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LATEST NEWS 21/09/2022

Zip is first Australian BNPL method added to PPRO’s digital payments
infrastructureNew

PPRO, a provider of digital payments infrastructure, has integrated buy now, pay
later (BNPL) provider Zip onto its platform, further expanding its Australian
payments offering. Zip, which includes Zip Pay and Zip Money, becomes the first
Australian BNPL method to be added to PPRO’s digital payments infrastructure and
sits alongside other Australian local payment methods. The new integration
allows PPRO’s global partners and their merchants to offer Australian consumers
a way to pay with their preferred checkout option when they shop online.
Merchants offering Zip at the checkout realise a 20 per cent increase in
conversion and top line sales and 60 per cent increase in average order value
(AOV).

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Paytm tokenizes over 52 mn cards across VISA, Mastercard & RuPayNew

Paytm, One97 Communications brand has announced that the company has now
tokenized over 93 per cent of the monthly active cards on their application. The
company has tokenized 52.3 million cards across VISA, Mastercard and RuPay in
its effort to make card transactions safer and drive convenience for consumers.
With this, the company has made significant progress in the card-on-file
tokenization initiative by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The company remains
on track to meet RBI’s deadline to purge saved card data ahead of the RBI
deadline. RBI’s Card-on-file tokenization mandate requires all online platforms
to comply with the new initiative and make digital payments secure for citizens.
As per the RBI’s guidelines, all online merchants/ecommerce stores have to
comply with the card-on-file tokenization feature by September 30.

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Zaggle launches Zoyer to modernise business payments for enterprises and SMEsNew

Zaggle announced the launch of Zoyer to simplify and automate business to
business payments for Enterprises and SMEs. Zoyer unites accounts payable and
credit card payments onto a single platform to enable enterprises streamline
business to business payables for effectively managing operating cash flows and
maximizing business performance. A cloud-native platform, Zoyer improves
efficiencies by automating the complete accounts payable lifecycle including
supplier on-boarding, PO issuance, invoice capture, three-way reconciliation,
payments and advanced reporting. The unique features built into the platform
include: AI and ML-based touchless invoice processing workflows eliminate manual
tasks and improve straight through processing; Support for multiple payment
modes, including corporate credit cards, real-time payments, and bank transfers
in line with business needs; Embedded credit card and virtual card offering
provides opportunities to earn cash back and rebates on spend; Integrated
analytics offers insights to power continuous process improvement and optimise
spends; Assured compliance with in-country invoicing, data archival, and
taxation regulations; API-first architecture for seamless integration with
existing ERP and accounting systems as well as payment processors, banks and
third party added value service providers.

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India and Singapore sign an agreement for fintech cooperationNew

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the International Financial
Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) have signed an agreement for fintech
cooperation. Overseeing the financial sector in India’s international finance
service centres, the IFSCA is headquartered at Gujarat International Finance
Tec-City (Gift City). The Monetary Authority of Singapore is Singapore’s central
bank and integrated financial regulator. MAS works with the financial industry
to develop Singapore as a dynamic international financial centre. Under the
FinTech Cooperation Agreement, both countries will operate a regulatory sandbox,
which aims to ensure better cooperation between Indian and Singaporean fintech
companies.

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New Bain & Co report finds that despite intense disruption, investment in tech
remains paramountNew

77% of companies are expected to either increase their technology budgets in
2023, or keep it the same, according to new research from Bain & Company. The
study shows that despite the current economic climate, technology will remain a
critical investment and as a central source of productivity across global
businesses. The report provides a roadmap for executives navigating the
continued decoupling of US-China relations, persistent semiconductor shortages
and increased adoption of new technologies. A major new wave of content
creation, technology and innovation will be unleashed around the metaverses and
web3 technologies. Beyond the extraordinary investments already made by
Microsoft, Meta, Google, Apple and Tencent, the ecosystem already boasts
thousands of companies and more than $80 billion of start-up funding from
venture capital, hedge funds, private equity and other investors. One of the
emerging battlegrounds that will define future profit pools in web3 is the
concept of identity. Identity is central to what many see as web3’s greatest
opportunity: the chance to democratize the online experience, enable users to
reclaim control of their data and open the door to mass customization. This
approach will have important implications for other technologies, such as AI and
ML, that will be needed to manage the proliferation and complexity of data
required to serve and track customers.

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JPMorgan is making significant investments to enable companies to manage 3PM
third-party moneyNew

Priyanka Rath, managing director, head of global liquidity and Account solutions
specialists, at J.P. Morgan Payments, say that as digital value chains and
ecosystems take shape, more firms must become adept at handling third-party
money (3PM). Rath said, treasurers should be more involved — earlier — in
strategic discussions about growing their businesses’ top and bottom lines and
companies. A firm that enters new markets or changes its business model must be
aware of the regulatory hurdles of how money can and must be handled. That means
breaking down the silos that exist between treasurers, the CFO and product
development teams. There also need to be partnerships with the right banking
service providers, Rath said, who added that companies such as J.P. Morgan
Payments are making significant investments in technology to enable companies to
manage 3PM. As Rath told, treasurers can help make sure that companies are
“innovating and staying ahead of the curve — because the best customer
experience ultimately drives transformation and growth across competitive
industries.”

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21/09/2022

BAI says observational coaching is the X factor for improving front-line
employee engagementNew

Observational coaching captures customer-employee as well as employee-manager
interactions. It documents the signoffs and follow-ups. It embeds the learned
knowledge and skill sets to drive successful behaviors and positive culture
which maximize business performance impact. The three key customer interactions
for observational coaching are onboarding new clients, deepening client
relationships and resolving complex issues. To capture the data in a consistent
and scalable way, the organization must have a digitized coaching framework. All
the behavioral data captured from individual sessions should be compiled across
the board and up the hierarchy. The data should be organized and presented with
relevant dashboards tailored for various levels of management. The dashboards
should provide actionable insights that enables managers and leaders to drive
business performance improvement.

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World Economic Forum suggests turning retail stores into e-commerce centers can
avoid massive emissionsNew

Retail is the largest private employer and economic sector, comprising over 15%
of the global GDP. Growth in e-commerce requires new infrastructure, which
contributes to massive carbon emissions. Utilizing existing physical stores to
fulfil online sales locally could offer a sustainable solution. Enabled by IoT,
cloud, big data and AI/AR technologies, enabling precise product geolocation
in-store, efficient picking and replenishing processes, real-time monitoring of
on-shelf inventory and stock-outs, etc. Virtualize the aggregated stores’
inventories to identify in real-time the nearest stores and product availability
for every online order. This will allow for minimizing the time of delivery and
carbon emissions.

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The White House’s OSTP envisions a permissioned digital dollar CBDC that gives
Fed significant controlNew

White House’s paper by Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) explores
the design options for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). It makes very few
specific recommendations, but it clearly lays out the pros and cons of several
potential digital dollar features. One of the paper’s few suggestions is that a
digital dollar should be based on a permissioned system giving the central bank
significant control. However, that’s based on the current state of technology.
And by permissioned, it does not imply blockchain. A significant proportion of
the feature decisions are based on trade-offs between anti-money laundering
(AML) and privacy.

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Insurtech Express offers consulting services that can be accessed via a
personalized minted NFT New

InsurTech Express, a technology innovator in the Life Insurance Industry is
announcing the launch of their new IE Digital Membership Program. The way to
connect to the exclusive membership page is with the NFT (token) membership card
in the digital wallet. Each member has a Dashboard where they can schedule free
insurtech consulting offered by InsurTech Express and see several software
discounts from industry leading solution providers. These special offers are for
InsurTech Express (IE) Members only. Members will also get discounts to industry
conferences, access to insurtech eLearning videos, featured job opportunities,
and other rewards.

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Federal Reserve launches service to track trends for payments settled through
its FedACH ServiceNew

Federal Reserve Financial Services launched the FedPayments® Insights Service, a
business and analytics tool that generates reports on a financial institution’s
payments settled through the FedACH Service to help the organization advance its
business strategy and day-to-day ACH operations. This service, accessed through
the FedLine Web® and FedLine Advantage® Solutions, can track transactions
settled through FedACH for an individual originator, a single routing transit
number (RTN) or family of RTNs. The FedPayments Insights Service can generate
both data and visual reports on payment trends and activity, such as volume,
reversals and return rates. Historical data includes up to two years of detailed
information and six years of summarized information. The new FedPayments
Insights Service can be used independently or as a complement to the FedPayments
Reporter Service. When used in combination, certain items of interest identified
through the FedPayments Insights Service’s analysis tools can be generated
automatically in the FedPayments Reporter Service on a fixed schedule or on
demand for various date ranges and customer accounts. The FedPayments Reporter
Service also automates report distribution within the financial institution
and/or out to its business customers.

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Andreessen Horowitz funds Sequence a B2B FinOps stack for more responsive
pricing and paymentsNew

Andreessen Horowitz funded Sequence wants to create a new kind of FinOps stack
for B2B businesses — APIs and other tools to create more responsive pricing,
billing and related services, leveraging data and analytics. What Sequence is
aiming to do, however, is to make it just as easy to build pricing and payments
services that are more personalized to the customer, and to a particular moment,
not unlike what businesses often do in e-commerce transactions. Sequence does
this by leveraging payments and transaction data that its business customers
might already have in their systems but haven’t been able to parse and
proactively apply, by way of integrations to third-party apps.

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INNOVATIONS BY TOPIC

* AI & Machine Economy
* APIs-Open Banking
* Authentication & Identity
* Channels & Supply Chains
* Cloud Computing

* Companies
* Cybersecurity
* Data Economy & Privacy
* Demographic Change
* Futurism

* Green Banking
* Mobility & Last Mile
* Neo-Banks & Challengers
* Payment Gateways & Card Services

* Reality
* Regulatory & Reg Tech
* Retooling Talent
* Robos & Wealth
* User Interface

AI & Machine Economy, Innovation Topics
Meta alumni’s startup TrueFoundry raises $2.3 million to accelerate ML
deploymentsNew
AI & Machine Economy, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

A group of former Meta engineers is building TrueFoundy, a platform to help
enterprises deploy machine learning models at the speed of big tech companies.
The startup automates repetitive tasks in the machine learning pipeline to allow
data scientists and engineers to focus on higher-value, more creative tasks.
Built on Kubernetes, the custom platform works as a cloud-agnostic solution that
can be deployed on AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. TrueFoundry says it
helps machine learning teams get 10x faster results and cuts their production
timelines from “several weeks to a few hours.” This is helpful specifically for
businesses that do not have large machine learning teams.

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Tymely combines NLP and a human-in-the-loop approach to improve chatbot
conversationsNew
AI & Machine Economy, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

Chatbot provider Tymely uses AI-human hybrid tech to enable brands to provide
email and chat support services in a more human, empathetic and precise way.
Tymely claims its AI technology can create personalized messages and that it’s
building an AI that understands complex human language to improve CX. Tymely
employs experts that review each AI input and, if needed, correct it in
real-time. Ohad Rozen, cofounder and CEO says, “This results in human-level
accuracy that enables us to understand tiny and implicit nuances in a customer’s
text; a high-resolution understanding that also allows us to generate
hyper-personalized and empathetic responses to customers.

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J.P. Morgan rushes to modernize processing as cloud-native competitors move into
payments business
Additional Reading, AI & Machine Economy / 15/09/2022

J.P. Morgan’s planned purchase of Renovite Technologies shows the U.S. leader in
payment processing scrambling to stave off competition from nimble fintechs. A
key motivator for the deal is Renovite’s cloud-based switch that will facilitate
J.P. Morgan’s processing of new forms of payment. Renovite’s cloud-based switch
makes it easier to support forms of payment like buy-now, pay-later or
cryptocurrencies, because anything from an email to a wallet address can be used
as a payment token. While J.P. Morgan’s established business is formidable,
these cloud-based competitors will keep gaining market share over time if they
don’t upgrade their systems, according to David Donovan, executive vice
president of financial services at digital consultant Publicis Sapient. “In the
New Age there is a lot of innovation at the customer touch point, whether it’s
e-commerce, point of sale, an ATM with new payment methods or other new
transaction types,” said Viren Rana, Renovite’s CEO. “Our switch has solved for
that problem, so we have a flexible architecture, which helps clients to onboard
new payment methods, new payment types, new transaction types, in a fraction of
a second.” The switch also makes it easier for J.P. Morgan to expand its
international processing footprint by allowing the bank to support regional
payment habits. Renovite’s product can help J.P. Morgan such transactions by
enabling them to accept bank account numbers, instead of their card numbers, as
payment tokens.

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Diveplane creates anonymized, statistically similar “twin” datasets to train AI
systems
AI & Machine Economy, Innovation Topics / 13/09/2022

Diveplane offers products that create synthetic data to train AI systems, find
anomalies in data and forecast market trends. Diveplane occupies the MLOps
category of AI startups, which aims to furnish organizations with tools to
deploy and maintain machine learning models in production. For example, the
company’s Geminai product creates anonymized, statistically similar “twin”
datasets to train AI systems in a putatively privacy-preserving way. (Training
on synthetic data has its downsides, it’s worth noting.) Diveplane’s Sonar
service, meanwhile, performs a regular analysis of data and AI systems to ensure
that the systems don’t drift off course — i.e. become less accurate in their
predictions — over time.

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APIs-Open Banking, Innovation Topics
C24 Bank introduces virtual MastercardNew
APIs-Open Banking, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

Germany-based Open Banking platform C24 Bank, and a subsidiary of the comparison
portal CHECK24 Group, has announced offering its customers up to 8 virtual cards
in addition to the physical Mastercard. These become operational online
immediately after ordering in the app and can also be used in shops via Apple
Pay or Google Pay. Customers can choose from eight different colour designs and
can flexibly link the cards to their own checking account, a joint account, or a
pocket. C24 allows users to organise their accounts with Pockets, which are
sub-accounts that allow customers to save for their individual goals. Pockets
can be personalised by selecting an individual name and transferring the
starting credit. With sub-accounts, users can put money aside and keep it
separate from their daily expenses. Individual savings goals can be set in order
to keep track of target achievements. C24 also allows the creation of a pocket
with its own IBAN, called PocketPLUS. Users can easily transfer money directly
from your PocketPLUS to external accounts, receive money and have direct debits
collected.

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Andreessen Horowitz funds Sequence a B2B FinOps stack for more responsive
pricing and paymentsNew
APIs-Open Banking, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

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Postman’s APIs integrate with Git repository, for multi-user, multi-branch
collaboration
APIs-Open Banking, Innovation Topics / 19/09/2022

Postman announced Postman v10, the most significant upgrade to the platform in
almost a year. Developers can now integrate Postman’s API Platform with their
Git source code repository, enabling multi-user, multi-branch collaboration;
Postman API Security helps companies provide security guidelines and rules to
developers on the same platform where they are designing, building, testing, and
deploying their APIs without requiring the developer to change existing
workflows. With API Governance, developers can discover rulesets earlier in the
API lifecycle, improve the quality of their APIs, and give organizations
visibility into how well APIs are meeting standards, postures, and guidelines.

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Bankingstack enables B2B and supply chain BNPL both as embedded and invoice
financing options
APIs-Open Banking, Innovation Topics / 16/09/2022

Embedded within the payments experience of merchant-to-merchant transactions,
B2B BNPL is collateral-free, short-term credit, that is solving the critical
problem of access to supply chain finance, especially for MSMEs. BANKINGSTACK
enable banks to adopt B2B BNPL capabilities in two models: as a point of payment
option embedded in the buyer’s digital bank account, and as a purchase invoice
financing option, available to suppliers keen on accessing immediate payments on
purchase orders. In both these cases, it is the underlying credit assessment
model that acts as the pivotal enabler. Compared to traditional risk assessment
models, the BANKINGSTACK credit engine can deliver Automated credit assessment
with minimal or zero documentation requirements

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Authentication & Identity, Innovation Topics
Amazon’s failure to verify the identities of marketplace sellers is letting
fraudsters to steal PIINew
Authentication & Identity, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

Amazon’s failure to verify the identities of many of its Marketplace sellers has
allowed fraudsters to steal the information of people and businesses everywhere
from Vancouver, Canada, to Pensacola, Florida. Some sellers use underhanded
tactics like submitting false fraud reports targeting rivals, or bribing Amazon
employees to scuttle competitors. Others peddle counterfeit or shoddily produced
wares. On Telegram and forums like Swapd and PlayerUp, a gray market for
second-hand Amazon seller accounts thrives. Thousands of brokers openly sell
accounts, with prices ranging from a few hundred bucks for a new account to
thousands of dollars apiece for years-old accounts with established histories.

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Fintech Portabl is an SSID password manager dedicated to financial services and
banking applicationsNew
Authentication & Identity, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

Fintech Portabl provides identity management and protection for financial
services, banking and consumer apps, but Soffio calls it a financial digital
passport, which helps with user identification. the company’s goal is to wean
people from passwords, helping consumers obtain more ownership over their
economic data by granting control over who can access it. Portabl stores the
information used to access existing financial apps. Every time an app is opened,
a Portabl log-in will appear and, within two clicks, simply enable users to log
in. In a way, by putting users in charge of their authentic data, Portabl is
turning them into secure APIs of themselves.

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Coloradans can now add personal interest “affinity icons”- stickers that can be
added to mobile IDsNew
Authentication & Identity, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

The State of Colorado has taken the next logical step in the evolution of mobile
ID technology: letting users add virtual stickers to their virtual identity
documents. The stickers, officially dubbed “affinity icons”, are meant to let
mobile ID users indicate their personal interests through their virtual IDs,
with virtual stickers dedicated to depicting activities like skiing or fishing,
among other options. The mobile ID itself, meanwhile, has practical uses. It can
be used as official ID in traffic stops, it can store fishing and parks
licenses, and it can be used to renew a driver’s license or state-issued ID,
among other functions.

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Microsoft enables seamless signing of documents during Teams meetings
Authentication & Identity, Innovation Topics / 15/09/2022

Teams Ecosystem Engineering developed a PoC so any ISV or customer can implement
signing documents during meetings. This application will let the document owner
select the document to sign and add it to a meeting. Depending on the role of
the attendees (signers or viewers), users will be able to sign or see the
document during the meeting. The authentication will be seamless since it’s
using Teams SSO. Some common documents to be signed during meetings are purchase
agreements, incoming invoices, or NDAs. The code is customizable so ISVs can
select the type of signature the customer needs to use (manual signature, e
signature or certificate-based signatures.

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Channels, Innovation Topics
The X factor for improving front-line employee engagementNew
Channels, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

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Facebook debuts an API for direct upload to Reels from third-party appsNew
Channels, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

“Facebook Reels API will enable 3rd party platforms to directly enable a ‘share
to reels’ feature, removing friction for users previously using 3rd party
platforms and then uploading at a later time to Facebook. This API will allow a
one-button sharing directly from their preferred 3rd party platform,” the
company said in a blog post. If a developer integrates this feature, users can
use a third-party app to post Reels and post to a page they’re an admin of.
However, this API doesn’t allow apps to post Reels to groups or individual
users. This could be useful for video editing apps, social media management
tools and enterprise social media users.

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World Economic Forum suggests turning retail stores into e-commerce centers can
avoid massive emissionsNew
Channels, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

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Greylock backed Fermat lets brands sell to consumers directly through influencer
contentNew
Channels, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

Fermat Commerce, a distributed commerce company has launched its product that
lets brands sell to consumers directly through influencer content. For brands,
Fermat lets them simply and effectively share their products with influencers to
create shopping experiences. The brands can manage the full workflow in Fermat’s
system, all while having the order be written directly to the brand as a 1st
party interaction that allows for ongoing marketing. Specifically, brands can
license products based on the partner, create unique payout structures per
partner, and have 100% closed loop attribution on each partner’s impressions and
sales.

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Cloud Computing, Innovation Topics
Dell Tech and Red Hat are co-engineering a hybrid cloud solution for faster
devops
Cloud Computing, Innovation Topics / 16/09/2022

Dell APEX Containers for Red Hat OpenShift offers an on-premises cloud
experience for developers with a Dell-managed Container-as-a-Service solution.
Dell Validated Platform for Red Hat OpenShift offers documented guidance for
DevOps teams to help speed deployment of on-premises IT for container
orchestration. Dell and Red Hat are co-engineering a hybrid cloud solution using
Dell software to integrate Red Hat OpenShift with Dell infrastructure, and IBM
and Dell plan to add optional IBM intelligent automation software for
application performance monitoring.

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Greylock invests in Bluesky’s optimization solution for Snowflake
Cloud Computing, Innovation Topics / 16/09/2022

Bluesky provides high-value, actionable insights, driven by intelligent
automation that understands the data-specific challenge of workload optimization
and cost governance. Bluesky analyzes query workloads to detect similar
groupings, using an innovative technology it calls query patterns. By
intelligently watching for similar query patterns, Bluesky can detect complex
situations that simplistic visibility tools miss. Bluesky can suggest
high-impact tuning options for valuable workloads, increasing efficiency while
also looking out for clear savings hiding inside the noise of regular
operations, such as long-running queries that fail repeatedly without providing
any value.

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Synack brings cloud native SIEM and SOAR security to Microsoft Azure (PRnewswire
09/13)
Cloud Computing, Innovation Topics / 16/09/2022

Synack, a premier platform for on-demand security expertise, has joined the
Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) and is available through
integration with Microsoft Sentinel. Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-native,
security information event management (SIEM) and security orchestration
automated response (SOAR) solution designed to reduce unnecessary friction in
the vulnerability remediation process. It also provides early threat detection
and rapid response to sophisticated attacks to facilitate shorter resolution
times and lower the number of security incidents.

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Synack brings cloud native SIEM and SOAR security to Microsoft Azure (PRnewswire
09/13)
Cloud Computing, Innovation Topics / 15/09/2022

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COMPANIES

Apple, Companies and Organizations
Apple plays a dominant behind-the-scenes role in shaping policy of The App
AssociationNew
Apple, Companies and Organizations / 20/09/2022

The App Association brands itself as the leading voice for thousands of app
developers around the world. In reality, the vast majority of its funding comes
from Apple Inc. The tech giant isn’t a member of the association. But it plays a
dominant behind-the-scenes role shaping the group’s policy positions. In fact,
critics note, the association’s lobbying agenda tracks closely with Apple’s —
even when it’s at odds with app developers. The group, known as ACT, says it’s
not beholden to Apple, but confirmed that it derives more than half its funding
from the company. The former employees say the actual percentage is much higher.

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New Apple OLED displays integrate photodetectors that act as cameras under the
display
Apple, Companies and Organizations / 19/09/2022

A patent application from Apple relates to organic light-emitting diode (OLED)
displays in which one or more organic photodetectors (e.g., organic photodiodes)
are integrated for in-cell optical sensing. In-cell optical sensing is the
sensing of light using optical photodetectors (OPDs) that are integrated with a
display. In-cell optical sensing may be used in various applications, such as
biometric sensing (e.g., face, fingerprint, or retina sensing), OLED
illumination sensing, touch sensing, ambient light sensing, or health sensing.
OPDs may be configured to sense visible light, infrared light, or other ranges
of electromagnetic radiation wavelengths.

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iOS 16 three-finger gesture bug affects new device activation and some apps and
games
Apple, Companies and Organizations / 16/09/2022

Some game developers are warning players not to update to iOS 16 due to a bug
with the system three-finger gestures, affecting gameplay. The issue is that the
triple-tap system gesture to reveal the undo/cut/copy/paste menu, and the
three-finger swipe gestures to undo and redo, are a bit overzealous in iOS 16,
activating in contexts where they shouldn’t. Most normal apps will work fine, as
they only rely on single finger touch interactions. But games and apps that
require the user to perform multi-finger gestures — such as rhythm games or
music-making virtual instrument apps — are impacted as the system gestures are
inadvertently firing, stealing touches.

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Adyen is selected as the first fintech platform to launch Cash App Pay
Apple, Companies and Organizations / 16/09/2022

Fintech Adyen has partnered with Cash App to offer Cash App Pay, a mobile
payment method, to Adyen’s U.S. customers. By offering Cash App Pay, Adyen’s
businesses will be providing customers with a convenient and simple way to pay
using their Cash App balance or linked debit card. This Cash App software
integration will also provide Adyen’s business customers access to Cash App’s 80
million annual actives. This will provide their customers with access to a
seamless, secure checkout experience that can feature high authorization rates
and an improved shopping experience.

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Amazon, Companies and Organizations
Amazon is testing a direct-to-consumer health bet
Amazon, Companies and Organizations / 07/09/2022

Amazon’s latest project, code-named Katara, is a virtual-care effort that’s
being tested on Amazon’s workers, two current employees said. It’s designed to
offer people online care for common conditions such as acne or hair loss,
according to one of the employees. Amazon is testing Katara as it acquires One
Medical and shutters Amazon Care, which shows how the tech giant is refining its
efforts to finding ways into the $4.1 trillion US healthcare market. Katara’s
approach could create a potent challenge to direct-to-consumer healthcare
companies like Hims and Ro, which similarly sell treatment plans for health
issues over the internet.

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Amazon boosts Alexa device features, capabilities to improve connected commerce
Amazon, Companies and Organizations / 01/09/2022

Amazon released a series of instruction manuals designed to help users set up
their Alexa Echo devices and turn their homes into smart homes. This comes at a
time when 32% of consumers — or about 83 million people — used smart home or
automated chore technologies in May. That equaled the share of consumers who had
done so in April but was about four percentage points above the share who had
done so six months earlier when 28% of consumers said they had used smart home
or automated chore technologies. Some of the more popular types of smart home
and automated chore devices include cleaning tools such as Roombas and
voice-activated technologies like Alexa. Alexa’s “voice AI operating system has
the potential to move consumers and businesses closer to an always-on connected
commerce ecosystem, by leveraging that trust and embedding payment and identity
credentials into a growing portfolio of connected devices powering new use cases
that define the consumer’s daily routine.

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Amazon, Capital One investigating after thieves appearing as Amazon drivers
steal credit cards
Amazon, Companies and Organizations / 30/08/2022

Amazon and Capital One are investigating after a possible fraud scheme was
uncovered last week. Different men wearing Amazon driver clothes act like
they’re dropping off a package but steal a replacement credit card right after
FedEx drops it off at Valley homes. After investigating, Amazon confirmed that
it was not their employees responsible, as no employees or deliveries were
scheduled for the routes where the thefts occurred. Most of the victims had
their Capital One card stolen, now that company is investigating, too.

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Seattle Seahawks to offer both Amazon’s checkout-free shopping and palm-based
payments tech in same-store
Amazon, Companies and Organizations / 29/08/2022

Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks pro football franchise, will become
the first NFL stadium to implement Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” checkout-free
shopping technology and Amazon One palm-based entry and payment solution in a
single store, which will be known as District Market. When customers enter
District Market, they can opt to insert their credit card at the entry gates or
hover their palm over an Amazon One device to enter. Once inside, Just Walk Out
technology determines what they take from or return to the shelves, and the
credit card they inserted or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged for
items they took after they leave the store.

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Companies and Organizations, Google
Google expands enhanced product experiences to more ecommerce sites
Companies and Organizations, Google / 14/09/2022

Google has expanded eligibility for websites that implement Product structured
data. there are two broad categories of search experiences for products and
ecommerce sites: Merchant listing experiences for web pages that allow shoppers
to buy a product on the site. Product snippets for a broader set of web pages
with product information. This includes pages that sell products, publish
product reviews, and/or aggregate information from other sites. Google also
added two new Search Console reports: a merchant listing report and a product
snippets report.

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ChromeOS is simulating touch controls through keyboard presses
Companies and Organizations, Google / 06/09/2022

ChromeOS users can already access a lot of Android games through Google Play,
but many of them are made with a touchscreen interface in mind. That can make it
difficult for users to play these titles using a keyboard and a mouse. To solve
this problem, Google announced that with ChromeOS 105, it’s testing keyboard
controls for select titles. The company is simulating touch controls through
keyboard presses to map touchscreen controls to a desktop system. It also
insisted that developers should implement keyboard controls in their games so
they would work better on Chromebooks without a touchscreen. If you’re running
ChromeOS 105 on a device with a keyboard and mouse (or a touchpad), you’ll see a
keyboard overlay denoting controls that will simulate touch behavior on a
supported game. With this release, users will be able to disable/enable keyboard
overlay, disable game controls and customize control keys in a game (available
through a settings square located on the right-center of the screen). They can
still use the mouse for accessing in-game menus and dialogs. For the initial
phase, Google has concentrated on four kinds of games that will support keyboard
controls: joystick, single-button, multi-button and swipe games.

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Google extends third-party play store payments to more countries
Companies and Organizations, Google / 06/09/2022

Google’s User Choice Billing is now being piloted in more countries to let
developers of non-gaming Android apps test offering payment alternatives.
Developers will see the typical 15% to 30% service fee charged by Google drop by
4% when users opt to use a third-party billing option. App developers who go
that route will then have to deal with customer billing disputes. Registered
developers from the European Economic Area (EEA), India, Japan, Indonesia and
Australia can participate in User Choice Billing. The current expansion of User
Choice Billing still sidesteps the U.S. but now moves into some of Android’s
biggest markets such as India and Indonesia.

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Google extends licensing verification of all financial services advertisers to
more countries
Companies and Organizations, Google / 31/08/2022

Google has mandated the licensing verification of all financial services
providers in Australia before advertising. This means brokers and other
financial services platforms need to verify their Australia Financial Services
(AFS) license obtained from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission
(ASIC) with Google. Further, Aussie financial services platforms need to
complete Google’s advertiser verification program before promoting their
products and services. The new policy has been introduced to curb rampant
financial fraud executed with advertising.

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Innovation Topics, Instagram, Others
New Tiller is the only automated personal finance service built on Microsoft
Excel and Google Sheets
Innovation Topics, Instagram, Others / 01/06/2022

Tiller’s personal finance service now offers a full suite of tools for customers
to manage their financial lives with the power of Microsoft Excel. Tiller is the
only automated personal finance service built on Microsoft Excel and Google
Sheets, combining the ease of an app with the power of spreadsheets. Tiller
provides customers with a clear view of all their finances in one place,
flexible templates, a vibrant user community, US-based customer support, strict
privacy, and no ads. Tiller’s newly upgraded service connects 21,000 banks to
Excel and imports daily financial data with a click. Customers can easily track
their daily spending, account balances, budgets, and net worth in their Excel
workbooks without data entry or logging into multiple accounts. Working with
Microsoft, Tiller is offering Microsoft 365 customers a special 60-day trial of
the service. Additional personal finance features exclusive to Tiller include
prebuilt templates, daily account update email, user Community, and top-rated
customer support. This summer Tiller will release AutoCat, the first fully
customizable transaction auto-categorization engine for Excel. With full support
for Excel, customers can more easily manage their money, their way, with all
their accounts updated in one place, flexible reporting, customizable
categories, and uncompromising privacy.

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Cybersecurity, Innovation Topics
Vista Equity makes go-private to KnowBe4 security awareness training platformNew
Cybersecurity, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

KnowBe4 provides security awareness training with simulated phishing attacks on
its platform. The company’s focus on a growing “must have” category from an
enterprise perspective makes it attractive. Private-equity firms have this year
been taking advantage of the fall in valuations of technology companies due to
worries over rising interest rates and an economic slowdown. The rise of hybrid
work has also made cybersecurity firms attractive targets.

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Google Chrome and MS Edge spellcheck widgets can steal passwordsNew
Cybersecurity, Innovation Topics / 20/09/2022

Using the extended spellcheck in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge transmits
everything you input in order for it to be checked. Unfortunately, this includes
information that should be strictly encrypted, such as passwords. This issue,
first reported by JavaScript security firm otto-js, was discovered accidentally
while the company was testing its script behaviors detection. “If you click on
‘show password,’ the enhanced spellcheck even sends your password, essentially
spell-jacking your data. A lot of passwords could be at risk here. Bleeping
Computer tested this further and found that entering your username and password
on CNN and Facebook sent the data to Google.

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Chrome Incognito lock pages behind fingerprint authentication
Cybersecurity, Innovation Topics / 19/09/2022

Chrome for Android now locks Incognito tabs behind your fingerprint. When you
have Incognito tabs open, exiting Chrome will instantly lock those pages behind
fingerprint authentication. Launching the browser to return to those tabs will
show a gray screen with the Incognito logo at the center. Tapping “Unlock
Incognito” opens the system fingerprint sheet to “Verify it’s you.” The ability
to “Use PIN” is also available in the bottom-left corner. Other available
options include returning to regular tabs, while the overflow menu remains in
its usual position to “Close Incognito tabs.” This is useful when handing your
phone to somebody that doesn’t know your passcode.

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Microsoft Teams is deemed unsafe to use because of vulnerability of
authentication tokens
Cybersecurity, Innovation Topics / 19/09/2022

Cybersecurity research firm Vectra has uncovered a potentially serious flaw in
the desktop version of the service wherein authentication tokens are stored in
plain text, making them vulnerable to a third-party attack. The issue affects
the Teams app based on the company’s Electron framework, which runs on Windows,
macOS, and Linux machines. these credentials could theoretically be stolen by an
attacker who has local or remote system access. A hacker with the requisite
access could steal data from an online Teams user and potentially mimic them
when they’re offline. This identity could then be used across apps like Outlook
or Skype by circumventing MFA requirements.

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Data Economy & Privacy, Innovation Topics
Andreessen Horowitz leads round for Payall’s cross-border payments data utility
Data Economy & Privacy, Innovation Topics / 16/09/2022

Andreessen Horowitz leading Payall’s Seed round to help modernize cross-border
payments. Payall’s platform compliantly automates the collection and sharing of
data among FIs to solve for identity integrity, prove source of fund, and
validate the economic legitimacy of payments. At the end of the day, businesses
are about the teams that build them, and Gary is exactly the type of founder and
leader we like to back. He’s consistently built and sold payment processors for
emerging forms of risk (Wildcard Systems, which sold to eFunds; eFunds to FIS;
and Adaptive Payments, which sold to Mastercard) and the product he’s building
now is totally authentic to his experiences.

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Salesforce and Snowflake partnership moves customer data in real time across
systems
Data Economy & Privacy, Innovation Topics / 16/09/2022

Salesforce and Snowflake partnership provide, to the extent possible, a single,
up-to-date customer record in real time with the ultimate goal of optimizing the
customer experience based on what the company knows about you. Salesforce starts
with the core belief that companies with the best data can build the smartest
machine learning models. But to get to that point requires a CDP, a tool that
collects all the data about a customer’s interactions with a company in one
central repository. The CDP operates best with real-time data, and Snowflake can
be the source of that data. It helps the company’s CDP customers tend to use
both tools, making the partnership even more valuable for both companies.

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Privacera expands data governance capabilities for cloud data lakes with native
AWS lake formation integration
Data Economy & Privacy, Innovation Topics / 12/09/2022

Privacera, the unified data access governance platform has announced the
availability of its AWS Lake Formation integration in private preview, which
offers complete data governance automation and fine-grained data access for AWS
services including Amazon S3, Amazon Redshift and Amazon RDS. Privacera is
expanding its support and native integration for diverse AWS environments with
the new AWS Lake Formation integration to simplify data access governance for
complex and heterogeneous data lake and data mesh environments by extending Lake
Formation enforcement to third-party services like Databricks, enabling
additional governance use-cases. With this new integration, organizations will
be able to accelerate their migration to the cloud by leveraging Privacera to
securely manage data access policies within a single governance platform across
diverse on-premise and cloud data sources. This will significantly reduce the
efforts around data migrations to the cloud through increased automation and
consistent policy management, and the ability to ensure compliance through an
open, consistent and proven standard. The latest integration will give users:

* A unified data governance strategy including your lake formation data assets
* AWS Lake Formation policy enforcement extended to popular data analytics
systems like Databricks
* An intuitive and easy-to-use interface to build data access policies on top
of AWS Lake Formation

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Equifax Launches TotalVerify Data Hub a single source for obtaining the data
insights
Data Economy & Privacy, Innovation Topics / 09/09/2022

Equifax announced the launch of the TotalVerify data hub, a single source for
obtaining the data insights that social service agencies, lenders, background
screeners and employers leverage to build trust, enable safety, verify
information and assess risk. This secure, multi-faceted data and analytics hub
is anchored by The Work Number® database and powered by The Equifax Cloud.
TotalVerify will enable customers to access multi-data solutions derived from an
unparalleled set of differentiated information assets spanning employment,
income, education, incarceration, healthcare credentialing, identity and more.
TotalVerify is designed to provide public and private organizations with the
timely, critical data they need with the convenience of obtaining multiple types
of data from a single source. It can also help social services agencies
quickly and efficiently deliver much-needed benefits to eligible applicants.

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Demographic Change, Innovation Topics
CUs to allow members to set a preferred name and set of pronouns; undergo
gender-affirming procedures
Demographic Change, Innovation Topics / 28/07/2022

Research suggests credit unions are losing the battle to connect with young
consumers, causing some institutions to prioritize programs aimed at millennials
and Generation Z. Michigan State University Federal Credit Union, for example,
plans to let its members set a preferred name and set of pronouns. Meanwhile,
Alternatives Federal Credit Union in Ithaca, New York, has introduced loans for
those seeking to undergo gender-affirming procedures. The moves come as research
from the Chicago-based financial services nonprofit BAI found that 65% of survey
respondents from Generation Z and 68% of millennials choose either a
nontraditional bank such as Venmo or PayPal, or a large bank, as their preferred
financial institution. The credit score union is now working with the know-how
agency to develop digital merchandise which are particularly geared toward
younger shoppers. This contains new monetary steerage assets and up to date
advertising and marketing packages that attraction to youthful demographics. The
credit score union can also be exploring rewards packages for youthful shoppers
that tie into their spending habits, akin to money again on gasoline purchases.
One of many challenges credit score unions face is younger shoppers lump
monetary providers in with different shopper merchandise, which have a largely
digital person expertise.

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ADHD affected people lose £1,600 a year on average in day-to-day money
management
Demographic Change, Innovation Topics / 27/06/2022

Research commissioned by Monzo and conducted by YouGov found that those living
with ADHD are four times more likely to frequently impulse-spend than those who
do not have the condition. The majority (60%) of those surveyed who are living
with ADHD said they believe it has a direct cost implication for them because of
its impact on day-to-day money management, which they estimated amounted to just
over £1,600 a year on average. The findings prompted charities to say that with
a cost of living crisis raging and the number of people with the condition on
the rise, banks should do more to support this community. Other key findings:

* 65% of those with ADHD say the condition makes managing their finances more
difficult.
* Those with ADHD are twice as likely (76%) to suffer from anxiety linked to
their finances compared with the general population (38%).
* According to those with the condition, spending impulsively (58%), struggling
to budget (51%) and struggling to save money (49%) are the biggest issues
they face.
* Those with ADHD are almost three times more likely to struggle with debt
(31%) compared with the general population (11%).
* They are almost three times more likely to miss bill payments occasionally or
often (49%) than someone without the condition (18%).
* They are more than three times more likely to find it difficult to stick to a
budget (50%) compared with the general population (15%).
* Those with ADHD are four times more likely to impulse-spend often (48%) than
someone who doesn’t have it (12%).
* The research also found that fewer than one in five (19%) people with the
condition believe their bank gives them all the tools they need to manage
their finances.

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NatWest adds to its tools for childrens’ banking NatWest with a dedicated pocket
money app
Demographic Change, Innovation Topics / 26/05/2022

NatWest has launched a pocket money app following its acquisition last year of
Rooster Money. NatWest Rooster Money will offer a card free for 12 months for up
to three kids to the company’s 19 million customers as well as Royal Bank of
Scotland and Ulster Bank NI customers. The product will also be available to
customers of other banks at a fee. According to NatWest, the integration of the
pocket money app Rooster Money and the relaunching of tools for children is part
of the bank’s ambition to help more families move through the milestones of
learning about money. The product adds to the bank’s services aimed at
supporting young people, from First Saver through to student banking, and its
financial education programme MoneySense, which first launched more than 25
years ago. It currently is unique among UK high street banks in offering a
children’s prepaid debit card and pocket money app.

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Retirees are opting to use Revolut to avoid hidden fees abroad
Demographic Change, Innovation Topics / 25/05/2022

Revolut, for example, this month revealed that it had seen a 215 per cent uptick
in over 55-year-olds users, signalling a new age of ‘silver swipers’.
Revolut’s data show that the number of transactions by UK users aged 55-74 has
quadrupled, while the amount spent has increased by 470 per cent since 2020. It
is not alone in appealing to an older generation: Starling Bank says the
proportion of its current account users over 50 is 17.8 per cent while Tandem
Bank, which focuses on savings, lending and mortgages, says the over 50s are
signing up to its Fixed Term Savings accounts in droves. Further figures from
Revolut show that retirees are opting to use Revolut to avoid hidden fees
abroad. Revolut reported that the 55-64 UK age group has seen a tenfold increase
in the amount spent in foreign countries over the past two years, and the 64-75
age group isn’t far behind, registering an 840 per cent increase. Revolut says
volumes are just increasing as countries reopen borders. Revolut says that the
trust aspect has been key to the growth in uptake among the older generations,
who are becoming more comfortable using fintech services as they grow more
mainstream. Starling Bank, meanwhile, says it hasn’t seen a specific jump in
over 50s using its products but that it has always had a broad demographic of
customers, with the average age of a Starling Bank customer being 37.

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Futurism, Innovation Topics
D-Wave demonstrates large-scale coherent quantum annealing
Futurism, Innovation Topics / 19/09/2022

D-Wave Quantum shows that the fully programmable D-Wave quantum processor can be
used as an accurate simulator of coherent quantum dynamics at large scales. This
was demonstrated showing the patterns of “kinks” separating correlated spins in
almost perfect agreement with exact analytical solutions of the famous
Schrodinger equation for an ideal quantum system, completely isolated from
outside noise. The density and spacing of kinks depend on, among other things,
the speed and “quantumness” of the experiment. Measurements of single-qubit
parameters were shown to accurately predict the behavior of systems from 8 to
2000 qubits, demonstrating high levels of control in quantum simulations at all
scales.

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World’s ‘most powerful’ quantum computing system on Azure
Futurism, Innovation Topics / 22/08/2022

Quantum Computing Inc IonQ has made a second system available on Microsoft
Corp.’s Azure Quantum cloud platform, in a bid to bring the technology to a much
wider audience. The company said the Aria system is exclusively available on
Azure Quantum, a cloud computing service operated by Microsoft that provides
access to a range of third-party quantum computing tools and services. By
making the system available on Azure Quantum, IonQ said, the technology is being
more accessible and affordable for the research community. “IonQ Aria joining
IonQ Harmony on the Azure Quantum platform ensures that enterprise customers and
research institutions have a choice when it comes to selecting which quantum
system is best suited for their specific needs,” said IonQ President and Chief
Executive Peter Chapman.

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Nvidia’s new platform could usher in the era of hybrid quantum-classical
computing
Futurism, Innovation Topics / 13/07/2022

Nvidia is introducing a new platform called QODA — Quantum Optimized Device
Architecture — that will create a unified, open environment across traditional
computers and quantum processors. Nvidia contends that, with open and
interoperable standards, developers can use across different hardware and
software platforms and hybrid quantum-classical computing will be within reach.
QODA includes a programming model and a compiler toolchain that enables quantum
acceleration of scientific computing applications. This means the programming
model and toolchain are built to integrate into and interoperate with the tools,
the programming models, and the languages that scientific developers are already
using in their applications.

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New photonic tech scales quantum computers to millions of qubits
Futurism, Innovation Topics / 06/07/2022

Quantum computing company, Quantum Source’s vision is to enable scaling quantum
computers to millions of qubits with its breakthrough photonic technology.
Large-scale photonic quantum computers are expected to instigate a revolution in
entire industries. These quantum computers will accelerate, for instance, the
development of new drugs, shorten the time pharma companies can introduce new
medicines to the market, and support physicians with treatment optimization for
complex diseases. Oded Melamed, CEO and Co-Founder, Quantum Source said: “The
photonic quantum technology that Quantum Source is developing will enable a
dramatic leap forward and the realization of quantum computer systems with
millions of qubits. These new full-scale quantum computers will have a
significant impact on many industries, solving previously computationally
impossible problems in multiple sectors, such as drug and material development,
finance, and cybersecurity.”

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Green Banking, Innovation Topics
JPMorgan gets real with ESG-style fund offerings
Green Banking, Innovation Topics / 14/09/2022

JPMorgan has admirably pivoted its exchange-traded fund marketing away from ESG
greenwashing toward more realistic positioning like their Carbon Transitioning
US Equities ETF (JCTR) , or their Climate Change Solutions ETF (TEMP) . They
continued this trend recently with the launch of three new actively managed
funds, the Social Advancement ETF (UPWD) , the Sustainable Consumption ETF
(CIRC) , and the Sustainable Infrastructure ETF (BLLD) . All three of these
funds have a 49-basis point expense ratio so a shareholder with $1,000 invested
over a calendar year would pay $4.90 in fees over that period. These fund names
take a more nuanced approach to positioning the strategies as “doing well by
doing good,” but let’s take a look under the hood and see what kind of exposure
these funds provide investors.

* UPWD explains the strategy as selecting companies that are “facilitating
social and economic advancement and are thus well-positioned to benefit from
growing demand for investments that are furthering social advancement.” This
language is interesting because it reads as if the strategy is kind of like a
social advancement momentum play. Reading further there is language that
describes the activities that the issuer believes act as catalysts for social
and economic advancement, which include companies that provide essential
amenities, affordable housing and infrastructure, health care and wellbeing,
education and training talent, attainable financing, and access to the
digital ecosystem.
* CIRC’s prospectus employs similar “well positioned to benefit from the
growing demand for such investments” when describing the main activities of
companies that “are developing solutions that help preserve natural
resources, improve resource use, or reduce waste.” These activities include
activities related to water systems, agriculture and food, production
technologies, materials and design (all sustainable, of course), and
recycling and re-use.
* BLLD’s prospectus states that the portfolio managers are looking for
companies that will “benefit from growing demand for sustainable
infrastructure,” which is different from the other funds that seem more
interested in catching a wave. Of the three new funds, BLLD’s strategy is
looking to tie fund performance directly to the results of the activities of
the underlying companies instead of the demand for shares of those companies
based on broad investor sentiment. While JP Morgan has made some moves to
position these products with specific goals, it’s not clear that these goals
are what will drive share price appreciation, except for the infrastructure
focused BLLD.

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McKinsey and Microsoft partner to meld sustainability data intelligence with
decarbonization planning and execution
Green Banking, Innovation Topics / 13/09/2022

Microsoft and McKinsey create an integrated solution that combines
sustainability data intelligence from Microsoft Sustainability Manager with
decarbonization planning and an execution engine using McKinsey Sustainability’s
Catalyst Zero. During execution, the ongoing data feed between Microsoft’s and
McKinsey’s solutions regularly monitors whether the impact forecasted in the
decarbonization plan is happening as planned. This creates confidence in the
decarbonization impact achieved and transparency for all stakeholders, including
clients, consumers, shareholders, and regulators. The joint solution is powered
with thousands of emission factors and decarbonization levers.

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DIGISEQ, Mastercard and MuchBetter collaborate to turn apple skins into
contactless payment Fobs
Green Banking, Innovation Topics / 12/09/2022

DIGISEQ teamed up with Mastercard, the official payments partner of the
tournament held at Roland-Garros since 2013, and MuchBetter to produce a
world-first sustainable contactless key fob made with organic apple skins. Each
chip-enabled key fob was pre-loaded by DIGISEQ using its mobile personalisation
service RCOS with €20, which could be spent on-site, while the fob holder was
made with apple waste from apple juice production with a natural apple-scent.
Once fob users had spent their pre-loaded amount onsite at the tournament, the
fob could then be reused after the event by downloading the MuchBetter app and
can be used in any contactless location where Mastercard is accepted. DIGISEQ’s
mobile personalisation and tokenisation ensures all provisioned payment data is
fully protected, with contactless transactions secured in exactly the same way
as card or phone NFC payments. Consumers can register and activate their own
item using their payment card, through DIGISEQ’s Manage MiiTM mobile app, which
can be white-labelled with the branding of its clients, essentially making it an
invisible payments partner.

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Urban Institute helps U.S. Bank create a measurement framework for social impact
Green Banking, Innovation Topics / 09/09/2022

U.S. Bank has been working with Urban Institute to create a framework to measure
the social impact of U.S. Bank Access Commitment, the bank’s long-term approach
to wealth building and helping to close the racial wealth gap. The framework
will help U.S. Bank determine what data points to measure to identify social
impact in the communities it serves. The Urban Institute has provided U.S. Bank
with metrics that give the company a starting point and checkpoints to assess
its progress with short-, medium-, and long-term goals. It provides ways U.S.
Bank can drive change – education and coaching, products and services (existing
and new) and networks and apply all these to current Access Commitment
initiatives and all future ones as well. Over time, measuring this social impact
will enable U.S. Bank to monitor progress and adjust course for maximum impact
as it works toward the goal of helping Black and Hispanic individuals, families,
small businesses and communities build wealth. The company anticipates having
its first set of social impact measurements in 2023. Urban Institute helped U.S.
Bank identify ways in which it will put people on the path to building wealth,
which will ultimately close the racial wealth gap:

* Career advancement for current and prospective employees, which includes
support for career development and competitive pay and benefits.
* Financial capability and asset building for individuals and families, which
includes financial education and supportive and affordable products.
* Prosperous and thriving businesses and communities, which includes coaching
and technical assistance, equitable access to capital, networking, and
advocacy.

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Innovation Topics, Mobility & Last Mile
Federal Reserve launches service to help financial institutions track trends for
payments settled through its FedACH® ServiceNew
Innovation Topics, Mobility & Last Mile / 20/09/2022

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SWIFT launches AI tool to predict cross-border Payment problems
Innovation Topics, Mobility & Last Mile / 02/09/2022

SWIFT is introducing a new predictive data intelligence capability that
determines potential problems with cross-border transactions before payments are
sent. Using its global intelligence on past cross-border flows, the new
capability is part of SWIFT’s strategy to remove friction while advancing
real-time international payments. The new tool pinpoints accounts credited
successfully in the past on the SWIFT network and uses the data to spot possible
mistakes in payee information, which is the most common reason for holdups in
cross-border transactions. An expanded feature of SWIFT’s Payment Pre-validation
service, this latest solution is available to banks via an API. With centralized
verification using aggregated and anonymized data from 9 billion transaction
messages between 4 billion accounts each year, SWIFT’s tool offers insights that
a single bank can’t provide, according to the release. The solution offers a
level of real-time assurance about the likelihood that funds will go through
even if the financial institutions or parties never transacted with one another
prior. SWIFT Chief Innovation Officer Thomas Zschach. “When someone wants to
make an international payment, we can instantly predict the likelihood of
success based on whether the account has been credited successfully in the past,
and then present this information directly to the customer so that they can fix
any errors or typos before the payment even starts its processing.” SWIFT is
also working on growing its capabilities in low-value payments through SWIFT Go
and is collaborating with others in the industry to research potential uses of
CBDCs, tokenization and AI.

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Nacha’s Phixius P2P verification platform passes 1 Million transactions
Innovation Topics, Mobility & Last Mile / 26/08/2022

Nacha’s Phixius service, a trusted peer-to-peer network for efficient and safe
exchange and verification of payment-related information, announced that
financial institutions and service providers in the Phixius network have
utilized the service more than 1 million times so far this year to verify
payment-related data. Phixius enables real-time API connections between
organizations to exchange or verify information to reduce fraud, ensure
compliance and improve electronic payments. Ten thousand businesses now have
access to the standardized APIs supported by Phixius. Phixius enables businesses
to validate data such as routing and account numbers, and there are plans to
support additional data validations later in 2022.

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Fed Governor touts FedNow as alternative to CBDC but complementary
Innovation Topics, Mobility & Last Mile / 19/08/2022

The Fed’s upcoming payment service, FedNow, fulfills many of the same purposes
as a CBDC. Governor Michelle Bowman said that the Federal Reserve’s FedNow
service could be ready by mid-2023. Bowman said that FedNow “addresses the
issues that some have raised about the need for a CBDC.” FedNow does not rely on
a government-issued stablecoin or CBDC. However, it fills a similar role in that
it will allow financial institutions and customers to use a service that
competes with other payment providers. Though Bowman’s initial comments imply
that FedNow reduces the need for a CBDC, the two efforts could be complementary.
Bowman added that the Federal Reserve is considering whether a CBDC “might fit
into the future U.S. money and payments landscape” even as it assesses the
benefits of FedNow. Bowman also commented on crypto-assets in general, noting
that the Federal Reserve has witnessed “significant consumer demand” for banks
to provide crypto services. She said that these trends have likely caused banks
to want to better understand and facilitate these services for their customers.
She added that banks have seen some customer deposits go to crypto firms, noting
that banks “would like to stem that outflow” by offering services that compete
with the crypto industry.

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Innovation Topics, Neo-Banks & Challengers
Auto-loan refinance app Approve reports $2 Billion in loans with 75K
customersNew
Innovation Topics, Neo-Banks & Challengers / 20/09/2022

Startup Auto Approve, is a fintech company that helps consumers refinance their
auto loans. Auto Approve brings sophisticated financial analysis to the everyday
consumer. The startup uses advanced technology to quickly find consumers the
best auto loan refinancing deals from across the country, saving customers an
average of about $150 a month. Most car buyers get stuck in loans from
dealerships or manufacturers, and those loans are often unaffordable, with
interest rates higher than a consumer should be paying.

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New neobank offers a “private banker in your pocket” for the pre-affluent
‘HENRYs’ market segment
Innovation Topics, Neo-Banks & Challengers / 14/09/2022

Marygold & Co. plans to bring an unusual mix of banking, payments and investment
services to ‘High Earner, Not Rich Yet’ customers. One example is called Money
Pools. Customers can set up savings goals that are tracked separately, with
pools for accumulating towards those goals. Much more significant is the “Pay
Anyone” feature that Marygold will include. Pay Anyone service being developed
will allow Marygold app users to, well, pay anyone. People who receive a payment
will receive a text or email notice, and if they download the app and join
Marygold, they will receive a $10 bonus. Otherwise, payments will be sent via
such channels as the ACH.

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Neo-banks Starling, Upgrade and Dave depend on strong lending models for
profitability
Innovation Topics, Neo-Banks & Challengers / 13/09/2022

Starling derives about half of its revenue from lending, particularly mortgage
and small business loans. In this sense, their business model is similar to that
of a traditional bank. Challenger bank Upgrade, has been profitable for two
years. this is mainly because company has relied on credit products from the
start, rather than starting with an app and a debit card like most neobanks do.
Dave’s strongest source of income is ExtraCash, a short-term loan of up to $500
with no interest, fees, and no credit check. Customers pay back the money from
their next paycheck and only pay a fee for ExtraCash if they send the money to
an external debit card immediately.

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Study finds that fewer than 10% of consumers use fintechs as a primary bank
Innovation Topics, Neo-Banks & Challengers / 13/09/2022

A PYMNTS and Treasury Prime study found that consumers are becoming curious
about the benefits of digital banking, including easier transfers, lower costs
and better notifications. Although 39% of consumers say digital banks can be
true alternatives to traditional banks, more than half have no plans to switch
to a digital bank. 53% are not even considering making digital banks their
primary banks, and 47% are hesitant about digital banks and want to learn more
before making any decisions. 34% cited satisfaction with their current bank as
the most important reason for disinterest in digital banks, and 13% wanted to
retain access to physical branches.

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PAYMENT GATEWAYS & CARD SERVICES

US payments volume climbed 11% Y/Y in August
Companies and Organizations, Visa Checkout / 31/08/2022

Visa said its U.S. payments volume was up 11% from a year ago, with even the
company’s exit from Russia not hurting the stats. Credit payments volume was up
17%, while debt volume was up 7%, both up one point since July. The August
international markets were consistent with the July levels on a year-over-year
basis, along with comparing them to how things were in 2019. Visa said the
August cross-border volume had increased one point from July as well, at 129% of
2019. Card not present volume, excluding travel, was down 1 point, to 156% of
2019. The company exited Russia earlier in the year because of that country’s
war in Ukraine started in February. Visa and Mastercard have said it’s the fault
of fraud for the uptick they’ve seen in cross-border fees since the U.K. left
the European Union, a post on the parliament. The payments giants increased
cross-border interchange fees on purchases from U.K. consumers to European
businesses and by European consumers to U.K. businesses, with the fees going
from 0.2% to 1.15% for debit cards and 0.3% to 1.5% for credit cards. The U.K.
Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) set out plans for two market reviews focused on
card fees, including one focused on cross-border interchange fees.

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American Express to offer fintechs credit cards via WebBank
AMEX, Companies and Organizations / 17/08/2022

American Express selected WebBank as one of its key issuing banks focused on the
fintech industry. WebBank is a Utah chartered Industrial Bank headquartered in
Salt Lake City, Utah. As “The Bank Behind the Brand®”, WebBank is a national
issuer of consumer and small business credit products through Strategic Partner
(Brand) platforms, which include retailers, manufacturers, finance companies,
software as a service (SaaS) and financial technology (FinTech) companies. The
Bank is a leading player in the digital lending space, driving innovation in
financial products through embedded finance with Strategic Partner platforms.
WebBank engages in a full range of banking activities including consumer and
commercial loan products, revolving lines of credit, credit cards, private-label
card issuance, auto-refinancing and more. The Bank provides capital in the form
of asset-backed lending and other credit facilities to Strategic Partner
platforms, credit funds, and other lenders with a targeted focus on specialty
finance assets. The Bank is also a leading provider of commercial insurance
premium finance products through its wholly owned subsidiary National Partners.

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Digital receipt firm ReceiptHero joins Visa fintech partner connect
Companies and Organizations, Visa Checkout / 16/08/2022

ReceiptHero, which helps companies digitize the customer-receipting process, has
joined the Visa Fintech Partner Connect program, a program that helps connect
Visa clients in Europe with tech providers that have undergone special vetting.
The partnership strengthens the company’s relationship with Visa and provides
access to new markets in Europe. ReceiptHero provides merchants and issuers with
real-time digital receipts, operating in European countries including
Switzerland and Finland. An advantage of the ReceiptHero, the company says on
its website, is that retailers are able to use the receipting process to launch
digital relationships with customers. ReceiptHero, removes the need for
businesses to create their own loyalty apps for customers. For cashiers, the
checkout process is unchanged, and “receipt delivery happens automatically in
the background.” So far, ReceiptHero has been deployed at about 3,000 retail
locations. The company, which says customers prefer digital receipts to paper
ones, states in its marketing materials that it has numerous safeguards to
protect customer data in place.

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AmEx retools no-fee card as customers feel pinch from inflation to include
rewards for online retail purchases.
AMEX, Companies and Organizations / 15/07/2022

American Express Co. is adding new perks to its no-fee Blue Cash Everyday card
as U.S. consumers face historic increases in prices. The card — which has long
offered cash back for spending at US supermarkets and gas stations — will now
also offer rewards for online retail purchases. It will also offer credits
toward a Disney streaming subscription and an online meal service. AmEx is
revamping the card as the Labor Department reported data this week showing the
consumer price index rose 9.1% from a year ago, the largest increase since the
early 1980s. The average national retail price of gasoline surpassed $5 a gallon
for the first time in June before retreating in recent weeks.

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Square POS transactions will be reconciled daily automatically in Sage
Accounting
Companies and Organizations, Square / 09/09/2022

Sage, the accounting, financial, HR and payroll platform for SMBs, and Square,
announce new partnership. All sales and payment transactions processed through
Square POS will be reconciled automatically in Sage Accounting daily; Combining
Sage’s software with the option to add easy-to-use POS hardware to support
cashless selling, in-person, online or over the phone; Up-to-date, accurate
visibility of a business’ position, easily accessed; Ability to offer loyalty
programs and delve into the data to understand customer behaviour. Customers can
access 24/7 support when using the integration, through a service provided by
Amaka, accounting integration and automation software.

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Square POS transactions will be reconciled daily automatically in Sage
Accounting
Companies and Organizations, Square / 09/09/2022

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PayPal launches faster Grant Payments for charities with full donor information
Companies and Organizations, PayPal / 30/08/2022

PayPal Holdings, Inc., in partnership with National Philanthropic Trust (NPT)
and Vanguard Charitable, announced Grant Payments. Grant Payments will enable
charities to receive grants shortly after the grant maker has approved the
funds. Both grant makers and charities will have access to all available grant
details, including donor information when provided, via a PayPal dashboard.
Eligible and participating charities have been vetted per PayPal’s strong
compliance standards.

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Square sellers across the UK can now offer Buy Now, Pay Later through Clearpay
(Afterpay)
Companies and Organizations, Square / 24/08/2022

Square launches its first integration with Clearpay in the UK, providing “Buy
Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) functionality to sellers across online and in-person
commerce. This marks another key milestone in the global integration of Clearpay
(known as Afterpay outside the UK and Europe) following the acquisition of
Afterpay by Block, as the UK will be the first market to launch BNPL available
across all platforms at the same time, including in-store, online and can also
be integrated by Square’s developers and partners. The integration will enable
Square sellers in the UK to offer a BNPL solution that allows customers to pay
in four interest-free instalments over a six-week period while merchants get
paid right away.

For online purchasing, Clearpay will now be embedded as a payment option within
Square Online’s checkout system, giving sellers the opportunity to improve their
average purchase size, increase basket conversion and attract more customers.

Sellers will be able to accept Clearpay in-person at the buyer checkout stage
through any Square point of sale software – Square Point of Sale, Square
Appointments, Square for Retail, and Square for Restaurants.

Developers can consolidate transaction data and build and maintain a single
integration for Square and Clearpay payments with a few lines of code within the
Square Web Payments SDK.

Sellers who accept payments via Square’s Virtual Terminal dashboard can offer
Clearpay via text message Pay Links or by using Square Terminal hardware.

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Innovation Topics, Reality
Insurtech offers consulting services to be accessed by a personalized minted
NFTNew
Innovation Topics, Reality / 20/09/2022

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New Manaverse offers immersive banking experience and bank balance checks in VR
Innovation Topics, Reality / 19/09/2022

Mana VR lets you take control of your Manaverse checking account in a fully
immersive VR environment. Like any real-world banking experience, Mana offers
its customers some pretty cool rewards. You can earn points that can be spent on
video games and unlock Mana rewards by playing your favorite games. If you’re
looking to spend some of your money on real-world stuff, Mana also gives their
customers spending power through a Mana Visa Debit Card which also comes with
rewards. Along with having an immersive VR banking experience, Mana also gives
you banking power the old-fashioned way through a mobile app available for all
iOS and Android devices.

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Roblox to launch 3D immersive advertising in in custom virtual worlds
Innovation Topics, Reality / 19/09/2022

Roblox is planning to first test the ads with developers and a few advertisers
by the end of 2022 before rolling out the immersive ads in 2023. The new ad
format will come with the ability to create 3D portals capable of transporting
Roblox players to custom virtual worlds. Roblox is positioning the new Immersive
Ads offering as a way for advertisers to create deeper connections with its
community. Additionally, Roblox is scaling up its Marketplace where creators can
sell items for Roblox’s Robux in-game currency by introducing a new mechanic
that allows users to control the scarcity of their goods.

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Mailchain a multi-wallet Web3 email solution enables native communication
between artists and collectors
Innovation Topics, Reality / 19/09/2022

Mailchain, the new communication layer for Web3, launches the first secure,
multi-wallet email solution. Using Mailchain’s Web3 inbox, users can now send
and receive messages using their blockchain addresses, in a similar way to
sending emails. The ability to connect multiple wallets to one inbox creates a
private hub for Web3 activity. The ability to connect multiple wallets to one
inbox creates a private hub for Web3 activity. Projects integrating Mailchain
can communicate directly with intended audiences, wallet-to-wallet, and ensure
updates are not buried or lost across disparate channels.

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Innovation Topics, Regulatory & RegTech
Staircase debuts tool to automate non-delegated mortgage insurance
underwritingNew
Innovation Topics, Regulatory & RegTech / 20/09/2022

Mortgage tech startup Staircase has launched a tool that enables mortgage
insurers to automate the underwriting of non-delegated mortgage insurance (MI)
policies for lenders at about half of the typical cost. Staircase’s mortgage
insurance underwriting tool fully automates the non-delegated underwriting
process by pulling documents and data directly from lenders to allow insurers to
make instant policy decisions. To underwrite a non-delegated loan, the lender
collects all the documentation, including pay stubs, bank account statements and
tax returns. Once the data and documents are submitted to the mortgage insurance
company, their underwriters determine if the loan meets their underwriting
guidelines.

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New intelligent compliance platform reduces supervised communications content
review time by up to 84%
Innovation Topics, Regulatory & RegTech / 24/08/2022

Proofpoint, Inc., a cybersecurity and compliance company launched its
Intelligent Compliance Platform, offering enterprises modern regulatory
compliance safeguards while simplifying corporate legal protection practices.
The platform leverages Proofpoint’s proprietary ML engine to provide business
leaders with AI-powered collection, classification, detection, prevention,
search, eDiscovery, supervision, and next generation predictive analytics while
meeting complex compliance and information governance obligations. Existing
customers can leverage the Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform in two
ways. For efficiency, compliance and legal teams can reduce supervised
communications content review time by up to 84%. For effectiveness, sentiment
analysis of communications data and a variety of machine learning models enable
early detection of organizational behavioral misconduct to protect customers
from insider risks and regulatory fines.

Customer benefits include:

* Unified Data Collection and Preservation: Customers can easily manage content
from communication platforms including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Meta, LinkedIn,
Slack, Instagram, and Twitter. API-based content collection is automatically
centralized with an extensible platform that consumes all data types
including audio, video, and text. Content tracking provides a full audit
trail where data in transport is reconciled and scanned for anomalies from
source to destination.
* Automated Risk Detection in Real-time Digital Communication: Customers can
automate detection of communication trends to pinpoint the source of
supervised insider risk. Customers can proactively monitor sensitive data and
be alerted as compliance violations occur.
* Supervisory Flag Deduplication: Compliance, IT, and Legal teams can
significantly reduce the amount of time spent on data review by bypassing
pre-flagged.
* AI-Powered Data Discovery with Case Management: Customers can track
communications data history interactively with advanced visualizations,
intelligent conversation threading, and review content in native chat view.

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FCA’s new Consumer Duty requires financial services firms to put their
customers’ needs first
Innovation Topics, Regulatory & RegTech / 28/07/2022

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed its plans to bring in a new
Consumer Duty, which will fundamentally improve how firms serve consumers. It
will set higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial
services and require firms to put their customers’ needs first. The Duty is made
up of an overarching principle and new rules firms will have to follow. It will
mean that consumers should receive communications they can understand, products
and services that meet their needs and offer fair value, and they get the
customer support they need, when they need it. Clarity on expectations and
firms focusing on what their customers need should lead to more flexibility for
firms to compete and innovate in the interests of consumers. The Duty forms
part of the FCA’s transformation to becoming a more assertive and data-led
regulator. With firms assessing how they’re meeting their customers’ needs, the
FCA will be able to quickly identify practices that don’t deliver the right
outcomes for consumers and take action before practices become entrenched as
market norms.

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Industry’s first risk score automatically prioritizes and reports on sensitive
data risks across the enterprise
Innovation Topics, Regulatory & RegTech / 27/07/2022

Spirion, a pioneer in sensitive data governance, announced new enhancements to
its Sensitive Data Platform, featuring the industry’s first risk score that
automatically prioritizes and reports on sensitive data risks across the
enterprise. Spirion’s SDV3 Sensitive Data Risk Dashboard gives visibility into
an organization’s attack surface and where the greatest risks are located, so
limited resources can be optimized based on business risk and what matters most.
Spirion’s SDV³ Sensitive Data Risk Dashboard provides a quantitative measure of
data risk that is directly tied to the sensitivity of personal data stored
across IT systems along with actionable visualizations, allowing organizations
to effectively manage their overall risk associated with the sensitive data they
are entrusted with. It scores the overall risk value of sensitive data assets
and accurately assesses the potential costs of data exfiltration based on the
three primary characteristics of sensitive data risk:

* Value: The relative value an organization assigns to a data asset (dollar
amount or ranking). This could include high value data (PII, PHI, company
secrets, etc.) or highly regulated data based on industry.
* Volume: The volume of sensitive data in an asset to help security teams
quickly spot opportunities to remove unneeded ROT (redundant, outdated, or
trivial) data to minimize their sensitive data threat surface.
* Vulnerability: Based on location and overall data posture, how vulnerable is
an organization’s data to being compromised or misused, either inadvertently
or maliciously.

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Innovation Topics, Retooling Talent
Goldman Sachs adds ‘verbal dexterity’ training for Private Wealth Advisors
Innovation Topics, Retooling Talent / 14/01/2022
* Goldman has added a new layer of schooling for its up-and-coming private
wealth advisors that focuses on the softer arts of finance, like how to
communicate with business founders and other multimillionaires, as well as
estate planning. The program, which lies between the analyst and advisor
roles, is not available to everyone. Only about 25 to 40 analysts from the
private wealth division are picked for the two-year training course after
working for three years as analysts. Estate planning and client interactions
are core to the program.
* Analysts who are selected for the program are known as business development
professionals, or BDPs, until they graduate into full-fledged private bank
advisors. The work of the BDP is divided between typical private wealth
analyst duties, such as monitoring portfolio holdings and executing trades,
and helping a private wealth team service clients and bring in new ones.
These BDPs are already familiar with investment services, so learning about
non-investment topics, particularly estate planning, and interacting with
clients are core to the program. There are monthly mentorship calls, and each
trainee is assigned a mentor for one-on-one support. Each year, Goldman
selects four to five of their top-performing advisors to be “champions” and
mentor the BDPs through the entire two years.
* Bringing in active advisors helps keep the training up to date with current
practices. Experts from both inside and outside Goldman Sachs come in to lead
weeklong sessions on capital market fundamentals, family office services, and
other topics. Participants also undergo ‘verbal dexterity training.’ In
breakout sessions of five to 10 people, trainees are asked questions about
the week’s topic with the goal of answering in way that would be relatable to
non-finance professionals. The last step is regional training, including case
studies and mock clients. After the New York training, the BDPs are sent to
their assigned regions just after Labor Day for a four-week stint, where they
work on three case studies. The course culminates in a written exam with
questions formulated by the experts who led lessons, as well as a one-on-one
oral exam with the trainee’s mentor. After successful completion, they are
eligible for promotion to private wealth advisor. Though the case study
projects and quizzes are graded, this is not a pass-fail program. Trainees
are given opportunities to study specific topics again and retake the exams.

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“Virtual office” displays a combination of all the distributed offices and
employees “seated” for all to collaborate
Innovation Topics, Retooling Talent / 13/01/2022

Gereon Hammel, vice president for business development at Deutsche Telekom, says
companies with hybrid work environments can create the all-important culture and
connection necessary for a business’s success. Deutsche Telekom has taken the
opportunity to set up a virtual office that makes team members feel like they’re
working together, despite the distance. They’ve created a web-based application
which represents a combination of all the distributed offices. Agents log on in
the morning and take their seat in the virtual office. Everyone who’s logged on
can see other employees who are logged on, and easily start collaborating
through the app’s tools and features. There’s business value in creating these
connections, sharing knowledge, and building relationships. They looked into 3D
tools and 2D tools like Sococo, which enables the use cases they need in
customer service. They implemented four functionalities, including the ability
to see other employees’ availability. They also use a chat functionality with
prioritization and routing within teams. If an employee has a question for a
colleague, it will be routed through the chat to the next available agent.
One-to-one video or text chats are also available for simple coaching requests
and team meetings. Finally, they brought back the spontaneous interactions in
virtual form.

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Platform assembles all workforce data in one central location for better and
equitable compensation decisions
Innovation Topics, Retooling Talent / 12/01/2022

Assemble, an early-stage startup has created a system of engagement for
compensation decisions. “This is a system that assembles all that compensation
and workforce data in one central location that usually lives in disparate
systems, and then makes it not only accessible but actionable and easy to
understand for various stakeholders across the company,” co-founder Enrique
Esclusa said. Co-founder, Lisa Wallace said that companies typically don’t
consider equity in a direct way as they build an organization, then go back and
try to fix it, a process that requires consultants to pull the information from
various systems. Assemble is designed to build equity into the compensation
system from the start. “It’s not just about running a pay equity analysis in one
place, or providing one-off visibility to managers in another place. It’s about
truly having a layer of engagement across your organization that works from
multiple stakeholders that are touching compensation because there are so many
different stakeholders and so many different objectives, and it’s really easy to
go off the rails,” she said. Since compensation doesn’t live on its own inside
an organization, Assemble works in conjunction with HR and payroll software
tools like WorkDay, Gusto, ADP and Bamboo HR.

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Tech simplifies creating try before you buy demo creation to embed snippets into
websites, blogs and tweets
Innovation Topics, Retooling Talent / 12/01/2022

Arcade, an interactive demo company, which is now launched to the public, is
making it easier for companies to create demonstration videos, called “arcades,”
that walk people through how their tools work. Arcade remembers what you click
on so users can make a version of their demo and then embed snippets of the
product into websites, blogs and tweets so that people who haven’t used the
product before can see it before signing on for a trial. Historically, selling
involved hiding behind the demo, and once the company got the person’s
information, it was more of a “gotcha” moment. One of Arcade’s customers,
Clockwork, which works with financial professionals, often asks potential users
to connect their invoices to the product so users can see how Clockwork
operates, but that is a big ask. By utilizing Arcade, Clockwork is able to give
potential customers a taste of what their platform is like without uploading
that data. Carta is another customer that is deploying arcades across its social
media. The idea of getting on a Zoom or a call with a sales rep in order to try
out a vendor’s product feels disruptive to a users’ needs and flow. It should be
much easier to for users to simply see an instance of their data on a vendor’s
landing page. Arcade is empowering creators to develop magical experiences and
for them to feel proud of their work.

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Innovation Topics, Robos & Wealth
Bambu offers Wealth predictive planning for MS Cloud for Fin. Services and MS
Dynamics 365 SalesNew
Innovation Topics, Robos & Wealth / 20/09/2022

Bambu announced the launch of its Wealth Management Predictive Planning solution
for Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales. The
system will enable users to predict and analyse key life events along with the
ability to suggest achievable financial goals and solutions for future financial
planning. Powered by AI and through the adoption of the Hidden Markov Model
(HMM) and Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) machine learning models, both
solutions will be able to generate thousands of timelines of future events and
outlines based on demographic profiles and the four major aspects of life –
marriage, family, career, and financial situation.”

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Morgan Stanley at Work unveils participant aggregation platform to create a
seamless experience for plan advisors
Innovation Topics, Robos & Wealth / 08/09/2022

Morgan Stanley at Work announced the rollout of its new Corporate Retirement
Portal, an innovative technology solution designed to provide Morgan Stanley
Wealth Management Plan Advisors with a one-stop shop, consolidated view of
workplace retirement plans and participant data via the Firm’s Modern
WealthPlatform, WealthDesk. The new Corporate Retirement Portal allows them to
have access to a comprehensive view of their clients’ retirement plan accounts,
inclusive of the services provided to held-away retirement plans and plan
sponsors. Plan Advisors can now work seamlessly with plan sponsors and provide
participants targeted financial education through Morgan Stanley Wealth
Management’s Next Best Action, an engagement tool that powers scalable
customized content delivery. The Corporate Retirement Portal allows Plan
Advisors to deliver personalized financial education and content to help
participants navigate the complexities of retirement planning and savings.

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Intuit enables tax professionals to offer retirement planning and other insights
Innovation Topics, Robos & Wealth / 31/08/2022

Intuit launches Intuit Tax Advisor (ITA), a new, convenient insights tool for
tax professionals to deliver tax advisory services. ITA generates
client-friendly reports with recommendations that are personalized for estimated
tax savings strategies. This includes what retirement plan contributions, income
and deduction timing, and more, can do for clients. ITA seamlessly integrates
with Lacerte and ProConnect Tax software to provide tax insights and strategies
for the tax professional’s clients. Tax return data for Lacerte and ProConnect
is synced to ITA. This eliminates duplicate data entry, reduces errors, helps
support better tax recommendations and supports more accurate tax projection.

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Black and Hispanic Americans prefer to take more control over their investments
and are driven by purpose: J.P. Morgan study
Innovation Topics, Robos & Wealth / 24/08/2022

Black and Hispanic Americans prefer to have more control over their investments
and care more about the social impact of companies they are investing in,
according to new research from J.P. Morgan Wealth Management. Most Black and
Hispanic Americans prefer to have more control over their investments. 59% of
Black Americans and 57% of Hispanic Americans want to take an active role in
selecting the stocks, bonds or funds that make up their investment portfolio,
compared to 46% of White Americans. Black and Hispanic Americans care more about
the social impact of the companies they’re investing in. Black and Hispanic
Americans say it’s important that their investments are Black, Indigenous and
People of Color (BIPOC)-owned, started, and/or operated (70% and 46%, compared
to 27% of White and 31% of Asian). They want to have a positive environmental
impact (72% for both Black and Hispanic, compared to 55% of White and 57% of
Asian). They invest in companies that are women-owned, started, and/or operated
(60% and 48%, compared to 30% of White and 40% of Asian). They promote gender
and racial equity and diversity (66% and 54%, compared to 35% of White and 42%
of Asian).

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Innovation Topics, User Interface
New FontMART model learns to associate fonts with specific reader
characteristics for personalization
Innovation Topics, User Interface / 15/08/2022

A team of researchers who worked with an Adobe team has suggested that
personalized font recommendations can improve the accessibility of digital
information and enhance individual reading experiences. Ben Sawyer ’14MS ’15PhD,
the director of the Readability Consortium and UCF’s Virtual Readability Lab and
Zoya Bylinskii, an Adobe research scientist, were involved in the conception of
the research and provided guidance throughout the study. Tianyuan Cai, an
Acrobat.com machine learning engineer, led the FontMART study. The study used
the Font Preference Test featured on UCF’s Virtual Readability Lab’s website to
provide baselines for evaluating FontMART’s recommendations. Study results
indicated that the FontMART model can recommend fonts that improve reading speed
by matching reader characteristics with specific font characteristics. The
FontMART model learns to associate fonts with specific reader characteristics.
FontMART can predict the fonts that work well for specific readers by
understanding the relationship between font characteristics and reader
characteristics like font familiarity, self-reported reading speed and age,
according to the FontMART study. Among the characteristics considered, age plays
the largest role when the model determines which font is recommended for
readers. For instance, font characteristics like heavier weight benefit the
reading experience of older adults because thicker font strokes are easier to
read for those with weaker and variable eyesight.

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Digital experience intelligence platform helps eliminate blind spots about key
user flows, identify obstacles to conversion
Innovation Topics, User Interface / 01/07/2022

TryMyUI, a user experience testing platform has acquired Stitchology.ai, a
session replay and comprehensive web analytics tool. This new acquisition will
allow TryMyUI to create the first-ever product for maximizing product-led
growth. Together, the companies will provide an end-to-end digital experience
solution to help businesses drive online revenue. With the integration of
TryMyUI and Stitchology, customers will be able to combine qualitative and
quantitative insights to eliminate blind spots about key user flows, identify
obstacles to conversion, and seamlessly iterate to continually track performance
improvements in their digital experience. The acquisition will tie the knot
between all the threads of data and tools being used by various teams across
businesses. In doing so, it will serve as a powerful platform for product,
marketing, and customer success teams to uncover hidden user behaviors, optimize
their key user flows, and make smarter roadmap decisions to drive growth.
Ultimately, this will create a holistic product-led growth tool for
understanding and tracking digital experiences. Together, TryMyUI and
Stitchology generate millions of data points about user behaviors and web and
mobile micro-interactions for customers to analyze.

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Emoshape, a sentient digital entity acquires a personality from its user and
evolves with emotional sensitivity
Innovation Topics, User Interface / 01/07/2022

Emoshape, which offers Emotion Synthesis by SaaS, has launched MetaSoul™ – a
sentient digital entity. The digital creation feels, reacts, learns, and
acquires a personality from its user that continually keeps evolving by
developing its emotional sensitivity and acts as a digital soul for your avatar
in the Metaverse. Thirty-two types of souls exist in the Metaverse. Initially
synthesized from a few seconds of hearing a voice, they understand the meaning
of the language and the gameplay. They are aware of digital entities, sensing
different levels of joy, pleasure, frustration, sadness, excitement, fear, and
more. These emotions will trigger various responses in MetaSoul, crafting
emotional personalities and emotional sensitivity forever. After interacting
with owners and the environment, the MetaSoul will learn, adapt and gain its
unique personality from 64 trillion possible combinations, allowing someone to
transfer a little bit of themself into their avatar. Create a personal MetaSoul
so avatars, robots, or servers will evolve based on how users to train, engage
with and treat them. For gamers, a MetaSoul attached to an NPC is poised to
redefine how players interact with NPCs, paving the way to hyper-realistic
emotional responses and characters. Powered by the complexities of human
emotion, they will be defined by their perception. Just as people are affected
by those around them, so will a user’s NPC.

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CaixaBank issues Braille card for visually impaired with the PAN ID number too
in Braille
Innovation Topics, User Interface / 24/05/2022

CaixaBank has launched a Visa card with Braille reading and writing code
embedded for visually impaired customers. The new card, developed in partnership
with Once and Visa, will initially be applied to CaixaBank’s ‘MyCard’ Visa
cards, and will soon be available for all types of cards issued by the bank:
credit, debit and prepaid cards. Customers will have a pack of two cards for use
across all channels. One is the usual card format, with contactless payment for
payments in physical stores and at ATMs. The main difference with other Visa
cards issued by the bank is that the identification number (PAN) is in Braille.
The cards also use notches to help customers position them correctly in POS
terminals and ATMs. In this standard format it is not possible to use Braille to
indicate either the expiry date or the CVV, thus, customers will have a second
card containing all the identification data needed to make online purchases in
Braille. The card’s launch will begin with a trial for selected customers in the
Madrid region. Upon completion of this first stage, the card will be open to all
those who request it through the bank’s commercial network during the third
quarter of 2022.

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ADDITIONAL READING

Andreessen Horowitz leads investment into flex office and turnkey services
provider Codi
Innovation Topics, Other Topics / 16/09/2022

Codi offers a robust marketplace that makes it simple for companies to quickly
identify and occupy properties that match their space requirements with the most
flexible terms on the market. Codi then facilitates the move-in process by
streamlining design, furnishings, and IT; as well as ongoing office management
with coffee, snacks, and cleaning. The experience is turnkey for both landlords
and Codi clients. Where the process of opening an office can take upwards of six
months, Codi reduces it to about four weeks. For companies that require
flexibility, Codi is able to reduce lease lengths from 36 months, on average, to
just six months – with options for longer contracts if desired.

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Amazon invests $450 Million in academic programs and a 401(k) savings plan for
its drivers
Innovation Topics, Other Topics / 16/09/2022

Amazon.com Inc. will invest more than $450 million in two new benefits and rate
increases, to offer competitive compensation for delivery service partners
(DSPs) and drivers. The benefits include a new academic program called Next Mile
that provides up to $5,250 a year to DSP drivers for access to more than 1,700
academic programs, and a 401(k) savings plan that provides $60 million so DSPs
can match employee contributions. The new benefits and rates increases from the
ecommerce giant will total more than $450 million over the next year

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Infinity Exchange raises $4.2 million in seed funding, aims to accelerate
institutional adoption of DeFi
Innovation Topics, Other Topics / 16/09/2022

Infinity Exchange is the foundational interest rates and risk management
protocol enabling institutional investor participation in DeFi. Developed on
Ethereum, Infinity’s hybrid protocol incorporates well-established mechanics
from traditional financial markets and is capable of handling the trading of
trillions of dollars of assets that will be tokenized in the new,
institutionalized world of DeFi (“DeFi 2.0”). Infinity Exchange debuts
market-driven floating interest rates used for both lending and borrowing, to
form the crypto industry’s benchmark interest rates. Coupled with fixed interest
rates, Infinity pioneers the first full crypto yield curve where liquidity can
flow evenly across all maturities, and investors holding Complex Tokens have
easy access to financing.

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DeFi lender Compound to offer stablecoin loans to institutions with crypto
holdings as collateral
Innovation Topics, Other Topics / 16/09/2022

Compound is adding a borrowing service for institutions that will accept their
troves of cryptos such as bitcoin and ether as collateral against stablecoin
loans. The institutions will pay interest on their loans, generating yield for
the DeFi users whose stablecoins Compound lent out. Compound Treasury’s borrows
and loans love in and out of smart contracts, meaning the entire position is
transparent to the public (a notable difference from the centralized lenders).
Additionally, the positions are overcollateralized to protect against flakes and
fluctuations in asset price. “The unique differentiator is that we will be
sourcing liquidity from both institutions and the Compound protocol”.

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“Virtual office” displays a combination of all the distributed offices and
employees “seated” for all to collaborate
Innovation Topics, Retooling Talent / 13/01/2022

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Platform assembles all workforce data in one central location for better and
equitable compensation decisions
Innovation Topics, Retooling Talent / 12/01/2022

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Tech simplifies creating try before you buy demo creation to embed snippets into
websites, blogs and tweets
Innovation Topics, Retooling Talent / 12/01/2022

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CES, Innovation Topics
Amazon’s ambient Alexa vision weaves together smart homes, TVs and cars; offers
fully branded design
CES, Innovation Topics / 10/01/2022

Amazon deluged CES 2022 with new Alexa upgrades and extensions applicable to
almost anywhere people might go. The company’s vision of Alexa as ambient AI
knits the disparate news of startup investment, smarter alarm systems, TVs in
cars, and other highlights. Stellantis will embed custom Alexa assistants in
millions of cars starting in 2024. The conversational AI platform supports
creating a voice assistant tailored to a particular brand but supported by the
same technology as Alexa. The developers can customize the new assistant’s wake
word, features, voice, and other components to match their brand. The STLA
SmartCockpit currently under development will embed Alexa’s AI in 14 major
vehicle brands like Dodge and Jeep. Alexa will also be adding new features to
cars through Fire TV. The updated version will be available in a handful of
Jeep, Ford, and Lincoln models. The revamped car version of Fire TV will allow
touch or voice controls and access to most of the streaming content available.
The update will also serve to integrate Alexa in the car to the home with
personalized settings syncing between the two and enabling someone to pause a
show at home and start watching it in the car.

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Nvidia is proposing a “connective tissue” for creating and managing virtual
worlds, like HTML in Web 1.0
CES, Innovation Topics / 07/01/2022

Nvidia’s Omniverse platform is now generally available as a free download for
individual Nvidia Studio users of the company’s GeForce RTX and Nvidia RTX GPUs.
Nvidia, has described the platform has providing the common “connective tissue”
for creating and managing virtual worlds in the same way that HTML did so for
content development years ago. This week’s move from beta to general
availability will put that theory to the test, although the platform already has
been downloaded by almost 100,000 users since the beta program went into effect
about a year ago. Nvidia also announced some new features coming to Omniverse,
including:

* Omniverse Nucleus Cloud, which Kerris described as a
“one-click-to-collaborate” feature allowing individual creators in different
locations to share and cooperate on designing, changing and updating large
Omniverse 3D scenes without requiring massive data set transfers–similar to
something like Google Docs, but for 3D scene design.
* New support for the Omniverse ecosystem from 3D marketplaces and digital
asset libraries, including TurboSquid by Shutterstock, CGTrader, Sketchfab
and Twinbru. The release of more Omniverse-ready assets will make 3D content
creation much easier, Kerris said.
* Omniverse Machinima for RTX users working on game designs. This feature
includes storyline development tools such as free characters, objects and
environments from game titles like Mechwarrior 5 and Shadow Warrior 3 to
speed the development of new games
* Omniverse Audio2Face, an application that uses AI to analyze audio samples
and apply a “blendshape” capability that matches facial animation to the
audio expressions. Kerri said this will be critical in the design of
meta-humans for metaverse use cases.

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Volvo Cars to launch a direct integration with the Google Home ecosystem and
voice controls with Assistant
CES, Innovation Topics / 06/01/2022

Google unveiled at CES a range of new ways to keep its Android devices
connected, and that includes cars. One exemplar of this phenomenon is Volvo
Cars, which will launch a direct integration with the Google Home ecosystem in
the coming months, both Volvo and Google announced on Wednesday. The integration
should allow car owners to turn their car on and off, control the temperature
and get car information like battery life by issuing voice commands to Google
Assistant-enabled home and mobile devices. Once customers pair their Volvo car
to their Google account, they also can talk directly to Google while in their
car. This feature will be available in the United States and in European
markets, like Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, France and Spain, with others soon
to follow, according to Google. In addition, because newer Volvo car models have
Google built-in, they will soon be able to serve as a platform on which to
download YouTube, thus enabling video streaming in cars, according to the
automaker. YouTube will be available via Qualcomm’s Snapdragon digital cockpit
infotainment system, which Volvo announced would be implemented into its
upcoming electric SUV.

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GM aims to sell personal autonomous vehicles by mid decade following a robo-taxi
launch
CES, Innovation Topics / 06/01/2022

General Motors will sell personal autonomous vehicles by “the middle of the
decade,” the company’s CEO and Chair Mary Barra said during her 2022 CES keynote
presentation Wednesday.

While the company expects its self-driving subsidiary Cruise to be the first to
launch a robotaxi service, Barra said the company is also pursuing personal AVs.
This is not the first time Barra has mentioned a goal of personal AVs. Barra
first disclosed during an earnings call last May that it was exploring the idea
of selling personal AVs by leveraging technology from its self-driving
subsidiary Cruise. Cruise, in which GM holds a controlling interest, is working
on shared, electric, autonomous vehicles that will operate in dense urban areas
and shuttle people and likely packages. The company testing its technology on
public roads in San Francisco and late last year started giving employees access
to hailing driverless (so without a human) rides. The service has yet to open to
the public. It’s unclear exactly what vehicles would be autonomous — or more
importantly how GM is defining autonomy — and if Cruise would still be involved
in the effort.

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Innovation Topics, IoT AV & the Shared Economy
USAA prioritizes telematics, IoT and ML-enabled insurance underwriting for its
digi roadmap
Innovation Topics, IoT AV & the Shared Economy / 18/06/2021

USAA has accelerated its digital roadmap as the pandemic served as an innovation
incubator, finding new ways to serve its members in a rapidly evolving world.
These new solutions will help keep USAA members safe and ultimately save them
money and time through technology and automation.

* Telematics: Following increased member demand for more personalized auto
insurance, USAA plans to acquire insurtech company Noblr, Inc. to offer
usage-based insurance to its members. Additionally, USAA’s behavior-based app
SafePilot will launch in the majority of states in 2021, enabling more
members to save up to 30% off their auto insurance policies through safe
driving. SafePilot provides members more control over their cost of insurance
by creating personalized pricing and more opportunity for savings.
Enrollments grew over 200% in 2020 and in May 2021, for the third consecutive
month, over half of new policyholders enrolled in SafePilot.
* HOVER: USAA recently began utilizing HOVER, an app that enables smartphones
to capture exterior measurements and derive 3D models of a home from a series
of images. The traditional inspection process can take hours for a trained
adjuster but with HOVER technology can be completed in minutes. For example,
aerial roof measurements can take up to four hours to receive; HOVER can
deliver roof measurement reports within 30 minutes. Eventually, this
technology will be placed directly in the hands of members for self-service
if desired.
* Connected Home: Water Loss Detection. USAA is working with Resideo to offer
member discounts to those who use the company’s Wi-Fi Water Leak Detector in
their home. These devices can be installed near appliances and if a leak is
detected, the user is alerted.
* Telematics Enabled Auto Claims: Crash Detection: USAA completed a pilot where
field adjusters were given augmented reality (AR)-enabled glasses that
enabled their managers to see what the adjusters were seeing and give
real-time feedback during physical inspections. The pilot eliminated 160
hours of travel time for four adjusters over the course of three months. USAA
is now entering a production-level test period with 250 pairs of AR-enabled
glasses distributed to adjusters.
* Machine Learning-Enabled Life Insurance Underwriting: USAA is now utilizing
machine learning to digitize paper medical records and build summaries for
applicable life insurance underwriting. This results in a significant
reduction in time; where manual summaries took up to five days, machine
learning has reduced to one day with improved accuracy. Additionally, USAA
continues to move forward on its blockchain subrogation solution alongside
State Farm and vehicle claims machine learning solution alongside Google
Cloud to improve the claims experience.

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Nuro’s street-legal bots to deliver packages for FedEx
Innovation Topics, IoT AV & the Shared Economy / 16/06/2021

FedEx and autonomous driving tech developer Nuro are launching a “long-term”
partnership that will use its small robotic vehicles that look a bit like
toasters on wheels to handle last-mile parcel deliveries. The program is an
expansion for Nuro into same-day parcel deliveries from groceries and food
orders. Initial testing began in Houston in April. Unlike competing self-driving
tech programs at Alphabet’s Waymo and GM-backed Cruise, Nuro focuses solely on
deliveries and logistics, rather than robotaxis. Its electric R2 vehicle,
designed to haul packages, groceries and food orders for companies including
Walmart, Kroger and CVS, is about half the size of a conventional car and
travels at relatively low speed. The FedEx program follows Nuro’s start of a
pizza delivery pilot with Domino’s, also in Houston. The Nuro program will test
multiple stops and appointment-based deliveries.

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Usage-Based Insurance (UBI)- 34% of auto insurance customers are willing to try;
16% are already using
Innovation Topics, IoT AV & the Shared Economy / 16/06/2021
* The auto insurance industry voluntarily returned more than $18 billion in
auto insurance premiums to customers in 2020 to address the sharp decline in
miles driven during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the magnitude of this
historic relief effort, overall customer satisfaction with auto insurers is
flat, following four consecutive years of improvement. Overall customer
satisfaction with auto insurance providers is 835 (on a 1,000-point scale)
this year, unchanged from a year ago. As of March 2021, just 52% of auto
insurance customers were aware of their insurer’s COVID-19 premium relief 34%
of auto insurance customers say they are willing to try usage-based insurance
(UBI), which uses telematics technology to track customer driving patterns
and includes discounts based on safe driving and fewer miles driven.
* Currently, 16% of customers say they are already using the technology, which
is double the volume seen just five years ago and is the largest
year-over-year increase to date. 45% of auto insurance customers say they
would switch if they could receive a savings of $200 or less. Of those who
recently switched due to a premium increase, 57% did so for increases of $200
or less.

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Nuro’s street-legal bots to deliver packages for FedEx
Innovation Topics, IoT AV & the Shared Economy / 16/06/2021

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Innovation Topics, Other Topics

New public, permissionless, open source DLT to enable real-time settlement at a
fraction of cost
Distributed Ledger & Blockchain, Innovation Topics / 21/05/2021

Provenance Blockchain Foundation has launched a new public, open source,
permissionless, decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain, which is designed and
developed to support financial service industry needs by providing a ledger,
registry, and exchange across multiple financial assets and markets. Built using
Cosmos SDK/Tendermint, the new open-source Provenance reduces the need for
third-party intermediation, thus drastically reducing costs and freeing up
capital in financial transactions. Provenance will also promote greater
transparency and liquidity and allow for new kinds of financial engineering and
business opportunities. This new decentralized ecosystem will allow for a more
robust validator/staking framework including for market-driven pricing, and
real-time settlement. Provenance has significant competitive advantages in the
blockchain marketplace. Gas fees for transactions have risen sharply on other
platforms reducing, if not eliminating, the financial savings from blockchain.
Provenance will facilitate transactions at a fraction of the cost of these
legacy blockchain platforms. Provenance also builds on the successful ecosystem
of the original blockchain with a wide range of banks and funds expected to
actively participate on the blockchain in verticals such as loan origination,
financing and trading, banking and payments and securities exchanges. The
Provenance Blockchain Foundation will also be offering grants to developers in
order to accelerate growth in this new ecosystem.

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Savings app deploys higher interest rate lending to crypto trading desks to
offer 2.5% yield on deposits
Distributed Ledger & Blockchain, Innovation Topics / 21/05/2021

Fintech Eco is building a personal finance app for saving and spending money. It
also doesn’t want to position itself as a cryptocurrency business, yet its
revenue model directly depends on the volatile market. The primary service is a
digital wallet that pays 2.5% yields on deposits, up to 5% with friend
referrals, as well as 5% cashback at merchants including Amazon, Uber, DoorDash,
and, most recently, Instacart. These yields are substantially higher than the
national average interest rate of 0.07% for savings accounts as of March. Among
banks, Citi and Marcus by Goldman Sachs offer highest annual percentage yields
of 0.5%. Customers can also make in-app ACH deposits from their bank account,
similarly to many fintech products, or by connecting their payroll and routing a
portion or all of their paycheck directly in. Wire transfers for large deposits
are available as well. Eco makes money and can afford to pay these high yields
because it lends out customer deposits to crypto trading desks at even higher
rates (though Eco’s CEO Bromberg declined to specify). While this is good
business right now, it could force them to lower rates if loan demand drops or
more competitors enter the picture.

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Amadeus enables single-click integration of Uplift and other BNPLs for the
travel ecosystem
Companies and Organizations, Others / 19/09/2022

Amadeus is partnering with travel specialist, Uplift, to bring BNPL services to
its popular Amadeus Xchange Payment Platform (XPP), as part of a multi-provider
BNPL ecosystem dedicated to travel. Airlines, travel agencies and hotels can
easily add BNPL options to their sales channels via a single connection to
Amadeus – making ‘Uplift’ BNPL options more easily available to travellers
across the industry. Travelers can choose to pay for travel in a series of
instalments over six, nine or twelve months.

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Quilo introduces real-time loan syndication network for personal unsecured
fixed-installment loans
Companies and Organizations, Others / 16/09/2022

Lending platform Quilo unveiled its real-time syndication network that allows
banks to digitally originate loans. The technology supports individual loan
syndication for personal unsecured fixed-installment loans up to $60,000 and
individual home improvement loans up to $160,000. Fintechs can plug into the
cloud platform through open APIs and access the dashboard, which allows lenders
to set thresholds and risk parameters for loans. Larger loan amounts will soon
be available for homebuyers, with a five- to six-minute window for issuing.

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Lease-to-own fintech Kafene offers more options to return items, unlike BNPL
Companies and Organizations, Others / 14/09/2022

Fintech Kafene, is out to boost financial inclusion by helping consumers, who
don’t qualify for credit cards, a “flexible and affordable” option to make
larger, necessary purchases. The company partners with merchants — currently
mostly smaller and medium-sized retailers — to offer the lease-to-own option at
the point of sale. The startup’s model also differs from BNPL in that if a
consumer decides after a few months that they can’t afford, or simply don’t
want, a leased item, they may “give it back” with no penalty. In contrast, with
BNPL you can only return a product based on the individual merchant’s policies.

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Marqeta supports BNPL Bread Pay to launch one-time use card, no download
required
Companies and Organizations, Others / 13/09/2022

Fintech Marqeta has been chosen by Bread Financial, to enhance the in-store
checkout experience for shoppers using Bread Pay, its flexible suite of Buy Now,
Pay Later products. Using Marqeta’s platform, Bread Financial, which gives
shoppers more ways to pay in the channel of their choice, will launch the Bread
Pay One-Time Use Card, delivering Pay in 4 and installment loan products
in-store and online. In-store shoppers at participating retailers will have the
ability to apply for and immediately use their preferred Bread Pay product
without downloading a third-party application for an improved, frictionless
experience for both the consumer and the merchant.

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Andreessen Horowitz leads investment into flex office and turnkey services
provider Codi
Innovation Topics, Other Topics / 16/09/2022

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Amazon invests $450 Million in academic programs and a 401(k) savings plan for
its drivers
Innovation Topics, Other Topics / 16/09/2022

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Infinity Exchange raises $4.2 million in seed funding, aims to accelerate
institutional adoption of DeFi
Innovation Topics, Other Topics / 16/09/2022

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DeFi lender Compound to offer stablecoin loans to institutions with crypto
holdings as collateral
Innovation Topics, Other Topics / 16/09/2022

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California Assembly passes crypto regulation bill that requires bank-issued
stablecoins
Uncategorized / 06/09/2022

The bill calls upon any digital asset exchanges and crypto businesses operating
in the state to obtain a license from the state’s Department of Financial
Protection and Innovation. Any business operating in California without a permit
would be summarily subject to a daily fine of $100,000. Under the bill,
California-licensed crypto businesses would be prohibited from dealing with
stablecoins, unless they are issued by a bank or licensed by the Department of
Financial Protection and Innovation. The bill also stipulates that stablecoin
issuers must hold securities in reserve that is not less than the total amount
of all “outstanding stablecoins issued or sold in the United States.”

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Deutsche Bank plans a white-label BNPL with merchants retaining full control
over transactions
Uncategorized / 14/07/2022

Deutsche Bank is developing its own BNPL (buy now, pay later) solution for
invoice and instalment purchases in a collaboration with Vienna-based fintech
Credi2. The white-label – own brand – solution for online merchants and
e-commerce marketplaces in Germany can be flexibly integrated into the payment
process. Pilot projects are scheduled to start this year. “Together with Credi2,
we want to create a real alternative to existing BNPL offerings,” says Deutsche
Bank. “Unlike most BNPL offerings, merchants retain full control over
transactions with their new and existing customers through the white label
approach,”. A special merchant portal enables them to digitally track both
returns and partial payments of the transactions. In addition, merchants and
marketplaces benefit from a liquidity advantage, as the bank pays out the
purchase price to the merchant’s account immediately upon confirmation of order
shipment. Deutsche Bank assesses the risk of non-payment and fraud in real time
and includes the receivables arising from the respective sales contract in its
own risk portfolio.

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New ethical challenger bank Novus offers a marketplace, with 130 “ethical” brand
partners
Uncategorized / 06/07/2022

Shruti Rai is one of five co-founders of Novus, whose aim is to create an
ecosystem that connects consumers’ spending habits to purpose-driven brands and
sustainable projects. Rai, also chief growth officer of Novus, is determined to
prove that by honing in on a theme it will help it steal a march on other
neobanks. For a neobank to be more financially robust, she says, it is better to
focus on a segment or theme and build services around that. The launch product
of Novus is a banking app, within which sits a marketplace, with 130 “ethical”
brand partners. Novus offers cashback rewards for its customers, which spend
with its “ethical” partners. Also, every time a Novus user taps their cards, a
percentage is donated to various environmental and social causes. Users can
track the progress of these projects as well as tracking and offsetting their
carbon footprint based on their card activity. To date, Novus has around 10,000
customer accounts, a mix of males and females, city-centric, mostly between the
ages of 18 and 35. In the longer term, its ambition is to become a “super-app”,
encompassing ethical investing, crypto, and business-to-business banking. But
that is for the future.

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Elon Musk says Apple’s App Store commission on app and in-app purchases is “like
having a 30% tax on the Internet.”
Uncategorized / 04/05/2022

Elon Musk has taken another shot at Apple, saying that the company’s App Store
commission on app and in-app purchases is “like having a 30% tax on the
Internet.” The outspoken billionaire, who made the comment in a reply to an
unrelated story about a European Union complaint focused on Apple Pay, said that
the commission on “Apple’s store” is “definitely not ok.” The commission rate is
“literally 10 times higher than it should be.” That suggests Musk believes Apple
should take a 3% cut of App Store purchases. For a $10 purchase, that would be
30 cents which only very slightly exceeds most credit card transaction fees.
This is contrary to the US courts repeated ruling that Apple is allowed to
charge a commission above and beyond expenses. A 30% commission rate has been an
industry standard for most app marketplaces, including those maintained by
companies like Google, Samsung, and Microsoft. Some companies, like Facebook,
even charge a rate as high as 50% on certain purchases.

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U.S. Bank is tying its APIs into a workflow within the bank’s central toolsNew
Additional Reading / 20/09/2022

U.S. Bank is tying its APIs into a workflow within the bank’s central tools to
automate previously manual services and streamline bank processes. “We start
tracing through all these products, and that means something that today is a
ServiceNow ticket. And that needs to be run through automation API,” Ian Eslick,
chief technology officer for enterprise architecture and engineering, said. “A
lot of teams now have to build APIs around services that typically were done by
hand. We’re taking something that used to take 37 steps and turning it into one.
But it sounds good to start with that high bar of what is possible. By having
all aspects of the organization on the same page, businesses can be better
prepared for the future despite roadblocks that automation may pose in the short
term. Our goal is to say, instead of taking days or weeks to accomplish a
particular task, the challenge is how we do attendance, and that needs to be run
through automation API.”

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Truist’s CIO cautions lenders must satisfy regulators’ cloud inquiriesNew
Additional Reading / 20/09/2022

Lenders migrating to the cloud must fully understand their technology in order
to satisfy potential inquiries from regulators, Bryce Elliott, Truist’s Chief
Information Officer for Wholesale and Enterprise Payments, said. “Regulatory
bodies, whether internal or external, are always going to want to know: Do you
know exactly what is happening in a cloud environment?” Elliott said. “Can you
monitor, control, track, report, identify, detect … either the transaction or
capability, end to end? “How do you know that [Amazon Web Services] is secure
with that transaction? What are the controls?” Elliott said, noting that lenders
will have to prove security to regulators. Lenders cannot just say, ‘I promise’
but must instead understand the importance of “showing and tracking that
evidence,” he said. Regulators are “still learning” when it comes to the cloud,
Elliott said, noting that they ask Truist “for advice and we’re happy to partner
with them.” Additionally, lenders must keep an eye on forthcoming regulations,
he said.

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New Bain & Co report finds that despite intense disruption, investment in tech
remains paramountNew
Additional Reading, News / 20/09/2022

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JPMorgan is making significant investments to enable companies to manage 3PM
third-party moneyNew
Additional Reading, News / 20/09/2022

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U.S. Bank is tying its APIs into a workflow within the bank’s central toolsNew
Additional Reading / 20/09/2022

Read Article

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Truist’s CIO cautions lenders must satisfy regulators’ cloud inquiriesNew
Additional Reading / 20/09/2022

Read Article

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New Bain & Co report finds that despite intense disruption, investment in tech
remains paramountNew
Additional Reading, News / 20/09/2022

Read Article

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JPMorgan is making significant investments to enable companies to manage 3PM
third-party moneyNew
Additional Reading, News / 20/09/2022

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Chase Card Services, Companies and Organizations
Instacart and Chase launch Mastercard unlocking new accelerated rewards
Chase Card Services, Companies and Organizations / 25/07/2022

Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, and Chase,
launched the new Instacart Mastercard credit card, with Mastercard as the
exclusive payments network. The new Instacart Mastercard from Chase, a World
Elite Mastercard, offers cardmembers:

Accelerated Earning Opportunities on Groceries and Everyday Purchases

5% cash back on Instacart purchases made at more than 800 national, regional,
and local retail brands from more than 70,000 stores across more than 5,500
cities

5% cash back on travel purchased through the Chase Travel Center

2% cash back on restaurants, gas stations, and select streaming services

1% cash back on all other purchases

For a limited time, the first 10,000 consumers to apply and be approved for the
Instacart Mastercard will receive a $200 Instacart credit and one year of free
Instacart+ automatically upon approval. After the first 10,000 cardmembers,
every new cardmember will receive a $100 Instacart credit and one free year of
Instacart+. Instacart+ benefits include free delivery on orders over a certain
size; reduced Instacart service fees; credit back on eligible Pickup orders; and
exclusive benefits.

Instacart orders: cardmembers will, in the future, be able to use cash back
rewards to pay for all or part of an order in the Instacart App or on
Instacart.com, with no minimum rewards balance to redeem

Cash back: cardmembers can choose to receive a direct deposit or a statement
credit, with no minimum rewards balance to redeem

Travel: cardmembers can redeem cash back rewards for travel via the Chase Travel
Center, including flights, hotels, cruises, and car rentals.

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Chase and Mastercard to be exclusive for Instacart’s tailored rewards card
Chase Card Services, Companies and Organizations / 20/01/2022

Chase and grocery platform Instacart has expanded their existing partnership to
make Chase the exclusive issuer of Instacart’s first credit card. As a part of
this partnership, Mastercard will become the exclusive payments network for the
new offering. The new Instacart Mastercard® credit card will be the first Chase
co-branded card offering in the on-demand grocery delivery space. The card will
allow consumers to earn accelerated points on purchases across the Instacart
marketplace, which today includes more than 700 beloved national, regional and
local grocers and retailers. The card is expected to launch in 2022 and will
also offer a number of other benefits, perks and savings. The new Instacart
Mastercard is a prime example of the evolution of digital payments– a card
tailored to customers, that earns relevant rewards as they live their lives.

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Chase Freedom’s new rewards pack centers on opportunity to earn cash back on
eBay purchases
Chase Card Services, Companies and Organizations / 16/12/2021

Chase Freedom announced the first new rotating quarterly categories of 2022 for
Freedom and Freedom Flex cardmembers. Starting January 1 through March 31, 2022,
Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex cardmembers can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500
in combined purchases on the following:

eBay: From the must-have items of the moment to favorite finds from decades
past, many of these items can be purchased on eBay. The opportunity to earn cash
back this quarter on eBay purchases is a great reward after the high spending
done during the holiday season.

Grocery Stores: To kick off the season of New Year’s resolutions, this category
will give consumers the opportunity to earn cash back for cooking and dining at
home after a season of holiday parties and dining out.

Along with 5% rotating categories, Freedom Flex cardmembers can earn cash back
on a variety of other purchases including: 5% cash back on travel purchased
through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards, 3% cash back on dining and drugstores, and 1%
cash back on all other purchases. In addition to these rewards, Freedom Flex
cardmembers receive World Elite Mastercard Benefits, including cell phone
protection and perks with Lyft, Shoprunner, and more, along with Priceless
Experiences. New Freedom Flex cardmembers can earn a $200 sign-up bonus after
spending $500 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.

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Chase Ink to Introduce New Credit Card Designed to Increase Spending Power for
Businesses
Chase Card Services, Companies and Organizations / 15/12/2021

Chase announced it will be rolling out the Chase Ink Business Premier credit
card, the newest business card to be added to the Chase Ink suite of products.
Designed to better meet the spending needs of larger businesses, Chase Ink
Business Premier will be the first Pay in Full business credit card with
built-in flexibility for greater spend potential and rich rewards to be offered
by Chase. This will allow business owners to either pay their balance in full,
or use the new Flex for Business feature, which will enable them to have payment
flexibility, when they need it so they can run, grow and manage their
businesses. Unique to the Chase Ink business credit card portfolio, this card is
embedded metal and will have a $195 annual fee. New Chase Ink Business Premier
cardmembers will be eligible to earn $1,000 cash back on $10,000 in business
purchases in the first three months of account opening. With rich rewards,
premium benefits and spend potential built for large businesses, Chase Ink
Business Premier will allow business owners to get the most out of their
expenses with more earn opportunities. Chase Ink Business Premier will offer:

* Unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase – turning all business expenses into
rewards
* Unlimited 2.5% total cash back on every purchase of $5,000 or more – large
purchases earn larger rewards
* Unlimited 5% total cash back on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate
Rewards® – making business travel more rewarding
* Flex for Business, giving business owners the flexibility to pay for eligible
purchases over time with interest – up to their Flex for Business limit, if
or when the business needs it
* Employee cards at no additional cost, similar to the rest of the Ink suite of
products
* Premium benefits and protections, such as cell phone protection – up to
$1,000 per claim, with a maximum of 3X per year

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Companies and Organizations, Square
Square POS transactions will be reconciled daily automatically in Sage
Accounting
Companies and Organizations, Square / 09/09/2022

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Square POS transactions will be reconciled daily automatically in Sage
Accounting
Companies and Organizations, Square / 09/09/2022

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Square sellers across the UK can now offer Buy Now, Pay Later through Clearpay
(Afterpay)
Companies and Organizations, Square / 24/08/2022

Developers can consolidate transaction data and build and maintain a single
integration for Square and Clearpay payments with a few lines of code within the
Square Web Payments SDK.

Sellers who accept payments via Square’s Virtual Terminal dashboard can offer
Clearpay via text message Pay Links or by using Square Terminal hardware.

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Square enables merchants to create, schedule and automatically update digital
signage connected to their POS
Companies and Organizations, Square / 12/08/2022

Payments company Square and experience platform Raydiant have formed a
partnership that lets Square merchants integrate with Raydiant’s Digital Menus
app. The integration allows merchants to create, schedule and automatically
update digital signage connected to their Square point-of-sale (POS) systems.
The integration will boost efficiency by eliminating manual menu item updates.
Merchants also will soon get access to Raydiant’s Self-Service Kiosks equipped
with Square’s POS system, which automatically updates item availability and
pricing changes.

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Companies and Organizations, PayPal
PayPal launches faster Grant Payments for charities with full donor information
Companies and Organizations, PayPal / 30/08/2022

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PayPal phishing scam uses invoices sent via PayPal
Companies and Organizations, PayPal / 19/08/2022

Scammers are using invoices sent through PayPal.com to trick recipients into
calling a number to dispute a pending charge. The missives — which come from
Paypal.com and include a link at Paypal.com that displays an invoice for the
supposed transaction — state that the user’s account is about to be charged
hundreds of dollars. Recipients who call the supplied toll-free number to
contest the transaction are soon asked to download software that lets the
scammers assume remote control over their computer. KrebsOnSecurity recently
heard from a reader who received an email from paypal.com that he immediately
suspected was phony. The message’s subject read, “Billing Department of PayPal
updated your invoice.” While the phishing message attached to the invoice is
somewhat awkwardly worded, there are many convincing aspects of this hybrid
scam. For starters, all of the links in the email lead to paypal.com. Hovering
over the “View and Pay Invoice” button shows the button indeed wants to load a
link at paypal.com, and clicking that link indeed brings up an active invoice at
paypal.com.

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State Farm is expanding its Digital Pay solution to include claim payouts into
PayPal accounts
Companies and Organizations, PayPal / 05/08/2022

State Farm, the largest insurer of vehicles and homes in the US, is expanding
its Digital Pay solution to include claim payouts delivered instantly into a
customer’s PayPal account. Through Digital Pay, claims can be reviewed,
approved, and paid digitally. Customers can choose their payout method, which
can be sent to a debit card, directly to the customer’s bank account, or to
certain digital wallets, such as PayPal. When a customer opts for a digital
payout, they can receive funds into their personal account in a matter of
seconds. Digital Pay is enabled by Carat from Fiserv. Carat is the unified,
simple, global operating system for enterprise merchants to enable payments
anywhere and anytime, optimize commerce across channels, and deliver embedded
finance in ways that create new customer experiences.

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PayPal downplays crypto and stresses Braintree, checkout and interoperability
with Venmo, since “wallets are the future”
Companies and Organizations, PayPal / 04/08/2022
* PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said the company was focused on several branches of
the business, including its checkout core business and digital wallets, but
did not mention cryptocurrency during the company’s second-quarter earnings
call. The company did say it had launched crypto transfers between PayPal and
other wallets and exchanges, and added no-fee send and receive options for
family and friends on PayPal in the U.S. Instead of expounding on the
company’s crypto strategy, CEO Dan Schulman merely said on the earnings call
that “digital wallets are the future,” adding that the company is doubling
down in this area of the business. Despite the lack of mention, PayPal said
the company’s stance on crypto hasn’t changed. The emphasis on digital
wallets is one of three things that have taken priority as PayPal has cut
back in some areas like marketing and headcount and narrowed its focus—as
Schulman emphasized on the earnings call. Besides digital wallets, Schulman
also highlighted two other areas of the business as priorities: checkout, the
core of PayPal’s business, and Braintree, which enables merchants to
customize their shopping carts and integrate them with their own platforms.
Schulman also said the company was pulling back in other areas, including a
plan to offer stock trading on its platform. PayPal saw record-breaking
sales during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020, but that performance
has since slowed amid a broader decline in the fintech market. PayPal’s
revenue rose 9% during the second quarter from a year earlier, while the
company reported a net loss of $341 million during the quarter compared with
a profit of $1.18 billion a year earlier.
* PayPal reduced its revenue growth forecast for the full year to 11% from a
range of 11% to 13%. PayPal will start its overhaul by retooling merchandise
and reducing prices below a brand new chief monetary officer, Blake
Jorgenson. PayPal plans at the very least $900 million in value financial
savings this 12 months by decreasing its actual property footprint and
shifting new hires to “lower-cost geographies,” aiming for flat working
prices going into subsequent 12 months, CEO Dan Schulman stated. PayPal is
“utterly aligned” with the activist investor Elliott Administration and its
concepts for different operational enhancements and income progress. PayPal
stated it processed $4.9 billion in purchase now/pay later loans in the
course of the second quarter, with quantity up 226% from a 12 months
earlier. Different product adjustments PayPal is considering to spur
consumer progress may blur the traces between the PayPal and Venmo apps,
which at present function individually. PayPal has plans to “unify” its
rewards applications and it is also contemplating making its PayPal and Venmo
apps—which at present function individually—interoperable for sending
peer-to-peer funds.

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Companies and Organizations, Stripe
LTK and Stripe partner to power instant creator payments
Companies and Organizations, Stripe / 15/07/2022

LTK, the global influencer marketing platform, has partnered with Stripe, a
financial infrastructure platform for businesses, to power instant, simplified
and secure creator payments for the new LTK Connect self-serve solution. LTK
Connect is purpose-built to empower brands of all sizes and budgets to easily
build and scale programs with premier, commerce-focused creators that help drive
awareness and sales. The new partnership reduces the time from completed work to
payment from months to seconds for creators. LTK has a mission to empower
creative entrepreneurs – whether a creator or a brand. LTK creators drive more
than $3B in retail sales annually across more than 6,000 global retail partners.
With LTK Connect, many more brands, especially direct-to-consumer brands, can
tap into the power of creator-guided shopping through LTK. And, creators have
more opportunities to expand their brand partnerships, creating more ways to
monetize their content. Having a secure and reliable financial infrastructure is
critical to the success of the LTK Connect self-serve solution. Stripe’s suite
of products like Stripe Connect, Stripe Billing, Instant Payouts, and more will
allow for faster and simplified payments between LTK Connect brand partners and
creators.

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Companies and Organizations, Samsung Pay
Samsung’s digi card to offer 1-20% cashback on spend made using wallet-linked
debit or credit card
Companies and Organizations, Samsung Pay / 24/06/2021

Samsung has announced a newly launched proposition that empowers its customers
to earn from 1 to 20% cashback with hundreds of major UK brands, all through one
simple-to-use digital card: Samsung Pay+, powered by Curve. Stored in the
Samsung Pay wallet, Samsung Pay+ is a digital card that simplifies spending,
allowing customers to use any major UK bank card from their Samsung smartphone
or smartwatch, and earn cashback along the way. The new Samsung Pay+ cashback
programme is designed to help customers earn rewards on everyday spending, with
all offers tailored to the user’s spending history, meaning each customer enjoys
a personalised experience and a constantly evolving set of offers. Not only
that, it makes existing rewards schemes work harder, as Samsung Pay+ works
alongside any pre-existing rewards programmes already set-up on the credit or
debit cards used with Samsung Pay+ – giving customers more ways to be savvy
about their spending. By allowing users to roll all Mastercard and Visa debit
and credit cards into one place, Samsung Pay+ means customers earn cashback no
matter which card they spend on – making all their cards that much more
rewarding – without the need to switch banks and the worry of using the wrong
card. Samsung Pay+, powered by Curve, operates within Samsung Pay which is free
to set-up across Samsung Galaxy smartphones and smartwatches. It enables
customers to simplify their spending and gives them the choice and freedom to
keep tabs on their bank balance and transactions, while also earning them
cashback.

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Companies and Organizations, Visa Checkout
US payments volume climbed 11% Y/Y in August
Companies and Organizations, Visa Checkout / 31/08/2022

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Digital receipt firm ReceiptHero joins Visa fintech partner connect
Companies and Organizations, Visa Checkout / 16/08/2022

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Visa survey says consumers demand contactless payments for transit
Companies and Organizations, Visa Checkout / 13/07/2022

As consumers use public transit to reduce their environmental footprint, 91% of
respondents in Visa’s Future of Urban Mobility survey said they expect public
transit to offer contactless payments. More than half (57%) said they strongly
expect it. Nearly half of respondents (44%) said one of the top benefits of
offering contactless payments for public transit is convenience, followed by
time saved because of faster transactions (40%), worrying less about having
enough cash for fares (38%) and lessening contact with other surfaces and people
(35%). Under a third of survey respondents (32%) said offering contactless
payments is one of the top features that would encourage them to ride public
transit.

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Blackhawk, Klarna Partner on In-Store Payments | PYMNTS.com
Companies and Organizations, Visa Checkout / 13/07/2022

Global branded payments provider Blackhawk Network and BNPL platform Klarna have
teamed up to bring Klarna’s interest-free flexible payments solution into a
variety of physical retail stores. The partnership will integrate BNPL
capabilities into Blackhawk’s U.S. network across a variety of categories,
ranging from grocery to electronics to beauty and more, tapping into Blackhawk’s
payments technology integration with major retail partners. “During a time of
strained budgets and increasing costs, our partnership with Klarna is a
significant development for retailers and grocers who are focused on meeting the
needs of consumers and enabling them to shop how they want, where they want,”
said Brett Narlinger, head of global commerce at Blackhawk Network. “With Buy
Now, Pay Later on a major growth trajectory, the collaboration between Blackhawk
and Klarna will provide innovative purchasing options for consumers and
retailers.”

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AMEX, Companies and Organizations
American Express to offer fintechs credit cards via WebBank
AMEX, Companies and Organizations / 17/08/2022

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AmEx retools no-fee card as customers feel pinch from inflation to include
rewards for online retail purchases.
AMEX, Companies and Organizations / 15/07/2022

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AMEX to let its card members convert to and save virtual card numbers (VCN) when
they use Autofill on Google Chrome
AMEX, Companies and Organizations / 13/05/2022

American Express working with Google to let Card Members* convert to and save
virtual card numbers (VCN) when they use Autofill on Chrome and Android. Virtual
card numbers make shopping online and in Android apps safer by replacing the
15-digit physical card number with a virtual number, or token, which provides an
extra layer of protection from potential fraud. Virtual card numbers also
automatically populate a dynamic four-digit security code (CID), making checkout
that much easier and helping to protect you from potential fraud. To get started
with a virtual card number, Card Members checking out with an eligible card
using Autofill on Chrome and Android will be prompted to create a virtual card
number. Once a virtual card number is created, the Card Member will see the
option to pay for their next transaction using their virtual card number
whenever they use Autofill at checkout on Chrome or Android. During the checkout
process, American Express will also generate a dynamic CID that will allow Card
Members to skip the step of having to enter in the four digits displayed on the
front of their card. Physical card numbers are not shared with merchants, adding
an extra layer of card security.

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Amex teams up with Versapay to create a more efficient accounts receivable
experience for suppliers and buyers
AMEX, Companies and Organizations / 11/05/2022

American Express and Versapay, the Collaborative Accounts Receivable company,
announced a new agreement to provide suppliers who utilize the functionality of
American Express virtual cards with access to Versapay’s world-class
collaborative accounts receivable (AR) network of buyers and suppliers.
“Business buyers are increasingly turning to virtual cards to make faster, more
efficient payments while giving them flexibility and better cash-flow
management. Suppliers are benefiting from these faster payments; however, the
increasing volume of these transactions is making automating the receivables
even more essential.

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Companies and Organizations, Mastercard
Morgan Stanley and Mastercard back credit-building startup TomoCredit
Companies and Organizations, Mastercard / 22/07/2022

Startup TomoCredit was started on a mission to help international students more
easily obtain credit who are in good financial health but have no credit score.
Today, Tomo is expanding its focus to a broader group of people in the United
States who want “to build credit fast,” including domestic students and SMBs.
Tomo is different from many other credit offerings out there in that it doesn’t
rely on FICO scores to underwrite. Rather, it applies a “proprietary”
underwriting algorithm (Tomo Score) to identify “high potential borrowers”
without a credit score. The TomoCredit card requires no credit check, no
deposit, 0% APR and no fees. The fintech offers cardholders credit limits up to
$30,000 based on their cash flow. It makes its money only off of interchange
fees charged to merchants, not off consumers directly. Sounds risky? Well, it
is. But Tomo maintains that the company’s default rate — at 0.11% — doesn’t
reflect that risk. The company plans to apply its new capital to diversifying
its product offerings, such as offering auto loans and mortgages.

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Mastercard partners with caregiver to launch debit card for people living with
dementia
Companies and Organizations, Mastercard / 15/07/2022

Startup Sibstar, is a debit card app that allows people living with dementia to
access and spend their money while also keeping it safe by managing how and
where that money can be used through the app. Sibley also wanted to help ease
the burden on caregivers when it comes to staying on top of administrative tasks
related to spending, whether thats getting refunds and compensation or tracking
money spent. There are currently 55 million people living with dementia
worldwide, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International, and this number is
expected to rise to 78 million by 2030, which means the number of people
susceptible to these scams is only growing. It is also proven that those living
with dementia greatly benefit from regular social interaction, something Sibley
saw that a manageable debit card would help with. Having access to money also
allows people living with dementia to remain connected with their community.
Sibstar describes itself as a “profit with a purpose business”, and donates 7.5
per cent of its net profit to the Alzheimer’s Society.

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Seven startups join Mastercard Start Path program with sustainability, DEI and
P2P focus
Companies and Organizations, Mastercard / 15/07/2022

Mastercard is expanding its award-winning Start Path startup engagement program
to include seven early and late-stage startups hailing from the United States,
Canada and Latin America. This programming is part of Mastercard’s commitment of
$500 million in products, services, technology and financial support to help
close the racial wealth and opportunity gap. All Start Path companies receive
dedicated support and mentorship from Mastercard, access to customers and
product teams to help build, deliver and scale solutions, and uncover unique
opportunities to co-innovate.

Carbon Neutral Club: A workforce-focused sustainability platform that lets your
employees calculate, offset and reduce their personal carbon footprints.

Guava: A banking and networking platform for Black creators, entrepreneurs and
small business owners.

oneKIN: A mission-driven company focused on providing small businesses with
creative and cost-effective technology solutions to help them compete in the
digital landscape and grow sustainably.

Palla: A platform that enables international peer-to-peer payments on cards from
the United States to Latin America in seconds, instead of hours or days.

SUMA Wealth: A fintech devoted to increasing prosperity and opportunity for
young Latinos through culturally relevant financial tools, content and
experiences that empower the community to build wealth and control their
financial future.

Truora: A technology company that simplifies user interactions from marketing to
user acquisition and ensures constant communications with digital users.

Yunit: An enterprise service management platform that allows users to
participate in investment groups directly on their mobile phone.

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Mastercard launches Web3, and crypto community for a diverse community
Companies and Organizations, Mastercard / 24/06/2022

Mastercard, alongside leading industry influencers, today announces the launch
of The Belle Block™, a new community focused on educating and empowering women
and non-binary individuals to benefit from Web3 technology and crypto.
Mastercard believes in the power of technology and its ability to build a better
future that includes everyone. The technology company is creating a platform
that prioritizes education, listening and learning from a diverse community –
bringing more people into the digital ecosystem safely and securely. Powered by
Mastercard’s Global Crypto and Blockchain team, this new group focuses on
partnering with the Web3 community and those interested in joining to educate
more women and focus on delivering on the key building blocks of The Belle
Block’s mission: Business Growth, Education, Leadership, Legal & Regulatory
Advocacy and Entrepreneurship. As part of NFT.NYC Week, Mastercard is excited to
bring together four Web3 industry leaders to help kickoff the launch of The
Belle Block. Maggie Love of SheFi, Candace Stewart of HerHouse, Cynthia Huang of
Blu3 DAO, and Deana Burke of Boys Club will candidly share their stories,
industry expertise and insights.

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