Episode 11 - 15th October 2015

Good morning, welcome to Payments Monitor, my name is Faisal Khan, today is the 15th of October 2015, some trending stories today are:

TOP STORIES

Wearable payment technology has another player, watchmaker Swatch has decided to enter the market. Swatch has partnered with China Union Pay and Bank of Communications to allow consumers to pay with a simple flick of the wrist using NFC technology. The watch is called Bellamy, in reference to Edward Bellamy, the author of an 1888 novel that envisioned a utopian world paying with payment cards.

Square files for IPO on the New York Stock exchange under the symbol SQ. The S-1 is filed for US$ 275 Million in stock, however, this is just a preliminary figure, the final figure will be calculated by how much they want to raise and will be announced at a later date.

UK Government pony’s up GBP 10 Million into distributed ledger technology research. Economic Secretary to the Treasury Harriett Baldwin emphasised the need to invest in skills, research and development of the blockchain technology for UK to take the lead in this arena, especially since London is being promoted as the fintech capital of the world.

US equity markets are up, and a stronger Dollar is dominating on the forex markets.

Citibank’s profits jump on lower costs, whilst Goldman Sachs earning dip, citing market turmoil.

WORLD BANK OPINION

Recently The World Bank made a very significant change to its poverty line. It increased the measuring baseline from US$ 1.25 per day to US$ 1.90 per day. So now if you’re earning below $1.90 per day, you’re officially poor as per The World Bank. This move, being made after 25 years will create ripple effects on economies. Statistics that were earlier pegged to US$ 1.25 per day will now change. Millions just became poor...again!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Credit rating scores today are focusing purely on your past and present financial transactions. In this day and age, where social media is a heavy influencer, it is no surprise very few companies are taking social media activities and presence into the equation. In other words, social or social media equity is being ignored. How can we incorporate social media into a credit rating score? A point to ponder about.

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