4.26.18 Your morning briefing

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web:

Goldman pours money into BigCommerce
PayPal and Amazon are among the companies that have collaborated with BigCommerce to boost their e-commerce reach, a track record that's attracted nearly $200 million in investment in the past eight years.

Goldman Sachs led BigCommerce's latest round of $64 million, which came this week, joining General Catalyst, GGV Capital and Tenaya Capital.

BigCommerce, which also partners with Facebook, eBay, Square and Instagram, serves about 60,000 merchants in 120 countries.

Mobile cryptocoin
Blockchain incubator Binance Labs has invested $30 million in a new cryptocurrency designed specifically for mobile payments.

The NextWeb reports Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike has proposed MobileCoin, which would integrate cryptocurrency into mobile apps such as WhatsApp to improve the user experience for making in-app payments with cryptocurrencies.

The new coin could boost cryptocurrency payments, which have lagged in favor of using the same alternative currencies as investments.

Monzo's evolution hits the switch
U.K. payments company Monzo is gradually adding more financial services, a migration that includes support for the Current Account Switch, a free U.K. service that makes it easier to move accounts between financial companies.

Monzo is offering the service as a perk to lure traditional banking customers, who will be able to initiate an account transfer at the date of the consumer's choosing. The transfers take about seven business days to complete.

Monzo also offers a debit transfer service, though the cost of that service led the company to encourage its customers use it sparingly.

Enhanced facial authentication
Facial recognition is advancing as an authentication method for payments, but the technology has some limitations.

A startup called AimBrain is attempting to improve facial recognition by combining elements, which in theory would avoid photo spoofs. The technology combines facial recognition with a spoken challenge, and lip movement analysis.

The company contends the mix of image, voice and subtle movements identify specific users in multi-dimensional ways, and are harder to fully spoof.

Master key for a criminal mastermind
Hotels have a heightened payment security risk, partly because of the amount of time consumers' data resides on the keys.

It turns out there's even more risk. Engadget reports F-Secure, a cyber security company, has built a device that can grab data from a hotel key and use it to build a master key for the entire hotel.

The device can steal data from any hotel key — even expired keys — and can provide access to most hotel rooms within minutes.

From the Web

How mobile money could help the world's poor
CNET | Wed Apr 25, 2018 - Now payments and tech heavyweights including PayPal, Mastercard, Amazon and Samsung, along with a growing list of financial tech startups, are working to offer more banklike services -- including apps, mobile systems and cryptocurrencies -- to those often ignored by traditional banks. But providing new financial services to those who never had them comes with challenges.

How Travelers Are Dictating Where Mobile Wallets Expand Globally
Forbes | Wed Apr 25, 2018 - In 1946, banker John Biggins introduced the first bank card, Charg-It, across his neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. When a consumer charged a purchase at a local merchant, the charge would be forwarded to Biggins’ bank, which would reimburse the merchants and collect payment from the consumer.

American Express Is Ready to Charge Into China
The Wall Street Journal | Thu Apr 26, 2018 - American Express Co. cleared a hurdle in its yearslong effort to operate in China, potentially becoming the first U.S. card network to receive permission to offer services in the Chinese market. China’s central bank informed the New York-based card issuer that it would “formally accept” its application to clear and settle domestic bank-card transactions, an AmEx spokesman said.

More from PaymentsSource

How fraudsters prey on children
More fraudsters are seeking out children for identity theft, highlighting another danger of the digital economy.

Outsourcing fintech can help issuers stay nimble
Mobile and other technology are changing payments and financial services quickly, leaving legacy systems and processes challenged to keep up, writes Ignacio De Marco, CEO of BairesDey.

Zelle’s bumpy ride toward ubiquity
Banks using Zelle share the good, the bad and the indifferent of the person-to-person payment network.

U.S. Bank, Enservio streamline insurance claim payouts
U.S. Bank has formed a partnership with insurance claims software provider Enservio to simplify processes for paying or collecting insurance settlements.