Square sets its sights or bricks and mortar stores

Outfit "Square" is looking to improve the cash register with a free iPad app that turns the tablet into a fully configured merchant point-of-sale system - "Square Register".

Introducing the app, Megan Quinn, director of products at Square, said: "I truly believe POS, as you know it today, is dead. This will bring Square to an entirely new, small-market audience (bricks-and-mortar stores)."

The app is designed to supplement the traditional point-of-sale operation by providing a range of built-in loyalty programs, analytics and custom inventory options.

Citi to explore IBM's supercomputer for mining customer data

Citibank has entered into an agreement with IBM to explore possible uses for Big Blue's Watson supercomputer in mining customer data.

IBM's Watson machine caused a stir last year when it beat two human competitors to claim the $1 million prize on the US quiz show Jeopardy. Unusually for a computer programme, Watson excels at analysing the meaning and context of human language, aligned with the ability to quickly process vast amounts of information.

Citi says it will evaluate ways that the technology can help decipher customer needs by sifting through huge quantities of up-to-the-minute financial, economic, product and client data.

Barclaycard to crowdsource customer input for new US credit card

Barclaycard US has announced a crowdsourced 'social credit card' - its features will be shaped by an online community of users.

Currently available in alpha to Americans who request an invitation, the “BarclayCard Ring MasterCard” will be officially launched this April.

Barclaycard says the card will be developed through the "power of community crowdsourcing" as social media gives users the chance to share knowledge and provide feedback that will shape future features.

In addition to a dedicated Web site, the Barclacard has established a presence on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to help build up the community.

Kenyan remittances up

Kenyans abroad sent home an estimated eight billion shillings in January, higher than any month in 2011 and up 40 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). In its monthly update on the remittances, the CBK noted that North America still remained the largest source of the remittances.

European Crisis: Stratfor CEO George Friedman on Europe's Future

As EU leaders assemble for a summit, doubts remain as to whether there will be a satisfactory outcome from the European Stability Treaty, especially now that Ireland has called a referendum. Stratfor CEO George Friedman argues that European leaders are once again failing to tackle the real issues.

New Barclay’s mobile payment app could upset bank/telco status quo – Gartner

The recent move by Barclays into mobile payments warns of an aggressive play by banks to protect their territory from mobile operators and nonbank competitors, such as PayPal and Google according to a just released report released by Gartner.

On 16 February 2012, Barclays launched in the UK its person-to-person (P2P) service for sending and receiving money via mobile phones. Barclays Pingit service allows users to send and receive money in near real time, for free, to and from anyone with any banking account and mobile phone number in the UK. The service is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry devices alike. However, initially, only Barclays customers will be able to use the app. It will be made available in March to other UK banks' customers.

Given that similar schemes have long been available elsewhere (in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the UK (via PayPal) and the US) the service is not new.

Gartner however, views the new Barclays mobile P2P payment app as important because it could be a sign of a tipping point in the battle between the banks and mobile network operators in the mobile payments arena.

If the app becomes popular, Barclays could gain a significant early-mover advantage and establish a launch-pad for further mobile payment services.

Gartner believes that the Barclays solution addresses features that are key for mobile payment success, namely;

• Focusing on specific customer payment needs rather than trying to meet all needs. 
• Targeting a market where neither mobile operators nor nonbank providers such as PayPal or Google have yet established a foothold. 
• Using the mobile number as the identifier but including fraud management and protection of customer data. 
• Leveraging a modern, near-real-time bank payment system. 
• Making the system open, available to any customer from any bank. 
• Making it free to payers and recipients. 

Despite the lack of fees for managing the payments, Gartner says that Barclays will still benefit from this new service.

These benefits include;

• Blocking entry to the market by mobile network operators and other competitors. 
• Driving up payment volumes through its bulk payment gateway (so trimming per-transaction costs across the bank) 
• Developing a customer database that it may potentially tap into to sell other services, and 
• Paves the way for a future "digital wallet" mobile offering.

Google’s new policy raises a storm

As of 1 March Google has adapted a single policy across all the services they offer.

Last January, Google said it was going to simplify its approach to privacy by consolidating its 60 or more different privacy policies across its various services into one.

This change of policy has created an outcry and now Google is in the firing line of regulators who are claiming this violates data privacy laws.

What a ruckus it has caused, with others including the Europeans Union jumping up and down making accusations that EU law has been broken. The European commissioner of justice has said that Google was"sneaking" citizens' privacy away with its new policies and appears to be ignoring data protection treaties,

Find out more by watching this CNN report.