Snippings

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OnlyFans, the UK company that provides a subscription streaming platform for sex workers, sports stars and celebrities, has paid more than $630mn to its owner, Ukrainian-American entrepreneur Leonid Radvinsky, since the start of last year.

The company said it had paid $6.6bn to the content creators who use its platform as a means of reaching their “fans” in 2023, an increase of about $1bn from the previous year.

From: Porn streamer OnlyFans paid owner $630mn in dividends.

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The number of creator accounts grew to 4.1mn while the total number of fan accounts grew to 305mn, both an increase of almost a third on 2022.

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According to Visa, the new A2A framework will be based on an open system available for all eligible banks and other industry partners to join. It introduces standards, rules and a dispute management service to help protect consumers and further modernize open banking-based payments. It is being designed in partnership with leading FinTechs in the U.K., including Banked, Modulr, Moneyhub, Salt Edge, Vyne and Yaspa, and will be delivered by key U.K. industry players working with Visa.

From: Visa’s New A2A Offering ‘Opens’ Choice and Security in the UK.

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Noelle Acheson 

@noelleacheson

Tokenized deposits and stablecoins may sound like the same thing, given that they are both fiat-on-chain. But they are actually distinct concepts, and the difference matters for use cases, regulation and our broader appreciation of blockchain potential.

From: Friday, Sept 6, 2024 – by Noelle Acheson.

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To the degree that the Visa concept can replace digital wallets — the same day, the company announced enhancements to its “tap to pay” service — could trim some costs.

“It’s better than paying Apple,” says Erin McCune, referring to the fee assessed by Apple Pay for transactions going through that digital wallet.

From: What Payments Experts Say Visa’s Plan is for ‘Flexible Credential’.

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The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is currently consulting the market on the issue of “big tech” and digital wallets, highlighting the importance of both in the future of retail payments. In particular, they are interested in looking at the barriers to digital wallets integrating account-to-account payments (as a means to bring more competition to the sector) and the wider issue of how wallets choose the payment system for transactions. Which, of course, raises the question of who choses and how conflicts are resolved.

The scenarios that 

So, I finish my shopping and walk out of the supermarket, at which point the supermarket

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The owner of a high street mobile phone shop has become the first person in the UK to be charged with operating an illegal cryptocurrency ATM, according to Kent Police.
Officers carried out a search warrant at the Gadcet shop in Chatham’s High Street on 28 April 2023, where they said they seized a number of crypto ATMs, including one on public display.
Habibur Rahman, 37, of Langdon Crescent in East Ham, London, was arrested on the same day and has now been charged with operating the machine without registration from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
He is also alleged to have laundered £300,000 of criminal cash by converting it into cryptocurrency.

From: Crypto: ‘First’ person in UK charged with operating illegal ATM – BBC News.

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The new reimbursement requirement will introduce, for the first time, consistent minimum standards to reimburse victims of APP fraud and essentially it will:

require sending PSPs to reimburse all-in scope customers who fall victim to APP fraud in most cases; 
involve the sharing of costs for reimbursing victims on a 50:50 ratio between sending and receiving PSPs; and 
provide additional protection for vulnerable customers.
The PSR have now published three legal instruments which give effect to the reimbursement requirement: (i) a specific requirement (SR1) imposed on Pay. UK to include the reimbursement requirement in the Faster Payments scheme rules; (ii) a specific direction (SD20) given to participants in Faster Payments, obliging them to comply with the reimbursement requirement and the reimbursement rules; and (iii) a specific direction (SD19) given to Pay.UK to create and implement an effective compliance monitoring regime for PSPs.

From: New UK APP fraud rules: what PSPs need to know – ThePaypers.

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In the United States, 63% of consumers ages 18 to 34 would consider financial services from nonfinancial brands. This sentiment extends across the Atlantic, where 52% of consumers in Europe ages 25 to 34 believe using financial products via their favorite brands is more convenient than using a conventional bank.

From: Embedded Finance Partnerships Benefit Brands and Banks Alike.

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Banking is changing. No longer the sole province of financial specialists and time-honored institutions, it has instead become woven into the digital fabric of wherever we shop and conduct business. Aptly named, embedded finance is playing a crucial role in the financial industry’s digital transformation, turning everyday brands into financial services providers. This shift is increasing brands’ profits, empowering consumers, and pressuring traditional banks to reevaluate their role in their customers’ financial lives. From retailers offering buy now, pay later (BNPL) loans to social media platforms handling payments, the lines between commerce and banking are becoming increasingly blurred.

From: Embedded Finance Partnerships Benefit Brands and Banks Alike.

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Some users believe they are behaving responsibly. Lu Tan Tu offers cash-outs against utility bills via SPayLater and e-wallet MoMo in Da Nang city in central Vietnam. The 24-year-old has been doing cash-outs for a year, with amounts ranging from 500,000 dong ($20) to 3 million dong ($119), he told Rest of World. He charges 1%–5% in service fees, “just as a side business to earn money for gas.” For borrowers, cash-outs are “a safer alternative” to loan sharks, he said.

From: Turning buy-now-pay-later credit to cash through loans in Southeast Asia – Rest of World.

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A lower threshold of £85,000 would bring the maximum sum protected in line with the financial services compensation scheme, which protects depositors if a bank goes under.

From: UK regulator to slash maximum fraud losses banks are forced to cover.

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