Two weeks ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta released the U.S. Mobile Payments Landscape – Two Years Later, which examines changes in the evolution of mobile POS retail payments over the past two years.

Money2020 is pleased to announce the first 100 speakers.  Our respective industries generate a tremendous amount of activity and energy determining where the future is heading.  Every Money2020 speaker embodies several key qualities which will help us all move things forward. 

Money2020 speakers are passionate about change, with a genuine interest in creating a community of innovators with an important common thread: profoundly changing the way people and businesses manage, spend and borrow money. 

Tokenization has been a hot topic lately.  The payment associations have discussed it in the context of increasing card account security for mobile payments purchases.  Banks have discussed it in the context of increasing bank account security as the number of payment schemes, financial services and digital wallets increases.  Technology and telecom companies have suggested that they might have better access to consumer authentication, thus they would be the best arbiter of security and token creation.

Merchant Consumer Exchange (MCX) announces today that they have selected Gemalto to build their mobile wallet. Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) is a consortium of retailers founded in 2012.Backed by leading merchants such as Dunkin’ Brands, Target Corp. and Shell Oil Products US.

In a prior post, we discussed Card-Linked Offers and why they were getting such attention in North America. Merchants are looking for more effective marketing methods and to drive foot traffic.  Card issuers are looking for ways to deliver more value to consumers and build incremental revenue streams after increased regulatory constraints.

Managing cash flows is one of the greatest financial challenges of small businesses.  Maintaining the delicate balance between accounts receivable and accounts payable is a constant battle.  One of the primary payment methods for small businesses is check.  According to NACHA, 46% of checks written, not including government checks, involve a small business.  There are many benefits to using checks, such as tracking capability, integration into funding accounts at banks, low transaction costs, and wide acceptance.  Speed, however, is not a benefit.

On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law.  The bill was one of the most bipartisan pieces of legislation to come out of congress last year.  One component of this law was to legalize investment based crowdfunding in the US, with a few provisions:

Last week, the Federal Reserve Board released a report about mobile financial services.  A consumer panel was given a survey about their usage, habits, and attitudes about these services.  This was a refresh of a survey done by the Federal Reserve Bank in December 2011.

The results of the survey indicate that usage of mobile financial services has grown tremendously, but still has a long way to go.  Some of the key data points are:

While the fundamental forces that fueled the growth of leading investment management companies remain firmly in place, important developments in technology, demographics, government regulation, consumer behavior and industry economics will reshape the industry.  Money2020 recently announced that two of the heaviest hitters in investment management will discuss the future of the industry in a panel moderated by one of industries most respected leaders in plan ratings and investment analytics.  Bob Reynolds, President & CEO, Putnam Investments and George Gatch, CEO, JPMorgan Funds, who c

Recently, there was a landmark deal in the payments industry involving one of the largest financial institutions with an issuing bank and a merchant bank, and a major payment network.  The network, in its desire for payment volume, and to create new business models in the industry, radically changed the business relationship and rules with the financial institution.  The financial institution, in its desire to develop closer relationships with both merchants and customers via flexibility, sought to downplay the payment network.