This week, #Breaking #Banks hosts Brett King and Chris Skinner continue their five-part series on the #blockchain, this time discussing the way the #technology is being used in non-#fintech areas such as healthtech, biotech, trade, and energy. King and Skinner were joined by quite a few voices this week, including Bailey Reutzel,Read More
Bank Innovation
In a previous article I wrote about Ethereum and a prenuptial smart contract created in #blockchain, I attempted to draw attention to how blockchain transactions could be analyzed under U.S. contract law.
The prenuptial smart contract I used as a test was somewhat whimsical and didn’t address the more practical issues which could face, for example, a small business seeking to minimize financial transaction costs using this platform.
Therefore, I would like to take the legal analysis a step further and apply it to a hypothetical small retail business with modest income and significant transaction fees paid to #banks, merchant services companies, and credit card companies. Small businesses can be early #technology adopters and present a huge market ripe for change. According to the Small Business Administration, there are 28 million small businesses in the United States and account for 40% of all retail sales.
Under this hypothetical scenario, the merchant decided to use a popular online payment system to reduce costs, but soon discovered that fees intended to be avoided were again imposed once the merchant reached a certain sales threshold. In addition, the dreaded credit card processing fees were not eliminated entirely.
In addition to credit card transaction fees, the merchant was faced with various state, local and federal #taxes. The merchant wanted to pay only those taxes for which the merchant was legally obligated and limit the exposure to greater financial management costs.
This is an area where blockchain may prove to be at a great advantage — reducing transaction costs to small and medium sized businesses.
Preliminarily, however, it may be useful to explain a little about the contracting process being proposed by #smart contracts, the substance of which is reproduced here and derived from my previous post:
Virtual contracts are not new. What smart contracts (potentially) offer are streamlined and transparent transactions at a minimal and known cost. This contracting process runs without human intervention based on a sequence of coded events monitored and executed by a virtual distributed transaction-based and encrypted system. Blockchain is often described as an online decentralized ledger of financial transactions, the nature of which is transparent to others on the blockchain. Ethereum is a blockchain platform over which #cryptocurrency can be exchanged as well as smart contracts formed. Blockchain began as a transparent and public peer-to-peer financial ledger using #bitcoincryptocurrencyand is at the beginning stages of transforming how the federal government, small businesses and financial services do business.
Cryptocurrency evolved from the current fiat monetary system and has beencompared to the gold standard. These monetary forms rely on a belief that the currency (in whatever form) has an agreed upon, or market created, value. Similarly, consideration, a necessary legal contract element, relies upon the parties agreeing that the value exchanged (the consideration — whether money or promises) is sufficient for an enforceable contract. For the small business hypothetical, I will use the Ethereum platform and related smart contract formation.
The Ethereum platform uses “ether” cryptocurrency, a competitor to the more familiar bitcoin. The smart contract manages a series of mini transactions (with the colloquial meaning, not the Ethereum definition), each of which build the agreement whole. Along the way, “fees” are paid for each interaction along the blockchain process. The fees pay the “miners” who process each transaction. This activity goes on separately from the over-arching contract’s performance. Fundamentally, there are two things going on — 1) smart contract transactions and 2) the real world contract performance, each are necessary to analyze as enforceable contractual transactions.
Generally, a contract in the U.S. is enforceable if: 1) the parties can legally enter into the contract; 2) there is an offer and acceptance; 3) there is consideration; and 4) the subject matter/form is legal.
When there is a discussion about the legality of smart contracts, it is generally about two things: 1) whether the smart contract is illegal because of its purpose, e.g., a smart contract to commit fraud is illegal, and therefore unenforceable or 2) the blockchain code itself may render the contract illegal. I suggest that each step be analyzed as a separate contract (because consideration is exchanged at every stage in Ethereum) to determine whether each transaction is legally enforceable, e.g., is there offer and acceptance? consideration? legal parties? proper form/legal? All would have to exist for a legally enforceable contract in the U.S.
Thus, there are two legal landscapes over which a my hypothetical merchant must navigate — the umbrella contract itself as well as the individual transactions over the blockchain.
The contractual disputes my hypothetical blockchain merchant may face are familiar — they differ only in format and understanding. If the merchant business and its customers do not read the contracts into which they enter, are they bound? Generally, yes, unless there was fraud, duress or coercion. Should customers and merchants be expected to read code? I think there is great room for improvement here.
When a smart contract is created, there is frequently a document in human readable, ornatural language, form which is supposed to be the basis for the smart contract code. However, some process-related transactions which are required to operate under the software platform may not be included in the contract — for example, what happens if the transaction fails (no currency or no performance) or what happens when either the merchant or the buyer changes an account address after the parties have agreed to the transaction. This may be handled in the blockchain, but the terms may not be reflected in the natural language contract. These could become routine fixes because the problems are common in regular contracts, i.e., if one party breaches, identify the remedies in the contract (select breach remedy options to include in smart contract code); no changes without the parties’ permission (flag when anyone attempts to modify/change code). The mirror image rule would be useful under these circumstances.
For my hypothetical small business, what problems may it face under U.S. regulation and tax laws?
The Wall Street Journal has been very busy publishing articles on bitcoin. On July 19, 2016, it posted an article about whether nations should issue bitcoin. On June 24, 2016, it published an article about how bitcoin may be taxed. In my opinion, working through the kinks now will help shape policies and regulation later.
The WSJ tax-related article identified issues which may be faced by virtual currency owners and investors. The author referred to a letter sent to the IRS by an accountants’ advocacy group, the American Institute of CPAs. Specifically, the author asked whether virtual currency owners and investors would face capital gains tax penalties each time virtual currency is sold. In 2014, the IRS’s answer was yes, if the virtual currency wasbeing held as an investment asset. If it is used as a substitute for currency, i.e., barter or trade, then anyone using the virtual currency would face the same tax liability as that related to earning regular income, regardless of the form in which the barter appears.
Here is the IRS position copied from Notice 2014–21 under FAQs:
“Q-7: What type of gain or loss does a taxpayer realize on the sale or exchange of virtual currency?
A-7: The character of the gain or loss generally depends on whether the virtual currency is a capital asset in the hands of the taxpayer. A taxpayer generally realizes capital gain or loss on the sale or exchange of virtual currency that is a capital asset in the hands of the taxpayer. For example, stocks, bonds, and other investment property are generally capital assets. A taxpayer generally realizes ordinary gain or loss on the sale or exchange of virtual currency that is not a capital asset in the hands of the taxpayer. Inventory and other property held mainly for sale to customers in a trade or business are examples of property that is not a capital asset. See Publication 544 for more information about capital assets and the character of gain or loss.”
In the U.S., taxpayers who trade services for goods, or goods for goods, are required to report the income value of the services or goods received. The letter referred to in the June 24 WSJ article asked for additional guidance from the IRS with regard to tax reporting in order to assist their members. However, for purposes of the hypothetical small business, it may be sufficient to consider that if cryptocurrency is being traded for goods or services, the tax laws would be applied in the same way as regular income, and not subject to capital gains tax penalties.
So it appears that like most U.S. taxable events, the local/regional/state/country tax laws apply. As a point of reference, these issues have been addressed similarly for online transactions.
Absent startling revelations about smart contracts or cryptocurrency, these tax obligations should be familiar to small business owners. If not, small business owners should familiarize themselves with the relevant tax laws or secure professional tax advice before accepting/trading cryptocurrency.
As for the smart contracts, careful design, planning, and predictable dispute resolution remedies will assist in promoting smart contracts as a viable business tool for small and medium-sized businesses.
[This article was posted previously on Medium on 7/26/16.]
Cynthia M. Gayton is an attorney, educator and speaker. She has advised small and medium sized software development companies as well as arts and entertainment businesses and individuals. She has an undergraduate degree in international affairs with a concentration in science and technology as well as a J.D. Nothing in this article is purported to be legal advice. You can contact the author via email at [email protected].
A group of #Japanese financial institutions are looking to create a platform for real-time #currency #exchange services.
CoinDesk
A few weeks ago, I was enjoying a lazy Saturday morning in London loitering on social media, when I got an unexpected message from #Apple Pay. It was a payment confirmation to Uber. I checked the App to find 5 transactions on Uber between 1:00 and 5:00 am, when I was fast asleep. I logged-in to the Uber app to find 5 long distance trips in the Philadelphia area – I had been hacked.
I immediately checked my Amex app – the payment card on the Uber account – to block payment. There was no trace of the fraudulent transactions. I called Amex customer service and they (somewhat unapologetically) explained that transactions in their App can take up to 24 hours to appear “That’s just how the app operates”. What struck me about this was not that Amex could not provide data to me in real time – they clearly could if Apple could – It’s that they felt it was not necessary.
Those who use it know, that Apple Pay is a better card payments interface than those most card companies currently offer – and they have done this using the card companies’ own infrastructure. Apple understands the value of a good user experience that truly addresses the needs of a card customer, much better than the card companies themselves seem to do.
In the last few years, we all know how Apple disrupted the media distribution, mobile phones and photography industries. They did this, not because they were attracted to the economics of these industries, but because they wanted people to buy more iPhones, iPads and iPods. So a question many should ask is: what if If Apple decides that banking is the next service they need to provide to sell more boxes?
What would Apple Banking look like? I would suggest that they would build their proposition on top of three key things they are very good at: user experience, authentication and data analytics.
This platform would engage with a number of third parties that would provide a banking service superior to anything in the market. Considering Apple’s customer base, skills and financial strength – Apple Banking could easily become the world’s most formidable challenger #bank.
The Apple Banking platform would offer three main services that would enable customer to do the following:
Manage
First and foremost Apple Banking will be a mobile application integrated with Apple Pay. Apple is very good at making complex processes appearsimple to the end-user. The Apple Pay proposition, even in its current incarnation, is a distinct improvement on many other mobile payment propositions in the market. Apple Banking would do the same.
Customers would be able to engage with their banking platform in a simple and clean interface that provides them with a snapshot of their financial situation. Powerful PFM (good examples of Personal Financial Management businesses are Quicken and Geezeo) would provide customers with clear insight and possible actions that they could take to get the most from banking provision. Apple would get customers’ permission to access their bank accounts and populate the Apple Banking application with real-time customer transactional information. This would then be re-presented to customers in a way that is straightforward to understand and easy interact with. This interface would enable customers to interact with their bank through the Apple Banking interface, making it possible for the customer to do anything they can do on their Bank’s web and mobile offerings through their App. A brilliant example of good banking services UX is provided by the Finnish non-bank wallet Holvi (recently acquired by BBVA).
To get access to live customer data, Apple could use the (few for now) existing banking APIs or resort to a screen-scraping solution. Yodlee andeWise are good examples of businesses that already offer this service. In Europe with the advent of PSD2 (European Payments Services Directive) EU #banks will be mandated to let their customers enable “Trusted Third Parties” to access their personal bank accounts through APIs. Apple will then be able to reinvent the digital banking UX available to most bank customers.
Within this new UX, Apple could provide insight on the quality, pricing and features of the services customers are receiving from their bank. This would be equivalent of a whole-of-market impartial shopping comparison, using real customer data that requires almost no effort for customers to set up. Customers would quickly see if they are getting value for money or if they would be better off with another provider. A good example of this approach is provided by Ontrees in the UK.
All of this would reduce the need for customers log in to their bank to bank. Customers would begin prefer to use Apple Banking to other interfaces available to them gradually becoming dis-intermediated from their bank, eventually resulting in the customer loyalty to shift from the Banks to Apple. This would lead customers to see banking as a commodity with Apple Banking as their trusted advisor protecting them from being taken advantage from the unscrupulous banks. All of which neatly leads to the next feature of Apple Banking.
Optimise
Once Apple Banking becomes the primary way customers engage with their bank, providing them with insight on the quality of the banking services they are receiving, the next logical step is to enable customers to optimise their banking provision. Apple Banking could not only show customers which provider would offer them the best service and value for money – they could also make it extremely easy for customer to move their custom to the best provider.
Apple Pay’s core proposition is to identify and authenticate the customer at the point of sale. Apple owns most of the data a bank needs to open a new customer account. Apple captures demographic data, details on ownership of other financial products and even biometric information that could be relatively easily bundled into an authentication / account opening service for banks. Apple Banking could allow customers to authenticate and open a new account with a new provider with a few taps. Making the commoditisation of the bank complete. The challenger bank Mondo is aiming for such an approach.
Reward
Once Apple Banking is able to provide all of the above the services to their customers, the next step is provide rewards. Apple Banking could leverage Apple’s relationship with the retailers and manufacturers to provide cash-backs and incentives to their customers. This would be a supercharged version of the. big-data cash-back propositions provided by businesses likeCardlytics and Meniga.
Apple has gone out of their way to announce that they would not use customer data for marketing purposes without their consent. But if customers consent, the richness of the data that Apple has access to would enable the rewards that it could provide be more substantial and better targeted that any other provider today.
If Apple decides to launch Apple Banking it would give banks a real run for their money. Apple has a better grasp on user experience and customer engagement than most businesses – not just banks. They have close to a billion iPhones in customers’ hands, a good few hundred millions with Touch-id authentication built-in, it has a trusted brand, very deep pockets and the skills to completely revolutionise the retail banking industry.
The attractiveness of the banking sector for Apple is not in its financial return. Banking is a relatively low margin, highly regulated and difficult business – so it’s unlikely that Apple will want to become a bank. Apple’s interest is in becoming an even more integral part of its customers’ life, creating an even higher barrier for them to switch hardware provider.
In a few years we could see that, not only does the world’s biggest taxi service not own any cars and the world’s largest hotel chain not own any property also the world’s greatest bank doesn’t have a banking license.
[linkedinbadge URL=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/aehatami” connections=”off” mode=”icon” liname=”Alessandro Hatami“] is Founder at The Pacemakers and this post was originally published on linkedin.
Fintech.Li präsentiert hier wöchentlich die wichtigsten #News rund um #Fintech in der Schweiz, Liechtenstein, Deutschland und Österreich.
Überblick und Vergleich von Schweizer Nachdiplom Studiengängen in Digital Finance
Diese Aufstellung hilft Euch bestimmt bei Eurer Entscheidung, solltet Ihr eine solche Ausbildung in naher Zukunft in Erwägung ziehen. Mehr erfahren
Swisscom setzt bei Fintech auf Kollaborationen
Was Jungunternehmen mitbringen müssen und welche Arten der Kooperationen möglich sind, erklärt der Leiter des Clusters Johannes Hoehener. Mehr erfahren
FinTech: Die wichtigsten deutschen Finanz-Start-ups
deutsche-startups.de präsentiert deswegen die wichtigsten deutschen FinTech-Start-ups – unter anderem basierend auf dem eingesammelten Risikokapital, die Beteiligten Investoren und der generellen Marktbedeutung des Start-ups. Mehr erfahren
FinTecSystems – Millionen für digitale Bankauskunft
FinTecSystems hilft Banken bei der Vergabe von Krediten und hat einen Millionenbetrag eingesammelt. Das Geld kommt unter anderem von einem französischen VC. Mehr erfahren
Avaloq kooperiert mit Zürcher Fintech-Firma
Die Bankensoftware-Schmiede Avaloq erweitert ihr Angebot mit drei Dienstleistungen. Dazu zapft sie die Expertise eines Datenspezialisten an.. Mehr erfahren
Erst Lizenz und dann Bauernfängerei: N26 wird zur vollwertigen Bank
Das Banking-Startup N26 verspricht ein faires und transparentes Anlageprodukt. In Wahrheit aber lohnen sich die Konditionen vor allem für Kleinsparer nicht. Verbraucherzentralen warnen. Mehr erfahren
Insurtech: Startup erhält Anschluss zur SBB
Bei einer Schweizer Jungfirma im Versicherungsbereich steigt ein gewichtiger Kunde ein – die Bundesbahnen. Mehr erfahren
Der dreifache Wahnsinn von „Girocard kontaktlos“, „girogo“ und „Geldkarte“
Wieso die Geldkarte und Girogo an Wahnsinn grenzen, das neue Bezahl-Verfahren „Girocard kontaktlos“ sich beim Konsumenten durchsetzt – und die Sparkassen dabei leer ausgehen werden – erklärt t3n Redakteur Jochen G. Fuchs in seiner „E-Fuchs-Kolumne“. Mehr erfahren
PayPal in Deutschland: Dr. Frank Keller wird neuer Geschäftsführer – Arnulf Keese wird Partner eines VC
Corporates und international agierende Finanzinstitute können die Innovationskraft von Start-ups und Fintechs nicht länger ungenutzt vorbeiziehen lassen. Start-up-Expertin Marie-Hélenè Ametsreiter und Erste Group-Vorstand Peter Bosek kennen die Bedürfnisse beider Seiten genau. Mehr erfahren
N26 Valentin Stalf im Interview: Die neue Strategie der Digitalbank – Geschäftskonten ab 2017
Im News-Dauerfeuer stellt sich Valentin Stalf, CEO der neugebackenen Bank, unseren Fragen rund um Altlasten und neue Pläne der N26. Mehr erfahren
Sofortkredit per API: AutoScout24 nutzt neuen Baustein der SolarisBank
Habe die SolarisBank nun das Portal AutoScout24 angeschlossen, um darüber per API Sofortkredite anzubieten. So könnten Autokäufer binnen weniger Minuten eine Finanzierung für den Gebrauchtwagenkauf erhalten. Mehr erfahren
Social Media-Analyse zur FinTech-Branche
Der Aufstieg der Sozialen Medien in der zunehmenden Digitalisierung und die Finanzkrise führten zu einem Aufschwung der FinTech-Branche. Wir warfen mit Brandwatch Analytics einen Blick auf die Online-Gespräche zu diesem Thema.. Mehr erfahren
Betastart für Herbst geplant: Penta will den “Legacy-#Banks” die KMUs abnehmen
Stealth-Mode nennt sich das. Jetzt aber bricht Co-Founder Luka Ivicev beim IT Finanzmagazin das Schweigen – und erläutert im Interview die Strategie des im Februar in Berlin gegründeten FinTechs. Mehr erfahren
How the Tech Behind Bitcoin Could Revolutionize Wall Street
Many believe the underlying #technology that powers bitcoin transactions, a system known as blockchain, has the potential to upend how Wall Street does business. Mehr erfahren
Blockchain – ohne den sozialen Konsens geht’s nicht
Dabei zeigen u.a. die zermürbende Blocksize-Debatte und aktuell die Ethereum-Fork, dass es beim Thema „Blockchain“ eben nicht nur um Technik geht, sondern auch um die Menschen, die sie verantworten und für die sie gemacht ist. Mehr erfahren
Banking wird in zehn Jahren komplett anders aussehen
“Die Blockchain wird das Internet verändern und dafür sorgen, dass sich Geschäftsmodelle und -prozesse grundlegend verändern werden. Sie hat tatsächlich etwas Revolutionäres, denn sie kann Zahlungsverkehr, Kredite oder den Wertpapierhandel schneller und günstiger machen und vor allem auch Finanzinstitute abschaffen.” Mehr erfahren
Top 30 FinTech Startups in Germany
FntechNews has put together list of FinTech Startups in Germany. This channels are top profiles in the fintech hub that frequently update for the FinTech community. Mehr erfahren
Bain-Studie: Mobile-Banking verdrängt Online-Banking
Mobile-Banking entwickelt sich weltweit zum entscheidenden Kanal für Bankgeschäfte und trägt wesentlich zu einer hohen Kundenloyalität bei. Mehr erfahren
zeb-Studie: Versicherer überlassen Innovationen den InsurTechs – und warten ab
Die deutschen Versicherungsunternehmen fokussieren sich zu stark auf interne Themen wie Infrastrukturen und Prozesse und zeigen sich zögerlich, wenn es darum geht, Innovationen zu entwickeln. Sie drohen dadurch zunehmend den Anschluss an neue InsurTech-Trends zu verpassen. Mehr erfahren
Zum Abschluss noch Informationen in eigener Sache von Fintech.LI.
Ticketpreise: von CHF 149,99 für Startups und CHF 249,99 für alle weiteren Kategorien.
Fintechnews Leser erhalten einen exclusiven Discount von 20% mit dem Code &8220;fintechnews20&8221;.
The post FinTech DACH News Rückblick der Woche 32 appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
As the market for apps is maturing and artificial intelligence advancing, text-based services, or chatbots, are poised to take off.
Chatbots are essentially software programs that use messaging as the interface to carry out various tasks. Venture Beat estimates that the bots landscape currently consists of over 170 companies that have attracted some US$ 4 billion in funding.
One particular area where entrepreneurs and market observers are optimistic about, is their use to deliver financial services.
Image credit: maxuser via Shutterstock
Already, a number of #banks have dived into this emerging trend, building and delivering solutions on instant messaging and popular social networks (think Facebook Messenger and Twitter) to deliver basic #banking needs such as checking your banking account balance, finding nearby ATMs, and even make payments, have launched this year. Toshka Bank of the Otkritie Financial Group, and Absa Group, also known as Barclays Africa, have both released their own chatbots in July and May, respectively.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has also introduced a #chatbot into its operations. Luvo is basically the bank’s customer service chatbot, and although the service doesn&8217;t handle transactions, it is the bank&8217;s first step towards simplifying financial transactions.
Going beyond daily banking needs, other companies are looking to use chatbots for other purposes such as trading services and personalized financial guidance. This is the case of AJ Bell, a UK firm providing online investment platforms and stockbroker services, which plans to reach millennials with a new trading service that would allow customers to buy and sell shares on Facebook Messenger.
Another example is Personetics, an Israeli provider of personalized digital guidance solutions, which launched its Personetics Anywhere chatbot in May. Personetics Anywhere, a solution targeted at banks, is essentially a tool that allows their customers to get up-to-date information and personalized guidance via Facebook Messenger and other messaging apps.
Digit, a San Francisco-based startup, focuses on helping customers save money. You simply need to connect your bank account, then, its algorithms analyze your income and spending, and find small amounts of money it can set aside for you.
Every two or three days, Digit transfers some money (usually between US$ 5 to US$ 50) from your checking account to your Digit savings and promises to “never transfer more than you can afford.”
When you need your savings, you simply send Digit a text message, and Digit will transfer the money from your Digit savings back to your checking account next business day.
The service allows unlimited transfers, with no minimums and no fees. Plus, Digit automatically sends you a text message with your checking account balance every morning.
Speaking to Fast Company, Digit&8217;s founder and CEO Ethan Bloch, explained why he decided to go with text messages instead of building an app:
&8220;The honest reason is it was easy. It was fast. We didn’t want it to be another notification because we didn’t want to have to build an app; I just really wanted to ask Digit for my balance. Really quickly, we wrote the code and it shifted [to SMS].&8221;
Similarly to Digit, Cleo, too, connect with your bank account to assess your daily debits and other transactions. Cleo, an artificial intelligence money-managing assistant, sends you text messages about your spending and help you find better deal banks. You can also send her text messages with specific requests. Cleo is unfortunately only available in the UK right now.
San Francisco-based startup Olivia AI, Inc. said it intends to &8220;revolutionize the way people spend their money&8221; and &8220;help people maximize their paychecks.&8221; Olivia, which is still under development, will organize all your accounts and transactions for you and come up with unique insights on how to save money and stretch your paycheck.
Olivia&8217;s CEO and founder Cristiano Oliveira said that unlike competitors, Olivia is &8220;not focusing on creating budgets, we’re focusing on helping our users keep doing what they love to do without compromising their lifestyles, providing ways to save money on everyday items like groceries, cable, and insurance.&8221;
Featured image: A line of retro robots by charles taylor, via Shutterstock.
The post The Rise of Chatbot Banking and AI Money-Managing Assistants appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
#Monese, a UK-headquartered mobile-only #challenger #bank, has launched its iOS app alongside a refreshed Android app.
Monese lets you open a UK current account almost instantly even without a UK address or credit history, all through the app.
Opening a Monese bank account is quite simple and only requires a snapshot of your passport and a selfie. Monese is available to customers located in Europe.
The banking account comes with a (free) contactless Visa Debit card, which allows you to purchase goods and services online and in store, withdraw cash from ATMs globally, as well as deposit cash at any shop with a PayPoint.
The Monese app works pretty much like any other banking app: you can receive payments, send money at home or abroad (8x cheaper than using a traditional bank), pay your bills and manage your money on the go.
Monese primarily targets immigrants, digital nomads and the expats community who often have to experience challenging tasks when opening a UK bank account as foreigners.
Named ‘Best Challenger-Bank’ in Europe, the startup has been awarded €1.1 million by the European Commission for research and innovation.
Monese, one of the first 100% mobile current account services to launch in the UK back in September 2015, is registered by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 for the issuing of electronic money.
Since the UK&8217;s financial regulators loosened rules for new entrants in 2013, a host of startups have applied for banking licenses in order to take on the established lenders. Monese, but also Mondo, Atom Bank and Starling, have that one thing in common: they are all engaging with customers almost entirely through digital channels.
In April, app-only bank Atom Bank launched its iOS app in the UK and is currently looking to replace passwords with biometrics banking. The company is authorized with restrictions by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the FCA.
Atom Bank is backed by BBVA, Anthemis Group, Polar Capital Holdings and Toscafund Asset Management, and has raised over US$ 170 million in funding so far.
In May, Viacom Media released results of a survey of over 10,000 millennials on their perception of banking. The survey found that 73% would be more excited about a new offering in financial services from leading #technology companies than from their own bank.
Image: Millennial Generation by William Perugini, via Shutterstock.
Engaging with millennials, a growing population of 80 million individuals in the US along with radically different expectations from their predecessors, has become a top priority for #banks. Growing up in the age of the Internet boom, millennials have ushered in the rise of mobile apps, crowd-source funding, digital peer-to-peer payments and online banking.
According to the Millennial Disruption Index, 68% believe that in five years, the way we access money will be totally different and 70% say that the way we pay for goods and services will completely change in five years.
Interestingly, 33% believe they won&8217;t need a bank at all in five years, and almost 50% are relying on tech startups to fundamentally change how banks work today.
The post Mobile-Only Challenger Bank Monese Releases iOS App appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
This week, Brett King and Chris Skinner continue their talk on the #blockchain, in the second episode of a 5-part series. King is the author of the recently released Augmented, while Skinner has his own new release, Value Web. King and Skinner are joined this week by Alex Tapscott, co-author ofRead More
Bank Innovation
#Sommerferien bieten viel freie Zeit, die man nutzen kann um mal wieder ein Buch in die Hand zu nehmen. Insbesondere, wenn man sich ein Basiswissen aufbauen will und sich mit den neuesten Trends und Entwicklungen basierend auf breit ausgelegten Forschungen und Interviews auseinander setzen möchte, sind #Bücher die erste Wahl.
Im Folgenden werden 3 #Fintech Bücher vorgestellt, die sich perfekt als wissenserweiternde Sommerlektüre eignen. Wer mehr braucht dem stehen 12 weitere Fintech Lektüren am Schluss zur Verfügung.
Brett King, Autor und Gründer von Moven, der im Jahr 2010 „Bank 2.0“ herausbrachte kam bereits zwei Jahre später mit „Bank 3.0: Why Banking is No Longer Somewhere You Go But Something You Do“ zurück.
In diesem Buch betrachtet King die neuesten Trends, welche zukünftig die Finanzdienstleistungen und den Zahlungsverkehr neu definieren sollen. Themen, die unter anderem angesprochen werden sind mobile Geldbörsen, HTML 5, Tablets, Cloud Computing und der „bankenlose“ Verbraucher. In „Bank 3.0” bietet King Lösungen für alltägliche Bank-Probleme und zeigt die immer größer werdende Lücke zwischen Kunden und Finanzdienstleister und damit auch verbunden die vielen Möglichkeiten für neue Nicht-Bank Konkurrenten.
“Digital Bank” beschreibt die Innovationen im Bereich Banking und wie das mobile Internet die Dynamik zwischen Kunden und Unternehmen mit ihren Banken verändert. Die Aussage ist, dass Banken digitalisiert werden müssen. Dies stellt aber eine Herausforderung dar, da eine Digital Bank auf neue Services zugreifen muss, die sich auf Technologien des 21. Jahrhunderts spezialisieren.
&8220;Digital Bank&8221; enthält nicht nur umfassende Anleitungen und Hintergrundinformationen über die digitale Revolution im Bankensektor, sondern auch eine gründliche Analyse der Aktivitäten etablierter Banken wie Barclays in Großbritannien und mBank in Polen, als auch Start-Ups wie Metro Bank und neue disruptive Bankenmodelle wie die FIDOR Bank in Deutschland.
&8220;The Fintech Book“ bietet einen primären Leitfaden für die Finanztechnologie-Revolution beziehungsweise Disruption und den damit verbundenen Möglichkeiten die sich dadurch ergeben. Geschrieben von weltweiten Führern im Bereich FinTech fasst dieses Buch die kritischen Erkenntnisse und Informationen aus erster Hand in einem einzigen Band zusammen und gibt Unternehmern, Bankern und Investoren die Antworten, die sie benötigen um von diesem lukrativen Markt zu profitieren.
Durch die vielen verschiedenen Themen, die analysiert werden, wie beispielsweise B2B-Transaktionen, Identitätsdiebstahl, Crowdfunding oder #Robo Advisors, stellt dieses Buch eine gute Basis für jeden dar, der sich mit FinTech auseinander setzen möchte.
12 weitere lesenswerte Bücher im Bereich Fintech sind:
Weitere Fintech Bücher finden Sie hier
Für genauere Informationen zu diesen und auch weiteren Büchern siehe &8220;The 10 Best Fintech Books To Have In Your Library&8221; und &8220;9 (More) Fintech and Blockchain Books To Have On Your Bookshelf&8221;.
The post 15 Fintech Bücher die man (in den Sommerferien) lesen könnte appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
You cannot ignore it: #Fintech is a boom. According to Fintech News Switzerland, there are 185 digital finance firms in the Swiss market. As a contrast, our neighbor German has more than twice as many shown by a study by Barkow Consulting last year.
Meanwhile, even more #Fintechs should be in the market. The support for the industry is evident through the 300 million Euros investments in German Fintechs.
Yet the first Fintechs are already dying. The online payment service Paymill and the payment Fintechs Yapital and Click-and-buy are only a few examples for the Fintech flops that shake the acclaimed industry.
I myself co-founded two internet companies, the nightlife-website usgang.ch and amiando, an eventmanagement tool. Both now belong to large corporations – usgang.ch to Axel Springer and amiando to Xing. Since 2010, I have had the opportunity to be close to many Fintech investments in both Switzerland and Germany.
Again and again the question arises: What #makes a fintech #successful?
In my opinion: a company builder. I am saying this from the perspective of both a former founder and investor. Instead of supporting a startup through risk capital only and hoping for the unsurpassable high flyer, a company builder is engaged intensively in each venture.
There lies the important difference: a company builder is not an accelerator in which companies undergo a coaching period. It is also not an incubator that aims to grow companies which leave the nest.
A company builder analyses the market, searches for gaps in digital offerings, and develops solutions. The implementation of the solutions is only possible with the right founder. This has nothing to do with the “on-our-way-home-in-the-train-we-had-a-great-idea” founder romance, but it concentrates on a work-related promising ideology. FinLeap, a Berlin-based Fintech company builder, where I am a member of the advisory board, proceeds in that manner.
With more than 700 applicants every month, a huge number of potential employees approach FinLeap. Since its founding almost two year ago, FinLeap employees 250 employees from more than 30 nations and has successfully founded nine ventures with the next projects already in the pipeline. All of them grow, found cooperations between them, win over #banks as customers &8211; or operate with a full banking license themselves, like solarisBank.
It is an amazing experience for me as a FinLeap companion to not only have a focus on one project, but to be parallelly involved in many exciting business models at once. As a result, we often see synergies and cooperations between the ventures. For the founders, the advantages are clear: Instead of being occupied with salary statements, legal issues or marketing, they can fully concentrate on the core business- with a seed funding between 0.5 and 5 million as a basis.
The majority of founders at FinLeap are not just-graduated students, but are carefully chosen industry experts. One of FinLeap’s ventures Savedo, a marketplace for fixed term deposits in Europe, is the perfect example. Its co-founder Christian Tiessen has already successfully co-founded the online design shop cascandra, and later on fab.de, leading them up to the exit. Christopher Oster, managing director of online-insurance broker Clark, co-founded the platform for holiday apartments Wimdu and additionally possesses many years of experience in strategy consulting for the Boston Consulting Group.
These represent only two examples of the many present at FinLeap.
So to answer the question: Expertise and passionate entrepreneurship make a Fintech idea successful, but a company builder can contribute on many levels.
The post Marc P. Bernegger: What Makes Fintechs Successful? appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
Reply