Rojin Nair, Advisor
June 1st, 2021
At Incyub8 Inc, Rojin is focusing on nurturing and guiding various national and international start-[...]
Bank Customers Are Primed And Ready For Amazon
Forbes | By Gerard du Toit and Aaron Cheris | Sep 25, 2018
Amazon has built an excellent position for expanding into financial services. A new survey of 6,000 U.S. consumers, by Bain & Company in collaboration with Research Now, shows why. In the first direct comparison of customer loyalty for Amazon and US banks, consumers give Amazon a Net Promoter Score of 47, significantly higher than the 31 for regional banks on average, or 18 for the national bank average.
The battle for U.S. retail banking customers is intensifying as Amazon is expected to partner with a bank to offer a cobranded, mobile-friendly, checking-account-like product initially targeted to young adults. Amazon has many advantages: a high and rising frequency of purchasing, viewing, and reviewing interactions with customers; a full commercial relationship, including credit cards on file; integration into consumers’ digital devices; a paid membership program with 90%-plus renewal rates and the majority of U.S. households as members; and no major security breaches so far.
See: What Can Traditional Banks Learn From Fintech?
Our research suggests that Amazon can count on significant demand for basic banking services. Among Amazon Prime respondents (who pay an annual fee for such perks as free two-day shipping), 65% say they would try a free online bank account offered by Amazon, with 2% cash back on Amazon purchases, similar to the company’s cobranded credit card. Of Amazon customers who aren’t Prime members, 43% would try such an account. Even among people who don’t use Amazon for e-commerce purchases today, 37% would try.
For banks, the level of customer loyalty will likely serve as a leading indicator of defection. The more displeased consumers are with their bank, the more willing they are to consider Amazon. Among respondents who are already Amazon customers, those interested in banking with Amazon give the company a higher Net Promoter Score than those who aren’t interested. For respondents who don’t already have a relationship with Amazon, the more displeased they are with their bank, the more willing they are to consider Amazon.
The loyalty leader that isn’t Amazon
Despite its advantages, Amazon—and by extension, other technology firms—is by no means invincible. For example, perennial loyalty leader USAA has a Net Promoter Score of 79, compared with Amazon’s 47. USAA may have a unique customer base in its military community, but some of its characteristics are shared by other direct banks such as Ally, Schwab and Capital One 360. Many of the direct banks have simplified their product line and processes, saving consumers time and effort. USAA also provides access to a broader ecosystem of services, such as car buying. Direct banks appeal to digitally savvy individuals who prefer app-based banking services, and to those looking for more competitive interest rates and fees.
Related: Technology is the ‘most profound force bearing down’ on big banks, ex-Barclays boss says
Still, the threat from Amazon is real and imminent. Moving into basic banking would not only save Amazon on interchange costs, but also give it more direct influence and insight into customers’ finances and spending, rather than having banks as the intermediary. The bank account could become a platform for whole new range of services for a company that already has enormous reach among America’s most valuable banking customers. Our survey shows that Amazon customers control 75% of U.S. household wealth, with Prime subscribers controlling about 45% of wealth. Moreover, Amazon customers account for about 75% of the wealthiest households’ assets.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Guest Post | Jun 18, 2021 Day trading was hugely popular back in the 1990s but its popularity waned with the turn of the millennium. Now, it's starting to make a comeback in a big way, with more and more people taking an active interest in these unique forms of trading. Some hope to use it as a side hustle for a little extra money on the side, while others hope to turn it into a career or make enough money to live from. Whatever your dreams and aspirations for day trading happen to be, it's important to take some time, learn about your options and risks, research different strategies, and find all the help you can get before you get started. Becoming a successful day trader isn't something that happens overnight, but with patience and hard work, along with strong stock market analysis and strategy, you can get there. The More You Know The first tip to get off to a good start with day trading is to be willing to learn. As stated in the introduction, this isn't something you can rush into and succeed at without any planning, preparation, or education, and there are a lot of ...
Read More
WEF | Stephen Stonberg | Jun 17, 2021 As with the feverish debate around Bitcoin and its carbon footprint, there has been no shortage of discussion surrounding cryptocurrencies and the energy they consume. But this back and forth around crypto’s environmental impact is missing a glaring point. It is important to recognize that crypto is still in its very early stages, not dissimilar to where the internet was in 2002. The entire space is going through its Amazon moment. The first decade of this cryptocurrency experiment has grown far beyond anybody’s wildest expectations. At the same time, it has allowed those of us in the industry to identify what works and what doesn’t. For example, the proof-of-work consensus algorithms (the mathematical problems that Bitcoin miners must solve) that power the Bitcoin network do indeed require a lot of energy. But what these arguments about Bitcoin’s environmental impact obscure is that the broader crypto ecosystem is in the midst of a shift towards a cleaner, greener, more sustainable future that will result in significantly lower carbon emissions. See: Ethereum cryptocurrency to slash carbon emissions This can be seen with the launch of Ethereum 2.0 and the move from a proof of ...
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Jun 15, 2021 The US investment crowdfunding industry received a boost this year as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adjusted the securities exemptions that platforms and issuers utilize to raise growth capital online. Along with other improvements, key changes include the adjustment of Reg CF (Regulation Crowdfunding) to allow for the funding of up to $5 million – from a previously anemic $1.07 million, and a boost to Reg A+ to up to $75 million from $50 million. Many, if not most securities crowdfunding platforms, utilize the three main crowdfunding exemptions – Reg CF, Reg A+, and Reg D 506c. Reg D, currently available only to accredited investors, remains the most popular securities exemption in the US powering a $1 trillion private capital market. Recently, Crowdfund Insider connected with Doug Ellenoff, Managing Partner of Ellenoff, Grossman, and Schole – a top legal firm engaged with the Fintech sector, as well as a leading SPAC advisor, for his thoughts on the future of online capital formation. Ellenoff has been engaged with securities crowdfunding since before the JOBS Act of 2012 emerged as the legislative path to legalize raising capital on a digital platform. Counsel ...
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Guest Post | Jun 17, 2021 Although smaller businesses are more likely to be targeted by cybercriminals, large corporations are having to employ much tougher defences. That’s because they deal with more financial resources, more data, and higher customer expectations. As a result, they are investing in the technologies and the people that make it easier to detect the increasingly sophisticated frauds and scams that cybercriminals use. See: Comparison of UK banking providers’ fraud controls The key is to make it as difficult as possible for fraudsters to receive payments, and there are multiple methods of avoiding those payments or recognizing when a fraudulent payment has occurred. Learning lessons from large corporations makes it easier for smaller businesses to recognize where they can implement their own fraud defences. Employee Training The first step to any kind of online security is to ensure that team members are kept up to date with risks and warning signs. Every member of the team, no matter their department, needs to be aware of the online safety procedures and the detected fraud process of the company. They also need to know the specific threats that their role might be expected to be faced with. While ...
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | Chris Sloan | Jun 17, 2021 In December 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint in a New York federal court against Ripple Labs, Inc. and two of its executives alleging that Ripple had sold $1.3 billion in XRP cryptocurrency tokens in a series of unregistered securities offerings. Because of the potentially monumental impact of this case, almost anyone with an interest in cryptocurrency or blockchain has been following this case closely. A key issue in the case, which recently came to light in a filing by Ripple, is Ripple’s assertion of a defense known as “fair notice.” The court’s ruling on Ripple’s fair notice defense could have far-reaching implications. Why XRP and not Bitcoin? XRP (and other similar cryptocurrencies) differ from Bitcoin, Ether, and other such cryptocurrencies in ways that are critical from a securities law standpoint. The SEC has publicly acknowledged that Bitcoin and Ether are not securities because of the fact that those networks are entirely decentralized and not controlled or regulated by any one party whose efforts are critical to the value of the tokens. See: Ripple’s XRP Set To Launch Their Initial Public Offering XRP’s, on the other hand, ...
Read More
Anthropocene | Sarah DeWeerdt | Jun 15, 2021 The major determinant of the environmental footprint of Internet activities: video, especially high-definition video, a new study reveals. Virtual meetings and telework reduce the environmental impacts from travel, as pandemic-related lockdowns have demonstrated over the past year and a half. But the Internet has an environmental impact too – and that impact is rarely measured in a comprehensive way, researchers argue in the journal Resources, Conservation & Recycling. See: Stripe commits $8M to six new carbon removal companies The researchers gathered publicly available information on the carbon, water, and land footprints of Internet use in various countries around the world. They tracked the impact of each gigabyte (GB) of data used for various digital activities such as web surfing, online gaming, video streaming through platforms like Netflix, and videoconferencing through platforms like Zoom. Worldwide, the carbon footprint of Internet data storage and transmission adds up to 97 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, about the same as the annual carbon emissions of Sweden plus Finland, the researchers calculated. Most studies of the environmental impact of Internet use have only calculated carbon footprints. But Internet traffic also requires enough water to fill more ...
Read More
BBC | James Clayton | Jun 16, 2021 On Tuesday, 32-year-old Lina Khan was sworn in as chair of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The role is a hugely powerful one, which protects consumers from bad business practices and companies from unfair competition. And when it comes to unfair competition, there is one sector that has been singled out by Democrats and Republicans alike: Big Tech. Worryingly for technology giants, Ms Khan has been one of their most vocal critics. Ms Khan was born in the UK and moved to the US as a child. In an interview with BBC Hardtalk in January, she talked about how she started getting interested in competition law as a policy researcher after graduating. "What became clear is there had been a systemic trend across the US... markets had come to be controlled by a very small number of companies," she said. Gradually her focus began to shift to competition - or rather a perceived lack of competition - in Silicon Valley. Her general criticism is that Big Tech is simply too big - that a handful of large US tech firms dominate the sector, at the expense of competition. Some of her ...
Read More
Financial Times | Eva Szalay | Jun 13, 2021 The very rich are adding fuel to the bitcoin boom but many are wary of a bubble Ten years ago, Sandra Ro was working in finance in London when some currency-trading friends told her about bitcoin. The cryptocurrency had been released only a couple of years previously and was still far from a global phenomenon. “Bitcoin was only really known in geeky tech circles and eventually currency traders in London found out about it around 2010,” says Ro. She invested in the cryptocurrency, made a substantial fortune and is now chief executive of the Global Blockchain Business Council, a Swiss non-profit organisation that promotes the technology behind cryptocurrencies. With a background in markets at global banks such as Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, Ro was quick to grasp blockchain’s revolutionary potential. “What really piqued my interest was whether the tech could disintermediate financial markets. I thought, what the heck?” she recalls. “Bitcoin was trading at a couple of hundred bucks at the time and I bought a bunch thinking, what if it works? And guess what? It did!” See: El Salvador approves Bitcoin as legal tender – the first country to ...
Read More
Wired | Kate O'Flaherty | Jun 6 2021 As well as collecting your data, Chrome also gives Google a huge amount of control over how the web works Despite a poor reputation for privacy, Google’s Chrome browser continues to dominate. The web browser has around 65 per cent market share and two billion people are regularly using it. Its closest competitor, Apple’s Safari, lags far behind with under 20 per cent market share. That’s a lot of power, even before you consider Chrome’s data collection practices. Is Google too big and powerful, and do you need to ditch Chrome for good? Privacy experts say yes. Chrome is tightly integrated with Google’s data gathering infrastructure, including services such as Google search and Gmail – and its market dominance gives it the power to help set new standards across the web. Chrome is one of Google’s most powerful data-gathering tools. See: Google Pay’s massive relaunch makes it an all-encompassing money app Google is currently under fire from privacy campaigners including rival browser makers and regulators for changes in Chrome that will spell the end of third-party cookies, the trackers that follow you as you browse. Although there are no solid plans for ...
Read More
Bank of England | Christina Segal-Knowles | Jun 10, 2021 Overview Christina Segal-Knowles, Executive Director for Financial Markets Infrastructure (FMI) at the Bank of England, talks about . She looks at how they could be regulated, if they are used as a form of payment. She says, with the right regulation, digital money like stablecoins could have benefits - including cheaper payments with more functionality. And they could potentially have benefits for financial stability. But that requires regulation to hold new forms of money to the same standards we expect of the money we use today. A regulatory framework Earlier this week, the Bank of England published a Discussion Paper that examines the implications of stablecoins for its financial and monetary stability mandate. In it we present an illustrative scenario to examine the implications of the emergence of stablecoins and other new forms of digital money. The discussion paper models what would happen if a large number of households and businesses moved their deposits from banks and into a stablecoin or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Contrary to some press headlines, even such a dramatic shift does not inherently constitute a financial stability risk as long as it happens in an ...
Read More
Guest Post | Jun 18, 2021 Day trading was hugely popular back in the 1990s but its popularity waned with the turn of the millennium. Now, it's starting to make a comeback in a big way, with more and more people taking an active interest in these unique forms of trading. Some hope to use it as a side hustle for a little extra money on the side, while others hope to turn it into a career or make enough money to live from. Whatever your dreams and aspirations for day trading happen to be, it's important to take some time, learn about your options and risks, research different strategies, and find all the help you can get before you get started. Becoming a successful day trader isn't something that happens overnight, but with patience and hard work, along with strong stock market analysis and strategy, you can get there. The More You Know The first tip to get off to a good start with day trading is to be willing to learn. As stated in the introduction, this isn't something you can rush into and succeed at without any planning, preparation, or education, and there are a lot of ...
Read More
Read More
WEF | Stephen Stonberg | Jun 17, 2021 As with the feverish debate around Bitcoin and its carbon footprint, there has been no shortage of discussion surrounding cryptocurrencies and the energy they consume. But this back and forth around crypto’s environmental impact is missing a glaring point. It is important to recognize that crypto is still in its very early stages, not dissimilar to where the internet was in 2002. The entire space is going through its Amazon moment. The first decade of this cryptocurrency experiment has grown far beyond anybody’s wildest expectations. At the same time, it has allowed those of us in the industry to identify what works and what doesn’t. For example, the proof-of-work consensus algorithms (the mathematical problems that Bitcoin miners must solve) that power the Bitcoin network do indeed require a lot of energy. But what these arguments about Bitcoin’s environmental impact obscure is that the broader crypto ecosystem is in the midst of a shift towards a cleaner, greener, more sustainable future that will result in significantly lower carbon emissions. See: Ethereum cryptocurrency to slash carbon emissions This can be seen with the launch of Ethereum 2.0 and the move from a proof of ...
Read More
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Jun 15, 2021 The US investment crowdfunding industry received a boost this year as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adjusted the securities exemptions that platforms and issuers utilize to raise growth capital online. Along with other improvements, key changes include the adjustment of Reg CF (Regulation Crowdfunding) to allow for the funding of up to $5 million – from a previously anemic $1.07 million, and a boost to Reg A+ to up to $75 million from $50 million. Many, if not most securities crowdfunding platforms, utilize the three main crowdfunding exemptions – Reg CF, Reg A+, and Reg D 506c. Reg D, currently available only to accredited investors, remains the most popular securities exemption in the US powering a $1 trillion private capital market. Recently, Crowdfund Insider connected with Doug Ellenoff, Managing Partner of Ellenoff, Grossman, and Schole – a top legal firm engaged with the Fintech sector, as well as a leading SPAC advisor, for his thoughts on the future of online capital formation. Ellenoff has been engaged with securities crowdfunding since before the JOBS Act of 2012 emerged as the legislative path to legalize raising capital on a digital platform. Counsel ...
Read More
Read More
Guest Post | Jun 17, 2021 Although smaller businesses are more likely to be targeted by cybercriminals, large corporations are having to employ much tougher defences. That’s because they deal with more financial resources, more data, and higher customer expectations. As a result, they are investing in the technologies and the people that make it easier to detect the increasingly sophisticated frauds and scams that cybercriminals use. See: Comparison of UK banking providers’ fraud controls The key is to make it as difficult as possible for fraudsters to receive payments, and there are multiple methods of avoiding those payments or recognizing when a fraudulent payment has occurred. Learning lessons from large corporations makes it easier for smaller businesses to recognize where they can implement their own fraud defences. Employee Training The first step to any kind of online security is to ensure that team members are kept up to date with risks and warning signs. Every member of the team, no matter their department, needs to be aware of the online safety procedures and the detected fraud process of the company. They also need to know the specific threats that their role might be expected to be faced with. While ...
Read More
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | Chris Sloan | Jun 17, 2021 In December 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint in a New York federal court against Ripple Labs, Inc. and two of its executives alleging that Ripple had sold $1.3 billion in XRP cryptocurrency tokens in a series of unregistered securities offerings. Because of the potentially monumental impact of this case, almost anyone with an interest in cryptocurrency or blockchain has been following this case closely. A key issue in the case, which recently came to light in a filing by Ripple, is Ripple’s assertion of a defense known as “fair notice.” The court’s ruling on Ripple’s fair notice defense could have far-reaching implications. Why XRP and not Bitcoin? XRP (and other similar cryptocurrencies) differ from Bitcoin, Ether, and other such cryptocurrencies in ways that are critical from a securities law standpoint. The SEC has publicly acknowledged that Bitcoin and Ether are not securities because of the fact that those networks are entirely decentralized and not controlled or regulated by any one party whose efforts are critical to the value of the tokens. See: Ripple’s XRP Set To Launch Their Initial Public Offering XRP’s, on the other hand, ...
Read More
Read More
Anthropocene | Sarah DeWeerdt | Jun 15, 2021 The major determinant of the environmental footprint of Internet activities: video, especially high-definition video, a new study reveals. Virtual meetings and telework reduce the environmental impacts from travel, as pandemic-related lockdowns have demonstrated over the past year and a half. But the Internet has an environmental impact too – and that impact is rarely measured in a comprehensive way, researchers argue in the journal Resources, Conservation & Recycling. See: Stripe commits $8M to six new carbon removal companies The researchers gathered publicly available information on the carbon, water, and land footprints of Internet use in various countries around the world. They tracked the impact of each gigabyte (GB) of data used for various digital activities such as web surfing, online gaming, video streaming through platforms like Netflix, and videoconferencing through platforms like Zoom. Worldwide, the carbon footprint of Internet data storage and transmission adds up to 97 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, about the same as the annual carbon emissions of Sweden plus Finland, the researchers calculated. Most studies of the environmental impact of Internet use have only calculated carbon footprints. But Internet traffic also requires enough water to fill more ...
Read More
Read More
BBC | James Clayton | Jun 16, 2021 On Tuesday, 32-year-old Lina Khan was sworn in as chair of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The role is a hugely powerful one, which protects consumers from bad business practices and companies from unfair competition. And when it comes to unfair competition, there is one sector that has been singled out by Democrats and Republicans alike: Big Tech. Worryingly for technology giants, Ms Khan has been one of their most vocal critics. Ms Khan was born in the UK and moved to the US as a child. In an interview with BBC Hardtalk in January, she talked about how she started getting interested in competition law as a policy researcher after graduating. "What became clear is there had been a systemic trend across the US... markets had come to be controlled by a very small number of companies," she said. Gradually her focus began to shift to competition - or rather a perceived lack of competition - in Silicon Valley. Her general criticism is that Big Tech is simply too big - that a handful of large US tech firms dominate the sector, at the expense of competition. Some of her ...
Read More
Read More
Financial Times | Eva Szalay | Jun 13, 2021 The very rich are adding fuel to the bitcoin boom but many are wary of a bubble Ten years ago, Sandra Ro was working in finance in London when some currency-trading friends told her about bitcoin. The cryptocurrency had been released only a couple of years previously and was still far from a global phenomenon. “Bitcoin was only really known in geeky tech circles and eventually currency traders in London found out about it around 2010,” says Ro. She invested in the cryptocurrency, made a substantial fortune and is now chief executive of the Global Blockchain Business Council, a Swiss non-profit organisation that promotes the technology behind cryptocurrencies. With a background in markets at global banks such as Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, Ro was quick to grasp blockchain’s revolutionary potential. “What really piqued my interest was whether the tech could disintermediate financial markets. I thought, what the heck?” she recalls. “Bitcoin was trading at a couple of hundred bucks at the time and I bought a bunch thinking, what if it works? And guess what? It did!” See: El Salvador approves Bitcoin as legal tender – the first country to ...
Read More
Read More
Wired | Kate O'Flaherty | Jun 6 2021 As well as collecting your data, Chrome also gives Google a huge amount of control over how the web works Despite a poor reputation for privacy, Google’s Chrome browser continues to dominate. The web browser has around 65 per cent market share and two billion people are regularly using it. Its closest competitor, Apple’s Safari, lags far behind with under 20 per cent market share. That’s a lot of power, even before you consider Chrome’s data collection practices. Is Google too big and powerful, and do you need to ditch Chrome for good? Privacy experts say yes. Chrome is tightly integrated with Google’s data gathering infrastructure, including services such as Google search and Gmail – and its market dominance gives it the power to help set new standards across the web. Chrome is one of Google’s most powerful data-gathering tools. See: Google Pay’s massive relaunch makes it an all-encompassing money app Google is currently under fire from privacy campaigners including rival browser makers and regulators for changes in Chrome that will spell the end of third-party cookies, the trackers that follow you as you browse. Although there are no solid plans for ...
Read More
Read More
Bank of England | Christina Segal-Knowles | Jun 10, 2021 Overview Christina Segal-Knowles, Executive Director for Financial Markets Infrastructure (FMI) at the Bank of England, talks about . She looks at how they could be regulated, if they are used as a form of payment. She says, with the right regulation, digital money like stablecoins could have benefits - including cheaper payments with more functionality. And they could potentially have benefits for financial stability. But that requires regulation to hold new forms of money to the same standards we expect of the money we use today. A regulatory framework Earlier this week, the Bank of England published a Discussion Paper that examines the implications of stablecoins for its financial and monetary stability mandate. In it we present an illustrative scenario to examine the implications of the emergence of stablecoins and other new forms of digital money. The discussion paper models what would happen if a large number of households and businesses moved their deposits from banks and into a stablecoin or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Contrary to some press headlines, even such a dramatic shift does not inherently constitute a financial stability risk as long as it happens in an ...
Read More
Read More
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