New research supported by MasterCard not surprisingly shows most merchants would like all card brands to be forced to cap how much they charge for acceptance, not just bankcard brands. Who wouldn’t want their costs reduced? But under current pending legislation, such “three-party” networks as...
Kreditech is a German-based enterprise service that brings micro-loans to customers based on social and commerce data instead of traditional credit rating tools. It has just closed out a $40 M funding round, the largest of it’s kind for a German financial services tech firm, reports...
A report by Gartner shows the challenges for banks of managing multiple apps. Issues arise, as consumers are not able to find apps or aren’t informed about them. In order to solve these problems two solutions are available. The first is developing a banking app store; which...
State and federal government, and private-sector companies, increasing are developing and rolling out initiatives to help workers better understand their short- and long-term financial needs. Proponents would like start the financial-education process at kindergarten, which ultimately would help when workers begin planning for when they...
Today is the day that we might actually get a peek into Apple’s playbook on mobile payments. Anyone who hasn’t totally tuned out everything over the last week but the near endless coverage of the Kimye wedding and honeymoon knows that Apple is hosting its...
The flight and hotel search startup Hipmunk announced on its blog last week that it had raised $20 million in Series C funding. Oak Investment Partners led the way, which according to Hipmunk CEO Adam Goldstein has the necessary travel and mobile experience to really...
The Sears credit card, often one of the first credit-based products consumers receive, increasingly is being replaced by co-branded MasterCards. Sears reportedly for some customers is replacing its proprietary card with the MasterCard-branded product, which Citi Cards issues for the retailer, and is closing the...
The US celebrated Memorial Day this past week, but it might as well have been the 4th of July. Fireworks exploded in the bitcoin community over David Evans’ piece on Overstock’s acceptance of bitcoin, including from Patrick Byrnes himself. Then there were those pesky bots.
A new five-year initiative that brings together social entrepreneurs and leading experts in technology, behavioral economics and design to improve consumer financial capability now has a $30 million backer. JPMorgan Chase & Co. will provide the funding for the Financial Solutions Lab cross-industry initiative and...
