Payments

Apr 21, 2010

Branches are dead, the future is social (Part Two)

After my post last week about my latest presentation with an audio file, my keynote in Bahrain this week was going to be a variation of the presentation. Due to being unable to fly to Bahrain, I mentioned on Monday that most of the day had been spent editing a video file for the conference…

Apr 19, 2010

And here’s some commercial payments news

I sometimes get unusual things in the email – no comments thanks – such as the full post-conference write up of a cards and commercial payments conference in the USA last month. Here’s a few quotes and notes that caught my attention … Marcie Verdin, Group Head of Large Market Segment, Global Commercial Products (why…

Apr 15, 2010

Voice Commerce fail in bid for RBS WorldPay (UPDATE)

Just had a fascinating chat with Nick Ogden, founder and CEO of Voice Commerce and previously RBS WorldPay which is now part of RBS Global Merchant Services (GMS). As mentioned last week, Voice Commerce is one of the organisations bidding for RBS GMS, now that it is up for sale again, and this week was…

Apr 14, 2010

Why mobile is changing the banking planet

Back in 2004, I asked a group of bankers when mobile would take off in banking. They all said: “not in our lifetimes”. In 2007, Bank of America launched their mobile banking applications and has seen a rapid uptake of users. In less than a year, they reached a million customers on mobile, and saw…

Apr 12, 2010

Online payments is far more than PayPal

As those who follow this blog know, I write regularly about services such as Facebook and PayPal. This is because they are disruptive and fresh, as well as being incredibly successful. For example, Facebook is now the world’s #1 website, bigger than Google. Not bad for a five year old. Meantime, PayPal is still growing…

Apr 12, 2010

The World of Me

I was watching a program about Sandi Thom. Sandi was the girl who played music in her bedroom, put it on MySpace, got picked up by a record firm and became an overnight star with a massive hit: "I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)" back in 2006. She was…

Apr 9, 2010

How Facebook Payments could work in the future

Imagine Facebook create a partnership with a global bank – let’s say HSBC – to offer a P2P payments service. Not Facebook credits, but proper P2P payments. How might it work? Today, I found out. I got Hyves. Yes, I know that sounds like some sort of disease but it’s not. It’s actually the Dutch…

Apr 8, 2010

A new PSD-approved Payments Institution starts business

Nick Ogden, CEO and founder of Voice Commerce (he previously created WorldPay, the RBS payments unit, back in 1993 and sold it to them in 2002*), recently spoke at the FSClub about using voice biometrics as part of authentication in mobile financial transactions. Who are Voice Commerce Group? Best to read what they say about…

Apr 1, 2010

Who remembers our flexible friend?

Just chatting with a chap over the phone to make an order for some bathroom stuff, when he asks for my Visa or Access card details. Of course he meant MasterCard not Access, and soon corrects himself apologising for his age. “Oh no, I remember our flexible friend well”, I say … It just goes…

Mar 30, 2010

If identities are unique, why do I have so many?

It’s a question I’ve asked before, but is becoming even more pertinent as I see new identity management programmes being rolled out that are fragmented, uncoordinated and, in some ways, nonsensical. The point was brought home to me as I listened to the stream of discussion about identity management that took place as a workgroup…