Last week PBS provided great coverage on several of their news programs of the meeting President Obama has with community bankers. I think community bankers and small business people will find the following segment interesting.
Program: Nightly Business ReportEpisode: NBR for December 22, 2009Top stories include:President Obama encourages community bankers to lending again. A look at the financial crisis that could turn into a sovereign debt crisis. Search these Tags:economy , wall street , nbr , banking , sovereign debt
I was reading in BankInnovation.net recently a post about Twitter's founder, Jack Dorsey, and how he has come up with a device that simply plugs into a cell phone's earbud jack that can read a credit card and process a payment. The purchaser simply signs the phone (iPhone or Droid now) with their finger on the phone's screen and a receipt can be sent via text message or e-mail. Check out the video below or visit the BankInnovation site for more details... You can also visit the TechCrunch site for the full interview.
So, why do I think this is "blog worthy"? Well, first off, this eliminates the traditioinal way of accepting credit and debit card payments by putting a simple device and some downloadable software on your cell phone (or should we call these now "mobile devices") to accept payments. Given that more people are relying on the convenience of credit and debit cards (even gift cards), being able to carry this small little plug-in device to accept payments could be a real game changer.
What banking applications do you think will be impacted by a device like this? Mobile banking officers could use a device like this to take deposits while out of the office or working with customers remotely. While you cannot get cash out of an iPhone (yet), could a device like this be equipped with PIN capability and further expand the concept of an ATM at special events or venues where a traditional ATM may not be warranted.
We'll see... Eric
P.S. Check out the site at Squareup.com and learn more. They have some pretty cool screen shots of the user interface, including a photo verification service that can help to reduce the chance of fraud.
