Delegates skeptical at Finovate London

From Banking Technology –

“Customers are busy and don’t have time to deal with slow banking services and processes. Instead, they want social media banking and more sophisticated personal banking, together with benefits that are convenient to them. This was the message of speakers at the Finovate conference in London yesterday – but not everyone in the audience was convinced about the ability of new technologies to realise that vision.”

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Apple Pay Problems Frustrate iPhone Users

From Gotta Be Mobile -

Apple Pay has been out for several months now, and while the initial hype of the new payment platform has somewhat subsided, problems and issues with the service are still on high alert.

One big issue that many users have been experiencing is that it seems retailers either aren’t training their employees enough on Apple Pay, or stores are just downright ignoring it.

For the most part, though, it mostly seems that some stores aren’t even training their employees properly on how to accept Apple Pay. One Reddit user said he went to Subway and the cashier had no idea how to get an Apple Pay transaction going, saying that the cashier couldn’t figure out how to use it, and “then a QR code appeared on the terminal, but there was no option on my phone to scan it.”

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Australian Banks Plan Billion-Dollar Upgrade to Allow Real-Time Payments

From Coin Telegraph

“Australian bankers are feeling the pinch as the Bitcoin community grows ever larger in the country, and the banks are planning to spend AU$1 billion on an upgrade that will decrease processing time.

The number of merchants that are accepting Bitcoin, and of exchanges that are buying and selling virtual currencies, grows every day. The future of Bitcoin, especially as the currency relates to taxes, is still up in the air in Australia, but bankers are already seeing a potential threat, unless they improve their own services. ANZ chief Philip Chronican summed up some of the concerns that banks in Australia are currently addressing:

Banks have certainly embraced computer technology, but they still find themselves falling far behind other paradigms, especially when traditional payment platforms such as PayPal, and virtual currency platforms such as BitPay, are able to instantly transfer huge sums. Merchants are often forced to wait for days after each sale before their funds are deposited in banks.”

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PayPal is the biggest threat to British banks

From Payments Eye

“The threat to UK lenders by challenger banks like Metro Bank and Virgin Money pales in comparison to that posed by PayPal, according to new research.

A study of 2,000 banking customers by YouGov and the law firm Pinsent Masons found that nearly a quarter were more likely to switch to a digital payments service, such as PayPal or WePay, than to a mainstream bank in the next two years.

Just 13% said that they would consider a switch to a new bank in the same timeframe, and fewer than one in twenty would move to a technology company such as Facebook or Google.

“I suspect people see them as trustworthy because they’re already proven in the payments space,” John Salmon, head of financial services at Pinsent Masons, told the Financial Times.”

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2015 prediction: Expect massive spikes in global information security threats

From Tech Republic

“Global security threats will continue to increase next year and are as certain as death and taxes, according to a recent report.

Increases of global information security threats remain as much a certainty as death and taxes, at least according to the latest Information Security Survey from PWC. That report, which was published in October, highlights several troublesome trends and provides valuable information for those concerned with enterprise IT security. Nonetheless, interpreting the information delivered into applicable best practices remains a challenge for many IT security professionals. Especially those who will be assigned the task of keep their organizations from becoming one of the latest statistics in the battle against cybercrime.

PWC rightly points out that cyber security has become a persistent business risk and that threats (both to the economy and intellectual property) are on the rise.”

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Square rolls out mobile sales register software to firms worldwide

From Reuters

“Square, a mobile payments firm founded by Jack Dorsey, one of the creators of Twitter, is rolling out software worldwide that allows businesses to track sales, inventories and other data on smartphones and tablets.

Square Register, which is available on Google's Android and on Apple platforms, is a mobile application that shops and other business use at the point of sale.

"The cash register was invented to solve the basic pain points of running a business, like recording sales," Dorsey said at a launch event in London on Thursday.

"Our Register empowers sellers to drill into their business with sophisticated reporting tools to run and grow their business."

The app will be available in English, Spanish, French and Japanese, and supports 130 currencies, the company said.”

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