Weekend FinTech Reading, January 3–5, 2014

The week’s fintech news, research and innovations, for your reading enjoyment

EBay President John Donahoe & PayPal President David Marcus Interviews

Employees walk past EBay Inc. signage at the company’s headquarters in San Jose, California, U.S., on Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. EBay Inc. Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe called the delivery of products by drones -- a project that rival Amazon.com Inc. is working on -- a fantasy. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

It’s the weekend, which means it’s time to catch up on recent FinTech news and reading:

“Siri, Has my check cleared?” Financial firms are launching voice recognition apps that turn smartphones into virtual clerks. (Bloomberg)

To Leave a Message for Your Bank Account, Press ‘3’ After the Beep: AT&T’s Bid to Intertwine Its Services with Mobile Banking Apps (American Banker)

ePay? eBay files a patent for secure e-tokens and another giant jumps onto the digital currency bandwagon. (Mashable)

Two Sides of the Coin: Paul Krugman and Joe Weisenthal on the perils and value of Bitcoin. (New York Times, Business Insider)

Big Data Shrinks to Grow: Some companies are shifting to a narrower, industry-specific applications of big data. (New York Times)

Google Lets Customers Activate Cards in Mobile Wallet App — Will Banks Follow? (American Banker)

Must Banks Tweet or Become Obsolete?: Big banks are increasingly using Twitter to keep up with the curve. (Finextra)

Credit card security is broken. Here’s how Bitcoin could help fix it. (Washington Post)

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