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Shaping the future of finance

Payments

Contactless payments are already past their sell-by date

Spent most of this week at a payments conference. The theme was relentlessly around mobile payments, as this area of the market has truly kicked off as a major focal point for banks, telecommunications firms, retailers and merchants. There was a particularly interesting debate about contactless payments, as this is also something that is being…

Square Card Case

Making a mint

We had a debate last night about “the future of cash – is there one?” with the Royal Mint and LINK network arguing against two digital futurists. I’ll write up that debate in a bit but, in preparing for the meeting, I thought about cash. Specifically the minting of cash, a subject I’ve touched on…

Yap

A crowdsourced bank mobile app

Today, I read a few headlines that make me sit up and take note. First, the news that China’s just bursting over a billion mobile users.  Yes, China is a big economy with 1.3 billion citizens.  A billion mobile users is big news as it means that almost all Chinese citizens now have access to…

Square

A crowdsourced bank mobile app

Today, I read a few headlines that make me sit up and take note. First, the news that China’s just bursting over a billion mobile users.  Yes, China is a big economy with 1.3 billion citizens.  A billion mobile users is big news as it means that almost all Chinese citizens now have access to…

Square

US authorities start campaign against Bitcoin?

Several people pinged me yesterday to highlight the fact that Bitcoin has now become a target of the major payments processors. Not for acquisition. Not for partnership. Not for joint ventures. Not for support. No. Bitcoin is obviously becoming a threat to mainstream operations as it is now an active shut-down target. This was demonstrated…

Vanonymous

US authorities start campaign against Bitcoin?

Several people pinged me yesterday to highlight the fact that Bitcoin has now become a target of the major payments processors. Not for acquisition. Not for partnership. Not for joint ventures. Not for support. No. Bitcoin is obviously becoming a threat to mainstream operations as it is now an active shut-down target. This was demonstrated…

Vanonymous

SEPA end date set for 1st February 2014

The European Parliament agreed the SEPA end-date today, making it legally binding for banks to offer SEPA payment processes from 1st February 2014. Here's the Parliament's press release: Cross-border bank transfers should become faster, cheaper and safer for EU citizens thanks to "single European payments area" legislation passed by Parliament on Tuesday. EU-wide rules to…

£ $ € ¥ …元/圆: the Rise of Renminbi

We have a continual dialogue about Renminbi (RMB), or Chinese Yuan (CNY) if you prefer.  What’s the difference?  Well, Remnimbi is the proper term for the Chinese currency, as is referring to UK currency as the Pound Sterling and the American currency as the Dollar; whilst Yuan is the more colloquial term for Remnimbi, and…

Forget cashless and branchless, it’ll never happen

There are regular discussions at the Financial Services Club, conferences and meetings about the cashless, branchless future. Visa and MasterCard are huge advocates of a war on cash, as are the mobile wallet providers. Brett King and the Bank 2.0 crowd talk lots about a branchless world of banking and how branches are all irrelevant…

Forget cashless and branchless, it’ll never happen

There are regular discussions at the Financial Services Club, conferences and meetings about the cashless, branchless future. Visa and MasterCard are huge advocates of a war on cash, as are the mobile wallet providers. Brett King and the Bank 2.0 crowd talk lots about a branchless world of banking and how branches are all irrelevant…

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