Not all innovation is inside-out. Sometimes new ideas are a twist on the tried-and-true, an expansion of an existing initiative, the slow infiltration of a new technology, or the spread of an old idea into a trend. This week we look at the evolution of innovation – for better and worse – in the payments space.
Digital Killed the Receipt Signature
Starting this month, Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express will no longer require merchants to collect cardholder signatures on debit and credit transactions. Although it may take quite a while for the actual practice of signing receipts to disappear altogether, this shift marks a big win for digital technology. EMV chips, tokenization and biometrics are among the fraud-fighting innovations that have made signatures less relevant.
PayPal’s Bill Ready: Taking the Path Already Worn
PayPal president and COO Bill Ready has some advice for digital merchants: Lay the sidewalk where the grass is already worn. Instead of innovating to change consumer behavior from the ground up, look for existing patterns of experience you can reinforce with innovation, as PayPal aims to do.
Amazon Now Wants to Disrupt the P2P Industry
Evolution at Amazon is more or less a slow roll toward eventually controlling everything. Just weeks after news leaked that the company might be interested in launching a checking account-like product, the Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon might also be developing a new P2P payment platform.
How Blockchain Is Transforming Banking
A survey conducted by The International Securities Association found that 55 percent of companies polled are assessing, researching, or developing solutions related to blockchain technology. But, are banks and other financial institutions still skeptical about blockchain’s value to the financial services sector? Where will the impact occur when blockchain does make contact with financial services?
The Rise of (Not So) Friendly Fraud
Financial services may sometimes struggle to innovate, but fraud never does. Consider the rise of friendly fraud: Fraudsters make legitimate purchases, then dispute the charges in order to receive money back.
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The original article 5 Must-Reads: Evolution Meets Innovation in Payments can be found on Insight Vault.