Blockchain-Based Community Currencies Launched in Kenya. Bancor has announced today it will launch a network of blockchain-based community currencies in Kenya. The new project is expected to combat poverty through the stimulation of local and regional commerce and peer-to-peer collaboration. By using the Bancor Network, disadvantaged communities in Kenya will be able to create digital currencies that can hold one or more balances in a connected way such that integrated currencies can be swapped for one another without needing a counterparty. Bancor will launch the new currencies by contributing capital from the proceeds of its $153 million token sales in 2017.
In correspondence with Bitcoin Magazine, Galia Benartzi, Bancor’s co-founder, said, “Bancor will serve as one of several donors in the program providing initial capital to fund the token balances contained within each of the community currencies. Ruddick believes that when “communities have the same right as nations to create and manage currencies, they will unlock their full potential.” Human Lose to Robots as Nordea Profits from Automation. 05/18| NatWest Trials Virtual Customer Assistant.
NatWest is testing out a “digital human” which it says could in future be used as an additional way for customers to get answers to basic banking queries. People can have a verbal two-way conversation with “Cora” on a computer screen, tablet or mobile phone. [Read more: Microsoft's Cortana virtual assistant is now a hologram] Cora is able to answer basic verbal questions including: “How do I log in to online banking?” , “How do I apply for a mortgage?” And: “What do I do if I lose my card?” The bank has been using a text-based version of Cora since the start of 2017, which customers can use on the bank’s online help pages that answers over 200 basic banking queries and has now had over 400,000 conversations.
It said advances in computing power, artificial intelligence and psychology have helped to create the new prototype. The technology relies on using audio and visual sensors, which are standard in modern computers and mobile phones. 09/17| Crowdfunding Applied to Mortgages. EXCLUSIVE— Potential homebuyers can be barred from entering the market simply because of the cost of a mortgage down payment. CMG Financial, a mortgage banking firm, is looking to change that with its new crowdfunding platform, HomeFundMe. The platform, announced by the firm yesterday, is designed exclusively to help consumers crowdfund the necessary money for a mortgage down payment — something that is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to do, thanks to rising rental costs and already high amounts of debt.
“It’s almost impossible to save for your down payment if 55% of your income goes to your rental agreement,” Chris George, president for CMG Financial, told Bank Innovation. “We see a segment of the market that’s underserved.” Signing up to HomeFundMe, a potential homeowner is given a personalized advisor to help with the process. This is important because one of the biggest obstacles for a first-time homebuyers is the down payment, according to Akinmade. 09/17| HSBC Moves into Open Banking. HSBC is testing a platform that lets customers see all of their accounts, no matter who the provider, on one screen. The open banking platform will be tested with 10,000 UK customers from next month, with participants able to add accounts from up to 21 different banks, including Santander, Lloyds and Barclays.
The service - set to go live for all customers through a new app early next year - will not just be restricted to current accounts but also cover loans, mortgages and savings, if they are visible via online banking services. HSBC says that this is just the first feature of the new app, with a host of other options in the pipeline for beta testing over the next few months. Soon, customers will have access to a Safe Balance feature which shows them how much disposable money they have before their next payday, while a Spend Analysis option will categorise spending, adds tags, notes and photos to transactions and analyse patterns for more informed decision making. 06/17| First Blockchain-Powered Multinational Insurance Policy Sold. 05/17| Robo-Advisors Assist 25% of US Millennial Investors. Costa Mesa, Calif.: 6 April 2017 — Emerging affluent investors—defined as Millennials1 with $100,000 in investable assets—currently control the largest portion of at-risk assets managed by full service financial advisors, according to the J.D.
Power 2017 U.S. Full Service Investor Satisfaction Study,SM released today. Surprisingly, half (48%) of emerging affluent investors currently working with an advisor say they “probably will” or “definitely will” leave their current firm, compared with just 8% among all other generations of investors. "Wealth managers have been slow to focus on Millennials because they don’t yet have the assets Boomers do, but when looking at potential money in motion—even in the short term—the picture looks quite different," said Mike Foy, director of the wealth management practice at J.D.
The study captures the clearest evidence to date of a historic generational shift that is currently unfolding in the wealth management space. Study Rankings The U.S. J.D. 1J.D. 05/17| AI Stock-Picker Achieves 76% Success Rate. 05/17| Apple Pay Transactions Grow 450% Over Past Year. Mobile wallet adoption may not be gaining traction for most, but Apple is an exception. During the quarterly earnings call yesterday, the tech giant unveiled Apple Pay growth stats from its global markets, citing a 450% increase in transaction volume in “the last 12 months.”
According to CEO Tim Cook: Apple Pay is experiencing phenomenal traction. With the launch of Taiwan and Ireland in the March quarter, Apple Pay is now live in 15 markets with more than 20 million contactless-ready locations, including more than 4.5 million locations accepting Apple Pay in the U.S. alone.We’re seeing strong growing usage as points of acceptance expand, with transaction volume up 450% over the last 12 months.
In the UK, for example, points of acceptance have grown by 44% in the last year, while monthly Apple Pay transactions have grown by nearly 300%. In Japan, where Apple Pay launched last October, more than 0.5 million transit users are completing 20 million Apple Pay transactions per month. 05/17 | P2P Is the New Social ‘Norm,’ (BofA Report) Thanks to the likes of Venmo and (soon) Zelle, real-time, person-to-person payments are now an expectation for consumers. In fact, P2P has become the new social ‘norm,’ Bank of America claims. According to the bank’s Trends in Consumer Mobility Report released today, nearly two in five (36%) adults currently use person-to-person payments, with millennials nearly double that rate at 62%.
From the report: For those who do not currently use P2P, 2017 is THE year, as nearly half predict they’ll use the service in the coming months. Bill payments (45%) and gifts (42%) are among the most popular uses for P2P. Convergys (an independent market research company) conducted a nationally representative online survey on behalf of Bank of America March 20 to April 1, 2017. The report surveyed 1,005 respondents throughout the U.S., comprised of adults (18+) with a current banking relationship (checking or savings), who own a smartphone. Like This Post. 11/16| Nasdaq Launches Machine Intelligence Platform. Machine intelligence, not blockchain or cloud technology, will have the biggest impact on the exchange industry, predicts new Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs event, Friedman said that the cloud is going "to change a lot of how we manage our infrastructure," while blockchain "has a huge ability to change the way settlement occurs and the transfer of ownership".
"But if I were to pick the one technology that I think will change the industry the most, it’s definitely machine intelligence. " Friedman thinks that "machine intelligence, and how that deep learning, natural language processing and areas of intelligence will allow firms to become more sophisticated in their strategies, and will also allow risk managers to become much more sophisticated in monitoring activity as well".
Nasdaq is already looking to tap into the technology. 10/16| MasterCard Launches ‘Selfie Pay’ Biometric Authentication App in Europe. MasterCard is moving from trials of facial biometrics for payment authentication, including one in the U.S. and Canada launched earlier this year, to its first proper rollout of what is colloquially referred to as ‘selfie pay’ (aka MasterCard Identity Check). So basically enabling app users to confirm an online payment by showing their face to their smartphone’s camera. The biometric authentication app is being rolled out in Europe in the following markets: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The company said it plans to make the tech available to MasterCard users worldwide beginning next year, according to Engadget, which reported the European rollout earlier.
And there’s surely plenty of mileage in that need. MasterCard touted “convenience” as one of its motivations for developing the app when it announced the trial, back in March. 8/16| Startup Builds AI to Automate All Accounting. Smacc, which uses AI to automate accounting, has secured a $3.5 million Series A round from Cherry Ventures, Rocket Internet, Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures, Grazia Equity and business angels. Smacc offers small and medium-sized enterprises a platform to digitize and automate accounting and financial processes. The founding trio Uli Erxleben, Janosch Novak and Stefan Korsch came up with the idea after find accounting to be the most painful part of their own startup. Erxleben managed Rocket Internet’s US ventures in New York and San Francisco, and is also the founder of Berliner Berg, a craft beer startup.
Customers submit their receipts to Smacc, which turns them into a machine-readable format, encrypts them, then allocates them to an account. The system checks against some 64 data points, verifies the invoice, checking, for example, that the math adds up, and even if the VAT-ID and its issuer are correct. Featured Image: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock. US Banks' Payment Switches Overtaken By Venmo.
July’s PayPal earnings call talked quite a bit more about Visa than Venmo, but while the consequences of the Visa deal are still unknown, Venmo’s numbers are already known, and they look great. Specifically, Venmo processed $4 billion in transactions in Q2, compared with $3.2 billion the quarter previous. This is 25% growth on the quarter, and 140% growth on the year. Compare this with QuickPay, the peer-to-peer payments service from JPMorgan Chase, part of the clearXChange realtime network, which also includes U.S. Bank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Capital One. QuickPay processed $20 billion in 2015, and is growing 40% year over year. If Chase’s numbers continue to climb at the same rate, it should reach $28 billion in 2016. The Chase number indicates about 93 million QuickPay transactions, while Shevlin’s Venmo number implies 9 billion transactions.
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