Mutual distributed ledger: at the speed of need
Professor Michael Mainelli, executive chairman of Z/Yen Group, and Vinay Gupta, founder of venture capital firm hexayurt.capital, discuss mutual distributed ledger economics.
Professor Michael Mainelli, executive chairman of Z/Yen Group, and Vinay Gupta, founder of venture capital firm hexayurt.capital, discuss mutual distributed ledger economics.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has become the first U.S. regulatory agency to join the R3 Consortium, a global partnership of banks and other parties working to develop distributed ledger-based applications for financial services. The agency oversees the regulation and licensing of banks and financial institutions, among other businesses, in the state.
The top Democrat on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee wants to interview executives from Wells Fargo over a scandal about fake accounts its employees set up for customers. Last year, the CFPB announced a $100 million fine against Wells Fargo for what the agency called “widespread unlawful sales practices.” The agency said the fine was the largest such penalty it has ever issued.
Art Gillis, a seasoned banking technology consultant (working in the computer industry since 1958 – and listed as a top 25 tech consultant by the American Banker) and author, presents his latest “Automation in Banking” report (#31!), which looks at the US core banking and ancillary software market.
Over the holiday period I saw my 17-year-old niece Katie reading an article in an engineering magazine about the lack of women in that industry. She is considering becoming an engineer.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is moving forward with its plan to enable fintech companies to become special purpose national banks (SPNBs), releasing a licensing manual draft supplement which provides guidance on how the OCC “will apply the licensing standards and requirements in its existing regulations and policies to fintech companies applying for [SPNB] charters“ and another document that summarizes public comments about the plan to allow SPNBs for fintech companies. The special purpose charter has no shortage of critics, but perhaps the most vocal—New York State—has turned up the dial on its opposition.
With federal and state payments regulation in near-constant flux, compliance strategy continues to be of utmost importance, especially for issuers. Amid this landscape, The Bancorp has named Bill Neurohr to head its compliance operations and serve as the point man for the company’s interactions with regulators.
As of March this year, UK’s one-pound, two-pound and 50p coins have all been upgraded to become “the most secure coins in the world”. However, with the rise in cashless payments, online transactions and mobile banking, is there any point?
Banking Technology puts the banking innovation in the US under the spotlight. The market is not short of digital offerings: Simple, Moven, Kabbage, Acorns, Earny, Debitize, MagnifyMoney and more – take your pick!
“Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” These were the first words ever spoken over a telephone line and said by the man fondly described as the father of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, who would have turned 170 on 3 March this year.
I’ve been a technology nerd since before it was cool. In fact, when I went to college in the mid-1970s engineering students were treated more like George McFly than Mark Zuckerberg. It wasn’t the most glamorous major to talk about. Not much has changed today when I tell people I lead an advocacy organisation in support of high frequency trading (HFT), a technology that lowers trading costs for banks, asset managers and pretty much all investors. I find the work exciting, but I do run into my share of Biff Tannens.
Prepaid stakeholders scrambling to meet the Oct. 1, 2017, effective date for the CFPB’s final rule on prepaid accounts can take a breath. The CFPB has proposed delaying the effective date by six months—and has signaled it might be open to tweaking some aspects of the rule.
Differentiation with new prepaid use cases is critical as the industry consolidates and change in the wider payments world and consumer behavior accelerate. Exploiting opportunities in the prepaid market demands a modern processing technology that supports new product road maps and the ability to adapt quickly.
A deep dive into a packed panel discussion on disruption at the annual conference shows how payments providers are mapping the future with new technology, and how traditional players can endure.
Republicans have never liked the agency, but so far, their efforts to reform it and reduce its power—or eliminate it altogether—have appeared scattershot. Echoing what a former Secretary of Defense once said: Here’s what we know and what we know we don’t know about the bureau’s future.
An analysis of a real fraud situation shows that some barriers to fraud can potentially drive away valuable customers. Here’s what to do—and not to do—when criminals target your cards.
The CFPB, on March 7, released a guide for preparing short-form disclosures for prepaid accounts, which is intended to assist providers with implementing the agency’s final rule on prepaid accounts issued last year and set to go into effect Oct. 1, 2017.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) have signed an agreement to assist fintech entrepreneurs and support financial services innovation in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, according to Paybefore sister publication Banking Technology.
2016 has been a big year for user experience (UX). The web, as a whole, became easier to use, apps became more intuitive, and services became a lot more engaging and purposeful. But could the same be said for financial services? Perhaps…
Payments pundits for years have been saying consumers need incentives to use mobile wallets, and a new survey report from Auriemma Consulting Group has numbers to back up the claim.
Consumers are expressing interest in and enthusiasm for emerging payment methods in their social media conversations, according to a new report. Mastercard’s fifth annual Digital Payments Study analyzed more than 3.5 million public interactions in 2016 between consumers on social media channels—including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter—to glean insight about consumer attitudes toward new payment technologies worldwide.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2007/8 financial crisis, measures to promote better conduct and improve customer protection and the resilience of the financial system dominated the regulatory agenda. More recently, regulators in many countries have added competition and innovation objectives to their agenda.
Late last year, Visa fired a volley – unlikely to be the last – over new rules that it and all providers of online transactions will soon need to follow as part of the EU’s revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). It has some doom-laden predictions.
Recently I have been recruiting for a senior analyst position. We have reviewed over 40 CVs for a senior analyst position, and only two have been from women.
Complaints about prepaid products went down again from November 2016 through January 2017, with the CFPB reporting a monthly average of 206 prepaid-related complaints in that period, down from 237 per month during the same period a year earlier.
Developing new services, adopting the latest technologies and collaboration are the top priorities among payment schemes worldwide, according to a new study.
In a sign that many consumers use gift cards to purchase everyday household items, big box retailers continue to lead loyalty points and rewards redemptions in the U.S., according to a new study from the National Gift Card Corp. (NGC).
An app is no longer a “nice to have”. As consumers expect businesses to engage with them at the right time, in the right manner, and over the right channel, a bank’s mobile app will be a crucial first point of contact for many customers. But it’s important to remember that an app by itself is not some wonder-cure that will instantly give a financial organisation perfectly satisfied customers.
Digitalisation plays a key role in the fight against payment fraud. Yet Commerzbank’s cybercrime specialists in cash services show that even in this technologically advanced environment, security threats persist. Companies must take steps to ensure that human beings – as well as computers – are protected against crime.
The payments industry invitation to merchants to play a bigger role in innovation seems serious and pragmatic, writes our senior editor, an e-commerce expert.
With the worldwide prepaid market set to hit $3.1 trillion by 2022, providers need to have a firm handle on who those prepaid consumers will be, and how they will shop.
SLAs provide various metrics upon which service is judged. But in many cases, those metrics—and the business expectations of deals—prove unrealistic and could lead to poor decisions and wasted money.
Technology may rule the world, but human connection is still king.
On 16 January 2017, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) released for public consultation its Economic and Financial Statistics (EFS) Form Review. Notably, this consultation package represents a major overhaul of many of the financial and statistical returns currently prepared by the Australian authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) as well as introducing a new set of returns to be submitted. We examine what’s at stake.
After absorbing hundreds of complaints from the payments industry, the European Banking Authority will relax its pending customer authentication rules for online transactions. But given the rise in popularity of online shopping, the new threshold of 30 euros before two-factor authentication is required may not be enough to assuage industry concerns.
No more “one and done.” That’s central to Cachet Financial Solutions’ mission for its prepaid clients and was the impetus for platform upgrades that were nearly a year in the making. Paybefore spoke with Walt Granville, senior vice president of mobile innovation, about what’s resonating with clients and how Cachet is using optimized mobile apps to help them fight churn.
The Chicago-based startup enables consumers to easily purchase and redeem e-gift cards right from their smartphones, essentially turning unwanted e-gifts into a convenient and useful form of digital currency.
There is pressure for CEOs to decide how distributed ledger technology (DLT) fits into their business strategy. Regulators also recognise that blockchain could advance their own processes. So what is all the excitement about? Blockchain is an exciting innovation but the technology has flaws…
The mobile payment market is getting more congested every day. For banks, it’s the most frequent touchpoint – one that can help (re) establish everyday relevance and drive engagement. How can banks develop their strategy and prioritise the capabilities that will help them remain valuable to their customers?
Payroll card providers that operate in New York can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Global Cash Card tells Paybefore that its petition against the New York Department of Labor payroll card regulations due to go into effect on March 7, 2017, has been granted. The industry had been raising red flags about the regulations, which many feared would result in providers exiting the market, since first proposed in 2015.