Snippings

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Going forward, we’ll see two models prevail, both of which will offer SMB lending through an existing customer relationship:

1) Embedded loans, in which lending is tied to software that the SMB customer already uses as an operating system. This is similar to the Stripe models launched this month. Here, home services businesses manage their day-to-day clientele via Jobber and merchants manage their retail businesses via Lightspeed’s point-of-sale.

2) The “bank” model (with a license or not), in which lending is offered in addition to a set of financial products, often starting with a high engagement product like payments or a checking account. Square, for example, started with its POS payments product and later layered in lending.

From Swipe card, get stock; In defense of the IPO; New models for SMB lending, and more:

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Thus, some newer core providers (such as Thought Machine) focus on a few key aspects – checking and savings accounts, lending – then provide APIs into their systems so that additional solutions built by other vendors can plug in. For banks that are hesitant to “rip and replace,” but who still want to launch new products or to improve the operational efficiency of existing systems, there are players like Moov.io. Moov can provide the connective tissue (say, to port data into a new, flexible ledger) or the APIs for more reliable ACH payments, based on their open source libraries. This could allow banks to use a new core system for a new product, or to gradually improve their legacy infrastructure.

There may be thousands of banks in the U.S., but with the exception of the “megabanks,” they all run on a handful of infrastructure providers. That’s why we, as consumers, generally have the same frustrations with the user experience!

But imagine a future where banks are able to choose solutions from best-of-breed providers that work together seamlessly, while also maintaining the ability to develop their own custom solutions by leveraging modern APIs. This would benefit newer entrants, who will be able to build solutions faster, as well as existing banks, who will be able to provide more modern experiences to their customers – and perhaps come closer to leveling the playing field for smaller and community banks competing with far larger peers

From Swipe card, get stock; In defense of the IPO; New models for SMB lending, and more:

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Their phones record details of other devices they have been near, and if one of those users later marks themselves as infectious, exposed individuals receive a notification.

From Google and Apple to roll out phase two of contact-tracing system | Technology | The Guardian:

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Policymakers around the world yearn to be free of the dollar’s grip. That seems unlikely.

From Buck up – Global trade’s dependence on dollars lessens its benefits | Schools brief | The Economist:

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The dollar’s share of global invoicing is five times its share of global trade.

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Jaspreet Marwaha, from Birmingham, gave the information of more than 80 accounts to Mohammed Saif Maqsood, from Blackburn, who paid £50 for each set of card details and swiped between £82,000 and £92,000 from them.

From ‘Stupid’ Lloyds Bank customer adviser, 27, sold account details for £50 each to gambling addict | Daily Mail Online:

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Hereby the required components for a comprehensive identity management system in form of strong identity validation, local data storage and downstream authentication could be combined. This approach not only allows Apple to establish themselves as a digital identity provider, but also to fulfill the necessary technical prerequisites for the targeted positioning within the profitable e-Health sector.

From Apple Identity Wallet – Disruption as a catalyst for digital transformation:

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Europe’s biggest neobanks – Revolut, N26, Monzo and Starling – promised to make banking better. Here was a fresh, new set of distinctly European tech startups sitting in the wallets of millions of genuine users – the familiar flash of neon colored cards in pubs, cafes and shops had sparked wildfire word-out-mouth marketing across the U.K. in particular. From 2014 onwards, the challenger banks offered something simple, better, entirely online and free of the stodgy lineage of century-old banking brands for whom current account banking had become a largely loveless and loss-making exercise. But the pandemic and the subsequent ‘new normal’ across Europe has pushed neobanks to the edge. With not a penny of profit yet between them, the pandemic was an opportunity for the startups to strengthen their relationship with users, and come out of the lockdown having proved their value over the big banks they sought to disrupt. This simply didn’t happen.

From The Sad Demise Of Europe’s Neobanks:

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“An internet-ready mobile phone is the bottom rung of economic mobility. While it’s well established that breakthroughs in mobile banking have improved financial inclusion, blockchain-based payment systems have the potential to reduce costs and improve access even further.”

From “Could Digital Currencies Make Being Poor Less Costly?”.

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The technology company filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office on July 2 that describes the technology it is trying to develop in place of traditional driver’s licenses, passports and varied ID cards for government purposes or access to private property.

From Apple files another mobile ID, passport patent: Report | Fox Business:

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A jealous boyfriend is facing jail for taking his partner hostage and attacking her after friends tagged her on Facebook at a male strip show after she claimed to have been going for ‘a meal with the girls’.

From Jealous boyfriend subjected partner to hostage ordeal after she was tagged at male strip show | Daily Mail Online:

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