Passwords have become a necessary evil and many users complain about the burden of coming up with complex passwords, and the even bigger challenge of remembering those passwords.…
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The Gift Card Sector Comes of Age. Part 5 of 5: Disruption – The Slow Rise of Pre-paid Cards as a Financial Force
In this five part series, we have referred to gift cards and pre-paid cards interchangeably when traditionally there have been key differences…
Read MoreThe Gift Card Sector Comes of Age. Part 4 of 5: Sector Outlook – Gift Cards as Alternative Banking
In part 3 of this gift card series, we looked at the business drivers behind increased consumer adoption. In this post we…
Read MoreBank POV: An Interview with U.S. Bank CIO Dominic Venturo
At the Plug and Play Retail and FinTech Expo on October 22nd, I had the opportunity to interview Dominic Venturo, CIO of…
Read MoreBill Gates wants to tackle mobile banking, but not with bitcoin
Bill and Melinda Gates’ to-do list will probably put yours to shame. This year, in the Gates Foundation annual letter, the duo…
Read MoreThe next WeChat is hiding in Canada and eyeing the U.S.
Four years since its launch, Kik is positioning itself as America’s version of WeChat, the messaging behemoth of China. It believes it has the right product (text messaging, the old-fashioned kind) and the right audience (almost half of U.S. youth) to become a proper mobile first platform.…
Read MoreDocker acquires testing-centric startup Koality as it continues to build out its paid services
Fresh off a recent $40 million funding round, cloud darling Docker just bought a small startup that the company feels fits in nicely with its focus on making application development easier with containers.…
Read MoreCircle opens its global bitcoin service to the public in 7 languages
Circle, one of the giants of the bitcoin world, is finally allowing the general public to try out the service. Its offering is tailored to the global market.…
Read MoreThe motivations for spending and saving in Myanmar (and how tech is changing that)
As Myanmar opens up to the outside world and will soon get 3G cellular networks, how is the use of money and savings changing? A new report from a group that spent months studying what's happening.…
Read MoreSquare officially launches Capital, a cash advance program tied to Square transactions
After an initial pilot program, Square is taking the wraps off its new lending program. Square is offering money upfront and deducting repayments directly from merchants' credit card transactions.…
Read MoreYounger Americans are open to Google, Apple, PayPal becoming their bankers
A new report from Accenture finds that our finances move into the virtual world, the younger set is growing more inclined to trust internet and retail brands with their money than traditional banks.…
Read MoreVisa, Mastercard just made it much easier to buy stuff with an Android phone
Visa and Mastercard are bypassing the smart card in NFC phones used to verify transactions, moving those credentials into the cloud. The result will be a lot more apps that can take advantage of contactless payments.…
Read MoreCracking the data silos in banking
Few industries face more regulatory tangles, legacy systems, and transformational new technology than the banking sector. “Banks set the stage for customer…
Read MoreLessons from a small bank
How does a small bank—and a relative startup at that—innovate with technology in a market where the big players spend billions? American…
Read MoreBanking startup LendUp shows why design is king as big data gets personal
For banking startup LendUp, personalization is a matter of survival. As a lender to the underbanked that doesn't charge late fees, LendUp needs to get the right data and design the right experience to ensure it gets paid.…
Read MoreBitcoin’s a risky business for consumers, European Banking Authority warns
The EU regulatory agency wants consumers who are considering jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon to realize that there's not much in the way of regulation to protect them.…
Read MoreThe organizational challenge of disruptive technologies
As firms grapple with implementing the mobile, cloud, and big data technologies that are transforming their businesses, getting the organizational process and…
Read MoreRegulatory “issues” lead Bitcoin exchange Tradehill to suspend operations (again)
The San Francisco-based Bitcoin exchange has called a halt to trading, ostensibly on a temporary basis. This is not the first time this has happened -- Tradehill previously shut down in 2012 due to regulatory issues.…
Read MorePodcast: How the internet of things will make your wallet fat
How will you bank when you can check your balance on your watch? Will mobile payments seem quaint when we're waving our fingers to make a purchase? We discuss all this and more during this week's podcast.…
Read MoreHolvi prepares to roll out banking for teams across Europe in 2013
The Finnish financial services upstart has pulled in a new round of funding, with serial entrepreneur Thomas Madsen-Mygdal becoming a key backer and board member.…
Read MoreWhere machine learning and ‘human artistry’ meet your wallet
Even if you don't agree with ZestFinance's business, it's hard to argue with its grasp of big data and applied mathematics. Now, the company has added a human touch to machine learning in order to make its models for assessing repayment risk even more accurate.…
Read MoreLearnVest’s financial planning platform lands on mobile
LearnVest, a New York-based startup offering an online financial planning platform, as well as services with Certified Financial Planners, has launched a new mobile app for the iPhone. From the app, users can track spending and view their overall financial position.…
Read MoreHow big data might mean better business for big banks
By becoming an underwriter for some of the world's largest banks and credit card companies, ZestFinance might actually be able to achieve its goal of using big data to supply the underbanked with needed credit. It's not altruism by any means, but here's how it works.…
Read MoreTransferwise adds more currencies: dollar on the way?
London currency exchange startup Transferwise has teamed up with a neighbor, The Currency Cloud, to let people transfer money between a range of European currencies. But is the next stop for the disruptive finance company going to be the US dollar?…
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