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Jackpot: The U.S. Secret Service is warning banks about a form of ATM crime called "Jackpot," in which crooks install software and/or hardware to force machines to dispense cash, reports security writer
Open to competition: U.K.'s
A 'bit' of travel: Big companies like
Swift response: Nearly 90% of Swift users have complied with the requirement to self-attest their level of compliance with Swift's new and mandatory security controls, which went into effect Dec. 31. That covers 99% of all messages over the network, coverage which should increase shortly as most of the other financial institutions are in the process of reaching compliance, rather than holding out, according to Swift. The controls were put into place to improve defenses against cyber attacks, and follow a series of hacks that exploited the
Bubbles everywhere: Nobel Prize winning economist and Yale University professor Robert Shiller has joined the list of
From the Web
The Times | Sun Jan 28, 2018 - SoftBank, the Japanese technology colossus, is studying an audacious plan to create a global digital payments system that could take on PayPal, Apple Pay and China’s Alipay. The investment giant — led by maverick billionaire dealmaker Masayoshi Son — has evolved into the world’s most aggressive investor in new technologies. Its $100bn (£70bn) Vision Fund, a partnership with the government of Saudi Arabia, has started to hoover up many of the most promising tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. It bought British chip designer Arm Holdings for £24bn in 2016. The latest plan would see SoftBank challenge attempts by the technology giants to tighten their grip on the financial system, according to City sources.
TechCrunch | Fri Jan 26, 2018 - A growing number of law firms working with startups are beginning to accept their payment in cryptocurrencies, according to a new report by the trade-focused outlet Law.com. The lawyers suggest that they increasingly have no choice. In order to land the growing number of businesses launched by cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, they have to show that they’re invested in what their clients are building. Often, too, the founders’ wealth has been accumulated in bitcoin, which makes it unavoidable.
CNBC | Fri Jan 26, 2018 - "One or a few legitimate" cryptocurrencies are coming, but bitcoin is not one of them, according to Starbucks' executive chairman and former CEO, Howard Schultz. "I don't believe that bitcoin is going to be a currency today or in the future," Schultz said, during a post-earnings conference call Thursday after the closing bell on Wall Street. (Shares of Starbucks were under pressure on Friday after another quarter of disappointing sales growth as holiday offerings failed to draw in customers.) Instead, Schultz told investors he sees potential in blockchain, the online ledger technology underlying digital currencies. "I'm talking about ... the possibility of what could happen — not in the near term, but in a few years from now — with a consumer application in which there's trust and legitimacy with regard to a digital currency."
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The U.S. may be undergoing a sea change in attitudes to contactless cards.
Consumers are more than willing to share retail payment information, geolocations, as well as Uber, OpenTable, Facebook, and Twitter information. However, they have high expectations for what they receive in return, writes Lisa Woodley, vice president of FSI customer experience for NTT Data Services.
Sometimes an idea is ahead of its time. Many of the most ambitious products in payments and fintech were dismissed as absurd or over-ambitious at the time — only to feel perfectly normal years later as culture and consumer habits evolved.
MoviePass has pulled its participation from 10 AMC movie theaters following disagreement over the theaters’ support of MoviePass’ $9.95 monthly movie subscription model, which uses a Mastercard to guarantee payment through its app.
