Today in FinTech: Rumors of an iPhone Payment Terminal Come True

<p>Following Happy Money's latest funding round, big investments gave small firms supersized valuations and even birthed a happy new unicorn. GoCardless received $312 million in funding, while HubPay received $20 million in its first post-seed round.</p> <p>On the FinTech front, merchants will soon be able to forego POS hardware in favour of using their iPhones, and challenger bank Customers Bank has formed a special banking group to serve securities brokers and a variety of other new industries.</p> <p>Apple Confirms iPhone Contactless Payment Plans for Merchants</p> <p>The rumour mill can sometimes produce some truth, as was the case with Apple's latest venture for merchants: a no-hardware, contactless, point-of-sale payments terminal that uses something most people have on hand — an iPhone.</p> <p>Customers and merchants simply point their iPhones at each other in an air kiss, and the payment process is complete. Customers can use their digital wallet, Apple Pay, or virtual debit and credit cards to make payments.</p> <p>FinTech Clients Bank Forms Financial Institutions Banking Group</p> <p>Customers Bank, headquartered in the small Pennsylvania borough of Phoenixville, is thinking big and outside the digital-only box. The 12-year-old bank, which has 12 branches and 10 loan offices in Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas, has its sights set on serving securities brokers and much more.</p> <p>To begin that journey, it formed a financial institutions group (FIG) to launch the Broker-Dealer Banking Group, which will serve clients with $100 million to $1 billion in assets. The bank previously announced the formation of three new groups: the Funds Finance Group, the Technology and Venture Banking Group, and Customers Bank Instant Tokens, a blockchain-based real-time payments system for cryptocurrency and digital asset institutions (CBIT).</p> <p>Happy Money, a lending platform, is valued at $1.1 billion</p> <p>Happy Money is clapping i