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In the future, embedded finance will reposition financial institutions as software and product providers, often giving control of the customer relationship to consumer brands.

From How Should Banking Respond to Embedded Finance Model?:

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Most are settled through correspondent banking arrangements, traditionally through banks in New York for dollar transactions, in London for sterling transactions and Frankfurt for euro transactions.

But this was a highly neo-colonial process, given that most major correspondent banks are western-owned, effectively dictating price and terms.

From Is the world heading into digital currency future?:

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TilloBased in: Brighton and Hove
Sector: fintech
Founders: Alex Preece and Gareth GillattPowering the future of gift cards, Tillo connects the world’s most popular brands with businesses looking for exciting new ways to reward and incentivise. Unlocking a world of new opportunity to drive sales and reach new global audiences, their digital platform connects brands with businesses across its extensive network, opening up multiple new distribution channels and allowing them to manage sales, all in real-time.

From 33 fastest-growing tech start-ups in Britain in 2021 – are you one of them?:

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2020

The awards, organised by the Gift Card & Voucher Association (GCVA) and with a special guest appearance from comedian and actor Maria McErlane, recognised the extraordinary efforts of the GCVA members, which span the retail, leisure, incentives and payments sectors, during lockdown, across six prestigious categories.
Rewards and benefits platform Edenred Ltd won “Best COVID Response Initiative”, in partnership with rewards and incentive management platform Tillo, for their tireless work in enabling free school meal vouchers throughout the first wave of the pandemic.

From Gift card industry heroes recognised in GCVA Connect 2020 Special Awards | Bdaily:

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Andressen Horowitz make a similar observation when discussing the economic potential of the metaverse.

Banks operate under complex structures that make it difficult to understand their financial health and the risks they’re underwriting. Citizens are relegated to trusting that the government will preserve economic value through monetary policy, capital controls, and FDIC insurance; we’ve seen how this hasn’t always worked for us in the past.

From Designing Internet-Native Economies: A Guide to Crypto Tokens – Future:

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There are two main categories of tokens: fungible (e.g., interchangeable) and non-fungible (e.g., unique). As more creators and communities build their own crypto economies, fungible tokens will be used to exchange goods, store value, and make collective decisions. Meanwhile, non-fungible tokens (e.g., NFTs) will be used to create new business models centered on collectibles, rewards, achievements, and more — giving people a sense of identity, status, and belonging.

From Designing Internet-Native Economies: A Guide to Crypto Tokens – Future:

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In 2020 alone, consumers spent approximately $54B USD on in-game purchases for virtual goods like livestock in FarmVille, skins in Fortnite, and extra lives in Candy Crush. But this is just the beginning of what’s possible.

From Designing Internet-Native Economies: A Guide to Crypto Tokens – Future:

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Neha Narula, who is leading Project Hamilton, the name of the Fed-MIT collaboration, sees the CBDC opportunity as revolutionary. “If we were able to create a well-designed interface to a central bank digital currency, we could do for the transfer of value what the internet did for the transfer of information, which is create a platform for innovation,” she said at a hearing in Washington and I agree: I have consistently observed that the potential for innovation is the biggest upside of a retail CBDC.

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Hackers managed to hijack one-time passwords (OTPs) sent via SMS by Singapore banks to customers and use them to carry out fraudulent credit card transactions worth a total of S$500,000.

From Crooks hijack bank OTPs to make fraudulent card payments.

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In a recent speech, Di Gang, deputy director of China’s central bank Digital Currency Research Institut said that there is a need for what he called “formal verification” of smart contracts to prevent bugs.

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Too often fintech partnerships are trotted out at the board’s behest, shown off in a bit of “innovation theater,” and the board moves back to its traditional central concern — loans, according to Ron Shevlin, Director of Research.

From Why Bank + Fintech Partnerships Are Going Nowhere:

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