#fintechs

[morningstartranslation]

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[kurumssocial]

The Changing Landscape of Fintechs in Turkey

Fintechs are revolutionizing Turkiye's financial landscape, providing innovative solutions across payments, lending, insurance, and wealth management. While they offer significant opportunities for businesses to enhance operations and customer engagement,

Fintechs are changing the game in Turkiye, offering efficient and user-friendly financial services for businesses and consumers alike. With the growth of the digital economy, numerous fintech players are entering the market, providing innovative solutions for everything from payments and lending to insurance and wealth management. In this blog post, we will discuss the potential of fintechs in…

[savingsuk]

Optimising the Payments Ecosystem

In the world of finance, payments are crucial. Companies like Savings UK Ltd, along with many leading banks and innovative fintechs, are striving to improve the payments ecosystem. Let’s dive into how technology is reshaping payments and what businesses can do to optimize their services. Understanding the Payments Ecosystem The payments ecosystem encompasses everyone — from consumers to merchants to banks. This network ensures that money flows smoothly across various channels. Increasingly, technology plays a significant role in fostering efficiency. Digital payment methods are becoming the norm, shifting from cash to cards to apps. This transformation presents challenges and opportunities. Why Optimization Matters Optimizing payment systems can lead to: - Faster transactions - Greater security - Lower costs Businesses that embrace this can see increased trust and a better customer experience. Did you know that, according to a study by the Electronic Payments Association, nearly 70% of consumers will abandon a purchase if the payment process is too slow or complicated? The Role of Banks in Payment Solutions Banks have been the backbone of the payments ecosystem for a long time. They provide accounts and processes that help facilitate transactions. While traditional banks offer stability, they may not always lead in innovation. Fintech companies are transforming this space with fresh ideas. For example, many banks are now collaborating with fintechs to marry traditional banking safety with cutting-edge technology. This dynamic mix can significantly enhance user experiences. Fintech's Disruption of Payments Fintechs are driving the charge in payments innovation. Their agility allows them to solve problems more quickly than traditional banks. For instance, services such as digital wallets and electronic payment gateways are reshaping how businesses accept payments. A Statista report in 2023 revealed that global digital payment transactions are expected to surpass 7 trillion by 2024. This surge underscores the necessity for businesses to streamline their processes. Key Technologies Transforming Payments Understanding and harnessing various technologies is key to optimizing the payments ecosystem. Here are some technologies that are leading the charge: - Blockchain: Known for its cryptocurrency roots, blockchain offers secure, transparent transactions, reducing fraud and enhancing trust. - Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI streamlines customer support and mitigates fraud by analyzing payment patterns. It's like having a smart assistant who warns you before something goes wrong. - Mobile Payments: Harnessing the power of smartphones, mobile payments enable customers to buy goods and services instantly. Popular platforms like Apple Pay and Google Wallet exemplify this trend. - Contactless Technology: This innovative form of payment allows users to make quick transactions without traditional methods like swiping a card. - Payment Gateways: These act as the middleman between customers and merchants, securely facilitating transaction data. How to Optimize Payment Processes Here are some straightforward tips for businesses looking to enhance their payment processes: - Simplify the Payment Checkout: Making the payment page user-friendly can significantly decrease cart abandonment. - Offer Diverse Payment Options: Since each customer has different preferences, giving them multiple payment methods can cater to everyone’s needs. - Data Security: Implement encryption to protect sensitive information. This helps build trust with consumers. - Regular Updates: Keeping payment systems updated is crucial. Outdated systems increase the risk of breaches and errors. - Customer Support: Tech support during the payment process can help address issues swiftly. Consider AI chatbots for instant responses. The Future of Payments The future of payments is bright but also complex. As technologies advance, so will customer expectations. Experts believe that innovations like biometry-based payments—using fingerprint and facial recognition—will become more common. In addition, financial literacy will become increasingly important. Consumers must understand these technologies to feel secure in their transactions. Financial institutions and fintechs need to prioritize this education. Helping users understand will foster more confidence in electronic transactions.

Payments Ecosystem Challenges Ahead Despite the positive trends, there are challenges to consider. Cybersecurity remains a top concern. With the growing amount of online transactions, hackers are continually trying to exploit weaknesses in payment systems. Furthermore, some banks struggle to keep pace with technology due to regulatory limitations. Collaboration between banks and fintechs becomes essential to overcome these hurdles. A recent report by the World Economic Forum noted that a significant gap still exists between technological advancements and regulatory frameworks affecting electronic payments. Conclusion In today's fast-paced world, optimizing the payments ecosystem is no longer optional. With the intersection of StockExchange.EU, payments, technology, banks, and fintechs, there lies great potential for improvement. By leveraging modern technologies and understanding customer needs, businesses can boost their payment efficiency. By prioritizing optimization, we're not just enhancing the payments process; we are evolving an entire ecosystem for the better. The future is bright for payments, and it’s up to us to shape it right. If you're interested in learning more about this topic, check out resources like the Electronic Payments Association, and stay updated on changes in the payments landscape. By staying informed and adaptable, businesses can thrive in a changing payments environment. How can your organization initiate the conversation around optimizing the payments ecosystem today? Read the full article

[newshare24]

Bitcoin at $100,000 - What’s Next for FinTech's King?

FMLS:24 | Shaping the Next Era of Financial Evolution FMLS:24 | Shaping the Next Era of Financial Evolution FMLS:24 | Shaping the Next Era of Financial Evolution FMLS:24 | Shaping the Next Era of Financial Evolution FMLS:24 | Shaping the Next Era of Financial Evolution FMLS:24 | Shaping the Next Era of Financial Evolution Welcome to FMLS:24 – the premier event where influential brands and…

[slipstream321]

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[jornale]

#cartaodecredito #brasil #bancos #economia #dinheiro #desenrola #fintechs #news #noticias #jornale

[morningstartranslation]

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Com investimento em tecnologia, cooperativas de crédito levam inclusão financeira ao interior

Elas oferecem produtos financeiros personalizados, como empréstimos para investimentos agrícolas e seguros específicos para atividades da agricultura familiar

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[mzaghi]

Webinar state #fintechs #latam 2023 vía #cbinsights (en Campus TEC Guatemala) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoakZGUPi0B/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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[peterbordes]

An incredible fintech growth & 2022 innovation journey 🚀

Octane Lending's originations grew by 74% with its frictionless digital experience.

- Exceeded $1.2B in Originations - Entered 5 New Markets - Launched 9 New Partnerships

[demostenesbr]

#CidadeDoFuturo - Participei como organizador do evento realizado em conjunto ao aniversário de 469 anos da cidade de São Paulo. Estive presente nos painéis de Startups for Goods, O Futuro das Finanças e alguns minutos no painel DEV Rocks. A correria foi tanta que, esqueceram de tirar a foto oficial do time. Valeu a pena, até 2024! 🎉 #fintechs #startups #saopaulo469anos #sãopaulo469 (at ACSP - Associação Comercial de São Paulo) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn4NDslulUx3j-79Et27j6BzGeYFScg5a7kTDA0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Fintech bullies stole your kid’s lunch money

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Three companies control the market for school lunch payments. They take as much as 60 cents out of every dollar poor kids' parents put into the system to the tune of $100m/year. They're literally stealing poor kids' lunch money.

In its latest report, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau describes this scam in eye-watering, blood-boiling detail:

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_costs-of-electronic-payment-in-k-12-schools-issue-spotlight_2024-07.pdf

The report samples 16.7m K-12 students in 25k schools. It finds that schools are racing to go cashless, with 87% contracting with payment processors to handle cafeteria transactions. Three processors dominate the sector: Myschoolbucks, Schoolcafé, and Linq Connect.

These aren't credit card processors (most students don't have credit cards). Instead, they let kids set up an account, like a prison commissary account, that their families load up with cash. And, as with prison commissary accounts, every time a loved one adds cash to the account, the processor takes a giant whack out of them with junk fees:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

If you're the parent of a kid who is eligible for a reduced-price lunch (that is, if you are poor), then about 60% of the money you put into your kid's account is gobbled up by these payment processors in service charges.

It's expensive to be poor, and this is no exception. If your kid doesn't qualify for the lunch subsidy, you're only paying about 8% in service charges (which is still triple the rate charged by credit card companies for payment processing).

The disparity is down to how these charges are calculated. The payment processors charge a flat fee for every top-up, and poor families can't afford to minimize these fees by making a single payment at the start of the year or semester. Instead, they pay small sums every payday, meaning they pay the fee twice per month (or even more frequently).

Not only is the sector concentrated into three companies, neither school districts nor parents have any meaningful way to shop around. For school districts, payment processing is usually bundled in with other school services, like student data management and HR data handling. For parents, there's no way to choose a different payment processor – you have to go with the one the school district has chosen.

This is all illegal. The USDA – which provides and regulates – the reduced cost lunch program, bans schools from charging fees to receive its meals. Under USDA regs, schools must allow kids to pay cash, or to top up their accounts with cash at the school, without any fees. The USDA has repeatedly (2014, 2017) published these rules.

Despite this, many schools refuse to handle cash, citing safety and security, and even when schools do accept cash or checks, they often fail to advertise this fact.

The USDA also requires schools to publish the fees charged by processors, but most of the districts in the study violate this requirement. Where schools do publish fees, we see a per-transaction charge of up to $3.25 for an ACH transfer that costs $0.26-0.50, or 4.58% for a debit/credit-card transaction that costs 1.5%. On top of this, many payment processors charge a one-time fee to enroll a student in the program and "convenience fees" to transfer funds between siblings' accounts. They also set maximum fees that make it hard to avoid paying multiple charges through the year.

These are classic junk fees. As Matt Stoller puts it: "'Convenience fees' that aren't convenient and 'service fees' without any service." Another way in which these fit the definition of junk fees: they are calculated at the end of the transaction, and not advertised up front.

Like all junk fee companies, school payment processors make it extremely hard to cancel an automatic recurring payment, and have innumerable hurdles to getting a refund, which takes an age to arrive.

Now, there are many agencies that could have compiled this report (the USDA, for one), and it could just as easily have come from an academic or a journalist. But it didn't – it came from the CFPB, and that matters, because the CFPB has the means, motive and opportunity to do something about this.

The CFPB has emerged as a powerhouse of a regulator, doing things that materially and profoundly benefit average Americans. During the lockdowns, they were the ones who took on scumbag landlords who violated the ban on evictions:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cfpb

They went after "Earned Wage Access" programs where your boss colludes with payday lenders to trap you in debt at 300% APR:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

They are forcing the banks to let you move your account (along with all your payment history, stored payees, automatic payments, etc) with one click – and they're standing up a site that will analyze your account data and tell you which bank will give you the best deal:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

They're going after "buy now, pay later" companies that flout borrower protection rules, making a rogues' gallery of repeat corporate criminals, banning fine-print gotcha clauses, and they're doing it all in the wake of a 7-2 Supreme Court decision that affirmed their power to do so:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

The CFPB can – and will – do something to protect America's poorest parents from having $100m of their kids' lunch money stolen by three giant fintech companies. But whether they'll continue to do so under a Kamala Harris administration is an open question. While Harris has repeatedly talked up the ways that Biden's CFPB, the DOJ Antitrust Division, and FTC have gone after corporate abuses, some of her largest donors are demanding that her administration fire the heads of these agencies and crush their agenda:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to Harris' campaign and PACs that support her by billionaires like Reid Hoffman, who says that FTC Chair Lina Khan is "waging war on American business":

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Some of the richest Democrat donors told the Financial Times that their donations were contingent on Harris firing Khan and that they'd been assured this would happen:

https://archive.is/k7tUY

This would be a disaster – for America, and for Harris's election prospects – and one hopes that Harris and her advisors know it. Writing in his "How Things Work" newsletter today, Hamilton Nolan makes the case that labor unions should publicly declare that they support the FTC, the CFPB and the DOJ's antitrust efforts:

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/unions-and-antitrust-are-peanut-butter

Don’t want huge companies and their idiot billionaire bosses to run the world? Break them up, and unionize them. It’s the best program we have.

Perhaps you've heard that antitrust is anti-worker. It's true that antitrust law has been used to attack labor organizing, but that has always been in spite of the letter of the law. Indeed, the legislative history of US antitrust law is Congress repeatedly passing law after law explaining that antitrust "aims at dollars, not men":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

The Democrats need to be more than The Party of Not Trump. To succeed – as a party and as a force for a future for Americans – they have to be the party that defends us – workers, parents, kids and retirees alike – from corporate predation.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry

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