Disruptors

Barclaycard's first range of wearable bPay devices never looked like they had a home on the fashion runway, but the issuer is betting the fashion brand TopShop can make it in vogue.

Legacy core systems make banks vulnerable to new competitors and risks. Modernization is underway, but many institutions are not moving fast enough. The risk of waiting too long is that it will take too long to catch up.

With Visa Inc. set to merge with Visa Europe, the U.S. company stands to benefit from the experience its London-based counterpart has in mobile and digital payments. It could also supercharge these projects with added resources.

Reimaging the digital experience for retail customers has been the rage for several years now, but a handful of companies are turning their attention to rethinking the digital experience for small business deposit accounts.

There is a time, a place and a customer base for pseudonymous cryptocurrency. For regulated financial institutions, other types of shared ledgers — those whose validators are legally accountable for certain terms of service — may provide unique utility.

Google, Amazon, Apple, PayPal and Intuit have joined forces to promote policies they say will foster greater innovation in financial services.

Apple Pay hasn't gone too far with consumers in its first year, but it has nevertheless established a solid footing with merchants, banks and two generations of its own handsets. And Apple has many powerful rivals that are eager to surpass it.

All participants in financial services will have to start behaving, thinking, organizing themselves as technology companies and focus on three things: technology, data and customer (or, better yet, user) experience.

Eastern Bank's 18-month-old innovation unit, run by startup veterans, is preparing to release its first product as the industry continues to allocate resources to internal tech labs while wondering when and how such efforts will pay off.

There’s no doubt that blockchain technology will facilitate disruptive innovations in finance, but a world of private ledgers sounds eerily similar to a range of “private Internets.”