Bitcoin exchange Vircurex freezes withdrawals, hoping for fresh influx of customers
David Meyer, gigaom.comVircurex, a Beijing-based altcoin exchange, has frozen withdrawals after, you guessed it, thieving hackers made off with its bitcoins, litecoins, terracoins and feathercoins. The exchange is pretty small, but its strategy for dealin…
China’s trillion dollar mobile payments industry is under attack
Lily Kuo, qz.comThings aren’t looking great for Chinese firms working in the world of mobile payments. The fast-growing trillion dollar industry—which includes online investment funds, virtual credit cards, and e-commerce–is facing new pressure from…
Arnie Cho, datamonitorfinancial.com
Australian banks are being threatened by smaller companies that are entering the market with innovative payment acquiring solutions like mPOS. Although the uptake for such services remains small, Commonwealth Bank Australia is already investing to…
Alibaba rejects claim online payment system is illegal
smartbrief.comChina’s Alipay, a fast, online payment service run by Alibaba Group Holding, denied an accusation by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China that its service is illegal because it doesn’ …
Arnie Cho, datamonitorfinancial.com
Australian banks are being threatened by smaller companies that are entering the market with innovative payment acquiring solutions like mPOS. Although the uptake for such services remains small, Commonwealth Bank Australia is already investing to…
Alibaba rejects claim online payment system is illegal
smartbrief.comChina’s Alipay, a fast, online payment service run by Alibaba Group Holding, denied an accusation by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China that its service is illegal because it doesn’ …
Indonesian villa sold for $600,000 worth of Bitcoins
telegraph.co.ukA villa on the Indonesian island of Bali has been sold for roughly $600,000 worth of Bitcoins
An anonymous buyer from Texas, US, has bought a villa in Bali for an estimated 1,000 Bitcoin, the equivalent of approximately…
Will wearable devices be the next tool for mobile payments?
gulfnews.comConsumers will continue to see the convenience factor playing a key role and shaping the payment industry says MasterCard official
Facebook Security Director, Amazon BD Director Join Bitcoin Startup Coinbase
Alex Wilhelm, techcrunch.comRyan McGeehan has recently announced on Facebook, fittingly, that he is leaving his role at Facebook as its Director of Security Incident Response, and taking up a security-related role at Coinbase.
His job, according to his posti…
Oito tendências que o mercado de pagamentos projeta para 2014 no Brasil
Convidado, ig.com.brPor Max Ciqueira*O mercado brasileiro de cartões de crédito e débito mais uma vez obteve resultados expressivos em 2013. De acordo com a Associação Brasileira de Empresas de Cartão de Crédito e Serviços (Abecs), o movimento financeiro deve…
Skype lança cartões pré-pagos no Brasil por R$ 27,00
MJ, techguru.com.brO Skype lançou hoje no Brasil cartões pré-pagos para o serviço. Os cartões Skype serão vendidos inicialmente em redes de varejo nacionais, incluindo a Livraria Saraiva, a Livraria Cultura e a rede de lojas de vídeo 100% Vídeo. O preço foi fixado e…
Unbanked in Africa See Inclusion through Mobile Financial Services
Aaron Oliver, mastercard.comExtending the benefits of electronic payments to people who have been financially excluded is especially important in Africa, where less than a quarter of adults have a financial product or bank account with a formal financial institution, …
Court freezes Mt. Gox assets in US, lawyers dig into the case of the missing Bitcoins
Nicole Lee, engadget.comA US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has just granted a temporary restraining order to freeze all US assets of Mt. Gox, Tibanne KK and Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles as part of an effort to find out exactly what caused th…
Production Of Pennies, Nickels Cost Taxpayers $105 Million In 2013
Ashlee Kieler, consumerist.com(frankieleon)We all know that old coins can be very valuable and that saving your change adds up. But did you know that minting the low-value currency creates quite a tab for U.S. taxpayers? That’s because the cost to produce pennies and nickels i…
Why Aren’t People Freaking Out About iBeacon?
Mike Elgan, cultofmac.comThe new iOS 7.1, which Apple launched this week, contained massively improved iBeacon functionality.
Among these improvements is that Apple has cancelled an element of user permission. Once you’ve installed a store’s app — say, for…
Bitcoin revelation under scrutiny
By Andrea Chang, latimes.comDorian Satoshi Nakamoto, whom Newsweek dubbed ‘the face behind bitcoin,’ hires an attorney in a bid to ‘clear my name.’
Newsweek’s blockbuster claim that it had found the creator of the bitcoin virtual currency is coming under intense…
Bitcoin, credit cards, and the rise of a cashless economy
By Mark Pothier, bostonglobe.comI’m ready to get rid of my money. By money, I mean cash. It’s a dusty holdover from another age, like VCR tape in a streaming world. For me and many others, cash has gone from being an everyday ne …
Jess O’Connor, worldfinance.com
The growth of credit card use in emerging economies signals continuing development of these markets. But how can we understand what different countries need when it comes to financial inclusion? Ann Cairns, President of International Markets for…
Food Kiosk Stops the Cash-Only Trend on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach
Mauro Joppert, mastercard.comMauro Joppert is the small business owner of Coisa de Carioca. His food kiosk was the first to accept electronic payments on the Copacabana beach. Here he shares his Cashless Pioneer story with MasterCard. Even though “Coisa de Carioca” was…
Will wearable devices be the next tool for mobile payments?
gulfnews.comConsumers will continue to see the convenience factor playing a key role and shaping the payment industry says MasterCard official
Cash-Is-King Lifestyle Targeted as Nigeria Pushes Plastic
By Chris Kay, bloomberg.comIt was really nothing more than a routine afternoon stroll in a Lagos shopping mall. Abiola Rasaq, a 30-year-old equity analyst, took some friends to lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken and bou …
Apple pode estar testando uma solução própria para pagamentos com o celular
iLex, blogdoiphone.comPagar compras com o próprio celular, sem precisar ter à mão a sua carteira ou um cartão de crédito, é algo que o mercado está correndo atrás já há alguns anos. Estudos estão sendo feitos e diversas tentativas já foram testadas (com ou sem o uso da…
Court freezes Mt. Gox assets in US, lawyers dig into the case of the missing Bitcoins
Nicole Lee, engadget.comA US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has just granted a temporary restraining order to freeze all US assets of Mt. Gox, Tibanne KK and Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles as part of an effort to find out exactly what caused th…
Production Of Pennies, Nickels Cost Taxpayers $105 Million In 2013
Ashlee Kieler, consumerist.com(frankieleon)We all know that old coins can be very valuable and that saving your change adds up. But did you know that minting the low-value currency creates quite a tab for U.S. taxpayers? That’s because the cost to produce pennies and nickels i…
In China, tech firms are issuing virtual credit cards to make online shopping easier
Emil Protalinski, thenextweb.comIn China, tech firms are making it easier for consumers than ever before to shop and purchase goods online.
Rather than requiring you to have a traditional credit card applied via banks, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced th…
Court freezes Mt. Gox assets in US, lawyers dig into the case of the missing Bitcoins
Nicole Lee, engadget.comA US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has just granted a temporary restraining order to freeze all US assets of Mt. Gox, Tibanne KK and Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles as part of an effort to find out exactly what caused th…
Google’s Jared Cohen: It’s “Obvious” Bitcoin-Like Currencies Are “Inevitable”
Gregory Ferenstein, techcrunch.comGoogle Director of Ideas and former technology advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Jared Cohen, says that digital “crypto-currencies” like Bitcoin are here to stay. “I think it’s very obvious to all of us that…
PayPal Is Rolling Out Its New “Mobile First” Website Globally
Ingrid Lunden, techcrunch.comPayPal, the eBay-owned online payments platform that made up some 40% of its $16 billion in revenues in 2013, has turned on a redesigned website — it’s biggest attempt yet at putting a contemporary, simplified face on one of the older…
Agora é a hora da rede
globo.comPor que a enorme aposta do WalMart no e-commerce brasileiro será decisiva para o futuro das compras online no país – e para a sobrevivência da maior varejista do mundo
Por que a enorme aposta do WalMar …
Linda Lacina, entrepreneur.com
At Austin’s SXSW today, PayPal announced an expansion to the Startup Blueprint Program it launched last October, the initiative that waives the first $50,000 in PayPal processing fees for selected U.S.-based startups.
The expansion…
Inside America’s First Bitcoin-Friendly Gun Store
Andy Greenberg, forbes.comBitcoin has long been the currency of choice for the dark web’s anonymous black market trade in firearms. Now Michael Cargill wants to offer Bitcoin fans a more legal way to buy a deadly weapon with cryptocurrency.
In January, Cargil…
2013: The year we all went ‘mobile’
By Matthew Wall Business reporter, BBC News, bbc.co.ukThis year was the year we all went mobile. And we’re not just talking smartphones and tablets.
We’re talking mobile workforces staying connected in and out of the office and using their devices fo …
Payments Startup Stripe Lands $80 Million Investment Ahead of Twitter Partnership
Jason Del Rey, recode.netStripe, the San Francisco-based payments startup founded by two 20-something brothers, has raised an $80 million investment, the company said this evening. The Series C investment, which brings the company’s total funding to $120 million, valued t…
Bitcoin is acting like a real currency now: it suffers shocks but doesn’t collapse
Jeff John Roberts, gigaom.comThe latest news from the Bitcoin world involves more allegations of theft and skullduggery, but this time there’s a twist: investors aren’t sending the virtual currency into a Justin Bieber-style free fall. Instead, Bitcoin is behavin…
Technology Innovations Drive Growth of Cashless Payments in Africa
Marc Carolus, mastercard.comI recently participated in the Africa Frontiers Forum, a panel discussion hosted by Frontier Advisory, which focused on how technology is changing financial services in Africa. While the panel discussion was robust, a few salient the…
Sig Ueland, practicalecommerce.com
Whether you’re an ecommerce merchant or you run a brick-and-mortar shop, eventually you will need a solution for mobile commerce. Here is a list of mobile payment solutions. There are mobile payment platforms for digital wallets, smartphone apps w…
Why financial inclusion matters
admin, innovationafrica.orgType “Banks are___” into Google and one of the first autocomplete suggestions is “Banks are evil.”So why are global leaders trying to connect the 2.5 billion people who do not have access to a savings account or other financial services to the for…
Sneak peek of ATM Bulletin #21 on Financial Inclusion
Johannes Loh, asiantrendsmonitoring.comThe next Asian Trends Monitoring Bulletin will be released on Monday, September 16th. We show you a preview of some of the data and survey findings that will be published in Bulletin #21: We are looking forward to your feedback on ATM Bulletin #21…
By SHAILA DEWAN, nytimes.com
Last October, Jeffrey Shavers, a hotel maintenance worker in Chicago, took out an extremely unusual $300 loan. Shavers might have liked to use the money to visit his daughter, a college student in New Orleans, or to buy his 10-year-old …
Phone-based services are still growing in Africa but are now reaching other developing regions, too, reveals report.
Simple Usability Issues Impede the Reach of Mobile Financial Services
William Neuheisel, grameenfoundation.orgCamilla NestorFinancial service providers see great potential in using mobile money to drive outreach and scale. Mobile operators have aggressive strategies to increase market share by capturing new subscribers, which requires deeply penetrating t…
Microfinance
Including 2 Billion New Clients Into the Banking System
The goal of the Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign is ambitious: to include the 2.5 billion adults worldwide currently outsid …
Mobile Microinsurance Products and Financial Capability
Center for Financial Inclusion, cfi-blog.org> Posted by Richard Leftley, Chief Executive Officer, MicroEnsureThe Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion is building a movement toward full financial inclusion by 2020. This blog series…
The roughly 2.5 billion people in the world who live on less than $2 a day are not destined to remain in a state of chronic poverty. Every few years, somewhere between ten and 30 percent of th …
Posted by Manjunath Padigar on Fri, Feb 21, 2014 @ 11:43 PM, mfiflex.com
Article looks at paradigm shift in the definition of financial inclusion and how banks and financial institutions can realize its potential.
gsmammu: More #MobileMoney operators …
twitter.comMore #MobileMoney operators are recognising the ecosystem opportunity #MWC14 http://ift.tt/1dQhumK
Microfinance vs. Financial Inclusion: What’s the Difference?
cfi-blog.orgThe Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion is building a movement toward full financial inclusion by 2020. This blog series spotlights financial …
News On Sunday, defimedia.info
Central bank officials from across Southern and Eastern Africa and international experts discussed various aspects of the mobile financial services (MFS) and shared experiences on regu …
Mobile Financial Service Providers Must Factor Local Differences in Access & Usability
William Neuheisel, grameenfoundation.orgDebbie DeanMobile Financial Services (MFS) has received much attention as a way to further financial inclusion. But as we’ve written before, the mobile phone is not yet accessible enough to reach significant portions of the “unbanked”. Our researc…
The 2014 African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative (AMPI) Leaders Roundtable Meeting, which will be co-hosted by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and the Central …
Making Credit Work for the Working Poor in the Dominican Republic
blogspot.comOn the Brink of Financial Inclusion
The Dominican Republic sits at a fascinating crossroads of financial inclusion: Over the past four decades the nation’s GDP has grown 55% faster than the r …
escronce, cgap.org
The Indian government’s plan to provide every resident with a unique biometrically linked identity number is an exciting development for those of us dedicated to broadening financial access to unbanked people worldwide.
Rwanda microfinance magazine
issuu.comThe Rwanda Microfinance Magazine issue 2 is Out! The magazine is produced by the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda-AMIR It is intended to keep members and all the sta …
A Fresh Look at Informal Finance in Chennai
Center for Financial Inclusion, cfi-blog.org> Posted by Amy Jensen Mowl and Ben Sprung-Keyser, Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai and Harvard CollegeThere is revived interest in the role of informal credit in India, with researchers using a variety of…
My first trip to Central Asia. First impressions of Tajikistan, world’s most remittance-dependent country (and a very big flagpole)
Duncan Green, oxfamblogs.orgSpent last week in Tajikistan, my first trip to the former underbelly of the Soviet Union, aka Central Asia. I was there to help our country team think through some work on improving accountability in the water sector (more interesting than it sou…
Reinventing the Wheel: “Pass Through” Deposit Insurance coverage for Mobile Money in Kenya
Brian Muthiora, gsma.comKenya’s regulatory environment permits non-banks such as Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to provide basic money transfer and payments services, much to the revulsion of banking purists …
ifmr, ifmr.co.in
Guest post by Dan Radcliffe and Rodger Voorhies, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation1India faces a major financial exclusion challenge. According to the 2011 World Bank Global Findex Survey, only 35% of Indian adults have access to a formal ban…
Opening Remarks by Alfred Hannig, Executive Director of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, on 5 February 2014 at the 2014 African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative (A …
Solomon Star, solomonstarnews.com
ANZ remains committed to supporting financial inclusion in rural communities in the Solomon Islands.
A team from ANZ Solomon Islands travelled in December to the Choiseul Province.
“The aim o …
Sub-Saharan Africa: A major potential revenue opportunity for digital payments
mckinsey.comSub-Saharan Africa offers tantalizing potential for mobile financial services, but as yet there have been few success stories. One hurdle has been the lack of clear numbers on the size of th …
Higher mobile internet penetration and varied payment options key to e-commerce success in the Philippines
Phoebe Magdirila, techinasia.comE-commerce is huge in Southeast Asia, with the space receiving over US$500 million in investment in 2013. But in the Philippines there’s still a lot to be done, and mobile penetration and a lack of payment options appear to be the two obstacles in…
Higher mobile internet penetration and varied payment options key to e-commerce success in the Philippines
Phoebe Magdirila, techinasia.comE-commerce is huge in Southeast Asia, with the space receiving over US$500 million in investment in 2013. But in the Philippines there’s still a lot to be done, and mobile penetration and a lack of payment options appear to be the two obstacles in…
Patrick Bay, google.com
"So far Bitcoin is a bust as new payment systems go. That might come as a surprise given all the attention this digital currency has gotten, the many tens of millions of dollars in funding various Bitcoin-related ventures have received, and the…
Order Up! Food Businesses Find An Appetite For Bitcoin
Linda Poon, npr.orgHungry for a Philly cheesesteak or a hot Reuben sandwich? That’ll be about 0.001 bitcoin, please.
From restaurants to breweries, to even your local farmers market and lemonade stand, the popular cryptocurrency has inched its way in…
Order Up! Food Businesses Find An Appetite For Bitcoin
Linda Poon, npr.orgHungry for a Philly cheesesteak or a hot Reuben sandwich? That’ll be about 0.001 bitcoin, please.
From restaurants to breweries, to even your local farmers market and lemonade stand, the popular cryptocurrency has inched its way in…
How big a thing could Touch ID mobile payment be? China alone hit $1.6 trillion last year
Ben Lovejoy, 9to5mac.comWith Tim Cook having as good as confirmed that mobile payment via Touch ID is on the way, numbers released by the People’s Bank of China and reported in TechNode provide an insight into just how big the mobile payment market could…
