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Barclays goes headlong into AI, blockchain: Barclays has been a big player in emerging financial services technology, including contactless ATMs, wearable computing and new uses of the cloud to take cost out of tecnology development. It's now getting more aggressive by opening an innovation center in London that will place internal banking and technology experts alongside more than 40 startups. It will be among the largest cooperative working spaces in Europe and will conduct more than 200 hours of hackathons, workshops and other similar events each month, reports Finextra, adding the center is expected to create about 750 jobs. The London center is part of the bank's Rise initiative, which also includes innovation centers in New York, Manchester, Mumbai, Cape Town, Vilius and Tel Aviv that are designed to build cooperative services along with startups. One of the major current projects is the Barclays Accelerator, in which the bank seeks new innovation in blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data. Finextra also reports Barclays has entered formal engagements with a handful of startups as part of its accelerator and is spinning off an internal team as a separate company, Nivo, which offers mobile messaging. The startups include Simudyne, which offers risk management; Barac, which offers anti fraud services; and Flux, a digital payments company.
A logo sits on display outside the offices of Barclays Plc bank in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. The South African Reserve Bank said it will collaborate with Barclays Plc to manage the flow of money and minimize risk of causing fluctuations in the rand as the British bank prepares to reduce its stake in Barclays Africa Group Ltd. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Car payments: General Motors is expanding its OnStar "connected car" collaboration with Mastercard to enable drivers to order and pay from inside their cars for ACDelco and other service parts, accessories such as Chevrolet Performance Parts, Maven car-sharing, OnStar guidance and other services. The OnStar gateway enables electronic credit and debit card processing. Mastercard and GM also collaborate on OnStar Go, a mobility platform that powers in-car payments for takeout and gas stations. The new service feature is available at more than 4,000 dealerships in the U.S. In a separate automotive tech deployment, Hyundai has developed contactless payment points on a car as part of a Stand Up to Cancer Fundraiser, according to Motor1. An all-electric Ioniq has been fitted with five contactless points on car that people tap to donate $6.50 or $13. The front and rear license plates are outfitted with digital displays that update after each donation. The donation car will debut May 22 at the King's Cross station in London and will tour the U.K. between May and November.
Amazon's closing Underground: Amazon plans to shutter Underground, a smartphone app and game program that compensated developers for time users spent with their apps. Amazon will stop accepting new software on May 31 and the download service will end sometime this summer, according to Arstechnica. Amazon Underground, which was seen as a threat to digital micropayments when it launched in 2015, gave access to a set of apps that would normally cost money to buy from Google or Apple's app stores. Amazon, which called Underground content "actually free" to distinguish it from games that were free to download but included in-app payments for internal content, removed the payment from the consumer for Underground. It instead paid developers a penny for every minute a consumer spent on the device. The idea was to entice gamers and other consumers who would normally balk at paying relatively small payments for "free" games. But the program had problems, according to Arstechnica, which reported compatibility is limited to Android devices, and had a limited range of content.
First Data takes on tech's gender gap: There's still a considerable gender gap in areas such as financial services and payment technology, a shortfall organizations such as Girls Who Code is trying to address. KKR has made an investment in Girls Who Code, and a companies in KKR's portfolio including GoDaddy and First Data will sponsor a technology education program this summer. The two companies will provide free instruction in web development, design, robotics and mobile development. First Data's program will be in Atlanta, while GoDaddy's will take place in Sunnyvale, Calif. "Similar to the financial sector, the field of technology is often lacking the kind of diverse workforces that lead to the highest performing teams, the highest performing cultures and the best business outcomes," said Ted Oberwager, a member of KKR’s Private Equity and TMT Growth Equity teams, in a release. “As the tech industry expands, companies increasingly need to integrate technology in order to succeed."
Global Payments Announces Support for Apple Pay in Taiwan BusinessWire Global Payments Inc., a leading worldwide provider of payment technology services, is pleased to offer merchants in Taiwan the ability to accept credit and debit card payments via Apple Pay, which is transforming mobile payments with...
Now you can use Facebook Messenger to book your reservation at Vegas' Venetian Los Angeles Times • Jay Jones The Venetian on Tuesday becomes the first hotel in Las Vegas to offer bookings using Facebook Messenger, with help from a chatbot named Luis. Beginning at 9 a.m., the Venetian will allow potential guests to check room rates and obtain other information...
Bank data breaches are up, and it's an insider job Business Insider • B.I. Intelligence There have been many high-profile bank breaches in the news of late, and much of the blame has been laid on these institutions' legacy...
Bank wallets are an 'imperative' to counter third party apps Banks worldwide have been clamouring to support mobile wallets launched by technology companies. While this may make for good PR in the short term, the same banks are at risk of losing their biggest advantage: The customer relationship.
Visa Checkout adds event-registration firm Active Network Visa Inc. has partnered with Dallas-based Active Network, whose customers organize activities and events, to make Visa Checkout available as a payment option at events in the U.S., Canada, Ireland and the U.K.
Samsung Pay reportedly going live soon in the U.K. Samsung Pay last week went live in four more regions—Hong Kong, Sweden, Switzerland and the UAE—but despite reaching 14 major global markets, it’s still not officially available in the U.K., one of the world’s most active zones for contactless payments.
The National Credit Union Administration, operating with just one board member, has liquidated two credit unions that were recently put into conservatorship. The failures are the first credit union failures since Democrats on the board were fired, leaving Republican Chair Kyle Hauptman.
In a joint letter signed by over 50 bank trade groups, leaders in the banking industry urged regulators to revise bank regulatory thresholds upward to keep up with inflation.
The Senate passed President Trump's tax and spending bill Tuesday, but questions around Consumer Financial Protection Bureau funding, 1071 delay and remittance taxes remain as GOP leaders scramble to pass the bill out of the House before Trump's July 4 deadline.
