Stanley’s Musings - Fintech, Banking & Payments News #2

Thoughts on fintech, banking, payments, risk management, AI, going green, economics, business and much more…

The latest edition is now available - HERE 

The future of money: three ways to go cashless

Non-cash payments are on the rise all over the world. How digital technology has changed the way consumers shop in three important markets: America, China and India.

Fed launches instant payment service FedNow

Yahoo Finance Fed Reporter Jennifer Schonberger reports on the new US instant payment service called FedNow.

The Business Model Behind Buy Now, Pay Later Apps

Buy now, pay later companies like Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay boomed during the pandemic as consumers looked for an accessible alternative to credit cards. But even as their customer bases grow, these companies are struggling to turn a profit. 

PayPal, Apple and even credit card companies themselves are trying to get in on the action. 

WSJ explains how these services work, how they differ from traditional credit card payments and why some consumers have concerns.

How Mastercard Plans To Beat Visa

Mastercard is the second largest card network in the U.S., accounting for more than a quarter of all purchase volume using a payment card. 

As the world transitions to a more cashless society, Mastercard’s value has continued to soar. 

Shares of the company have seen nearly 100% gain over the past 5 years, outperforming American Express, Discover and even Visa. 

So how is Mastercard able to generate so much revenue and how does it set itself apart from the rest of its competitors?

Blueprint for the future monetary system: improving the old, enabling the new

A special chapter of the BIS’ Annual Economic Report 2023 lays out a blueprint for the future monetary system underpinned by central bank digital currency, thus opening up a new era in the joint development of the monetary system and the economy. Read more at https://www.bis.org/publ/arpdf/ar2023e3.htm

Project Rosalind: building API prototypes for retail CBDC ecosystem innovation

The BIS Project Rosalind develops a prototype application programming interface layer for retail CBDC systems and explores ecosystem innovation.

Project Polaris: Offline payments with CBDC

As part of Project Polaris, the BIS Innovation Hub Nordic Centre has published a comprehensive handbook exploring key aspects of how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could work for offline payments. 

Read the report at https://www.bis.org/publ/othp64.htm

How Tap-to-Pay Works - The Tech Behind

From Apple iPhones to New York City subway turnstiles, tap-to-pay use in everyday American life is growing, thanks in part to its security and ease of use. But tap-to-pay and its small near field communication antennas are more complicated than they look. 

WSJ takes you inside one of Square’s card readers to break down the tech that works in seconds to power contactless payments.

Citadel Advantage News Digest - Issue #157

Read / Subscribe to the “Citadel Advantage News Digest” In this edition -

• Can Blockchain Technology Change Plagiarism Detection in Academia?
• Bernie Madoff's Lawyer to #FTX's Bankman-Fried: 'Shut Up!
• ChatGPT Explained in 5 Minutes
• The ‘Twitter Files,’ and other news from the bird app
• BIS warns of $80 trillion of hidden FX swap debt

NEWS about World Affairs, Banking, Fintech, Payments, Business, Blockchain, Crypto, Money and more…

Check it out

HERE

Citadel Advantage News Digest

Read / Subscribe to the “Citadel Advantage News Digest” 

In this edition -

• "CBDCs: a potential game-changer for treasurers"
• "Why Meta Dropped 70%"
• "Ex-FTX boss Bankman-Fried: 'I didn't try to commit fraud' "
• "Examining the revolution in mobile banking”

NEWS about World Affairs, Banking, Fintech, Payments, Business, Blockchain, Crypto, Money and more…

CHECK IT OUT HERE>>.

Payment Methods Affected by Fraud

The FTC received 2.2 million fraud reports from consumers in 2020. What payment method is most affected by fraud?

How does BNPL work?

 Follow the diagram and see how BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) works.

Anatomy of a Scandal: inside the Wirecard investigation and why we fall for scams

Dan McCrum, the FT reporter whose investigation brought down Wirecard, in conversation with Matt Garrahan, FT news editor, on how to expose fraud - and why we keep missing it when it's hiding in plain sight.

ECB selects partners to help develop digital euro prototype

The European Central Bank (ECB) has picked five partners - including CaixaBank and Amazon - to help it develop a digital euro prototype.

The ECB received 54 expressions of interest after it put out a call for partners in April and has now settled on five partners.

Full details HERE.

Read the latest Edition (#131) of the Citadel Advantage News Digest

NEWS about Banking, Fintech, Payments, Business, Blockchain, Crypto, Money and more…

Read the newsletter HERE (with links to all the below mentioned articles).

Contents of this edition;

• Is it time to unbundle ESG?
• Et Tu, Muske?
• 6 Keys to Data Center Planning
• How banks can personalize financial wellness
• Consumers Expect Personalization at Every Banking Touchpoint
• Creating a Secure Mobile App: Main Vulnerabilities and Security Practices
• 4 Ways Citizens Bank Keeps 'Human' in Its Digital Banking Experience
• Your Complete Guide to Getting A Job On Blockchain
• Why Banks Need to Fix Their Poor Digital Onboarding Experience
• Artificial Intelligence in AP Automation – A Look at What Really Works, and What Doesn't
• High Rates & Tight Housing Spells Bleak Outlook for Mortgage Lending
• Making the branch relevant by design
• Electric Vehicle Lending: How Green Loans Can Accelerate Growth
• Nigerian Commercial Banks ‘Apathetic’ Over CBDCs, says Governor
• A Lifetime's Consumption of Fossil Fuels: Visualized
• What Happened to Terra Luna?
• Are We Having 1929 Again? - Warren Buffett
• What happens to investors money when a cryptocurrency exchange goes bankrupt
• How Blockchain Technology Is Revolutionizing Fintech in 2022
• How Payment Businesses Deal with Fraud and Data leaks
• The Importance of IoT Security
• Organization and metaverse privacy concerns

You can read/subscribe/get all the back issues HERE

Read the latest Edition (#130) of the Citadel Advantage News Digest

NEWS about Banking, Fintech, Payments, Business, Blockchain, Crypto, Money and more…

Read the newsletter HERE

In this edition;

• After $2 trillion crypto crash, what happens next?
• Are big corporate profits to blame for inflation?
• Massive Wall Street layoffs feared as banking profits tank
• Top 100 Banks on Twitter Ranked by Most Followers
• Should You Buy The Dip in Crypto Crash?
• Inside the Digital Marketing Strategies of Top Neobanks Revolut & Monzo
• DeFi in the Metaverse: Possibilities, Pitfalls, and Promises
• 62 Digital Marketing Statistics Every Financial Marketer Should Know
• Phishing 101: A Beginner's Guide on Phishing Attacks
• Embedded finance: a double-edged sword for traditional financial institutions
• The 6 Pillars of Digital Marketing for Banks & Credit Unions
• 4 Reasons for Cyber Intelligence Failure
• Data Science and AI Predictions for 2022
• Digital Transformation in Lending Keys to Success
• The New Community Bank Model: Digital-First With a National Footprint
• Crypto crash, crypto investing and your taxes: A look at impact on investors’ taxes
• How Big Banks' Tech Advantage Hinders Innovation and Hurts Competition
• How Financial Institutions Can Stop Chasing Their Digital Tails
• 12 Must-Have Mobile Banking Features Consumers Expect Now

You can read/subscribe to the newsletter HERE

Read the latest Edition (#129) of the Citadel Advantage News Digest

NEWS about Banking, Fintech, Payments, Business, Blockchain, Crypto, Money and more…

Read the newsletter HERE

In this edition;

• With or without Elon Musk, Twitter is overdue a shake-up
• Crypto market crash: Layoffs, bankruptcies and frozen accounts
• What to do now about tomorrow’s code-cracking computers
• Credit Suisse: what next for the crisis-hit bank?
• Battle for Credit Cards Waged With Innovation and Sheer Marketing Muscle
• How Can Password-Free Identity Verification Safeguard User Privacy?
• Major Card-Issuing Bank Takes on Fintechs with Its Own BNPL Plan
• The real value in relationship-focused pricing decisions
• 5 Ways Community Banks & Credit Unions Can Compete in Credit Cards
• Visualized: How Bonds Help Reduce Bear Market Risk
• The Gap Between Products Banks Offer & What Consumers Really Need
• WaaS for Finance: How Banks and Retailers Can Leverage Wallet-as-a-Service?
• Banks Struggle to Provide Personalized Engagement: Here's Why

You can read/subscribe to the newsletter HERE

The future monetary system - BIS Media Briefing

A burst of creative innovation is under way in money and payments, opening up vistas of a future digital monetary system that adapts continuously to serve the public interest.

Structural flaws make the crypto universe unsuitable as the basis for a monetary system: it lacks a stable nominal anchor, while limits to its scalability result in fragmentation. Contrary to the decentralisation narrative, crypto often relies on unregulated intermediaries that pose financial risks.

A system grounded in central bank money offers a sounder basis for innovation, ensuring that services are stable and interoperable, domestically and across borders. Such a system can sustain a virtuous circle of trust and adaptability through network effects.

New capabilities such as programability, composability and tokenisation are not the preserve of crypto, but can instead be built on top of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), fast payment systems and associated data architectures.

Anonymous digital payments?

Is there a place for anonymous CBDC payments?

The Bank of Israel has been experimenting with technology that would allow some CBDC payments to be made anonymously.

Setting out the results from its first digital shekel technological experiments, the bank says that one of its main focuses has been on finding a balance between offering the privacy afforded by cash and ensuring a CBDC cannot be used for things such as tax avoidance and money laundering.

The experiment examined a model developed by VMware that would see citizens have a wallet that can hold “ordinary” digital shekels, the transfer of which is recorded in the ledger, and “private” digital shekels, the transfer details of which are not recorded openly, and where both sides to the transaction enjoy complete privacy as with cash payments.

Read more HERE.