Episode 14 - 21st October 2015

Good morning, welcome to Payments Monitor, my name is Faisal Khan, today is the 21st of October 2015, some trending stories today are:

TOP STORIES

Sweden is well on its way to become the first country that would be completely cashless. With greater acceptance of electronic payments, especially P2P payments, cash usage is fast diminishing. Sweden is one of the few countries where consumers use bank cards for even the smallest of transactions.

Fintech gurus have been saying for years that bank branches are on a decline. This is especially true for UK, where more than 650 bank branches are set to disappear by the end of 2015. In the past 10 years, over 25% of bank branches in the UK have closed down. With the advent of new challenger banks that are opening up their digital branches, the practical value of visiting a branch has been all but eliminated.

Credit Suisse will raise $6.3 Billion in a strategy shift, especially after its recent job cut and poor performance. One investor recently cited that “Credit Suisse is going through a reboot”.

Second time’s the charm for Microsoft (hopefully) as the Redmond software giant ventures out into the world of mobile payments again, with its little known Windows Mobile Wallet. Many listeners may not know, but I broke the story of Microsoft getting their money transmitter licenses earlier this year when I stumbled upon their license filing by accident.

Alibaba grows its presence in the European market. The Chinese B2B giant recently announced its European expansion plans which includes adding an office in the UK and a new country office in Italy as part of its greater Gateway to China strategy.

eBay quarter results are due today, most analysts predict a muted quarter and a focus to buy back shares. MCX adds ACH to its CurrentC wallet, the service is provided by Buy It Mobility Networks (better known as BIM). Rwanda might just become the first country to utilize drones for deliveries to far flung remote areas to boost e-commerce in the region.

STARTUP OF THE WEEK:

Its Wednesday and that means, time for the startup of the week. This week, I would like to talk about a European startup called “Pouch”, which has released its Pouchcard, a virtual debit card that parents can provide to their kids in seconds. Money can be spent wherever debit cards are accepted. The cool thing about this startup is that it is focusing more on introduction to money and financial responsibility as far as children are concerned, educating them, making them more aware about how they manage and spend their money. The website is www.pouchcard.com

CLOSING THOUGHTS

If you want to win the business of millennials, better up your game. Millennials who in 2015 surpassed Generation X as the largest living generation and now represent the largest workforce in the US, are tech savvy to say the least. From a better banking experience to wearable technology, millennials are all about the web/mobile experience and they are extremely finicky. Winning their business means upping your game to the same level as the tech startups of Silicon Valley, giving users the same experience that they have with all their other apps.

That’s all for today, my name is Faisal Khan and you were listening to the Payments Monitor.