution (HJR 111), which Rep. Keith J. Rothfus (R-Penn.) introduced in the House on July 20 with 33 co-sponsors.
Analysis: regtech in the US – the state we are in
Subas Roy, chairman of the newly launched International Regtech Association (IRTA), provides an insight into the state of regtech in the US and further opportunities.
An Ant Can Teach A Big Lesson To U.S. FIs
Ant Financial created the world’s largest money market fund in four years by enabling mobile wallet users to move money to the fund simply within the mobile app. The program’s meteoric rise shows that consumers are willing to adopt financial services from new players and the mobile device can supercharge that consumer shift of assets if incumbents don’t react quickly enough.
Mastercard Triumphs against £14 Billion Collective Action Lawsuit
Mastercard can breathe a sigh of relief as the £14 billion (US$18.15 billion) lawsuit—a collective action over card charges that were passed on to shoppers—has been stopped by the U.K.’s Competition Appeals Tribunal.
Compliance Titans: Jim Schafer, FIS
An early interest in credit cards hooked Jim Schafer on payments. Since then, his work has taken him across the globe in roles as diverse as programming and human resources. But it’s his current role as senior compliance director of FIS Payments that has led him to be named one of Paybefore’s Compliance Titans.
Lessons from the GDPR compliance journey of a large financial services organisation
In preparation for GDPR compliance, a global financial services organisation embarked on a journey to assess its core information processing environments with the objective of identifying opportunities to strengthen its privacy data protection programs. This article focuses on the technology challenges, approach, and lessons learned for the centralised testing environment.
U.K. Bans Surcharging, Load Fees Could Be at Risk
The U.K.’s HM Treasury is banning surcharges on credit and debit card payments. For prepaid card providers, the new rules put significant fee income related to card-loading at risk, according to Polymath Consulting.
More human than human: banking’s AI future is all in the voice
Aditya Challa of IMImobile takes a look at some current and future applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for customer experience in the financial and banking sector, as well as the challenges that still need to be overcome. Beyond the current race to build chatbots, he predicts that voice-driven AI services will ultimately become the main […]
Find Innovation in a Sandbox, Not in a Lab
For financial institutions lacking the deep pockets of the biggest competitors, investing their limited resources to develop disruptive payments solutions isn’t a viable option. Stated simply, you can never outspend the big guys. What you really need is a more effective weapon to level the playing field.
Behavioural black magic
In 1957 the US market researcher James Vicary claimed he could get moviegoers to “drink Coca-Cola” and “eat popcorn” by flashing messages onscreen for such a short time that viewers were unaware they had seen them. The term “subliminal advertising” was coined to describe this unnerving practice and it was subsequently banned in many countries.
Congressional Republicans Look to Dismantle CFPB’s Arbitration Rule
It didn’t take long for Congressional Republicans to pounce on the CFPB’s final rule on arbitration agreements, which the agency released on July 10. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling said he would support use of the Congressional Review Act to dismantle the rule, while Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.) already has drafted a CRA resolution and is working with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (Idaho) to introduce it “soon.”
Tap into Consumer Habits to Create Sticky Prepaid Products
Designing products with staying power starts with understanding consumers and then adapting uses cases to solve their problems.
Bold statement three: statements from around the bleeding edge of innovation
Hello all and apologies it’s taken a little while to get to the third instalment of the series about “pet peeve statements”. For those who are new, I am talking about those bold, declaratory statements that puff up the chest and make people feel awfully progressive and far sighted – and as I have said before, all sound and fury, signifying stormy waters ahead!
OCC Report Highlights Strategic Risks from Fintech, Operational Risk from Third Parties
The OCC’s latest risk report for banks highlights competitive pressure from fintech companies, loosening of credit underwriting standards, operational risks associated with third-party service providers, and compliance risks around Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and AML monitoring.
Interview: Nelson Holzner, AEVI – imagination will take you everywhere
Nelson Holzner, newly appointed CEO of AEVI, talks to Banking Technology about the importance of innovation and simplification, and addressing real-life problems with working solutions. “Do more” is AEVI’s motto.
CFPB Issues Final Arbitration Rule
It’s difficult to say just yet who the ultimate victors will be in the battle over arbitration—trial lawyers, consumers, the financial services industry, Congressional Republicans or the CFPB—but the bureau fired the latest salvo by issuing its final rule on arbitration agreements on July 10. The move comes despite warnings from House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) that doing so could result in contempt proceedings.
How Trump Can Really Reduce Compliance Burdens for U.S. Firms
If President Trump wants to make America great again, there are a few important ways he could bolster the fintech industry and help consumers—from supporting more uniform MSB licensing to reining in UDAAP.
Top five questions about using quantum-safe security in financial transactions
A wide range of technology-driven sectors will be affected by the advent of universal quantum computing many experts say will happen by 2026, but the financial industry has particular reason to be concerned.
