Here is our pick of the 3 most important stablecoin stories during the week.

Are CBDC’s preparing to use regulators to out compete better alternatives?

CBDC implementations are still in the very early stages and yet there are signs that Regulators are blocking and stifling innovation.

The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets legislation could effectively ban dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDT and USDC in 27 member states. This would have dire consequences for the entire EU crypto market.

EU Stablecoin Ban Would Cause “Extreme Volatility,” Lobbyists Warn – Crypto Briefing

Also in a controversial move by US Department of Treasury who announced sanctions against the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, saying the service had been used to launder over $7 billion worth of illicitly-gained crypto in just three years, a good chunk of that being funds stolen by hackers tied to sanctioned nations like North Korea. Those sanctions effectively put a litany of wallets associated with Tornado on a do-not-do-business-with list.

Crypto proponents have had problems with this move, mainly complaining that, instead of sanctioning any individuals, the restrictions targeted a decentralized smart contract and the code surrounding it. Now the Washington Post reported Wednesday that, based on data from crypto intelligence firm Dune Analytics, the company behind Tether has not blacklisted any of the sanctioned crypto accounts tied to Tornado Cash.

Tether Stablecoin Brushes Off U.S. Tornado Cash Sanctions (gizmodo.com)

Many Central Banks (some 109) are busy looking at CBDC’s but only a handful have actually launched and they have one thing in common, a notoriously weak sovereign Fiat currency and hence dollarized economies.

Visualized: The State of Central Bank Digital Currencies (visualcapitalist.com)

So in summary, CBDC’s have only been launched in countries that Fiat has largely failed, you can understand why, it’s like a hail mary pass by Central Banks to cling on to some relevance in their economies.  But will successful Fiat economies use regulators to gain an advantage or will they compete on a fair basis with existing and yet to be developed stablecoins?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alan Scott is an expert in the FX market and has been working in the domain of stablecoins for many years.  

Twitter @Alan_SmartMoney

We have a self imposed constraint of 3 news stories per week because we serve busy senior Fintech leaders who just want succinct and important information.

For context on stablecoins please read this introductory interview with Alan “How stablecoins will change our world” and read articles tagged stablecoin in our archives.

Automation can help financial institutions (FIs) appeal to younger generations seeking streamlined banking services. “I think it’s very important for every company in financial services to actually make their offerings appealing for the Gen Z customers,” Gustavo Gomez, chief executive of automation platform Bizagi, told Bank Automation News. “Because those are the customers that will […]

Reading Cooperative Bank (RCB) is partnering with fintech ZSuite Technologies to launch ZEscrow, an automated commercial escrow solution, and ZRent, an automated payment collection tool. Escrow, trust and “for the benefit of” (FBO) accounts have long been pain points for banks, requiring manual account opening and management processes, ZSuite Technologies Chief Executive Nathan Baumeister told […]

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.

Able collects information and processes it. Commercial lenders use Able to quickly collect details from borrowers, streamline the loan process, and book loans faster.

Features

• Fewer resources per loan
• Faster processing times
• Better experience for everyone

Why it’s great

Able uses AI to streamline commercial loan processing.

Presenter

Diego Represas, Founder
Diego Represas is the Co-Founder and Head of Able. Before founding Able, Represas led the development of AI products at Digit, a popular mobile app used by millions of consumers to automate saving.
LinkedIn

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.

Deposits offers banks, brands, and communities an easy, low-code solution for financial experiences like payments, mobile apps, and lending — whether they can program or not.

Features

• Use Deposits’ bank office to set up a program easily
• Manage program and set up controls in one place
• Easily KYC customers

Why it’s great

Deposits wants to demonstrate the future of finance and plug-n-play finance, plus reach lenders with no-coding experience and who have a community to serve.

Presenters

Joseph Akintolayo, CEO & Founder
Joseph Akintolayo is actively shaping the future of technology by creating ethical products that solve complex problems in fintech, government and social enterprise.
LinkedIn

Samuel Ailemen, Director of Mobile and Identity
As a software engineer who loves research, Samuel Aileman solves real-world problems using new technologies.
LinkedIn

South African banks see physical money remaining key to their business as almost a third of their customers aren’t ready to go cashless, according to a survey. While 86% of people already use digital banking, almost all customers said they still withdraw cash at least once a month to meet various needs, according to the […]

Peer-to-peer payments tool Cash App and its parent company, Block, failed to take necessary precautions to protect the data of 8.2 million customers after a former employee downloaded their information without authorization, according to a class action lawsuit filed last week. The Cash App breach, which occurred in December 2021, points to the importance of […]

Choice Bank is leveraging fintech partnerships in order to format and move information between datasets using middleware technology and APIs. The ability for a bank to expand its digital footprint while managing back-end processes is paramount and has become simpler and less costly through the use of APIs and middleware — a type of software […]

Consumers are empowered to do almost everything themselves online or via mobile—from comparing prices to checking in at the airport. Where there’s a will, consumers want a way, and that includes procuring their own customer service in the fastest, most convenient way possible. Here are a few things your financial institution can do to ensure you are meeting today’s consumer preferences and needs.

1. Intuitive interface and quick ability to pay

Time is of the essence to consumers. They want to be able to do things, like make loan payments, as quickly and easily as possible. One potentially critical strategy to meet consumer expectations is to implement real-time payment capabilities. Financial institutions have a solid customer base, and by forming direct connections and introducing convenient options, there is the potential to satisfy a big customer need in their daily lives, and solidify their loyalty. By utilizing a single platform to handle payments through self-service and internal operations, as well as processing ACH and card transactions in the same environment, you can make it easier for consumers and your team to effectively manage convenient payments. This also requires making it easier and faster to pay via a simplified and intuitive transactional structure that breaks up the payment processes into simplified steps a consumer can easily follow.

2. Trust in the technology and partnership through financial institutions

With technology evolving at a rapid pace, financial institutions have the pressure of keeping up-to-speed with FinTech and new technology firms continuously coming up with novel ideas. But all is not lost for financial institutions. They have a huge asset in the established trust of their customer base. These customers have a comfort level in doing transactions with their financial institutions that does not exist with start-up technology firm. When offering new technology, financial institutions must have enough of their account holders’ trust to successfully promote and brand the technology. In turn, the financial institution builds a solid reputation with their borrowers that they can offer innovative technology.

The technology that financial institutions promote should have a variety of payment options, robust and secure systems integration options, and provide a pleasing experience. Creating a strong payments brand, and demonstrating that your technology can be trusted by providing recorded demonstrations, and simple to understand instructions on a dedicated “ways you can pay page,” can go a long way in cultivating trust and growth through your desired payments.

3. Integrated payment options and reasonable costs

More and more, consumers are demanding a broader choice of payment options, expecting to be able to make payments anytime, anywhere, using any method. Consumers are becoming more fickle and less loyal in their choice of providers, and financial institutions must adapt or succumb to growing competition.

Today, consumers make purchasing decisions using all available channels, and they’re extending their omni-channel preferences to financial institutions as well. As a result of experiences in other industries, consumers expect simple transactions and “omni-commerce,” the integration and consistency of payments across channels and devices, to create a seamless, superior customer experience.

A critical component of a successful multi-channel payments strategy, is the effective balancing of costs your organization incurs for payment operations and the fees you may assess to your account holders. It is no secret zero, or smaller, fees are always appreciated by your account holders.  When it comes to offering flexible payment options, having a strong plan to cover your operational costs and drive consumer adoption is critical.  The goal is to provide the most convenience without your account holders, or yourselves, suffering from sticker-shock for taking a payment.  Thinking about payments as part of your overall budget and operating costs, can help you reduce your operational costs on this front without upsetting account holders.

This demand for broader choice in payments by consumers in an integrated and consistent manner is in large part due to the very high growth in electronic payments of all types, across all markets. From the growth of payment cards for low-value, day-to-day use, the development of online and now mobile commerce channels, to the growing rates of financial inclusion in all markets, consumers now have more choice in their payment tools than ever before, and increasingly expect a variety of integrated options. As a result, financial institutions must adapt and offer a growing range of cost-efficient payment tools to their customers to further their growth.

4. Convenience and preferred payment methods

Omni-channel consumers expect easy access to information—when they want it, where they want it, and in whatever channel they choose. They hold a high comfort level when using mobile devices as part of a multichannel experience and are using mobile to connect the online and offline worlds. For example, according to the report referenced above, these younger consumers are more likely than average to use coupons received on their phones.

Although the emerging omni-channel consumer is typically a younger person, that might not always be the case. There are pockets of older consumers—primarily technology-savvy segments—that share the enthusiasm for mobile payments but also have strong cross-channel behaviors. So just because mobile is a preferred method of payment for omni-channel consumers, convenience is still at the top of their list, and it’s important not to lose sight of other payment channels like online, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), cash (ex: MoneyGram), and customer service representative (CSR)-assisted.

With more options than ever, today’s consumers want their banking experience to be fast, easy, and secure, with the latest and greatest technology. By keeping up with consumers needs and the latest technology, financial institutions stand to gain flexibility, improved customer satisfaction, increased payment activity, and improved operational efficiency.

SWIVEL Transactions, LLC, is a financial technology and services company providing specialized, integrated transaction enablement solutions that remove friction for account holders, borrowers, and departments across financial institutions, as well as collections agencies and offices, while also mitigating risks associated with payments processing in the digital environment and moving funds in digital domains. Visit www.getswivel.io to learn more.

SWIVEL on by and visit with us at the Bank Automation Summit 2022, September 19th and 20th.

• Truist Wealth unveiled a pair of new investment solutions this week: a roboadvisor Truist Invest and a hybrid investment platform Truist Invest Pro.
• Truist Invest provides a personalized investment portfolio based on the user’s goals, risk tolerance, and current investments. Truist Invest Pro adds access to a team of financial advisors.
• Truist Wealth is a division of Truist Financial Corporation, a top ten U.S. with $545 billion in total assets.

Truist Wealth, a division of Truist Financial Corporation, announced the launch of two new investment solutions this week: roboadvisor Truist Invest and hybrid investment platform Truist Invest Pro, which blends automated investing with access to human financial advisors.

Both solutions were developed by a cross-functional team of designers, engineers, innovators, and product managers who co-created the new offerings in client journey rooms at the Truist Innovation and Technology Center. A combination of agile work strategies, direct client feedback, and iterative product design enabled the team to optimize both solutions ahead of their launch this year.

“Investors want digital solutions that are secure, intuitive to use, and able to help meet their needs whether they are a new or experienced investor,” Truist Wealth SVP of Digital Investing Kacy Howard said. “Truist Invest and Truist Invest Pro can help give clients control and confidence in their portfolio whether they choose a fully digital or hybrid solution to invest in their future.”

Truist Invest gives customers a tailored portfolio recommendation based on their goals, risk tolerance, and current investments. Truist Invest provides a daily portfolio analysis and supports both automated rebalancing and tax loss harvesting. A hybrid investment solution, Truist Invest Pro provides both the digital capabilities of Truist Invest as well as access to a team of financial advisors who can help customers build a personalized investment portfolio and provide ongoing investment advice. Accounts for both offerings can be opened with as little as $5,000. Truist Invest charges an annual fee of 0.50%, with Truist Invest Pro costing users 0.85%. Both fees are based on the assets under management, with a $90 per account annual minimum,

Truist Chief Wealth Officer Joseph M. Thompson put the new offerings in a broader context of the company’s goal of providing its customers with personalized service that maximizes the opportunity of digital technology in the investing space. “Digital investing solutions are an example of Truist’s T3 strategy which combines the client’s preferred level of personalized touch and innovative technology to create trust,” Thompson said. “Truist Invest and Truist Invest Pro provide simple and secure access to a portfolio that is purpose-built to help an investor achieve their goals and is backed by our investment expertise that can help individuals and families build better lives.”

A division of Truist Financial Corporation, Truist Wealth serves affluent, high, and ultra-high net worth individuals, families, and business owners in the U.S. and around the world. The firm’s services range from investing and retirement, trust and estate planning, and lending, to banking and risk management. Parent company Truist is a top 10 U.S. commercial bank with $545 billion in total assets, and 15 million clients across the U.S.. The bank recently announced the acquisition of Zaloni’s Arena platform, which will help Truist enhance its data governance, metadata management, advanced analytics, and AI/ML programs.

We spoke with Truist Financial’s Chief Retail & Small Business Banking Officer Dontá Wilson earlier this year at FinovateSpring about the pace of digital transformation in financial services and the importance of building a culture of innovation.

Photo by Tara Winstead

We use to pay for things with cash, then we used plastic cards, and now we use our phones to pay for whatever we want to buy. In the next step, payments will disappear altogether and become completely invisible.

“Embedded payments” are one of the hottest trends in the market with billions being invested, yet most people have not even heard of the term, and those that have don’t even understand what it means.

The embedded payments industry is growing at a rapid pace, with revenues expected to grow from $43 billion in 2021 to $138 billion in 2026. JPMorgan’s proprietary research and analysis, as of October 2021, suggests that embedded payments account for $1.1 trillion in global payment volumes. Big numbers!

Embedded payments, as the name suggests, are about embedding financial capabilities into a non-financial app, so that users can transact without leaving the app. From the user’s perspective, the payments are invisible, as they don’t have to think about it.

Uber is probably the first example of an app using embedded payments. With the push of a button, we could find and pay for a cab right from our phones. This was a huge leap in reimagining the customer experience.

Today, there is an endless number of apps using embedded payments. Open your smartphone and scroll through the various apps you use and count how many have embedded payments or how many have their own card.

Among the most notable embedded payment examples are Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and other forwarders of financial services.

On an iPhone, Apple Pay lets us make online, in-app, and physical purchases at a POS using our phone’s passcode (or by scanning our fingerprints or our face). We have the same capabilities using Googe Pay on Android phones. Beyond payments, apps are now able to hold deposits, issue cards, add funds to mobile wallets, accept and decide credit applications, facilitate trades, and convert/purchase cryptocurrency using euros and dollars and vice versa.

Another example is Starbucks. Customers can order coffee using the Starbucks app and then get in line to pick up their coffee at that counter. The coffee is paid for by an invisible pre-funded payment method. It’s no surprise that the Starbucks payment method was used by 48% of US customers in May 2020. After loading cash onto the app, payments are invisible and instant, and best of all Starbucks has tied it with its loyalty program to drive even more usage.

Consumers have more financial products at their fingertips than ever before, including thousands of cryptocurrencies. However, using crypto payments is too hard for the average person. The web3 user experience is simply not intuitive enough and introduces more personal risk than most are comfortable with.

One way of embedding crypto into payments is to take advantage of existing rails.

Last week Mastercard revealed a partnership with Binance that will enable its customers to make crypto payments in 90 million stores that support Mastercard. With the new Binance Card, when customers make a purchase, cryptocurrencies will be converted to fiat currency in real time at the point of sale. This way crypto is being embedded in payments and becoming a viable form of payment.

Another way is with services by providers like Nium, Striga, and Modulr which offer “Crypto as a Service” (CaaS). These services plug into existing banking and financial tech infrastructure and make it easy for organizations to offer crypto services to their customers, both B2B and B2C. You can think of it as an additional layer added to the modular banking stack.

The covid pandemic changed our payment habits.

Cards used to be the simplest way to pay for things. There was no need to carry cash around, all you needed to do was to swipe, enter your PIN and you were done. Now smartphones with digital wallets are the norm, and we can make contactless payments by holding our phone near a POS terminal and confirming the payment with our phone’s authentication system.

But the idea that cash or cards could potentially help spread the virus has changed our behavior and pushed us to pay for things in ways that did not involve any contact whatsoever between the payer and the receiver. Since the pandemic started, a quarter (24%) of consumers are using digital wallets more frequently now than a year ago when paying for things and 17% are using mobile wallets more often.

Payments are not just becoming frictionless and embedded, they are becoming invisible.

In a post last week, Mastercard or Masterchip, Chris Skinner suggested that the company no longer has the right name, and eventually our wallets will be on a chip inside our cars, homes, watches, and other wearables. I couldn’t agree more with him.

IoT devices will make it possible for smart appliances and wearables to complete purchases. As technology becomes more sophisticated, and we continue to bring smart devices into our homes and lives, these invisible payments will become mainstream, while physical payment methods become relics of the past.

We are already seeing luxury watch companies working on ways to build smartwatch capabilities. After years of research, Rolex discovered a way to embed smart payment technology inside the sapphire crystal. Last year, Swatch introduced SwatchPay, a way to make contactless payments using your watch. SwatchPay uses a passive NFC chip embedded in the watch head to make contactless payments. It’s like a tiny virtual payment card inside of the watch.

Amazon has been at the forefront of the invisible payments space and has implemented invisible payment technology at its Amazon Go stores.

At these stores, there is no checkout required. Customers simply use an app on their smartphone to check in when entering the store. From that point on, technology (using a combination of sensors, cameras, machine learning, and more) detects when a customer picks up an item from the shelf and keeps track of those items. To purchase the item all the customer has to do is walk right out the door with it.

Amazon is also playing with biometrics in some of its Amazon Go stores. Amazon One allows customers to use the palm of their hand rather than an app to sign into the store.

As we step into a world without cash, invisible payments will be the next big step in the evolution of payments. Invisible payments will take out of the equation the physical element of payments — cash, debit and credit cards, and wearables — to give us a simple payment experience that is effortless, hassle-free, and will not require a payment device.

by Ilias Louis Hatzis is the founder and CEO of Kryptonio wallet

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Capital on Tap announced Thursday that it has secured a $237 million credit line from $3.8 trillion JPMorgan and investment firm Triple Point. The U.K.-based fintech provides fast funding to small businesses in an all-in-one business credit card and spend management platform. The company was founded in 2012, and more than 200,000 small business customers […]

Are Banks ready to absorb loan losses from Inflation

An interesting question? Matthew Lynn looks at the inflationary impact on small businesses borrowers, highly leveraged private equity players as well as the mortgage market. As he rightly points out all of these sectors will be affected and there risk profiles will rise. Of course the UK and other markets have sophisticated stress testing mechanisms in place but Lynn doubts whether double digit inflation levels were brought in to the equation as nobody thought that inflation could rise by that much. He also does not have a great deal of faith in the present governor of the Bank of England having the foresight to deal with what is on the way. I don’t blame him. However we are probably not in the same mess as other European economies whose banking systems have been kept alive for years by the ECB. What Mrs. Lagarde will do now is anyone’s guess but with the German economy in the mire international creditors might start to sniff that all is not well.  

Regulators issue warning to Buy Now, Pay later companies over online ads

This is a warning to a number of companies including fallen industry idol Klarna over misleading language in on line advertising. In addition it took aim at on line “influencers” over posts that might lead some vulnerable people to take on more than they could handle without pointing out the ongoing risks in taking on too much debt. We are not that great all over place in educating our “must have it now” millennials. We don’t do a great job with our bankers either. Nevertheless influencers are frequently the replacement for the Flash Harries of the 1960s and 70s. There are a lot of them out there:  most of them in Mayfair chasing what is left of the Private Equity business. Consider this a warning. Things could get very nasty indeed.  

Has the day of reckoning finally arrived for the Zombies

 Zombies is the term associated with companies that have essentially just about survived the past ten years or so on the back of ultra low interest rates. The recent rises in rates in the UK and elsewhere in Europe where the situation is possibly even worse have seen an increase in restructuring activity over the past couple of quarters. The trouble is that there are a lot of them, unable to pay down their loans or to make productive investments. They are the living dead. Not only that but they are a drag on the economies of all major advanced economies. Continuing with companies, and the list is growing  longer, that clearly have a limited shelf life and no future prospects distorts the proper allocation of resources and diminishes productivity. The trick is for rate setters is to find a Goldilocks solution. Raise rates too quickly and you tip the baby out with the bathwater. Hopefully the lenders are keeping the authorities informed about the true state of the credit markets but I wouldn’t hold your breath. My faith in our and the Eurozone’s clueless bureaucrats has already waned away. Hope is not a strategy.  

Howard Tolman is a well-known banker, technologist and entrepreneur in London,  We have a self imposed constraint of 3 news stories per week because we serve busy senior  Fintech leaders who just want succinct and important information. For context on Alt Lending please read the Interview with Howard Tolman about the future of Alt Lending and read articles tagged Alt Lending in our archives. Daily Fintech’s original insight is made available to you for US$143 a year (which equates to $2.75 per week). $2.75 buys you a coffee (maybe), or the cost of a week’s subscripti on to the global Fintech blog – caffeine for the mind that could be worth $ millions.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) will continue investing in technology on the heels of the bank’s active digital users skyrocketing in the third quarter. The $693 billion bank reported its number of active digital banking users in Q3 jumped 41% year over year to 6.2 million users from 4.4 million during the same period […]

Here are the three most relevant developments in the world of structured reporting we became aware of in the course of last week.

1  Machine-readable financial reports get a look in Michigan

2  Cloud reporting platform assists Corporate Governance 3.0

This piece in the original Chinese discusses how Taiwanese corporate governance 3.0 is assisted by technology, in particular when it comes to sustainability reporting in XBRL. 

Christian Dreyer CFA is well known in Swiss Fintech circles as an expert in XBRL and financial reporting for investors.

 We have a self-imposed constraint of 3 news stories each week because we serve busy senior leaders in Fintech who need just enough information to get on with their job.

 For context on XBRL please read this introduction to our XBRL Week in 2016 and read articles tagged XBRL in our archives. 

 New readers can read 3 free articles.  To  become a member with full access to all that Daily Fintech offers,  the cost is just USD 143 a year (= USD 0.39 per day or USD 2.75 per week). For less than one cup of coffee you get a week full of caffeine for the mind.

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.

Cloudentity is a leading provider of Financial Grade API Authorization & Consent software, supporting open and embedded finance compliance with current and emerging global regulations.

Features

• Fine-grained authorization and consent for Financial Grade APIs
• Instant compliance with various global open banking & finance regulations
• Available via public SaaS or customer deployment

Why it’s great

Cloudentity is the only platform capable of providing authorization and consent compliant with all current globally recognized open banking regulations.

Presenter

Brook Lovatt, CEO
Brook Lovatt is Cloudentity’s CEO and a member of the board. Lovatt has over 20 years of experience in Identity and Access Management as an executive at IBM and security-focused consulting firms.
LinkedIn

Great Southern Bank launched a program in April 2022 that encourages employees to submit automation ideas for implementation as part of its Process Matters initiative. The $5.6 billion bank has already implemented multiple employee-generated ideas for time-saving processes, Eric Johnson, vice president and chief information officer at Springfield, Mo.-based Great Southern Bank, told Bank Automation […]

The $982 million Wauchula State Bank, located in Wauchula, Fla., is one of eight financial institutions — including four in Florida — that chose Jack Henry’s Banno Mobile Banking platform in July, according to an FI Navigator report provided to Bank Automation News. The other institutions include: $658 million Charlotte State Bank and Trust, based […]

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The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) spent $2.6 million on technology-related costs in the third quarter, an 8% year-over-year bump boosted by both increased staffing and digital initiative costs. The $1.3 trillion bank continues to “invest in our people and technology to create more value for our clients,” RBC President and Chief Executive Dave McKay […]