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Electronic Cash Counters
Counters were first introduced in Great Britain in 1980 and made bank tellers’ jobs much easier. Today, some banks maintain self-serve coin counters in their lobbies, as do many retail stores and other locations. Some stores have even partnered with the companies that maintain the machines to offer customers gift cards that can be used anywhere. -
Tablet Computers
Released by GRiD Systems in 1989 and manufactured by Samsung, GRiDPad was considered the first commercially successful tablet computer. Tablets and similar devices have transformed retail banking by allowing bank employees to move within and even beyond the branch. They are also used in many restaurants today. -
Online Banking
Online Banking is known as Internet banking, e-banking, or virtual banking. This type of banking allows the customer to complete financial transactions and other interactions through a bank’s website via the Internet. Today, nearly all banks provide online banking, though some do have limited capabilities. Banks that do not make good use of online banking will most definitely fall by the wayside. -
Paypal
Established as Confinity in 1998, PayPal received a lot of praise as a user-friendly money transfer service. PayPal is an e-commerce company that facilitates payments between parties through online funds transfers. PayPal attempts to make online purchases safer by providing a form of payment that does not require disclosing credit card or bank account details. Today people have many choices in this area including Venmo, Popmoney and Zelle. -
Mobile Banking
Banks introduced mobile banking applications that accommodated more types of cellphones. However, smartphone users and advanced applications gave mobile banking the boost that made it a more safe and viable choice for many people. Mobile banking capabilities allow people to access financial information from nearly anywhere in the world. -
Digital Check Clearing
With the Check Clearing for the 21st Century (Check 21) Act of 2004, a check recipient could make a digital copy of a check and then process that check electronically. Although this technology is not used as often as it once was, it still plays a role in the development of banking technologies. -
The iPhone
Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at the Macworld convention on Jan. 9, 2007, and the first iPhone was released to the public five-and-a-half months later. the introduction of the iPhone is significant in the banking industry, because it was the first step taken towards brand specific mobile payments. It paved the way for Apple Pay, for instance. -
Bitcoin
The convergence of digital currency bitcoin, the explosion of social media and the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 spurred people to question that which they already thought they knew about online payments. The introduction of bitcoin changed how many companies accepted payments and introduced other problems as well. Because of the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency, people with malicious intent were able to do things that other payment and banking options would never allow. -
Mobile point-of-sales devices
These devices, which can be plugged into mobile devices, including phones, tablets, even laptops, allow very small companies, from fruit growers at farmers’ markets to craftspeople at trade shows, to begin accepting non-cash payments. Mobile point-of-sales devices are still widely used today, because the availability of such has been expanded a great deal. -
Google Wallet
Google Wallet is smartphone software developed for Google Android phones and designed to replace credit card processing. Google Wallet technology allows a user to make a payment by tapping a smartphone. The transfer of information can also facilitate transactions, discounts and reward point accumulation with a single tap of a phone at a Near Field Communication (NFC) reader. -
Facial Recognition Software
The Panamanian government first installed face recognition systems in 2011 to reduce illicit activity. Video analytics are becoming a focus for banks seeking to enhance security. some financial institutions are using 360-degree-view cameras and facial detection solutions for advance detection of potential threats. Facial recognition is actually used in multiple industries today. However one cannot argue that its use in banking was meaningless. -
Apple Pay
Apple Pay allows users to shop by paying through various different Apple devices such as iPhones and watches. Owners of Apple devices that support Apple Pay can use the service by first adding one or more credit or debit cards to their device. Many retailers today accept Apple Pay, along with the various other different methods for payment. This only serves to expand the potential target audience. -
EMV Chips
EMV chips make cards far more secure because the information transmitted is encrypted and tokenized. Additional security is critical as payments become more integrated. At first very few credit card companies and banks implemented these chips, as adoption by retail locations was also quite slow. However, today, most retailers in the US and other places around the world make use of card readers that either allow, or requite EMV chips. -
Web-based compliance dashboards
In the fall of 2017, Affirmative Technologies came out with its first banking customer for ACH Insight. This new advancement is a dashboard that lets bankers use graphs and other features to manage and monitor risk, perform compliance reporting and identify anomalies and suspicious patterns. The dashboards were considered game changers because they promote transparency. Bankers can even give regulators or auditors access to these systems so they can pull the information for themselves.
