“Today the USPTO published an Apple patent application (spotted by UnwiredView) that ventures a little farther afield than most, and describes a mobile banking concept that is truly innovative, which could essentially turn iTunes into a micro-lending bank,” Darrell Etherington reports for TechCrunch.
“The patent outlines a system whereby a user would post requests for small amounts of cash using their iPhone, which other nearby users could respond to to provide some quick funds when there’s no ATM nearby,” Etherington reports. “The lending party would be paid the full amount from an account (which, while not named specifically, could easily be an iTunes account), which would first deduct that total, plus a small service fee, from the iTunes account of the person making the cash request.”
Etherington reports, “So, in a real world example, I could open this ‘Cash Transfer Application,’ type that I need $20 and that I’m at the Starbucks at 4th and Main, enter a search range and send it out. Then, anyone within that radius also using the app would get the request, and be able to volunteer to walk over to my location and provide me with the amount requested on the spot.”
More info in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hmmm, disrupting the banking industry’s ATM monopoly. Good morning, Wall Street.