How my startup was born out of frustration
About seven years ago, as the COO of a financial services firm, I got pissed off. My company had a very simple service level agreement (SLA) with its clients: we would complete all of their financial transactions within three seconds. Period. And to ramp up our operations, we decided to move our infrastructure from on-site physical servers into the cloud.
But once we were on the cloud, we found that we were actually getting poorer transaction times -- way beyond our three-second SLA. We were not sure why, so we used a stack of off-the-shelf software to monitor the cloud’s operation. And when that didn’t give us the visibility we needed; we tried more applications. Even the cloud’s operators pitched in with their own professional service people. But again, no luck, no visibility, and worse, we started seeing a falloff in our business. Beyond that, we were spending twice as much on monitoring as we did on the cloud hosting itself. But to no avail, it didn’t offer us any help in troubleshooting our issue.
Sadly, Money in Excel is not the rebirth of the beloved Microsoft Money
More than a decade ago, we learned Microsoft Money was being canceled. At the time, I worked in banking and many of my clients were upset about it. Believe it or not, many people really depended on Microsoft's financial organization software. It was truly beloved. Why the company canceled it I don't know for sure, but I'd guess the Windows-maker saw the writing on the wall -- the future of money management was mobile apps and web-based account aggregation services, such as Mint.com. Financial software that you install to a PC's storage disk, such as Microsoft Money, was on borrowed time.
Fast forward to 2020, and today, Microsoft announces a new way to manage your money using a PC -- Money in Excel. Sadly, this is not the rebirth of Microsoft Money, but instead, a plugin/template for Excel that allows you to easily import your financial information. This is not really a Microsoft service, either. The Windows-maker has tapped Plaid.com to perform the actual aggregation. Once imported, you can then track your spending, including viewing graphical charts to better understand both where your money is and where it is going.
Fintech: Leak shows Google is working on a debit card to rival Apple Card
Leaked pictures suggest that Google is preparing to launch its own physical and virtual debit cards. TechCrunch cites multiple reliable sources in a report that gives a glimpse into Google's future fintech plans.
Images of not only the physical card itself but also screenshots of the Google Pay app with references to the virtual version of the card show off the design, as well as the spending tracking features that are in the pipeline.
Economic uncertainty gives fintech apps a boost
The COVID-19 crisis has led to major economic as well as health concerns and new research from mobile app marketing company Liftoff in partnership with analytics platform App Annie shows more people are turning to mobile apps to manage their money.
The report analyzed 22 billion ad impressions across 382 million clicks, seven million app installs, and five million first-time events in 117 apps for the full calendar year 2019. It shows that the self-reliant nature of contemporary fintech apps has taken precedence over legacy banking apps, a trend that is likely to continue in the current economic climate.
Fintech firm Curve launches numberless cards for investors in Europe
Curve, the UK-based fintech company, has announced that European investors from its crowdfunding round will be among the first to received more secure numberless payment cards.
The cards do not feature primary account numbers (PAN) on their face to improve security. The cards' chips have the data stored on them so they can be used for contactless payments, chip and PIN transactions or in machines, and card details can only be accessed from within the Curve mobile app.
Zoom CEO and other executives offloaded millions of dollars of shares before privacy and security scandals
Zoom has had something of a rocky ride in recent weeks and months, enjoying a surge in popularity due to increased homeworking. But there have also been controversies with numerous privacy and security issues leading to some users choosing to jump ship to alternative platforms such as Microsoft Teams.
Filings with the SEC show that executives at Zoom Video Communications offloaded millions of dollars' worth of shares before the controversies started to upset users.
UK fintech Revolut officially launches its banking app in the US
Having amassed millions of customers in Europe, the British fintech Revolut is bringing its banking app and debit cards to the US.
The official launch comes after nine months of beta testing and has been facilitated by Revolut's partnership with Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB). While Revolut is not a bank, it offers many services including the ability to receive salary payments to your account, fee-free currency exchange, and a polished mobile app for easy money management.
FCA reveals data breach that exposed personal details of people complaining about UK's financial watchdog
The UK's financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has revealed details of a data breach that took place last year.
The FCA says that personal details of people who had made complaints against the watchdog were exposed following the online publication of a response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Among the exposed information are the names and numbers of those who had lodged complaints.
Revolut raises $500m in funding, valuing it at $5.5bn and making it the most valuable UK fintech startup
Financial disruptor Revolut has managed to raise $500 million in a Series D funding round. The new funding sees the value of the digital banking platform rocketing to $5.5 billion, making it the UK's most valuable fintech startup, and one of the most valuable fintech firms in Europe.
The funding comes from a group of investors headed up by TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) and effectively triples the value of Revolut when compared to its funding round in 2018. The cash injection will be used to expand its multi-currency operations both in Europe and on a global scale.
Criminals target APIs to attack financial services systems
In the year to November 2019, 75 percent of all credential abuse attacks against the financial services industry targeted APIs directly, according to a new report.
The research from Akamai observed 85,422,079,109 credential abuse attacks. Nearly 20 percent, or 16,557,875,875, of these were against host names that were clearly identified as API endpoints. Of these, 473,518,955 attacked organizations in the financial services industry.
Visa acquires fintech startup Plaid for $5.3 billion
Visa has announced that it has agreed to purchase Plaid as part of a deal worth $5.3 billion. The acquisition values the fintech company at around double its valuation following a 2018 Series C funding round.
Plaid is behind financial services APIs used by the likes of Coinbase, Gemini, Venmo and Transferwise. Its software allows for easier sharing of financial details, making it simpler to connect services to bank accounts. Plaid says the acquisition will help it continue to "accelerate the success of the fintech ecosystem".
Financial services companies over confident about protecting data
Financial services business tend to be attacked more than those in any other sector, but a new study finds that 75 percent of respondents in this industry are over confident in their data management practices.
A worrying 24 percent of respondents to Integris Software's 2019 FinServ Data Privacy Maturity Study only update their personal data inventory once a year. Even more concerning, 13 percent only inventory sensitive data when audited or in response to regulation requests.
Majority of leaked records in 2019 came from financial services firms
According to a new report, more than 60 percent of all leaked records in 2019 were exposed by financial services organizations, despite only six percent of breaches affecting these organizations.
The 2019 Financial Breach Report from Bitglass says these figures are at least partially due to the Capital One breach, which compromised more than 100 million records.
Google teams with Citigroup bank to offer checking accounts from 2020
Google next big venture appears to be banking. According to reports -- including from the Wall Street Journal -- the company is partnering with Citigroup bank and will start to offer checking accounts from next year.
The project is codenamed Cache and it will also see Google teaming up with credit unions to provide banking facilities to people in the US. But with widespread concern about Google's attitude to privacy, is there a market for banking services from the company?
Common standards make access to and control of financial data easier
Ever more of our financial transactions are being carried out online, but if you have accounts with more than one provider, keeping track of information can be a challenge both for businesses and individuals.
Formed in October 2018, the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) is committed to uniting the financial industry around a single, interoperable and royalty-free standard for consumers and businesses to access their financial data.
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