45 Results
Anna Kuzmina Expert at Fintech
Issyk Kul Photo by Igor Tverdovskiy on Unsplash I love to share personal stories of the troubles I get into in different places around the world. Especially when it comes to payments, my professional field. This is a story of the payment product UX gone wrong because of one teeny tiny detail, and the
25 September 2024 /payments /regulation Fintech
Recently I visited a rather peculiar place, a self-declared independent community in South Africa. It is called Orania. What is peculiar about it? Well, they have their own unofficial currency — Ora (a great and catchy name) and its digital equivalent dOra. All the while being simply a town in South Africa with South African rand in circulation
10 September 2024 /payments /markets Fintech World
The company valuation rating might not be the correct way to understand the leaders but it does paint a picture of the global trends and patterns. Recently, CB Insights published their Global Unicorn Club 2024 edition. In the ‘Financial Services’ section, there is a patchwork of what is happening worldwide. 1. Account2Account Payments Tech & M...
27 March 2024 /payments /markets Fintech
“We are a cash-free hotel. Payments can be made with the most common credit cards”. This was the message I received from the hotel in Stockholm when stepping onto the Viking land of Sweden. “We are cashless,” “We only accept card payment,” and “No cash” — these were the messages virtually everywhere I went in Stockholm. From the moment you land,
20 February 2024 /payments /markets Fintech
Namibia is quite small in terms of population. Also it has been under South Africa’s wing for a long time before going independent. These two facts are enough to tell me that there might be just nothing interesting going on in fintech and payments space in Namibia. So WTM went there to see for ourselves. Just like South Africa, Namibia is very w
29 September 2023 /payments /markets Fintech
This is seriously fascinating in the business case sense. I do not think any country in recent history has faced such a rapid change in the way its fintech and banking system operate. Global sanctions towards Russia were and still are unprecedented in terms of scale, sheer numbers, and implications for the immediate global ‘exclusion’. Let’s talk ...
07 January 2023 /payments
Updated: 02/03/2022 at 16.20 Bank 131 was created to operate in the global digital economy. We have served and still serve as a bridge between businesses and people wherever they are. At this crisis time both businesses and people need help. Bank 131 opens bank accounts for Russian and foreign businesses in rubles, dollars and euros. Accepts payme...
27 February 2022
Winter Olympic Games hosted in Beijing 2022 are a big deal. Not the event itself, but the life experience for those inside this guarded COVID-safe bubble. Olympic Village is a very important showcase for the Chinese innovative technologies to be seen and touched by the outsiders since the coronavirus shut access to China for all. (A robot makes a...
11 February 2022 /payments /crypto
Eastern Europe, Balkan state, ex-Yugoslavia — this is how I used to describe Serbia when talking to people on other continents. Now, ‘Serbia’ has become well known in the closed circle of IT people. As a technology-savvy outsource and cheap developer heaven. And by mere historical chance, as a WHO-approved vaccination enabler for the Russians. Se
03 February 2022
(Dmitry Demidko via Unsplash) Since 2014 there have been on and off polemics about Russia's possible disconnection from the SWIFT system. In the last weeks, those conversations have been increasingly mentioned in the media and seriously affected the mood in the banking environment. CBDO at Bank 131 Anna Kuzmina explained why blocking SWIFT in Rus
01 February 2022
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