On The Web

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Tech

Voice tech like Alexa and Siri hasn’t found its true calling yet: Inside the voice assistant ‘revolution’

November 12 2018

• in
• Voice interface

“Voice assistants are potentially privacy nightmares as they proceed to monitor more and more elements of our daily lives. That fear, however, hasn’t seemed to put a dent in sales. As the holiday shopping season approaches, voice-powered smart speakers are again expected to be big sellers, adding to the approximately one-quarter to one-third of the U.S. population that already owns a smart […]

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Tech

Green Dot Says It’s the Go-Between in the New Walmart-PayPal Cash Service

November 8 2018

• in
• Mobile wallets

“The Walmart-PayPal service, expected to debut this month, sends a bar code to the PayPal account holder’s mobile phone, which can be redeemed for a cash withdrawal or deposit at a Walmart store. The program uses Green Dot’s so-called Banking-as-a-Service platform that enables outside companies to use Green Dot technology to develop new financial products.”

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Tech

How Smart Retailers Are Leveraging AI

November 8 2018

“The amount of money companies have invested in AI technologies has tripled since 2013, and early adopters are seeing better profit margins than their competitors, according to a recent McKinsey study.”

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Tech

Singapore Exchange and regulator in cross-DLT settlement breakthrough

November 13 2018

• in
• Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

“The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) have developed delivery versus payment (DvP) capabilities for the settlement of tokenised assets across different blockchain platforms. As reported in August, the pair signed a collaboration to develop this DvP. Anquan, Deloitte and Nasdaq were appointed as technology partners for this project. It was one […]

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Deals

NCR Acquires StopLift To Address Self-Checkout Theft And In-Store Shrink

November 13 2018

• in
• Retail

“NCR Corporation has acquired StopLift Checkout Vision Systems, an intelligent computer vision systems provider for retail POS platforms. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. With the growth of Amazon Go and other competing technologies in the cashierless self-checkout space, NCR is reinforcing its focus on self-checkout solutions.”

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Global

Pubs and bars feeling surge of mobile payments

November 14 2018

• in
• Contactless
• UK

“As a proportion of total payments, mobile transactions in the UK have jumped from 1.3% in Q3 2016 to 5.6% in Q3 2018, representing an overall increase of 331%. Compared to this time last year, mobile payments have increased by 60%. The data comes amid growing popularity among consumers as retailers become increasingly willing and able to […]

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Tech

Contactless cards could start taking off in the U.S. as Chase announces rollout

November 14 2018

• in
• Contactless

“Chase, the consumer banking arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, -1.50%  announced Wednesday that it would be sending out contactless Visa Inc. V, +0.45% credit cards beginning in the first half of 2019. The company will roll out tap-enabled cards on an ongoing basis when customers open up new accounts or have a card that’s up for renewal. Chase will […]

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Companies

Ripple Is Aiming to Overtake Swift Banking Network, CEO Says

November 13 2018

• in
• Blockchain
• Ripple

“Ripple Labs says it has more than 100 banks and payment providers on its RippleNet network, including Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Standard Chartered Plc, according to its website. Garlinghouse also said that speculation within the blockchain industry of a potential link-up between Ripple and Swift wasn’t true.”

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Global

Rise of the QR code for mobile payments in Singapore

November 14 2018

• in
• Singapore

“As Singapore accelerates its journey towards a cashless society, the use of mobile payments* is gaining traction among Singaporeans. According to The Future of Payments Study** conducted by UnionPay International and Nielsen with 400 Singapore consumers aged 18 to 65, 58% of Singaporeans have used at least one form of mobile payment in the past three months, and close […]

On The Wires

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Tech

Holiday Shopping Preview: Blackhawk Network Reveals Top 2018 Consumer Gift Card Preferences; Dining and Movie Categories Expected to Lead Strong Gift Card Sales

November 12 2018

• in
• Closed loop prepaid

“With the reveal of its 2018 holiday shopping preview today, Blackhawk Network expects strong holiday gift card sales led by the dining, movie, sporting goods, beauty supply and specialty home goods categories. The new report* examines trends from Blackhawk’s own U.S. sales data in addition to insights from its 2018 State of Consumer Gift Card Preferences survey.”