On The Web

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Companies

Amazon ditches Dash Buttons as Mobile and Voice Commerce Take Over

March 1 2019

• in
• Amazon
• Voice interface

“Amazon will stop selling the buttons from the end of February and, while those that have them can continue to use them, anyone wanting to buy one now is out of luck. Amazon said: “We’ve seen customers increasingly using programs like Alexa Shopping, which provides a hands free shopping experience, and Subscribe & Save, which lets […]

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Companies

Square sold more than $166M worth of bitcoin in 2018

March 1 2019

• in
• Square

“Last year, the firm enabled bitcoin buys and sells on its Cash App platform, a rival to PayPal’s Venmo. Still, despite Dorsey’s bullish stance on bitcoin — the billionaire has said bitcoin could be the future of money — Square does not hold that much bitcoin on its own balance sheet, but did however make approximately […]

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Companies

Unicorn Cross River Works to Foster Bank-Fintech Harmony

March 1 2019

• in
• Cross River Bank

“From its modest beginnings as a one-branch bank in nearby Teaneck, to its leading position within the marketplace lending industry, to its current aspiration to be a standard-bearer of bank-fintech cooperation, CR has been a model of adaptability. A constant, says Gade, is a belief that it’s possible to simultaneously protect customers and deliver more […]

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Companies

Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores As It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

March 7 2019

• in
• Amazon

““After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program,” an Amazon spokeswoman confirmed to The Wall Street Journal. The closings are expected by the end of next month, some employees at Amazon pop-up stores said. These shops typically occupy a few hundred square feet of space and showcase devices like […]

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Companies

End of days as Barclays brings bPay into Pingit

March 5 2019

• in
• Barclays

“Barclays’ bPay app has had its day as it will be brought into Pingit to build out this mobile payment brand. The latter has about 3.6 million users, but bPay, which was launched in 2014, has users “in the high tens of thousands,” a Barclays spokeswoman says. With two separate apps, and the struggle against rivals […]

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Companies

Revolut CFO Resigns Following Money Laundering Controversy

March 1 2019

“This hasn’t been a good week for challenger bank Revolut . The company, which offers digital banking services and is valued at $1.7 billion, confirmed today that embattled CFO Peter O’Higgins has resigned and left the business. The startup and O’Higgins have been under pressure after a Daily Telegraph report revealed that Revolut switched off an anti-money laundering system that flags […]

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Companies

Exclusive: Mexican central bank in talks with Amazon about new…

March 6 2019

• in
• Amazon
• Mexico
• QR codes

“It would be the first time the world’s largest online retailer offers such scanning technology in Mexico and could eventually open a new customer base in a nation where more than half of the population has no bank account. The payment system, known as CoDi, is being built by central bank Banco de México, known as […]

On The Wires

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Companies

SWIFT gpi reaches $40trillion milestone at two year anniversary

February 28 2019

• in
• SWIFT

“SWIFT today announces a major milestone in the take-up of gpi with more than $40trn transferred over the service in 2018. Rapid adoption saw the share of cross-border messages using gpi soar from 15% at the start of 2018, to 56% by the end of the year, a year-on-year increase of 270%. More than 3,500 […]

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Companies

Barclaycard UK Merchants to Accept Cards That Run on the Discover Global Network

March 1 2019

• in
• Discover

“Accepting these payment methods allows Barclaycard’s merchants to process transactions from the customers of Discover Global Network’s more than 10 network alliance partners and 55 countries where Diners Club cards are issued. Cardholders are now able to pay at over 110,000 of Barclaycard’s UK merchants both in-store and online, with thousands more merchants set to start […]

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Companies

Alipay and SnapPay Enable Chinese Mobile Payments at FoodyMart

March 6 2019

• in
• Canada

“SnapPay, Inc., a leading provider of secure, cross-border payment solutions, and Alipay, the world’s leading digital payment platform, operated by Ant Financial Services Group, today announced a collaboration that will see Canadian-Chinese Grocery Chain, FoodyMart, accept Alipay’s digital payment platform, enabling consumers to pay in Chinese currency, at all locations, including their newly re-designed, “Alipay […]