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NYC cabbies push for in-app tips: Uber's known for its slick payment experience, but cabbies haven't always been happy with the ride sharing app, which doesn't have an obvious way to tip drivers. Engadget reports the Independent Drivers Guild has collected 8,000 signatures on a petition to the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission to require app-based transportation services to include a in-app tipping function. The TLC requires touch screens in yellow cabs to include an option for a 20% tip, or another amount. But it does not require ride sharing companies or app-based ride companies to include a tip payment button. The petition requires the TLC to formally consider the regulation.
Fleet of yellow taxi cabs make their way down the street of Broadway in New York City in view from above
PeskyMonkey/Getty Images
Insurance for P-to-P: Madrid-based online startup Traity has developed a blockchain-powered balance sheet that insures P-to-P transactions. Thenextweb reports a bot, called "Kevin," came out of a partnership between Traity and Suncorp, and is aimed at people buying on Craigslist and other digital marketplaces. Kevin provides insurance of as much as $100, mostly guarding against fraud and scams. Users who agree on a transaction visit a Kevin website and give the bot details on the payment. They then get a link that the parties in the transaction share. Kevin then creates a transaction on the blockchain to timestamp the deal.
U.K. unbowed by paper money protest: The U.K. government is moving ahead with new bills, despite protests from animal rights groups and religious organizations over the use of animal byproducts in the bills' production. Finextrareports The Bank of England will continue production of polymer-based five and 10 pound notes, citing costs. The Bank of England had promised to explore alternatives, but after consulting with Innovia, the bills' supplier, it found that production processes for new bills would result in a substantial cost beyond the approximate $60 million already spent on the 5 pound note and the approximate $30 million spent on the new ten pound note.
API contest: As the U.K. suffers from the departure of startups following last year's Brexit vote, there's a move underway to find a new generation of innovators. Wired reports U.K. banks have invested in Nesta's effort to encourage development off of an open banking API. Nesta, a U.K. innovation agency, has launched a prize fund of about $8 million for new financial technology products. The winners will get a grant of about $75,000 and a chance to earn more money based on the success of their projects. The participants will use a data "sandbox" with anonymous transaction data, along with technology and business support for design, legal and compliance issues.
Apple, Samsung, Google Race For Mobile Payments MediaPost • Chuck Martin Mobile payments are growing significantly around the world, but that doesn't mean there is a clear winning payments provider. Much like making purchases on the Web naturally evolved to making purchases via mobile websites, the behavior of paying for things on the...
How To Reduce Chargebacks Without Killing Online Sales Forbes • Communityvoice, Forbes Finance Council Between the influx of fraud (both counterfeit fraud and “friendly fraud” chargebacks), most merchants have a hard time finding a balance in fraud prevention that allows them to effectively combat bad actors without turning away good sales.
Apple Pay holds Banks in Stranglehold! Really? Poor Banks CustomerThink • Thomas Wieberneit In the past days two interesting articles around banks and banking innovation found their ways into my browser. One by Knowledge@Wharton on “How Banks Can Keep Up With Digital Disruptors” and the second one by Mobile Commerce Daily.
More from PaymentsSource
Finding the 'pot of gold' in small-merchant payment processing As American Express and Citigroup clashed over which issuer would get the coveted Costco Warehouse credit card business, one area remained undisputed and out of their hands: Payment processing for Costco's small business clients.
Blockchain can save banks in the 'faster payment' race Financial institutions are in a predicament as demand for fast payment services is clearly growing, among consumers and merchants alike, and is aggressively being fulfilled by fintechs.
Can an app strategy make ad moguls out of ISOs? ISOs and agents have a firm hold on selling payment terminals, but that's not where the real action is. Today, merchant acquiring is about tying payments to things such as advertising, marketing and loyalty programs.
The retail giants are kicking the tires on their own currencies. The potential prize is a way to reimagine prepaid cards and gain a key position as new forms of artificial intelligence-powered payments take off.
Primis Bank plans to sell an undisclosed amount of its 19% ownership stake in Panacea Financial, a digital-only lender focusing on medical professionals and veterinarians. The deal should yield $22 million.
The impact of President Trump's tariffs is the top concern for most middle-market American businesses, a new KeyBank survey found. But these firms also view the scrambled landscape as a chance to innovate and restructure.
The Federal Reserve Board banned a former relationship banker in Arkansas after he was caught stealing customer funds; Benchmark Federal Credit Union plans to merge with Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union to form a $2.1 billion-asset institution; Robin Vince, CEO of Bank of New York Mellon since 2022, has been elected chairman of the board; and more in this week's banking news roundup.
