Disruptors

Blockchain technology associated with Bitcoin has caught the eye of bankers, but now comes the hard part: figuring out where it can be used — international payments, treasury services or elsewhere — without wasting a lot of time and money in experimentation.

Arthur Levitt, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1993 to 2001, will become an adviser to the marketplace lender Social Finance.

Orchard Platform, which provides services to institutional investors in the marketplace lending industry, has raised $30 million in additional funding.

Graduate business students — some of whom previously worked at traditional financial services companies — have been organizing fintech clubs at universities to explore the dramatic changes in banking and to find potential employers.

The smartphone can add significant security to payments, but it is also a tool that fraudsters can exploit. Researchers and scammers have already found several unique attacks that rely on mobile devices.

The "buy buttons" that are popping up on social media platforms are intentionally simple, often meant to enable one-click purchases of individual products. But as the technology's popularity grows, so must its capabilities.

Dylan Richard was the lead engineer for President Obama's reelection campaign, where the use of unstructured "social data" forever changed how presidential win the support of their constituents. Four years later, he's one of PayPal's newest recruits.

More financial services companies are landing on MaRS, a corner of Toronto where developers are building new uses for smartphones, wearables and alternative currencies all under the same roof.