Today, we’re looking at payments disruptors around the globe. Is a new Google Android payment system near? Seems so according to a report by TNW. The first savings bot on Facebook Messenger is called Digit and it’s likely to be popular with younger users. WorldPay founder Nick Ogden has entered the UK challenger banks space after regulatory approval for ClearBank.
Samsung announced a standalone online global payments platform called Samsung Pay Mini which will also feature a digital assistant named Bixby. Miss Kaya is a new Singapore robo-advisor to help high net worth women with money management. You may soon pay with a pendant using FitPay, STMicroelectronics and software firm G&D’s new product designed to help wearable manufacturers build secure payments into wearable devices in the future.
American restaurant chain Sweetgreen has banned cash payments and the payments industry is not sure it likes the trend despite the benefits including acquiring customer data. A new TD Ameritrade robo-advisor app lets users ‘Ask Alexa’ or similar devices for stock quotes. Verifone, FIS and Modo announced a new system that allows customers to pay with loyalty points linked to their credit or debit cards at thousands of FIS point-of-sale locations.
ICICI Bank cuts off Flipkart’s PhonePe mobile wallet sparking a wallet war and raising questions despite consumer demand for cashless payments due to India’s demonetization. Also in India, YES Bank launched the first mobile loan app which lets customers get loan information, approvals and conduct other banking business on messenger apps.
Google Assistant might soon let you make payments
A teardown of a new beta version of the official Google App for Android – which includes the company’s Assistant service – by the folks at XDA Developers reveals that you might soon be able to make payments using the AI-powered bot across supported devices.
It isn’t clear exactly how that will work, as the feature hasn’t yet been implemented. But strings found in the app’s code show that you’ll likely be able to pay for purchases through your Google Pixel phone, and control which other devices can authorize payments, like the Google Home voice-activated speaker.
The closest comparison to the purported payment system might be the one that Amazon’s Alexa offers on the Echo and Echo Dot: Your credit card details are already associated with your account and you’ve got 1-click payments enabled. The company lets you buy physical products from its store, as well as digital music. Via thenextweb.com
A Siri for Your Finances? Digit Says Trust Me
Digit had a savings bot before bots were cool, or at least before the hype in the financial technology world reached a fever pitch. Its product is simple. An algorithm looks at a user’s average, high, and low checking account balance, when the user is paid, and whether the pay cycle is smooth or choppy. Then, after looking for bills due in the next week or two and analyzing recent spending, it moves an amount it judges the customer won’t miss to a savings account. The company makes money from the interest rate it gets on account assets.
Digit announced today that it will be the first savings bot on Facebook Messenger’s platform, so users can just use Facebook to communicate with it. When Digit moved out of its pilot phase, it communicated only by text, a natural language for many users, since 17 percent of them are aged 21 to 24, and 44 percent are from 25 to 34 years old. Rhoads said they’re “cute texts” with “some personality” and “not annoying at all.” After text messaging came iOS and Android apps for users. Via bloomberg.com
Worldpay founder Ogden enters challenger bank space
The founder of Worldpay is entering the crowded UK challenger bank space after gaining approval from regulators for the launch of ClearBank. Nick Ogden, the serial entrepreneur behind Worldpay and biometric authentication outfit Voice Commerce Group, established a holding company for the putative bank back in July 2015.
Ogden has previous form in the neo-banking market, winning a payment institution license for Voice Commerce in 2009 and setting up a business banking subsidiary dubbed CashFlows in 2013. Via finextra.com
Samsung confirms the arrival of Bixby and Samsung Pay Mini
Samsung has prematurely confirmed on its website that it plans to not only launch a standalone online payment platform — dubbed Samsung Pay Mini — but will also be providing its long-rumored digital assistant Bixby with the facility process payments as part of the next Samsung Pay Beta build.
We’ve known that the firm has worked on a stripped down version of Samsung Pay that can only be used to make online payments on websites for a while now, but Bixby’s integration is fresh news. It’s unclear how exactly it’ll work, but we’re hoping you’ll be able to say something along the lines of, “Bixby, send $30 to Carlos.”
Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly when the latest beta version of Samsung Pay will be released, but speculation suggests that it’ll arrive alongside the Galaxy S8, so that users can take advantage of the Bixby functionality, though what with all the controversy surrounding the handset’s release date, there’s no telling how soon that’ll be. Via sammobile.com
Singapore gets robo-advisor for women
Miss Kaya, a new Singapore robo-advisor aimed at women is promising to “simplify and demystify” money management. The brainchild of former hedge fund manager Gina Heng, the licensed service says that it wants to empower women to achieve their long-term financial goals.
Heng says that currently the “jargon, financial lingo, analogies, and more, all are designed to be relevant to those already familiar with finances. This makes it daunting for the modern woman to feel confident with their personal finances or feel eager to invest.” Via finextra.com
A new product could help grow wearable payments
Three companies — wearables provider FitPay, semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronic (ST), and software firm G&D — have teamed up to create a product that will make it easier for wearable manufacturers to incorporate secure payments, according to an ST press release.
The product includes an operating system from G&D, payment app software from FitPay, and hardware, all of which are integrated around an ST chip. The solution is meant to help device manufacturers “develop integrated tokenized payments” from major players, according to the release.
That could help payment functionality, which BI Intelligence forecasts will be included in 62% of wearable-device shipments by 2020, become more common among wearables. And as the wearables market is on the decline, it could give more manufacturers access to a tool that might convince consumers to buy their offering. Via businessinsider.com
Should Stores Be Allowed to Ban Cash Transactions?
Sweetgreen is an American fast casual restaurant chain that serves “simple, seasonal, healthy food,” Wikipedia explains.
The company told Fast Company about the benefits of refusing to accept cash as a payment method – no robberies, better employee hygiene, no need for managers to spend time counting cash, faster transactions.
But the most important reason appears to be the data the company can collect about its customers. Via ecommercebytes.com
TD Ameritrade lets users ‘Ask Alexa’ for stock quotes
TD Ameritrade has launched an app that lets investors ask Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant for financial market updates and securities quotes.
Anyone with an Alexa-enabled device, such as an Echo, Tap, Dot or Fire TV, can visit the Alexa App and download the TD Ameritrade ‘skill’ – or simply ask their device to enable it.
Then, users can verbally ask for a market update or for quotes for more than 75,000 symbols, including stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and 3,800 indices, covering all the major US exchanges. Via finextra.com
Verifone, FIS and Modo are creating a new way for consumers to pay with loyalty
Payments and commerce company Verifone, financial services processor FIS and digital payments startup Modo have announced a new system that will enable customers to pay with loyalty points linked to their credit or debit cards at the point-of-sale for any merchandise available at that location.
And while other specific pay-with-points initiatives exist — namely American Express’ program that enables real-time redemption of Membership Rewards points at only select merchants like McDonald’s and Yellow Cabs in New York — this program is of a large-scale and is not tied to any select merchants.
Basically, any merchant using specific Verifone credit card terminals will be able to enable customers to pay for any merchandise they want using loyalty points they’ve accrued on their credit card. The program’s scale is large; there are 3,100 banks in the FIS network reaching 8.5 million customers. Via techcrunch.com
ICICI Bank Blocks PhonePe’s Transactions as War of Wallets Is Ignited!
With the emergence of mobile wallets which will soon double-up as your personal, paperless bank, India is witnessing a unique ‘War of Wallets’ as traditional banks are becoming increasingly afraid of the new-age digital economy.
If last month’s fiasco between SBI and Paytm was the spark of this war, the recent incident of ICICI Bank and Flipkart’s PhonePe has ignited the fight into a full-blown war.
Who will have the last laugh here – Traditional banking practices or disruptive ideas? Via trak.in
YES Bank introduces chatbot for instant loan offering
India’s YES Bank has partnered with Silicon valley-based Gupshup to develop a banking chat bot for its loan product. Currently active on Facebook Messenger, YES mPOWER helps customers get information about loan products and approval of eligibility criteria. The bot offers advice across the full spectrum of personal loans, with mortgage quotes to be added in a next phase.
YES Bank claims to be the first in India to introduce Chatbot-based banking with the launch of YES TAG in April 2016 which allows customers to do banking transactions on various social messengers. Via finextra.com
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