Another interesting payment/ P2P payment play, this time in Belgium. What sets this one aside is the co-operation amongst banks to provide a common standard and method. Bank-backed QR code-based mobile payments app launches in Belgium Customers who download the app, pick their bank and add a Bancontact card before creating a six-digit code. To make instore, P2P and online payments, users then enter this code and scan a QR squiggle. The partners say that, thanks to the six-digit code, and because no data is stored on the phone, security is guaranteed. Card details are no longer stored in the … Continue reading Bank-backed QR code-based mobile payments app launches in Belgium | Finextra

It should be a safe bet the current person in that role at Sony, if he wasn’t gone after last weeks fiasco, then todays information about the PlayStation network being hacked and taken down, should do it. In the land of fintech we have many discussions about security risk, adequacy, potential over-reaction and generally finding the right balance between risk, and cost. Sony are a company highly dependent on technology but do not have the regulatory oversight banks have in the cybersecurity space. Sony do have the oversight however from customers and shareholders, that will ultimately determine their fate. Sony … Continue reading CIO wanted; major entertainment, gaming company

More on previous post and the underlying intention behind the UK governments intentions. Standardised APIs to be used to facilitate data portability in banking Anderson also said that the use of standardised APIs in banking would create a much more public source of data about customers and said there would be certain parallels with a ‘know your customer’ (KYC) data sharing initiative that is being developed by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). Basically what I take from these posts is that UK is supporting the SWIFT initiative to better co-ordinate KYC between banks with a centralized KYC … Continue reading More on the UK centralized KYC initiative

While perhaps well intentioned in calling for solutions that provide better quality comparison shopping, it worries me when I see HM Treasury calling for banks to provide an API as the solution, and also solution to what? AUTUMN STATEMENT 2014 2.176 Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in banking – Following publication of a Government commissioned report on APIs and open data, the government will launch a Call for Evidence on how APIs could be used in banking. This will enable financial technology companies to develop innovative solutions to allow customers to make better comparisons between different banks and financial products. I … Continue reading HM Treasury and “Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in banking” – really?

Despite a few missteps that seemed to place Uber on the wrong side of ‘do no evil’, (Uber Godview) this financing round seems to unequivocally see them as a force that will continue to expand and battle against legal and taxi interests attempts to slow them down. Uber valued at $40bn in latest funding round Investors looked past Uber’s recent controversies over its handling of competitors, the press and users’ privacy to give it a huge $40bn valuation as it announced the completion of a $1.2bn funding round on Thursday. Continue reading Uber is not going anywhere after raising $1.2 Bn

I have been following Stripe for a while, and now I wish they were listed 🙂 Stripe banks $70m in fundraising, valuing company at $3.5bn ft.com Good for them. Stripe and Ripple are the two that I would bet on in payments. Continue reading Stripe land another $70 million

This is an interesting partnership. TD are portraying as a PFM play. Moven has been promoting till now as a full debit account with Spend, Save & goal tracking. It will be interesting to observe how TD implements and how this impacts Moven strategy going forward. Continue reading Moven agrees to partnership with TD Bank

Oil is down 30% in the last 3 months. There are strong hints this is a systemic shift and not an aberration. Market rout as oil slide rocks energy groups ft.com He compared the surge in North American shale to the dotcom and subprime mortgage booms, and said Opec’s objective now was “to get small producers with large debts and low efficiency to pack up and leave the market”. Is hard to tell who is really behind it. Middle east producers attempt to kill off smaller US shale producers who have produced a world oil surplus US influence on Saudi … Continue reading “Market rout as oil slide rocks energy groups” | Are we entering the next economic crisis

This is probably a screw up but its funny given the tenure of those involved. First Scoble has this post and mentions Openstack. That link was interesting so I clicked and got this link. I arrived at the Gigaom site and clicked the lead story. (This experience might change as they add stories, but this is too much fun to ignore.) There I clicked the lead story “Why eHarmony is rebuilding itself atop Hadoop and (probably) OpenStack”. That link took me back to Scobles story. Round and round we go! It is a classic circular reference. I love it that … Continue reading Echo chamber classic

The world of payments is going crazy. Payments is supposed to be about SWIFT and land in SIBOS annually. Darn. The usual suspects at SIBOS Boston in October past must be suffering from brain exploding thoughts about Singapore next year. But seriously payments ain’t what they used to be. Apple Pay certainly drove payments front and centre, but Stripe have been quietly making significant moves the in the background. Here are just three stories tonight from the interwebs. Payments have been a story for a while but finally they are showing as consequential change, and banks are not in the … Continue reading Payments – whats going on?