Innovators’ Spotlight: SPENT Money
Rather than being top of wallet, SPENT Money wants to help consumers manage and earn rewards from what’s already there—at least for now.
Features
Corporate banking: work smarter, not harder. On user self-onboarding
Why would a bank let their corporates indulge in setting up system privileges online – without keeping close tabs on the process? Here’s why.
OCC Isn’t Ready for Fintech Charter Applications Just Yet
Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika told FinovateFall attendees in New York this week that the agency is still in the exploratory phase of its fintech charter, according to news reports.
U.K. to Get New Payment Systems Operator by Year’s End
Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and Bank of England have revealed that the U.K. will be getting the New Payment Systems Operator by the end of 2017, which the PSR says will be an important step in streamlining the U.K.’s payment systems and fostering competition and innovation.
What You Need to Know about Pa.’s Money Transmitter License Changes
The introduction of new bond requirements for money transmitters in Pennsylvania is in line with an overall trend across states to enforce stricter conditions on money transmitter license holders and applicants. See what the licensing requirements mean for your business.
Payments: where have all the correspondents gone?
At the recent G20 meeting in Germany, Financial Stability Board (FSB) briefed leaders on its efforts to arrest the decline in correspondent banking relationships. FSB also presented the results of a survey of more than 300 banks in 50 countries, supplemented by Swift payments data, which showed that the number of correspondent banking relationships continues to decline globally.
The future of cross-currency payments
The landscape of cross-currency (FX) payments is taking on a whole new look – creating challenges for corporate financial managers and the need for new banking solutions.
Fintech: why commercial banks must follow retail banking’s lead
It’s been seen as the ultimate clash of cultures. The baseball cap and T-shirt versus the formal suit and tie; the young, quick-thinking fintech versus the risk-averse multinational corporate; David versus Goliath.
Wells Fargo Fake Bank Account Scandal Grows
The scandal of employees at Wells Fargo creating 2.1 million fake bank accounts and credit card numbers to boost sales figures has just gotten bigger.
Five solutions for the challenges women face in tech today
In the most recent InsurTech Bytes podcast, Sarah Greasley, CTO, Direct Line Group, opened up about her experience as a woman in fintech, the challenges and the solutions. FinTech Futures (Banking Technology’s sister company) uncovered the solutions for five of the key hurdles in her career. 1: Entrepreneurship and empowering risk taking Challenge: From a […]
Blockchain Roundup: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Nations, platforms and some bad news in our latest blockchain and bitcoin roundup. Find out more about the SEC’S suspension of First Bitcoin Capital Corp., an initial coin offering for cryptocurrency exchange platform KyberNetwork and more.
Simplify Back-to-School Season with E-Payments
Prepaid cards and alias-based payments that rely on email or mobile phone numbers can offer students and colleges and universities significant benefits over traditional check disbursement of financial aid.
Juniper Predicts Major Global Shift to Contactless on Heels of U.S. EMV Push
A new study from Juniper Research is forecasting that more than half (53 percent) of global transactions at the point of sale will be contactless within five years, compared with just 15 percent this year.
Consumers Union Calls for More Prepaid Regs; NAFCU Wants Them Rescinded
Plagued by delays, threatened by Congressional repeal and finally opened to further comment and changes, the CFPB’s final rule on prepaid accounts now has consumer groups calling for the bureau to “strengthen” consumer protections while a credit union trade group wants the rule rescinded.
App Economy Dodges Bullet with Uber Court Victory
It’s a rare ray of sunshine for the embattled Uber, as it won a key fight in the U.S. Second Court of Appeals, which ruled its terms and conditions (Ts & Cs) are legally binding
Is fintech to banking what craft ale is to brewing?
Is fintech to banking what craft ale is to brewing? If so, what can banks learn from the rise and rise of craft ale? Aden Davies, principal consultant at ABZD, looks at ten trends seen in the craft ale industry that have interesting parallels with the rise of fintech.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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.”
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.
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.
Analysis: outsourcing to the cloud – EBA’s recommendations
The European Banking Authority (EBA) recently opened a consultation on its draft recommendations for financial institutions outsourcing to cloud service providers across all cloud-related domains including infrastructure, platform and software as a service.
Fed Payments Study: Noncash Payments Soar amid Check Decline
Consumers wrote nearly two-thirds fewer checks per household in 2015 than in 2000, while total noncash payments per household, which includes checks, card payments and electronic transfers via ACH, expanded almost 95 percent, according to additional results released June 30 from the “2016 Federal Reserve Payments Study.” While the numbers are encouraging to those facilitating electronic payments, prepaid providers have some work to do to gain market share.
SEC Files Fraud Charges in Bitcoin, Office Space Scams
A U.K. citizen living in New York is facing fraud charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in relation to two bogus investment schemes. Renwick Haddow allegedly reaped millions of dollars from investors in his supposed bitcoin platform Bitcoin Store Inc. and in Bar Works Inc., which offers office space in renovated restaurants and bars.
P2P Is Gaining Steam, but Security Concerns Remain
Consumers prefer to use P2P payments for retail purchases, paying back relatives and friends, and settling bills—but not so much for contributing to group gifts or paying housing costs, according to a new report from NerdWallet. It also found that that while only 35 percent of U.S. consumers use such P2P products as Venmo, PayPal and Square Cash, 63 percent are interested in the payment technology.
CFPB Snapshot: California Leads Nation in Complaints to Agency
The CFPB receives more than 20,000 complaints every month, according to Director Richard Cordray, and the bureau’s latest installment of its Monthly Complaint Report highlights consumer complaints at the state level. As of June 1, the CFPB has received more than 1.2 million complaints across the country since it began accepting them in 2011. The top three states with the most complaints are California, Florida and Texas with 159,158, 111,559 and 93,472 complaints, respectively.
CFPB Clamps down on Credit Repair Companies, Leadership
The CFPB on June 27 filed two complaints and proposed final judgments in federal court against four California-based credit repair companies and three individuals for “misleading consumers and charging illegal fees.”
Money20/20 Europe: PSD2 Creates More Questions than Answers
On June 26, artificial intelligence captured the imagination of some at Money20/20 in Copenhagen. But during the June 27 sessions on the second day, it was like I had stepped back in time to November 2016, reported Deputy Editor Antony Peyton. Last year, at the Payments International conference in London, PSD2 left some in the payments industry confused as to where the risks and opportunities lie.
