Tag: fintech

You Might Be Able to Pay for Things with Sunglasses Soon

On March 13, Visa unveiled a payment-enabled sunglasses prototype at multiple festivals and competitions in Texas and Australia. The glasses look exactly like normal plastic sunglasses would with the addition of a tiny chip on its side. To pay using the glasses, a person would take them off and tap them on a Visa near field communication (NFC) enabled terminal, similar to how people can pay with Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Samsung/Android Pay.

These glasses are not yet available for public sale, as Visa is assessing market demand and if any brands or banks would like to help sponsor the product. Visa has experimented with other wearables such as payment-enabled rings and wristbands.

While all of this sounds convenient and cool (imagine how trendy you would look if you just took your sunglasses off for a second and then walked away with a bag full of other cool things), my first question would be, “What’s the security outlook of this wearable?” People lose small things, especially sunglasses, when in public. The article does not mention any sort of user verification mechanism, such as a pin or ID check, as those things would conceivably make paying less convenient. Could I find someone’s forgotten sunglasses on a Starbucks table and buy every drink on the menu? I wouldn’t touch these until I know what kind of security features they have.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/13/visa-pay-with-sunglasses.html

Future of FinTech: FinTech in the Spotlight

CBI Insights, a company that aggregates data using machine learning, algorithms, and data visualization, hosts an annual exclusive FinTech conference for financial institutions, FinTech firms, and venture capitalists. 2017 marks the second year the two-day conference has been held. Hosted FinTech companies must apply through the CBI Insights website, featuring their business solution to a problem, business model, and relevant FinTech sector. The 2017 conference will feature many speakers from companies such as Paytm, an Indian payment and commerce company; Sequoia Capital, an American venture capital firm; Lemonade, an American renters and home insurance company, among many, many more.

The Future of FinTech conference seems like a fantastic opportunity to see what other disruptive technologies and services are up and coming, but unfortunately, it lives up to its exclusive nature, as you must be either a paying CBI customer, corporate/VC investor, lawyer, banker, accountant, or consultant and pay $1,995 or more to attend the conference. I wonder if this conference is streamed or reported on, as it would be very interesting to see what other companies are doing, beyond the more consumer based payments and personal finance FinTech that most commonly reaches the average consumer.

Source: http://events.cbinsights.com/future-of-fintech

Belgium and London working together on FinTech

After the Brexit vote in 2016, which caused the United Kingdom (UK) to separate from the European Union (EU), many European countries are attempting to dethrone the UK from its top status as a financial technology hub. FinTech, as it is now colloquially described, is technology that assists in transacting financial services. According to Innovate Finance, a UK non-profit organization focusing on the development of FinTech, although financing for FinTech companies has grown by 150% in the first two quarters of 2016, the UK’s FinTech funding fell by 33%. Belgium, however, would like to develop FinTech with London and the rest of the UK and support FinTech startups.

Despite VC’s witholding their funding from the UK, the Belgian government gave its support to a Brussels-based hub for the FinTech platform called B-Hive. The association has garnered the attention of more venture capitalists and funding. With London’s previous status as an attractive destination and hub for FinTech, further development is likely between the two countries. Not only will this association assist the UK in gaining back some of their FinTech traction, the UK’s goodwill will help Belgian companies to grow as well.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/belgium-london-work-fintech/