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(1) Super-rich behemoths become super-rich by collecting, not refunding, massive fees! (2) On a more serious note, AFAIK, Apple does not collect any fees from the payee / merchant / non-profits. It likely collects fees for Apple Pay transactions from card-issuing banks. (3) As for banks refunding massive fees they do collect from non-profits, see (1) above!

TY for your reply. Yes, I saw the reference to what American Express has done in your blog post. What you've now said in your comment is interesting - can you cite the reference to this 86% / 1000 people research? There are other studies that say overpersonalization doesn't work because it lacks in social proof e.g. P&G / FB ads (https://twitter.com/s_ketharaman/status/774269115057991680). I totally agree that no one likes spam. I also agree that people don't want what's irrelevant to them. I tend to agree that people want things relevant to them. But I'll stop there: Nobody wants stuff only made for them because one of the first things consumers think about when they buy anything is "who else has bought it?" and market-of-1 tailor made offers don't make the cut.

Can you cite any evidence that consumers really want / accept targeted offers of financial products? In Banks Will Know Chipotle Is Going Bankrupt Before Chipotle, I've cited anecdotal evidence that they don't. 

Nice post. I recently ditched Amazon after 15+ years and bought from a competitor. The competitor has been wooing me for 5+ years with special offers. I hadn't budged. End of the day, I made the switch when I felt cheated on a recent occasion when I was trying to buy something from Amazon. Moral of Story: It's for a big brand to lose a customer. I think this is valid for both B2C and B2B.

Many of these are imaginary advantages of UK staying inside EU / disadvantages of UK exiting EU. Like I said here before Brexit, Fintech faces many more serious challenges than what Brexit can cause. Recent post-Brexit reports seem to be Exhibit-A for what I said. 

Brexit be damned: UK fintech weathering the storm

Looks like UK consumers are finally tired of hearing the call center hold music!

Gain Social Media And Lose The Call Center Hold Music. 

"However, the machines will not accept Bitcoin as payment for tickets." Reminds me of a leading electronics chain in Germany. It launched a cobranded credit card for branding but wouldn't accept it at its own stores!

@DavidGodfrey + 1.

While I'm happy for banks to operate like banks, their marketing can surely benefit by operating like tech marketing - going by the significantly greater awareness and buzz enjoyed by Venmo, PayTM and other competing offerings from the tech industry.

@BobLyddon:

From my experience with sales and implementation of FPS at a Top 5 UK Bank, FPS was indeed mandated by a regulator - OFT - just not FCA.

AFAIK, 8 character BIC only identifies a Bank. To transfer funds to a specific account requires mention of a Branch where the account is held. This adds 3 more characters to BIC. Ergo, an actual fund transfer uses a 11 character BIC e.g. HDFCINBBPNE for my account. Notwithstanding that, I agree that BIC isn't as complicated as it's made out to be. SWIFT typically handles B2B and FI-to-FI payments of $M ticket size. When I make payments of that size, I'd actually prefer to use a meticulous system like IBAN and BIC - despite their longer lengths - than a casual and error-prone addressing method like name and risk letting my payment get lose in the "cyberabyss".

While WhatsApp is relatively new, web-based instant messaging tools like ICQ have been around since the late 1990s. If there are so many things wrong with SWIFT, any idea why nobody else has managed to disrupt it even 20 years after availability of open IM technologies?