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Payments

Square grows up and becomes a bank

This week I’m going to continue looking at mobile payments with a quick overview of where Square, Jack Dorsey’s card payments firm, is today. I’m sure you all saw this headline the other day but, just in case, Square is now worth more than Goldman Sachs. Square! Square. Squared. I used to blog about Square…

Are you pulling my blockchain?

I need to shut up about Ant Group, as I’ve blogged a lot about them lately. However, with an IPO coming up and news coming out daily almost, it’s hard to ignore some of their activities. One activity that really hit me when it was released in July was the rebranding of all of their…

Digital payments in a post-COVID world

I recently saw the announcement from Santander of a foreign exchange service called PagoFX. It’s a service that goes head-to-head with TransferWise and is an interesting example of fighting back. As a result, I asked Victoria Yasinetskaya, CMO at PagoFX to tell me a bit more about what’s happening and she kindly wrote this piece for…

The rise of the mobile wallet

I first started blogging about smart mobile wallets in earnest in 2014. Back then, the mobile network operators were starting to get active and to try and bring the M-PESA and other experiences to the modern world. But no one wanted them. Six years later, mobile wallets are still pretty dire in most of Europe…

Does anyone know what a Merchant Payments Ecosystem is?

I just presented to the Merchant Payments Ecosystem conference. I’ve presented there before, and this year was virtual … as are all 2020 conferences. 2020 is the virtual year. I sat and thought about what to present. I have 1,000 slides or more, but I don’t do slides on lockdown. Too boring. I talk. So,…

The future of money: a speech by the Governor of the Bank of England

Last week the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, gave a virtual speech at the Brookings Institute on the future of money, technology, payments, digital currencies and central bank digital currencies. It’s an interesting speech, and worth sharing here. Enjoy. Reinventing the Wheel (with more automation) Speech given by Andrew Bailey, Governor of…

Cashing in on women

I spotted a really interesting analysis of cash and bank notes the other day. For those who follow this blog, you’ll know that I love bank notes. I collect them. Each country has different coloured bank notes with different art on its cash that reflect their ethos and society. In fact, through the years, most…

No one changes behaviour … unless forced to

I see lots of surveys and research about the use of technology in finance. Things like 47 percent of consumers are interested in biometric payments or 80 percent of consumers would use mobile payments. Then you look at the adoption rates and the actual usage is more like 4 and 8 percent respectively … if…

The end of main street

Wondering about the future. Always wondering about the future. Thinking about where things are going. It’s the only thing we don’t know. We know the past; we live in the present; we wonder about the future. What’s my future? What’s your future? What’s the future for our children and our children’s children? What’s the future?…

Goldman Sachs compare bitcoins to tulips, and cryptofolks aren’t happy

Goldman Sachs just became the bad boy on the block in the bitcoin brethren by saying bitcoin has nothing behind it. Remember last week when we were all bullish for the Goldman Sachs Bitcoin call? L pic.twitter.com/W5lRyx1L5Y — Zack Voell (@zackvoell) May 27, 2020 However, when you look at their presentation … … they don’t…

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