Twitter Mocks QR Codes, UBS And The Apocalypse

Here are our top five tweets from the week that was. Keep tweeting, and we may feature you next Friday.


@bwbishop: “@pymnts: Sound Familiar? #Chase Using #QRCodes To Encourage #MobileBanking ow.ly/g6LiK” “Can’t wait!” Said nobody. Ever.

Ouch. We hear about banks trying to use new technologies to drive mobile downloads all the time: last week, both Chase and Bank of America rolled out QR code programs on the same day. While they sounds good in theory, Brett is likely not the only skeptic in terms of just how much enthusiasm such campaigns really garner. Perhaps if you truly wanted mobile banking capabilities, you wouldn’t need a gimmick to download an app. 

Read the original tweet here.


@shaun_bourque: “@pymnts: No Wind Behind @VeriFone’s #SAIL ow.ly/g6pgb” the fact is that these casual merchants don’t process.

Looks like Shaun agrees with VeriFone’s take here: the “razor-thin margins” provided by processing payments from micro-merchants makes the SAIL business model “fundamentally unprofitable.” Those quotes come from CEO Doug Bergerson, per his announcement that VeriFone is checking out of the mobile payments industry. Of course, not everyone agrees that micro-merchant processing is inherently flawed – Square seems to be doing just fine – but it’s interesting nonetheless that a major player like VeriFone would back away from such a source of potentially large revenue.  

Read the original tweet here.


@nytjim: UBS subsidiary becomes first big global bank unit in over 2 decades to plead guilty to fraud. Nyti.ms/Uf4Rf6

We’ve seen plenty of big banks and financial institutions get slapped with massive fines for regulatory violations this year, but UBS’ stunning $1.6 billion settlement marks the first time a major bank has admitted to fraud in over twenty years. We’ve seen the writing on the wall for UBS for a while now, but Wednesday marks the official end to the long and complicated case. 

Read the original tweet here.


@naszub: @pymnts makes sense. If u r not engaged in pment process, you are waiting on retailer. Shift in focus = perceived retailer inefficiency. 

Nasir is responding to this piece, from our EMEA newsletter, that highlights why many in the U.K. place the blame on retailers in terms of contactless payments’ relatively slow adoption. The ICM Research study found that the three main reasons behind the rate of adoption are awareness, security concerns and a retail barrier, and Nasir addresses the last point here. If you missed out on the study, it’s worth a read. 

Read the original tweet here.


@fabiodnb: Don’t worry Mayans, if you do get it wrong, it’s not the end of the world

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the supposed end of the world, which, if you’re reading this, probably didn’t happen. This is just one of approximately 342,423,432 Twitter jokes about the apocalypse, so if you’re in the mood for a laugh, just search “Mayans” on Twitter and get ready to chuckle. 


Have a good weekend, and happy tweeting!