Fintech Digest: Amazon Go generates a sea of ​​transactions, and biometrics will penetrate all Mastercard

Recently, people respected in the financial community gathered in Moscow for a closed meeting, the purpose of which was to determine what exactly fintech is? The answer to the seemingly obvious question required four hours of heated discussions. They agreed that the concept of "FINTECH" unites innovations in the financial sphere, providing digital economy with technologies and services that increase the efficiency of existing solutions and create fundamentally new ones. When it came to creating a classifier, everyone almost completely quarreled, because Fintech treacherously sneaked into all spheres of the economy, from transport to the oil industry, and it is easier to use the method of elimination.

Shop without sellers generates multiple transactions

Do you want examples? You are welcome. This week, everyone wrote that in Seattle, he earned the world's first store without sellers Amazon Go. More precisely, the WeChat Chinese messenger was the first to light up , which started to open up a deserted store in Shanghai. But only for a couple of weeks, and then the store will be closed. Plus, the brainchild of WeChat looks more like an ordinary self-service point, because the selected items must be carried to a special terminal and scanned there in turn.

In Amazon Go, things are different . Purchase is the moment when the visitor takes the goods in his hands. And then the money is withdrawn from the account. Put the goods back - the transaction is canceled. The movement of goods in the store is monitored by the most complex system of cameras controlled by artificial intelligence. In principle, withdrawing money at the time of physical contact with a thing is very correct, because it allows one to circumvent the problem of petty theft. It makes no sense to quickly run out of the store, the money has already been withdrawn.
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To enter the store, you need to check in at the terminal using the Amazon application

But, at the same time, there is a problem of a sharp increase in the load on the acquiring bank. One store, of course, the weather does not. But imagine that tomorrow all trading establishments will start working on the same principle? A myriad of small transactions with the abolition of half of them put and communication channels, and iron.

Here is a classic idea for a startup - to provide instant multiple transactions from hundreds of cards in one place, without creating unnecessary load on equipment. There is an opinion can take off.

Biometrics as part of life

Last year at Mobile World Congress there were quite a few startups demonstrating new identification methods when paying for goods and services with credit cards. The funniest one showed how the credit card plays a unique melody to the terminal, in which the amount and the token are encrypted.

But in the end, as usual, the forester came and drove everyone out of the forest. Mastercard announced that as early as April 2019, all cardholders of this system will be able to be identified by fingerprints or face.

This in itself is very good, because the problem of losing a card will disappear, and generally smile at the camera or put a finger faster than entering a pincode. However, before the shops and banks once again faces the problem of updating the fleet of terminals. And cards, by all indications, can become more expensive in production. But speed, safety, manufacturability. And there is an opinion, investing now is not in the crypt, but in the shares of terminal manufacturers.

Poor people pay too

Not so long ago, the famous Fintech guru Chris Skinner wrote that in the near future, banks will provide services only to wealthy clients, and ordinary citizens will have to limit themselves to fintech products and mobile payments. The forecast began to come true earlier than one might think. Bank of America quietly introduced the rule that for maintaining a normal current account will take 12 dollars a month . Just for having an account. Those who want to avoid this need to either provide a refill of $ 250 a month or always keep an amount of at least $ 1,500 on the account.

It should be emphasized that we are talking about the fee for the maintenance of the account, and not about the subscriber for the cards or fees for services. The amount is relatively small. And the phenomenon itself can not be called unique, because the monthly fee is removed in banks in many countries of the world. Here it is interesting just what was not there before - and entered.

On Change.org created a petition - they say, cancel requisitions, villains. But, most likely, they will not cancel, but, on the contrary, raise it. The financial burden on banks is growing as security requirements increase, banking regulation becomes more complex and the range of services expands. But only very few clients use new expensive services. For example, a recent study by the US Federal Reserve Bank states that 90% of mobile banking users use it only to check the balance . That is normal, yes? The application costs many millions of dollars, highly-paid specialists work on it, and most customers simply do not need its advanced capabilities. And they do not participate in the material support of the development.

And bankers have a bold idea - why do we need these 90% at all? Well, not 90 - let it be 60%. Let the Fintechs tinker with them, since they like it so much, and we will take ours from paying customers.

The logic is good, except for jokes. But there is a small nuance. According to a recent study by Edelman, 54% of the population trusts financial organizations in the world today, and as many as 75% of technology companies, despite all their ... features. And is it possible that not the banks will decide who they will keep under their wing, but the majority will decide for themselves and make an unexpected choice?

There is an opinion, the client base, in any case, should not be scattered. Dear, it is worth. In all senses.