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Innovation – Finance – Technology

Month: August 2016

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PSD2 – opportunities, threats and strategic options for banks

As I have described in previous posts, PSD2 will force banks to open up their infrastructure to third parties by offering APIs under the XS2A (access to account) rule. The directive has the potential to fundamentally alter the payment landscape as we know it. One of the reasons why PSD2 will have such a large impact is that it will level the playing field and increase competition by integrating the role of new and emerging payment services into the regulation. While incumbents have the most to lose, there are also opportunities ahead for banks.

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Digitalisering handler minst av alt om teknologi

Det siste året har vært preget av et fokus på digitalisering og omstilling innen både offentlig og privat sektor. Finansbransjen opplever at digitalisering fører til nedbemanninger og behov for effektivisering, ny teknologi og digitalisering er hovedtemaer i regjeringens industrimelding, og regjeringen viser til teknologiutvikling og innovasjon som nøkkelen til å lykkes med det grønne skiftet. For å lykkes med digitalisering er det viktig å se på teknologi som et verktøy for å nå målet fremfor målet i seg selv.

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What does PSD2 mean for online merchants?

The purpose of the upcoming payment service directive PSD 2 is to create an even playing field for payments and encourage innovation. The players on this field include banks, fintechs, the PCI (Payment Card Industry) and merchants. While banks are at risk of losing up to 43 percent of retail payment revenues by 2020, the directive represents several opportunities for online merchants.

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A short introduction to PSD2

The coming payment service directive from the European Commission marks a shift in banking regulations. Instead of prohibitions and limitations, the overall purpose of PSD 2 is to create an even playing field and encourage innovation in the payment space as a part of SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area). Although all the technical details is yet to be sorted out, the directive states that banks need to offer payment APIs to third party-providers of financial services, also known as TPPs (Third Party Provider) under the XS2A (Access to account) rule.

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How will blockchain impact the music industry?

While the financial industry is on the brink of disruption, the music industry has been on a steady decline as digital has replaced physical distribution the last ten years. Even though revenues in the music industry is growing for the first time since 1995, the gap between music consumption and artist revenues is growing. This is due to several factors, but one of the contributors for lesser known artists is how streaming platforms calculate royalties. The way it works, the artist’s monthly streams is divided on total monthly streams, effectively favoring whatever becomes that months huge hit, instead of dividing revenues per play. This has enraged both fans and artists, and some artists have chosen to pull their music from streaming services such as Spotify.

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Banks should not underestimate Facebook Messenger

Before you say that Facebook is no longer perceived as cool with today’s youth, do you know what is even less cool? Banks.

When you break down the numbers, coolness becomes less relevant. When it comes to user engagement, Facebook’s reigns supreme above all others. WhatsApp has exceeded 1 billion users, and Facebook Messenger reports 900 million users, handling 60 billion messages a day combined — three times the number of traditional text messages. The combination of chat and payments have already proven to be a great success, as exemplified by the launch of Facebook Pay, Snapcash by Snapchat, WeChats integrated payment solution and Kakao Pay in Kakao Talk in South Korea.

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