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Welcome to the PaymentsSource Morning Briefing, delivered daily. The information you need to start your day, including top headlines from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
Sandwich fixing: Subway is hoping to beef up its sandwich sales by overhauling its technology at the point of sale. It's already one of only three fast-food chains to adopt Masterpass, and its next step will be to install touchscreen kiosks and a mobile app to facilitate ordering, according to Bloomberg News. The changes — which include a dedicated pickup area for mobile orders — could help reverse a three-year sales slump, the article notes. Mobile ordering is a rampant trend in the restaurant industry, with companies like Starbucks boasting wide adoption of the technology. Last year, Subway acquired a portion of Vancouver-based digital ordering company Avanti Commerce and hired about 20 of its technologists. One possible hurdle for its new initiative is that all of Subway's locations are franchises, which will bear some of the cost of the upgrades. "We’re … asking the franchisees to put some skin in the game," Carman Wenkoff, Subway’s chief information and digital officer, told Bloomberg.
Pedestrians pass a Subway Restaurants location in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. After years of explosive growth turned it into the world's largest restaurant chain by number of locations, Subway Restaurants is in retreat. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
Groceries on the go: Companies like Amazon and Walmart are experimenting with new models for grocery shopping and delivery, but perhaps none of them go as far as Moby. Popular Mechanics describes the company as "a self-driving supermarket without any human staff," which drives around Shanghai in search of shoppers. The futuristic-themed, solar-powered store is "staffed" by a holographic greeter and recognizes customers via a mobile app, the article says. The concept was developed by Sweden-based Wheelys and China-based Hefei University and Himalayafy. Though the concept is being tested in Shanghai, the ultimate purpose of the Moby store is to maintain a retail presence in regions that don't have a strong enough economy to support a permanent grocery store, according to the article. And in its current form, the "self-driving" store still needs a human driver to return it to a warehouse.
Amazon fights showrooming: As Amazon steadily rolls out new concepts for physical retail stores, it must contend with a beast it helped create: showrooming. The practice describes how shoppers visit a physical store to examine an item that they plan to order online at a better price. Amazon has a patent that can determine when a person in its store is using its WiFi network to comparison-shop, and it take one of several actions to attempt to get the person to buy in-store instead, Engadget reports. These actions can include blocking the user's WiFi access or sending a sales representative to discuss the purchase with the shopper in person, the article states; Amazon could also recognize when its price is cheaper and thus take no action.
Starbucks and Android Pay: In the tellingly titled article, "Most Starbucks locations accept Android Pay, and I did not know this," AndroidPolice managing editor David Ruddock confesses the only way he learned of Starbucks' support of Google's mobile wallet was an Android Pay alert that popped up on his phone. In the U.S.'s pre-EMV days, contactless card readers were typically add-ons that rested atop the screens of standard magstripe terminals, with various card networks' NFC logos cluttering the dongle's small surface. Modern card readers simply embed the NFC reader under the screen, rendering it invisible. "If you go to a Starbucks in the U.S. and they have this Verifone chip-style reader...it accepts contactless payments," Ruddock says. "I had no idea."
From the Web
Alibaba is in talks to invest in Uber’s Southeast Asia rival Grab TechCrunch | Fri Jun 16, 2017 – Alibaba could substantially increase its business interests in Southeast Asia with an investment in Uber rival Grab. Bloomberg reports that Alibaba President Jack Ma is considering joining an upcoming $1.4 billion funding round for Grab which will be led by SoftBank, a company with many links to Alibaba. Separately, TechCrunch has confirmed with a source that Alibaba has held meetings with Grab over a potential investment that could see Alipay, the mobile payment service run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, integrated into the Grab app. Alibaba is apparently keen to have a closer relationship with Grab’s ‘GrabPay’ payment platform, too.
Alibaba expands AI cloud product into Europe to take on Amazon, Microsoft CNBC | Thu Jun 15, 2017 – Alibaba has expanded its big data and artificial intelligence cloud product in Europe in a bid to boost its challenge to the likes of Amazon and Microsoft in the fast-growing space. The product known as "MaxCompute" handles huge amounts of data allowing organizations to make predictions in real-time. Aliyun, the cloud division of the Chinese e-commerce titan, claims it can process around a petabyte of data such as video and audio. A petabyte is 1,000,000 gigabytes.
NHS cyber-attack was 'launched from North Korea' BBC | Fri Jun 16, 2017 – British security officials believe that hackers in North Korea were behind the cyber-attack that crippled parts of the NHS and other organizations around the world last month, the BBC has learned. Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) led the international investigation. Security sources have told the BBC that the NCSC believes that a hacking group known as Lazarus launched the attack. The U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team has also warned about Lazarus.
CFPB tweaks final prepaid rule, seeks comment on second delay The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed further changes Thursday to its final rule on prepaid cards and is seeking public comment on whether to delay implementing it a second time.
As it rolls out dozens of new products to up its game in stablecoins and artificial intelligence, the payment company is also working with sellers wishing to expand activities involving non-U.S. corridors.
Jim Richards, who served as the bank's head of anti-money-laundering compliance, says the Federal Reserve is wrongfully denying him compensation that was designed to keep him employed at Wells Fargo.
New Jersey-based ConnectOne Bancorp received FDIC approval for its merger with First of Long Island Corp; lending-services fintech Oportun makes changes to its board of directors; Associated Banc-Corp's Steven Zandpour will succeed David Stein as head of consumer and business banking; and more in this week's banking news roundup.
The Trump administration says it will nominate Jonathan McKernan to serve as Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance. McKernan has already been nominated as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
