Digital Payments - US still in the Dark Ages

Even though the US is home to both Silicon Valley and Wall Street, yet it has long seemed in the dark ages on digital payments.

Just consider that until 2018 card purchases still required hand signatures, 15 years after Europe switched to chip-and-pin. Then the cosy credit-card duopoly, consisting of Visa and Mastercard, works with the banks to issue cards, with the result that there has been too little competition and sky-high profit margins. 

The key to making payments more competitive in the US is to create a new network of financial plumbing: a “real-time” interbank-payment system that will permit near-instant and cheap transfers.

Read more from The Economist -Fintech comes to America at last

 

The IPO is dead! Here comes the SPAC!

Are SPACs a useful innovation, a mania, or both? The SPAC boom in part reflects a rebellion by Silicon Valley types, who have long grumbled about having to go through an IPO.

Silicon Valley has thrived by inventing new ways of doing things, from searching for information to contacting friends. So it may come as no surprise that the Valley is eagerly embracing another sort of disruption: special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), as an alternative to the conventional initial public offering (IPO) for startups.

Here is a selection of articles from The Economist on the SPAC.

• The Spectacular boom on Wall Street
• Why SPACs are Wall Street’s latest craze
• What the SPAC craze means for tech investing
• Amsterdam’s financial center gains an edge over continental rivals

The Ugly Unethical Underside of Silicon Valley

As the list of startup scandals grows, it’s time to ask whether entrepreneurs are taking “fake it till you make it” too far.

Recklessness with the financial truth is often a sign of an economic bubble about to deflate—see the dot-bombs and Enron in late 2000 and the banks amid the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis. Scandals don’t cause recessions, but they can help trigger one. As White warned her Stanford audience: “Who loses when the truth behind inflated valuations is revealed? I think we all do.”

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JPMorgan is poaching talent from Silicon Valley

From Quartz

‘If you can’t beat them, hire them. That’s the strategy of JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon.

The chief executive of America’s biggest bank by assets has started plucking talent from Silicon Valley in an effort to beef up the its digital presence in everything from apps to mobile payments.

This new crop of JPMorgan execs comes with résumés touting senior positions at tech hubs such as Google and Yahoo, or computer science degrees, rather than traditional banking credentials. And they’re climbing aboard at the sprawling consumer bank as traditional financial institutions face their stiffest competition yet from the likes of digital payment systems, including Jack Dorsey‘s Square and Google Wallet.’

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How Israel is rewriting the future of cybersecurity and creating the next Silicon Valley

From TechRepublic

"Cybersecurity in Israel involves a lot more than repelling hackers on the Internet.

While the Israeli Defence Forces are known for their effectiveness and resourcefulness, as you approach the Palmahim Airbase south of Tel Aviv you might be surprised to discover that this is a world-class military facility.

Exiting the highway to a road that is only occasionally paved, there's an abandoned cinderblock facility surrounded by a wire fence with tires and metal objects strewn across the open grassy area. It looks more like something you'd expect in a post-industrial town in Pennsylvania or Ohio than on the base of one of the most high tech fighting forces in the world.

As we drive past the building and head toward our rendezvous, our two IDF handlers turn around and smile and remind us of the rules. The person we're going to meet can only be referred to as "Major S," for safety and security reasons. While our handlers are both young ladies with an air of sweetness and optimism about them, on this point they speak with an unequivocal authority and finality—despite the smiles."

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