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Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 18 August 2017

Quickly following on from the round-up on 16 August, here’s more blockchain and Bitcoin action. Features the Australian government, Blockchain (as in the firm), ShapeShift, Bitstamp and Payza. The Australian government has launched a crackdown on money laundering and terrorism financing – including the digital currency exchange sector being regulated for the first time. The […]

Mobile Contactless Hits £370 Million in U.K. in H1 2017

Mobile contactless transactions in the U.K. topped £370 million (US$476 million) in the first six months of 2017, a whopping 336 percent year-on-year increase, according to the latest transaction data from payments processor Worldpay. (Infographic included.)

PIF Welcomes GPS

The Prepaid International Forum has added another member to its roster. Global Processing Services, whose managing director Suresh Vaghjiani is an Industry Achievement Award recipient in the 2017 Pay Awards, has joined the nonprofit trade group.

Top 5 Best Challenger Banks: Revolut

Last month, we asked Paybefore.com visitors to vote for the Best Challenger Banks—the ones shaking up the status quo with a legit chance to become consumers’ preferred accounts, not just a stepping stone to the big banks. For the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing our spotlight articles on these challengers. First up is Revolut.

Physical containers – reused in novel ways. Does that include nextgen branch offices?

With standards as simple as what we see with shipping containers, creative folks will begin considering options for almost anything that can benefit from these containers being mobile. The user experience that today we enjoy with mobile devices has changed the very heart of today’s data centre even as we see on-premise IT moving to clouds. Couldn’t a case be made that such flexibility be embraced even more aggressively in the future and couldn’t that change the very way we view banking as it continues to transform?

Infographic: 58 insane facts about Bitcoin

Did you know that the FBI owns 1.5% of the world’s Bitcoin!? Get ready for some super scrolling with “ten years of the world with Bitcoin” – and 58 insane facts. Infographic and research courtesy of Bitcoin Casino. Source: Bitcoin Casino

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 16 August 2017

Blockchain and Bitcoin are flying high – literally in one case – as we now have satellites in space. Our latest round-up features Bitcoin Cash, Blockstream, Falcon Private Bank and Bitcoin Suisse. Bitcoin’s value doesn’t need to be discussed every day, but today (16 August) on the US-based Bitfinex exchange, it has been holding at […]

eMerchantPay Gets E-Money License, Joins PIF

Global payments service provider eMerchantPay has received authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority as an e-money institution, which means it can issue products including payouts, e-wallets and prepaid cards, and has joined the Prepaid International Forum.

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.

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.

White paper: digital trust is transforming online and mobile banking

Banks are beginning to re-align their internal processes and external-facing products to take advantage of, and more fully realize, the potential of digital transformation. One of the biggest challenges they come up against in this pursuit is how to balance customer experience and security. In other words, implementing a framework that accounts for all the […]

Alipay Taps Yelp to Enrich Chinese Travel Experience

Alipay has inked a slew of partnerships lately. The latest deal for the Chinese app is with Yelp and connects local businesses with Chinese travelers, a move that’s likely to boost loyalty and transaction volume in one fell swoop.

AWS beefs up security with new bouncer named Macie

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a new machine learning-based security service, which it claims will help customers identify anomalies inside their network, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). The launch comes only a month after its S3 storage hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, as Verizon customer data was left on an […]

Industry bullish on promise of fintech – Opimas research

Market players are bullish on the near- and longer-term promise of fintech, according to new research by Opimas, “Fintech Spending and Innovation in Capital Markets”. In 2017, it estimates fintech spending across all capital markets participants to exceed $127 billion.

But what about the human cost of automation?

New research from recruitment agency Robert Half has outlined the jobs which are under threat from automation, but when are we actually going to talk seriously about the dark side of artificial intelligence (AI)?

Infographic: creating millennium-friendly financial advising

People often need financial advice that’s best suited to meet their needs, which differ from one generation to another. You cannot expect millennials to consume the same financial advice as baby boomers. Times have changed, so financial institutions and experts also need to change their approaches to cater for the needs of a much younger clientele that’s distrustful of not only the government, but also financial institutions.

The Monday mindset: 14 August 2017

Fintech zeitgeist! This week, Banking Technology’s editor Tanya Andreasyan muses about the growing trend of celebrity endorsement in the fintech world.

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.

WhatsApp to introduce payments feature

Facebook-owned messenger app WhatsApp submitted a new update through the Google Play Beta Programme, which will make payments available in the app’s new version.

Regtech Supplier Performance Report: ignorance is no longer bliss, it’s now criminal offence

The second edition of Regtech Supplier Performance Report, featuring some 50 regtech suppliers, published by Market Fintech Limited and supported by Banking Technology, says that with over 50,000 regulatory documents published across the G20 since 2009, and an average of 45 new documents every week, we must assume that the future of banking will be driven by technological developments.

Lowe’s rolls out FIS BizNow prepaid solution for SMEs

Home improvement chain Lowe’s has a new payments tool in its toolbox to help small businesses, contractors and construction professionals—a prepaid card and companion mobile app to manage business expenses.

Ben Jackson Joins NBPCA as COO

Ben Jackson, who previously led Mercator Advisory Group’s prepaid advisory service, has joined the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association as chief operating officer. 

Socure raises $14m in new funding

In a Series B round led by Commerce Ventures, digital identity verification specialist Socure raised $13.9 million in new funding. The investment, which also featured the participation of Flint Capital, Santander InnoVentures, Synchrony Financial, Two Sigma Ventures, and Workbench, takes Socure’s total funding to $27.5 million.

HSBC digitises global trade with IBM

HSBC and IBM are working on a project “to develop a cognitive intelligence solution combining optical character recognition with advanced robotics to make global trade safer and more efficient”.

HooYu brings identity confirmation technology to BCRemit

Better onboarding and fewer fraud incidents are the goals of online money transfer platform BCRemit. The UK-based company has partnered with identity confirmation specialist HooYu to help them reach both of those critical objectives.