Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 24 July 2018
MakeCents Launches Distributed Blockchain Platform for Stable, Simple Payments
MakeCents, an innovative, New York City-based startup focused on developing a novel, scalable, distributed blockchain solution for stable and simple payments, today announced that it has officially launched the testnet of its decentralized platform.
MakeCents aims to disrupt the $420 trillion global payments infrastructure by leveraging its blockchain technology to connect businesses, financial institutions, and consumers on a decentralized platform in order for them to transact more efficiently, more securely, and with transparency – all at a fraction of the cost of traditional payment methods.
The first application of the MakeCents network is a simple, easy-to-use mobile wallet, which differentiates itself from other mobile payment solutions by incorporating cash transactions into the payment process. Through disintermediation of legacy payment rails and processes that are often expensive and time-consuming, MakeCents believes that it can provide both unbanked and underbanked U.S. households with greater access to mobile money.
MakeCents also aims to develop a solution that enables merchants to process payments in a new cost-effective manner, while improving the speed of their checkout lines, streamlining their cash-handling operations, and creating an unprecedented opportunity to conduct targeted marketing and promotions without compromising the privacy of their customers. For financial institutions, MakeCents intends to eliminate their need to support multiple ledger management, while providing enterprise-grade smart contracts for faster settlement between parties.
The MakeCents team – which consists of expert blockchain technologists, distributed system and security engineers, application developers, and fintech strategists – recently established working beta partnerships for future integration with Seabra Foods, a 14-store grocery chain with locations across New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Florida, as well as a large U.S.-based, publicly traded company. Additionally, MakeCents is in early beta partnership discussions with a number of widely-recognized fast food chain restaurants.
BBVA signs new blockchain-based corporate loan with ACS
Having successfully carried out the first pilots in the world of a loan and a corporate credit facility using blockchain, BBVA has signed a new loan with ACS using this technology. The deal shows that BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking is continuing to focus on an innovative financing model for its corporate clients.
BBVA and ACS have signed a €100-million-euro long-term bilateral corporate loan to be used for financial general needs. The use of blockchain technology in this type of operations is a great leap forward in efficiency in financial processes.
Blockchain technology can bring significant improvements. It guarantees the transparency and traceability of contracting, with both ACS and BBVA being able to independently consult at any time the state of the contractual process and the conditions due to the traceability afforded by the technology. The system also digitizes the negotiating process leading to a shortening in the management time from days to hours.
Even Raises $40 Million to Bring Financial Wellness Tools to Millions of Americans
More than 170 million Americans across every income level live paycheck to paycheck. Wages have stagnated, everyday costs have gone up, debt levels are untenable, and people are struggling to make ends meet. In order to address this growing problem, and based on the unprecedented success of the company’s national program with Walmart, Even announced new plans today to dramatically expand the company’s financial services with a $40 million round of funding. This new funding round is led by Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, with participation from Valar Ventures, Allen & Company, Harrison Metal, Ron Conway, Silicon Valley Bank, BCVP and others.
Even integrates with attendance, payroll, and banking systems to understand and directly impact the complete picture of financial health:
Instantly budgets so you know how much is okay to spend
Safely solves cash flow problems with Instapay (on-demand access to wages)
Automatically saves money to make progress towards goals
Together, these core products reduce accidental overspending, eliminate the cost of interest and loans, and automatically save the newfound money—so people can move from “paycheck to paycheck” to “paycheck to progress.”
Jon Schlossberg, CEO of Even: “High cost financial services such as credit card interest short-term loans, and overdraft fees cause Americans to spend $240 billion every year in unneeded costs. By contrast, Even’s business model is set up so we only profit when our customers do. We charge a flat, predictable monthly subscription, like Netflix. In exchange, our members get a new set of financial services, built from the ground up to fit into busy people’s lives, so they actually use them—to spend smarter, avoid debt, and save money. If people see value in those services and keep using them, we profit; if they don’t, we don’t.”
ForgeRock Opens Up Open Banking
ForgeRock, a platform provider of digital identity management solutions, announced the availability of the ForgeRock Open Banking Directory. Continuing its commitment to innovation and industry leadership, ForgeRock has delivered a reference bank implementation and directory, providing a technical sandbox for organizations looking to build and test Open Banking/PSD2 APIs.
The lightweight and incredibly fast test platform has been acknowledged and celebrated by the team at UK Open Banking, the Implementation Entity set up by the UK Government’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in 2016, to deliver Open Banking.
The ForgeRock development team has created an Open Banking Technical Solution Guide on the directory.
