Techfoliance Team | On 14 April 2017

The Snapchat generation is not satisfied anymore by the old methods used by banks to let them pay or manage their savings.

The millennials are addressing new challenges to banks to switch from traditional methods to more modern and “hyper-personalized” financial services. As a result, we have seen more and more banking products being created to comply with the new generation of digitally savvy people. Here are few examples of the services targeting the Snapchat generation:

Note: feel free to leave comments below if you’ve heard of other cool banking products in your country

Selfie Banking

Companies like Mastercard or HSBC now let customers take selfies to pay or open bank accounts. This selfie security verification technology is an alternative to the classical PIN code or biometrics methods used so far by most banks. Banks are actively working on new kinds of ID recognition in an attempt to eradicate hacking or ID fraud.

See also: IDnow: identification in the digital age

Sunglasses Payment

Visa announced few weeks ago that it was running a new pilot program of contactless payment-enabled sunglasses. To pay, the user takes off the glasses and swipe them on a Visa NFC-enabled terminal, as simple as that. The sunglasses were first released during a festival in Texas and surf competitions in Australia.

The “Swatch Bellamy”

Swatch and Visa partnered to launch the “Swatch Bellamy”, a wearable watch to do contactless payments. The watch was created in 2016 and first launched in China, Brazil, the US and Switzerland. Compared to its competitors (like the Apple Watch), the “Swatch Bellamy” is not connected to internet for security (and cost) reasons. The watch has partnered with Union Pay in China and Visa for the rest of the world.

The Payment Ring

 

Forget the wallet, the mobile or the cards, and pay with a ring! Companies like Kerv in the UK or Icare Technologies in France have created contactless payment rings to make payment as easy as swiping a finger on a POS terminal. In both cases, the ring is connected to a mobile app to manage expenses and credit cash on the ring. Kerv let people make payment up to £30 and works in all places where Mastercard contactless payments are avaliable. Icare Technologies works pretty much the same way and has set up a secured contactless personal identification system.

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