Technology

Government digital currency projects have the potential to displace banks and fintechs from the payment process. But three major participants — Accenture, Ant Group and Swift — argue that incumbents have a role to play.

The fintech already sells loans on its distributed-ledger-based trading platform but needed the Securities and Exchange Commission's blessing to bundle its mortgage and student loans into securities and sell them to investors.

Digital payments can cut costs, errors and other tasks that would be prohibitive on their own, says Kofax's Lindsay Pinkos.

MoneyGram will offer a service for the conversion of digital currency into cash at its retail locations in the U.S. through a partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinme.

The software-as-a-service platform eliminates manual collection of outstanding invoices, and also predicts when a customer is likely to pay, based on past payment habits.

The urgency to streamline processes during the pandemic accentuated how digitization can also drive diversity, fairness and better environmental outcomes, says Microsoft’s Bill Borden.

Legacy vendors are competing more aggressively to modernize payroll, insurance payouts and data sharing.

In partnership with the startup Hope Trust, the Chicago bank is piloting tools that will help people with disabilities, their families and caregivers manage their finances, government benefits and medical care.

Apple provided in-depth detail on how many apps it rejected last year and why its iPhone payment system keeps customers secure, seeking to deflect claims from Epic Games that its review process and purchase system is a deterrent to competition.

Chairman Jelena McWilliams said the agency will issue a request for information "to learn more about what banks are doing, what banks are considering doing and what, if anything, the FDIC should be doing in this space.”