A handful of technology giants -- including Apple, Amazon, Google, PayPal, and Intuit -- have announced a partnership in the formation of the Financial Innovation Now coalition (via Re/code). The group aims to promote tech-friendly policies and changes within the financial services sector in Washington, D.C. Those behind the group will work to alter the political debate on relevant issues like tech security, mobile payments, and fraud prevention in the favor of its partners.

apple amazon google group

“A technological transformation is going to make financial services more accessible, more affordable and more secure,” said Brian Peters, executive director of Financial Innovation Now. “The challenge in Washington is making sure policy-makers understand that, and they’re comfortable with it, and they don’t apply old rules to new technology.”

Thanks to the growing popularity of mobile payments solutions like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and PayPal, the companies behind such services are positioning themselves as part of the future in financial services discussions in Washington, since they're more part of the conversation than ever before. The partnership also intends to work together to achieve blanket improvements for each individual service in topics like user security and authentication, faster payment processing, and "access to basic financial services for the two billion people in the world who are underserved."

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Top Rated Comments

2457282 Avatar
111 months ago
Amazon, can you focus on getting prime on ATV?
Google, can you look up the definition of privacy before getting involved with this?
Apple, Agree to nothing unless privacy and security is central to any decision made.

Thank you.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
batchtaster Avatar
111 months ago
And what an odd alliance. There is Apple, whose CEO has repeatedly stressed the importance of privacy. Contrast to Google, who have openly derided the idea of privacy. Talk about sleeping with the enemy.
Quite frankly, if Apple wasn't on it, I would be more wary.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rdlink Avatar
111 months ago
Careful guys. The minute you start talking to the bureaucrats and legislators about this they will start getting calls on the other line from the DOJ and FBI, wanting influence on the whole encryption key issue...
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Benjamin Frost Avatar
111 months ago
I'm very wary of this manoeuvre.

Talking of not applying old rules to new technology sounds like squirming. It reminds me of Uber and their trying to duck out of having licenced drivers, or AirBnb and their trying to duck out of costly regulations.

And what an odd alliance. There is Apple, whose CEO has repeatedly stressed the importance of privacy. Contrast to Google, who have openly derided the idea of privacy. Talk about sleeping with the enemy.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PrimeMatrix Avatar
111 months ago
Amazon, can you focus on getting prime on ATV?
Google, can you look up the definition of privacy before getting involved with this?
Apple, Agree to nothing unless privacy and security is central to any decision made.

Thank you.
Exactly how I feel.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PrimeMatrix Avatar
111 months ago
I am quite happy that these guys are banding together, as I hope that it will mean that they will defend the people they serve, meaning you and I as the consumers. I fear, however, that the security issue that I and most other Apple products users hold dear, will not be well represented by the other companies.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
iPad And Calculator App Feature 1

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...