Thursday 22 September 2016

Notes from America

UK-based micropayments venture tibit (IBS Journal’s very first Startup of the Month) launched in the US last week at the Online News Association’s Denver event. Carl Beetham, Business Advisor, brings you this post from his travels

I’m the least-travelled of individuals and the daily commute to Peckham still fills me with an equal combination of trepidation and excitement. So you can only wonder at my feelings when faced with the joyous prospect of a business trip to the US – imagine a midget ginga Mickey Rooney-esque individual playing the Eddie Murphy character in Coming to America and you won’t go far wrong.


Wednesday 21 September 2016

imaginBank: Simpler banking for the digital age

"I don’t need an elaborate banking service with branches, passbooks, letters in the post, an annual financial review and a bank manager that knows my name. Interest? I don’t save enough to accrue any, or I put my money somewhere else. All I really want is an account that will accept my deposits, hold my money and release it when I want to make a payment or transfer. I don’t want to wait for transactions to appear on my balance or for transfers to clear. An automatic payment function would be useful, so I can settle my bills easily. But most important of all, I want to do everything, repeat everything, on my phone. Some exclusive offers and deals would be good too. That’s it."

Welcome to the mindset of a growing demographic of today’s banking customers. All are committed device users - not power users or early adopters - just people that manage their lives using phones and tablets. Many are young – Millennials - but not all. Most have modest incomes and are determined to live debt-free and unconstrained by financial commitments.

Monday 5 September 2016

Apple stays in the payments picture

Apple, good products, horrible company…The EU ruling that Apple must pay over $14 billion in back taxes to Ireland has been hogging the headlines, but the tech giant’s increasingly hostile face off with Australia’s banks is equally as compelling a story. In a nutshell, all of Australia’s big banks (except ANZ which is rolling out Apple Pay) are looking to gain access to the inner workings of the mobile payment platform. If successful, third parties would be able to bypass Apple Pay and create their own apps.

Apple has countered by arguing this would compromise the iPhone’s security, reduce innovation and hamper its entry into the Australian payments market. It told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that “allowing the banks to form a cartel to collectively dictate terms to new business models and services would set a troubling precedent and delay the introduction of new, potentially disruptive technologies”.

Thursday 1 September 2016

Forget FinTechs, here come RegTechs!

You’ve just familiarised yourself with FinTech. Now it’s time to take a look at the innovation that rocked London 2016 FinTech Week: RegTech. The ambition: to manage all regulatory aspects, from the determination of ratios to risk mapping and KYC management.

These new players aim to address the following challenges: