Finance 2.0

A community for discussing the application of Web 2.0 technologies to financial services.

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Message to BofA: If you want Clarity try YouTube

Bank of America has announced the launch of the Credit Card Clarity Commitment(TM), a one-page summary of customers' rates, fees, and payment information. "Bank of America is investing more in our customers and our future," says Brian T. Moynihan, Bank of America Consumer, Small Business Banking, and Card Services president. "We are ...

01 December 2009 /payments /retail

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

PayPal leaves banking industry in its wake

This comes direct from a PayPal press release, announcing that more than a dozen developers have created a new generation of applications built with the PayPal X global payments platform. Here's a sample from the early movers: Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) worked with PayPal to support application payments in the Java Store Beta and enhan...

04 November 2009 /payments /retail

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Finextra Community sets up Twitter A-list

Micro-blogging site Twitter has begun rolling out its new list-building feature which enables users to curate themed lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of celebrity accounts or choose to follow a narrower list of friends, co-workers or business contacts. We've been dabbling with the facility this afternoon and have cre...

30 October 2009 /retail /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Twitter and the High Frequency Trader

Rumours that Twitter is in advanced talks with Google and Microsoft about striking data mining deals has resurrected speculation about the use of the microblogging site as a high frequency trading tool. Citing sources familiar with the situation, Allthingsdgital blogger Kara Swisher says Silicon Valley's hottest start-up is deep in discussion abou...

09 October 2009 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

The news in 147 characters or less

OMG. Twitter down. Hit by DoS attack. Facebook also grinding. Cyber-sabotage suspected. And we can't even tweet the news. World grinds to halt. Not

06 August 2009 /retail /wholesale

Paul Blank e-Trading Solutions at TradAir

What makes a trading platform compelling?

Yesterday’s FinExtra webcast entitled “Transcending the client experience” discussed some important emerging themes with regard to how banks are starting to view their client facing trading technology. We see an increasing number of banks looking to leverage RIA technologies such as Silverlight, Ajax and Flex for their new client trading platforms....

28 July 2009

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Hey you, get off my cloud

Twitter has suffered an embarassing security lapse after a hacker stole hundreds of confidential documents and released them in the blogosphere. Explaining the break-in, Twitter CEO Biz Stone writes: "About a month ago, an administrative employee here at Twitter was targeted and her personal email account was hacked. From the personal accoun...

16 July 2009 /retail /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

It's banking Jim, but not as we know it

Wells Fargo's Guided by History blog has unearthed a great architectural curio from the early 1970s. To celebrate its centennial year in 1972, NorthWest National Bank created and staffed a space age 'Future Bank', which was intended to give customers a peek at banking in the 21st century. Future Bank tellers were dressed like extras from Star Tre...

03 July 2009 /retail

Retired Member 

White Label Monetization for Financial Apps and Start-Ups

The sheer number of emerging technology start-ups is staggering, and even in the face of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the pace of innovation is showing no sign of slowing. There are scores of young companies within the financial technology space alone. Many of these provide substantially overlapping services while seeking...

18 May 2009

Retired Member 

Implications of Facebook Credits

When viewed against the total universe of Facebook applications (numbering in the tens of thousands), the subset of financial applications is by all measures a tiny one. Most are related to “financial entertainment” – simulators, games, and “just for fun” apps enabling users to buy and sell their friends, or send virtual gifts such as bailouts or...

15 May 2009 /payments