You probably have seen Capitalism before the other systems.
I, on the other hand, have seen the other systems before Capitalism.
I'll summarize my experience by paraphrasing Winston Churchill's famous quote about democracy: "Capitalism is the worst system except for all its alternatives".
28 Feb 2023 15:33 Read comment
Absolutely not!
In a capitalism, price-value is entirely between buyer and seller.
Not government, least of all, courts have any business to interfere in that matter, except under monopoly, which credit card industry - comprising Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, China UnionPay, RuPay - is certainly not.
28 Feb 2023 12:16 Read comment
Re. "a core banking system is used", AFAIK, credit card transactions are typically processed in a separate Credit Card Management System (e.g. VisionPlus, ECS) and seldom, if ever, touch a bank's core banking system (e.g. FLEXCUBE, Temenos).
28 Feb 2023 08:28 Read comment
When banks charge fees, they're greedy pigs.
When fintechs charge fees, they're driving responsible consumer behavior.
Well played Klarna.
28 Feb 2023 08:14 Read comment
I agree that it won't be too long before the "herd finds a shiny new object". Exhibit A: $29B valuation for a company making $30M revenue.
VCs will talk about positive unit economics during recession but, once recession ends, they will fund only loss making startups. Exhibit A: Poster childs of last recession are making losses even after 10 years e.g. AirBnB, RobinHood, Snap, Uber, WeWork.
But that's a feature, not bug of the VC Investment Model, which is structurally incapable of profitting off of steadily growing profitable startups and needs blitzscaling loss making startups to make money.
24 Feb 2023 08:07 Read comment
I hope CAT throws out this claim summarily and fines Harcus Parker for filing a frivolous lawsuit on top of that.
That's the only way to stop this never-ending retail industry practice of using a service, willy-nilly benefiting from it, and then crying foul after years.
If they really don't get value from credit card, retailers should stop accepting it. It's not like anybody is forcing retailers to sign a merchant account.
In fact, the blockbuster success of merchant Square / Block, iZettle, et al shows that there's a huge market of small retailers for whom interchange is even a bigger burden that still likes credit card so much that it signs up with merchant aggregators for the privilege of accepting credit card at even higher MDR because banks won't issue them a merchant account in their own names (due to their higher acquirer risk profile.)
23 Feb 2023 10:51 Read comment
"Victims Of Frauds Are Promising Targets For Subsequent Frauds. Nobody Ever Learns Anything From Experience" ~ @matt_levine .
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, this resonates strongly with my personal experience and anecdotal evidence. There's this guy who entered an OTP 24 times to make a payment - to a scammer. Ergo my Three Strike Rule To Eliminate Cybercrime.
I predict that the regulator's planned movie to nail sending and / or receiving banks for APP Scams will not have a happy ending.
End of the day, why will a merchant love an A2A MOP becoming revocable when it does not come with the overspending kicker of credit card?
22 Feb 2023 09:50 Read comment
While there's a lot of scope for adding bells and whistles to a credit card, I don't see how credit card is an untapped opportunity for banks? With penetration reaching 300% in USA, it'd appear that banks have milked the credit card cow long ago.
14 Feb 2023 12:33 Read comment
Credit Card already has merchant KYC / KYB and transaction monitoring in order to minimize scams and frauds. But whenever a payment is declined or a merchant account is blocked because the merchant is guilty of fraud / scam / violating TOS, the common man jumps on banks and credit card networks instead of blasting the guilty merchant - just because she's the underdog. The Stripe-Flurly incident is the latest example of this.
APP / romance scams via A2A RTP happen clearly because of gross negligence of customers. By accepting liability for them, banks are further digging their own grave in the public's perception of them and their shareholders are paying for the fault of somebody else. They should instead push the regulator to enforce my Three Strike Rule to eliminate APP scams.
14 Feb 2023 12:17 Read comment
4.25% APY seems too good to be true.
"Fierce is FDIC-insured, what do I care if it goes bust?" you might ask.
Fair question, except that Fierce itself is not a member of FDIC, only its underlying bank is.
"Banking services provided by Cross River Bank, Member FDIC." ~ www.getfierce.com.
So, FDIC will not pay out if Fierce goes bust but only if Cross River Bank goes bust.
Also, if Fierce goes bust, will its customers be recognized by Cross River Bank and given access to their funds?
PS: These questions have been raised about Chime and other neobanks. Varo obtained a banking license as a way of providing a convincing answer to them.
13 Feb 2023 10:38 Read comment
Parth DesaiFounder and CEO at Pelican
Derek RogaFounder and CEO at EQUIIS Technologies Switzerland AG
Devin RedmondFounder and CEO at Theta Lake
Reuven AronashviliFounder and CEO at CYE
Kimmo SoramäkiFounder and CEO at FNA
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