Goldman Sachs and Santander have left a major blockchain group November 22, 2016 Goldman Sachs and Santander have both exited one of tech's top blockchain consortiums which is backed by some of the world's biggest financial institutions. Both institutions have quit membership of the R3 group and will not be investing in its latest reported funding round. Santander did not comment on its decision to depart R3, however, it's understood it will [...]
Tesco Bank’s perception goes into the red after security breach November 16, 2016 Last week, news broke of a security breach which compromised the accounts of Tesco Bank customers. It was reported that £2.5m had been stolen from 9,000 customer accounts, with the worst affected losing up to £1,500. In the immediate aftermath, the company suspended online and contactless transactions. YouGov brand tracking data shows us how the [...]
Metro Bank, Deloitte and Setl are testing a blockchain-based contactless card November 15, 2016 Metro Bank, Deloitte and blockchain startup Setl have created a card for making simple contactless payments such as buying a morning coffee, using the distributed ledger technology (DLT) in a trial that's understood to be the first of its kind. The card has been tested by 100 people as part of the City watchdog's fintech sandbox [...]
Mobile pay is still waiting for its “Uber moment” (even among millennials) November 3, 2016 Despite our addiction to smartphones, using them to pay for a new winter coat or that morning coffee has yet to become commonplace – even among tech obsessed digital natives, aka millennials. Just a quarter of those aged between 18 and 35 are using mobile pay and only two per cent are using Apple Pay, the [...]
All of London’s black cabs will take contactless payments from Halloween October 28, 2016 Are we about to witness the death of cash? That may be slightly premature, but London's black cabs have announced a big step forward and it means passengers won't be hindered by only having cards on them. Passengers will be able to pay for any journey using solely credit and debit cards, including contactless payments [...]
10m journeys have been made with Sadiq Khan’s new bus Hopper fare October 20, 2016 Over 10m journeys have been made in the first six weeks of the Mayor's new bus "Hopper" fare, according to Transport for London (TfL). The milestone journey was made at 4pm on Wednesday afternoon on bus route 322, running from Tesco in Brent Park to Paddington Station. Read more: TfL signs £79m deal with Serco [...]
The most powerful man in tech believes the world will become cashless October 18, 2016 The man in charge of the biggest company in the world and arguably the most powerful man in technology – Apple's Tim Cook – has weighed in with his two cents on the future of money. Apple may be rolling around in cash reserves of more than $100bn, but Cook won't be doing a Scrooge McDuck style [...]
City AM talk with Bink cofounders Lee Clarke and Greg Gormley about resuscitating the loyalty marketing industry October 17, 2016 The road to a cashless society has been a fairly smooth one so far – the ubiquity of contactless payments and online shopping have made it so. But where cash may have once made your wallet bulge, often the weight has been replaced with a deck of loyalty cards. Before we’re quite done eradicating cash, [...]
OnePlus 3 review: This Chinese-made phone is one of the best non-exploding Android handset on the market October 12, 2016 If you can keep your head, wrote Mister Kipling, while all around you phones are literally catching fire and exploding, then you can pretty much claim the Android throne unimpeded, my son. The new OnePlus 3 is, for its price (and for prices a great deal higher too), one of the best non-exploding Android phones [...]
Pay by selfie: Mastercard brings biometric technology to the UK October 4, 2016 Paying for things simply by taking a photo of yourself is now a step closer to reality as Mastercard brings its new biometric technology to the UK. So called selfie pay will let customers verify their identity with a snap of their smartphone camera when doing online shopping, or with fingerprints, doing away with passwords and pins -welcome relief [...]