“Mastercard and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) today announced the launch of a public-private coalition that will bring together technology, solutions and experience from multiple sectors to transform refugee settlements into digitally-connected communities. This commitment delivers on a vision laid out in research conducted last year by Mastercard to better understand the critical needs of the over seven million refugees living in camps or settlements today.”

“The use of cutting-edge technology means identification documents, along with a selfie, are uploaded directly onto the application. With verification and authentication taking place in real-time, accounts can be opened in less than 10 minutes, including setting-up internet banking.”

“According to reports, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is planning to release its own coin by March 2018. The MUFG coin will have parity with the Japanese yen and will be rolled out to employees of the financial services group first. It will enable standard transactions, such as shopping or transfer of money between individuals (for example, splitting of a bill after a meal or drinks), at much lower costs as compared to credit cards.”

“Amazon Go is a go for the masses. The retailer’s cashierless convenience store will open its doors to the public Monday, a debut that follows a nearly 14-month trial run open only to the Seattle company’s employees. The store requires customers to scan their smartphone on the way in, tracks them with cameras and other sensors as they browse, and, when they take an item off the shelf, adds it to a virtual cart. Groceries are charged to the customer’s Amazon account when they leave with their goods.”

“Bank of America Corp. BAC +0.38% has eliminated a free checking account popular with some lower-income customers, requiring them to keep more money at the bank to avoid a monthly fee. This month, all remaining eBanking customers with the Charlotte, N.C., lender were switched into accounts that charge a $12 monthly fee unless the customer has a $250 or more direct deposit or a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more. Other eBanking customers were switched over as early as 2015.”

“Investors believe there’s a huge market opportunity to disrupt big banks and build a more cost-effective and consumer-friendly platform that appeals to Millennials. Young people “want something that is really simple and intuitive,” Varo Money CEO Colin Walsh told TechCrunch. “We think that this is the beginning of what could be a fairly disruptive change in a very established industry.” Varo offers an FDIC-backed bank account backed by The Bancorp Bank. Varo also applied for its own bank charter.“

“While regulations continue to be top of mind for financial institutions, banks have another main concern: the innovations and progress being made by fintechs, according to a survey released by EY. Financial institutions need to be more aware of the effect fintechs—which provide “simpler, more convenient, more transparent” services, are having on the industry, EY stated in its Global Banking Outlook survey for 2018.”

“Anne Boden is the CEO of Starling Bank the UK’s first ever “NeoBank” to provide a Current Account. Through our conversation we were able to discuss the creation of how NeoBanks came to be, why Anne decided to “just build a bank” and some great lessons along the way for future bank builders in Australia.”

“Even with the rapid increase in bank accounts around the world, the truth is that most people are underserved by the financial industry. We still live in a world where too many people lack sufficient savings to cover an unexpected expense. In the U.S. nearly half of all families don’t have enough money to pay for a $400 emergency; 40% of U.K. citizens have less than £100 saved.”

“As the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges deal with the manic rush, banks have become a stumbling block. Possibly taking cue from the uneasiness shared by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Narendra Modi government, some of the lenders are no longer comfortable with virtual currencies. This has led to issues with deposits and withdrawals.”

“Google Pay will be a one-stop shop for all your Google Payment needs: NFC smartphone payments, P2P transfers, and Web payments. Google’s payment solution site has already clicked over to the new branding, and we’d guess a rebrand of the Android Pay app won’t be far behind. The branding should start popping up on store credit card machines, too.By our count, this is Google’s fifth payment brand.”

“Encrypted messaging startup Telegram plans to launch its own blockchain platform and native cryptocurrency, powering payments on its chat app and beyond. According to multiple sources which have spoken to TechCrunch, the “Telegram Open Network” (TON) will be a new, ‘third generation’ blockchain with superior capabilities, after Bitcoin and, later, Ethereum paved the way.”

“On the first day of this year, Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam rang in 2018 with a sternly worded fatwa (religious edict) that Bitcoin trades lead its users to “fraud, betrayal and ignorance”.”

2017 has been a remarkable year of payments industry evolution and we expect more significant change in 2018. Together with you, we look forward to helping our industry move further ahead for the benefit of all. Until then, all of us at Glenbrook wish you and yours the very best for the New Year!

With the payments news cycle is taking a break (and we hope you are too),  Payments News will return January 2.

“Here’s how it works: shoppers scan the barcodes of items they wish to purchase using a handheld scanner, provided by Kroger, or the chain’s “Scan, Bag, Go” app on any smartphone. The technology will keep a running tab of shoppers’ total order and offer applicable coupons.”

“On the streets of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, rough sleepers have been provided with winter coats incorporating contactless payments technology. In the London Boroughs of Hackney and Islington, people experiencing homelessness have been given portable terminals. In the Natural History Museum in London, a contactless terminal under the iconic blue whale skeleton in the main foyer has proved a success.”

“The technology, which is being piloted at the AH to go store at Ahold Delhaize’s support office in Zaandam, provides customers with a fast, efficient shopping experience by using a card or, in the near future, a smartphone. After registering via an app, customers can select an item, tap an electronic shelf card, and go. Within 10 minutes, the money will be automatically transferred from their bank account.”

“But Amazon’s rival JD.com, the second biggest online retailer in China after Alibaba, has already beaten it to the punch. JD announced that, in partnership with Hong Kong real estate developer China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd, it plans to open hundreds of unmanned convenience stores with technology reportedly more advanced than Amazon’s. Its trial shops have already been tested by the 10,000 employees at its Beijing headquarters.”

“In our discussions lately with CXOs and innovation heads of major banks, we have been seeing an interesting trend shaping up. Many of them are trying to find ways to measure the success (or failure) of innovation programs and accelerators – essentially trying to find the KPIs for benchmarking innovation (internal and external data). Some of them even said, “We will be looking to buy those startups. It’s not just about collaborative innovation.””

“U.S. commercial banks see opportunity, and not just pointless expense, in moving to real-time payments (RTP). A new report by the financial analytics firm Ovum says that banks are treating real-time payments as a business opportunity, not simply a compliance issue. They are investing in area of concern to corporate treasurers, such as cash management, according to the report, which drew on interviews with 211 senior commercial banking executives from Tier One and Tier Two institutions.”

“Consumers are still spending on retail, but which stores they’re going to and what they’re spending on is fundamentally changing. The year wasn’t so much an apocalypse as a reckoning, and the common thread through these events has been brands big and small forced into pondering fundamental questions about the purpose of physical spaces. Why does a store need to exist? And what should a store actually do?”

“The race is on to become the top global app for international money transfers. Fintech startups including WorldRemit Ltd., TransferWise Ltd. and Remitly Inc. are pulling ahead of the pack of the dozens of companies trying to disrupt the remittance industry, using the latest technology to send money internationally.”

“More than any of the other big tech platform companies, Amazon is a machine that makes the machine. People tend to talk about the famous virtuous circle diagram – more volume, lower costs, lower prices, more customers and so more volume. However, I think the operating structure of Amazon – the machine – is just as important, and perhaps less often talked about.”

“During the autumn, Nordea’s Open Banking team has worked together with more than 1,000 external developers, who have tested and given feedback on the open APIs and associated services. Nordea is now ready for the next step as the bank today connects the APIs to the production system and takes the first major step into the brand new world of Open Banking. This makes Nordea the first Nordic bank to offer its pilots access to real customer data.”

“The core product for Aspiration is its Summit personal banking account. The checking account provides 1 percent interest and is fossil fuel free. The checking account also lets its banking customers track their sustainability score by monitoring where they spend money and checking it against a sustainability monitoring and scoring system that Aspiration created (the scoring mechanism tracks companies’ corporate social responsibility on a number of different metrics).”

“In the world of payments, all eyes are on the part of the ecosystem that helps retailers process card transactions. Incumbents like First Data Corp., Vantiv Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s merchant services unit have long focused on winning business from large brick-and-mortar retailers, neglecting to spend a lot of time on the growing e-commerce sector. That’s made room for startups like Stripe Inc. and Adyen BV, which have garnered high valuations for doing just that. Now the questions are: What will be the next way that consumers make purchases and what will the incumbents do to catch up?”

“The ability to request a new card while you’re on the go is arguably the most prominent feature here. Preventing blocks on your cards while traveling is also pretty neat, as both are crucial functions you might want on you when you can’t get to a physical bank location or a computer. Viewing tax documents and changing credit card payment due dates is also useful.”

“The restaurant chain is sweeping up data from point-of-sale systems, social media posts, credit card transactions, and mobile devices, and using AI, bots and mobile apps to develop the campaigns, according to Sherif Mityas, chief strategy officer and CIO.”

“Their ultimate goal: Convince shoppers worldwide — starting with Asia and eventually in the U.S. — to use digital wallets under their control for all sorts of purchases, paving the way for them to provide more lucrative offerings such as online loans, insurances and wealth management products.”

“Today, Infinite Peripherals launches InfineaRetail™ Airline Edition, a new technology for airlines to seamlessly integrate customer transaction technology with purchase analytics and management for in-flight solutions, upgrading previous antiquated technology.”