‘Mythbusting’ Payroll Cards
To coincide with its just released and first “Payroll Industry Scorecard,” CFSI is separating fact from fiction when it comes to payroll cards, which continue to face scrutiny by state regulators and the media.
Industry Comment
How Fintech Startups Are Transforming Retail Banking and Finance
Sure, convenience remains vital. But to reach digitally savvy consumers—including millennials—new entrants in the payments arena will need to think socially, and be ready to chat.
The future of insurance is collaboration
To the outside observer the insurance industry may look very conservative with dominant global companies and local players operating in the way they have done for years and with very little interaction with their customers. But this is changing.
2017: South Africa – blockchain fizzle or sizzle?
While the maturity of blockchain discussions and advances are at different stages of development around the world, blockchain is said to be at the height of the Gartner hype cycle. This implies that 2017 will be the year where disillusionment with the technology begins. However, 2017 may also see some real breakthroughs with its application and the emergence of pockets of the first concrete results.
Fintech in the US: where is regulation headed?
Aaron Cutler, partner, and Loyal Horsley, associate at Hogan Lovells, examine the state-level fintech regulation, proposed legislative solutions, and provides a brief overview of international regulation.
Four best practices in responding to a security breach
You need to tell your customers you’ve been hacked. Now what?
What’s Behind the Rise of Carrier Billing?
As the payment method gains popularity, an expert explains why young consumers buying digital content, including games, and transit tickets with their phones will be keys for the future.
What If You Could Make Prepaid More Profitable?
What does Russell Simmons know that banks don’t? GPR can be profitable. Find out how.
The Missing Piece in B2B Air Travel Payments
A highly fragmented sales environment along with unnecessary expenses are among the main pain points for B2B payments for air travel. Here is what needs to improve.
What’s Next for Mobile Ordering?
As major companies report success from mobile ordering, an expert shows what payment providers have to consider before taking the next step.
US fintech regulation: a divided picture at the federal level
Addressing the views of the Department of Treasury, the CFPB, and the SEC on the regulation of the fintech industry in the US.
Tackling cybercrime: why the industry must unite
Cyberattacks have been dominating newspaper headlines for some time now. Whether it’s losing access to PayPal, a distributed denial of service attack on Lloyds Group, or Tesco Bank customers losing £2.5 million to hackers, the threat of a cyberattack in 2017 is so great that it’s not a case of if, but when one occurs.
Fintech in the US: the state of the union is questionable
An overview of the current fintech regulation in the US by the prudential regulators: the OCC, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve.
Bold statement one: statements around the bleeding edges of innovation
This is a series of posts on a subject that plays on my mind a little – the application of disruption, and innovation, when it is related through the filter of our use of language, and our desire to seem advanced.
Fintech Is Poised to Thrive in Mexico
The Mexican market has everything—the market size, the interest and the right attitude. There is only one thing missing and that is the very fundamentals of what fintech represents.
Waves of Change for Payments
At this week’s Smart Card Alliance Payments Summit, experts looked to mobile and transit for a view of how payments will evolve. Here is a dive into the trends that likely will keep making news in the years to come.
Vroom, Vroom: Vehicles Accelerate the Future for Payments
A drive through the emerging landscape of in-vehicle transaction projects shows a wide variety of services that could appeal to consumers and push payments forward. But there’s still work to do before automakers are off to the races.
A vaccination for financial crime
ransaction monitoring is emerging as one of the top priorities for banks and other financial institutions. Some now employ up to three per cent of their workforce to track financial crime. But, as leadership teams look to increase the effectiveness of their processes in the face of regulatory scrutiny and reduce costs, are there lessons to be learnt from health industry and its battle against infectious diseases?
Why we need diversity before AI takes over
We hear a lot about how artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to displace jobs, especially those held by women in tech, but should we also worry about a future overrun with sexist, racist machines?
Women in fintech: why do we need them and how do we recruit them?
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 UK gets new coins, but why?
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?
Alexander Graham Bell’s influence on tech innovations in today’s financial services
“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.
Blockchain offers banks potential, but HFT provides benefits now
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.
Not so Hot as a Commodity: Processing Tech Must Do More for Prepaid
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.
Disrupting Payments for the Better at Mobile World Congress
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.
What Will Happen to the CFPB?
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.
How to Fight Fraudsters without Losing Legitimate Customers
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.
Will 2017 be the year financial services improve their UX?
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…
The big fight brewing over strong customer authentication
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.
Culture in investment banks is a ticking time bomb for employers
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.
Mobile: the banking industry’s biggest ultimatum
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.
More than making nice: why payments execs are wooing merchants
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.
How to Make a Multigenerational Global Impact with Prepaid
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.
It’s Time to Rethink Service Level Agreements
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.
Need for human connection in digital banking
Technology may rule the world, but human connection is still king.
How to make a success out of blockchain
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…
Mobile money: the state of play
With mobile money technology widely available, and so many citizens having access to a mobile phone, how many are actually banking in this way? What are the benefits available to them when using mobile money? And what does the future hold for this fintech innovation?
FCA: experimenting in the sandbox
2017 looks set to be the year in which a number of different jurisdictions vie to become the natural home of the financial technology sector. To help ensure that London remains fintech-friendly, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has created the “regulatory sandbox”.
Investing in Innovation: Payoff ahead
We’re only six weeks into the New Year and already we’ve seen significant activity on the regulatory front in the U.S. and more to come in the U.K. and Europe. Meanwhile, many of the other trends we identified as ones to watch in our Year-in-Review report—bots, blockchain and co-opetition—have been dominating the headlines (along with some major acquisitions). Are you investing in the right places?
Viewpoint: Why Better Payments Security Requires More Sharing
When payment systems come under attack, the broad retail and service economies suffer. That’s why legal concerns and information-sharing programs need to be reexamined.
