by B | Mar 19, 2017 | Fintech
Thanks to its innovative financial sector, a willingness from the industry to partner with fintechs, and its strategic position within the European Union, Poland is poised to join the competition to become one of Europe’s key fintech hubs and the leader in the region, according to a report by Fintech Poland. Fintech in Poland Opportunities and BarriersTitled “FinTech in Poland – barriers and opportunities,” the document sheds light on the state of fintech in Poland and identifies key opportunities and challenges to the growth of the industry. The research found that the current Polish market is characterized by positive attitude of banks towards fintech companies and by mutual desire to work together. Polish fintechs as well are largely geared towards collaboration with banks, recognizing the need for cooperation and mutual benefits resulting from it. Furthermore, implementations such as contactless payments by means of cards and HCEs-based on mobile payments, bank branded pay-by-link payments and sector solutions such as BLIK have made the country a European benchmark for this type of technology. BLIK, a mobile payments service, was introduced in 2015 by six of the biggest banks in Poland. Key Fintech Hub in EU Unsurprisingly, electronic payments and financial platforms are the primary areas of focus within the Polish market. Other well-developed areas include analytics, machine learning, and sales channel development, and crowdfunding. According to Bernard Gołko, a fintech sector market expert, although Poland is indeed lagging behind in many sectors of the economy, its financial industry is definitely an innovative one, not only when compared to the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region, but the whole of Europe. “This...
by B | May 23, 2016 | payments
(Reuters) – Fitbit Inc said it bought wearable payment technology assets from Silicon Valley-based startup Coin, as it looks to develop mobile payment technology for its wearable fitness devices. The terms of the deal, which was completed on May 12, were not disclosed. By Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh (Business Insider) Read more on “Fitbit is getting into mobile payments” here SL ...
by B | May 23, 2016 | Fintech, Startups
The last week has signified an interesting turn in the relatively young history of the alternative lending industry. In particular, online lending took a hit and perpetuated a wave of skepticism around it. The event to contribute to it is related to one of the largest alternative lenders – Lending Club – whose shares plummeted significantly in less than a week. In the period between May 6 and 10, Lending Club’s share prices went from $7.09 to $4.10 with the lowest point at $3.98 per share. Overall, Lending Club’s share prices were reported to drop by 35%. Investigations around the quality of loans didn’t particularly help the situation. By Sofia (letstalkpayments.com) Read more on Lending Club casehere SL ...
by B | May 23, 2016 | Fintech, Startups
Enthusiasm for certain fintech investments is said to be cooling among venture capitalists and private-equity firms already. So the natural question is, how can enterprising startups survive, much less grow? Read more on “Survival tips for fintech startups” Here SL ...
by B | May 20, 2016 | AI
Robot hotel staff and virtual bank assistants have moved from science fiction to marketing fact, but systems that analyse customers’ data to give personalised responses must be used carefully to avoid appearing intrusive. By Maeve Hosea on 18 May 2016 Read more on “How brands are using artificial intelligence to enhance customer experience” here SL ...
by B | Apr 29, 2016 | Fintech, Trends
Tuesday this week DBS Bank launched a ‘mobile-only bank’ in India and when they say „mobile” they mean it! The new player leverages biometrics ID and Aadhaar card* to ensure the whole process is digital and straight-through. Moreover, the bank enables customers to utilize 24/7 service via machine-learning-based intelligent artificial assistant which understands natural language – all real time. DBS is neither first nor last. Banks like Fidor, Number26, BankMobile, Simple or Moven created the momentum that produced certain tension within the whole market – and it wasn’t only about going mobile. The reason the playground was levelled was the digital character of the new channels and what came next, the possibility to build channel attribution models. Universal language. Attribution models created possibility to valuate and compare different channels. KPIs like Cost of Customer Acquisition, LTV, Return-On-Interaction etc. enabled managers to challenge ‘total’ approach to omnichannel, on many occasions pursued just because of the competitive scope behavior or „universal banking strategy”. Most of the managers I had pleasure to meet during international conferences and workshops understood necessity to calculate sales efficiency within the channels matrix. What was missing was the universal language that would bring together Sales, Marketing and the guy we’re all afraid of: CFO. People tend to say mathematics is the queen of all science (which I agree) and the universal language. In corpo world such language are also numbers – financial KPIs. Personally I believe all mid-management upwards should be able to communicate this way – at the end of the day what matters is ROI (long-term off course). Paradigm swift – Big Data Another important...
