Posts Tagged ‘Bitcoin’
Opening Pandora’s Regulatory Box: What to Watch for in 2019
Working in a regulatory-heavy environment can feel like being inside a washing machine at times, with the accurate forecasting of a 10-day hurricane plot. So where does fintech regulation stand at the beginning of a new year? In a state of flux as usual, it would seem.
Read MoreThe Blockchain Future of Financial Services
In the last 6 months, interest in the technology has exploded, with new announcements – and scandals – occurring almost every single day. We are at a point with blockchain that is very similar to the excitement that many experienced in the early days of the internet.
Read MoreJust What The Payments Industry Needs: The Mike Tyson Digital Wallet
When Bitcoin Direct on Monday (Jan. 4) unveiled the Mike Tyson Digital Wallet, it was asking for trouble. You know it’s a bad sign when your marketing move is so awful that Time Magazine can’t resist making fun of it.
The point of a celebrity endorsement is that the celebrity’s brand has some positive attributes—bravery, intelligence, beauty, talent—that a company wants attributed to its brand. What exactly was the positive association Bitcoin Direct had in mind? How would this make consumers more comfortable using Bitcoin? In the world of payments marketing, this is arguably the most “what were these people smoking?” move since Softcard—known then as ISIS (which itself was an interesting bit of name association)—hired a sleight-of-hand artist to demonstrate its mobile wallet at the South by Southwest conference in Austin back in 2012.
Read MoreGlobal Wrap: In Australia, MC Exec Lashes Out At Apple/Amex Deal
This week’s global payments report has investments from Mexico, India and the U.K., an Australian cyber currency IPO delayed for the fifth time, a Canadian Amex small merchant initiative and a MasterCard exec lashing out at the Apple/Amex deal in Australia.
There’s more fallout from Apple’s decision to launch in Australia (and Canada, for that matter) only with American Express cards. This time, it’s from a MasterCard exec crying foul, arguing that regulators take a more lax regulatory position with Amex than with other card brands.
Eddie Grobler, division president of MasterCard Australasia, said “Apple Pay launching in Australia with Amex proprietary cards was a symptom of its ability to charge merchants much higher fees than Visa or MasterCard and therefore having much fatter margins to share with Apple, which has been demanding a cut of the fees paid to banks before allowing them onto Apple Pay.”