The 10 Most Innovative Financial Technology Companies Of 2013
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AMERICAN BANKER'S TOP 10 IN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY: American Banker ranks the top 100 most influential companies in fintech (complete ranking here), and this link will take you to a slideshow where you can view more information about the top 10. Among them is "FIS, a company with $5.7 billion in revenue and more than 37,000 employees, [that] has seen 'tremendous growth' in its mobile device capabilities across the board." Also in the top 10 are Fiserv, Tata Consultancy Services, NCR, Diebold, Nomura Research Institute, and Cognizant. There were a few clear themes in the top 10 list. Most executives made clear that their companies' futures depended on mobile, cloud, and software-based products. (American Banker)
In other news ...
KREBS TURNS FOUR: Brian Krebs, a former reporter at The Washington Post, is celebrating his fourth birthday at his security blog, Krebs On Security, which now attracts between 10,000 t0 15,000 visitors daily. Here's part of what Krebs wrote to mark the occasion: "If there was an important data breach in 2013, chances are that news of it first broke on this blog. Among KrebsOnSecurity's biggest scoops this year were stories about breaches at Adobe, Bit9, Experian, LexisNexis, Target and The Washington Post." Krebs says he's still looking into the hows and whos of the Experian and Target breaches. (KrebsOnSecurity)
Why Direct Debit Is A Dinosaur: A payments expert argues that in a modern payments system, there's no need for payments that are debited automatically from consumer accounts for bill paying, and that instead consumers should be easily able to approve payments that need to be made. The philosophy should be "push," not "pull." (American Banker)
An Opportunity To Serve Very Small Business In 2014 - Rene Reinsberg, CEO of local business marketing platform Locu, believes that over the next year very small businesses, those with five or fewer employees, will become the focus for companies pushing a new wave of mobile-first merchant tools. (Street Fight)
Brazilian Mobile Payments Company Targets Low-Income Consumers: "PagPop, a Brazilian mobile card reader vendor, has announced it will join the Business Call to Action initiative, or BCtA, with plans to reach 300,000 new Brazilian credit card users in the next two years." The BCtA is a part of worldwide project aimed at backing new, creative businesses that are both economically viable and achieve positive developmental goals. (Mobile Payments Today)