How’s that for an ambitious headline? This week we found that digital payments are improving people’s financial lives around the world. The CFPB is looking for your input. APIs may in fact be a huge win for financial services. We learned that Canada can be a payments leader, but central-bank-issued currencies probably can’t. And we need your help to find out where credit unions are on their digital transformation journeys.
Digital Payments Connect People with Opportunities to Improve Their Lives
On the heels of the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, two innovators in the field of digital payments and social inclusion discuss how this technology is creating opportunities to widen the net and bring more nontraditional users into financial services. Although this article focuses on developing countries, many ideas apply wherever financials services are being underused. How big is this opportunity? A 2016 report from the McKinsey Global Institute reveals that digital financial services could add $3.7 trillion to the GDP of emerging economies by 2025.
Give the CFPB a Piece of Your Mind
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) just announced that it will review practices employed by credit card issuers, which could lead to future rulemaking. This review stems from the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act). The public has 90 days to comment, and credit unions have the opportunity to provide their valuable feedback and unique insights to the CFPB.
NACHA Explores API Standardization for Financial Services
Accenture and electronic payments association NACHA recently completed a comprehensive study on the value of API standardization for financial services. The result? API standardization has the potential to address ACH Network pain points and benefit the entire payments ecosystem – from financial institutions, businesses and consumers to fintechs – through improved security and transparency of transactions, increased efficiencies and speed of communications, and enhanced support of payments innovations.
What Canada Can Teach Us About Faster Payments
The push for faster payments is happening around the globe, but the U.S. can look no further than our neighbors to the north for an example of how faster payments are being put to work both efficiently and seamlessly.
Fed Governor Cautions on Central Bank-Issued Digital Currencies
Alternative currency may be a good analogy for the fintech industry. A U.S. Federal Reserve governor has poured cold water on the prospect of central bank-issued digital currencies, saying that they raise serious security and privacy concerns and could become a prime target for crooks.
THINK Extra!
We aren’t asking casually. CO-OP Financial Services/THINK has commissioned David Rogers, Faculty Director, Digital Business Strategy and Digital Marketing, Columbia Business School and author of “The Digital Transformation Playbook” to develop a proprietary Digital Transformation Survey for the credit union industry. Participate now and receive a full benchmark report when the survey is complete.
The original article 5 Must-Reads: Digital Payments Are Changing the World! can be found on Insight Vault.
