Snippings

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The cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will cost an estimated £1.9bn and be the most economically damaging cyber event in UK history, according to researchers.

From: JLR hack ‘is costliest cyber attack in UK history’, experts say – BBC News.

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Some fret that too much digital payment leaves Europe dependent on the likes of Visa and MasterCard, American firms with unpredictable political masters.

From: Why Europe is rediscovering the virtues of cash.

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Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the same thing to CNN, criticized credit card rewards programs saying they mainly benefit wealthier consumers while lower-income borrowers bear more of the costs. In fact, as he went on to point out, even people who do not use credit cards pay more for everyday goods because merchants raise prices to cover card fees.

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Britain sorely needs a secure digital-id system, and needs to decide what kind it wants… The government says that by the summer of 2029 everyone must use digital id to prove they are allowed to work. It also says that the police will not demand to see digital ids. It has said nothing about what kind of identity system the country should build. Britain has many options, but one big question: how much should the state try to do by itself?

From: Britain is trying to create a digital identity system, again.

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Assets of all kinds could one day be bought, sold and held through a single digital wallet.

From: Larry Fink and Rob Goldstein on how tokenisation could transform finance.

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As I said in The Economist back in 2019, the Apples and Facebooks and Googles want the banks to do the manufacturing while they take over the distribution.

From: No One Cares Which Bank Provides Their Apple Card.

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— Rain, the enterprise-grade infrastructure for stablecoin-powered payments, today announced a $250 million Series C funding round led by ICONIQ, with participation from Sapphire Ventures, Dragonfly, Bessemer Venture Partners, Galaxy Ventures, FirstMark, Lightspeed, Norwest, and Endeavor Catalyst. The round values Rain at $1.95 billion, brings the company’s total funding to over $338 million, and comes just four months after its Series B and 10 months after its Series A.

Stablecoins have rapidly evolved from a speculative corner of crypto markets into one of the largest value-transfer rails in the world. The next phase of adoption is about making tokenized money the default way that businesses move funds and consumers get paid, save, and spend. Crossing that chasm requires infrastructure that lets enterprises shift to onchain payment rails while preserving the familiar experiences their users already trust. Rain’s technology is built to do exactly that.

“Stablecoins are quickly becoming the way money moves in the 21st century, but adoption by users worldwide requires cards and apps that just work,” said Farooq Malik, CEO & Co-founder of Rain. “In the last year, our active card base has increased 30x and our annualized payment volume has increased 38x, but we’re still in the early innings. This funding lets us bring that infrastructure to new markets and help additional enterprises go live and scale quickly everywhere.”

Rain’s end-to-end payments platform allows companies to work with a single partner to launch compliant stablecoin cards that work everywhere Visa is accepted, offer rewards, convert fiat into stablecoins, power secure wallets, and facilitate payouts. Today, Rain’s technology facilitates more than $3B in annualized transactions for over 200 partners, including Western Union, Nuvei, and KAST. Programs built on Rain can reach over 2.5 billion people and power everything from everyday consumer purchases like a morning coffee or airline tickets, to critical business expenses such as cloud services and digital advertising.

From: Rain Raises $250M Series C to Scale Stablecoin-Powered Payments Infrastructure for Global Enterprises.

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As I said in The Economist back in 2019, the Apples and Facebooks and Googles want the banks to do the manufacturing while they take over the distribution.

From: No One Cares Which Bank Provides Their Apple Card.

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Police are warning people to be wary of fraud after a woman in Guelph, Ont., was scammed out of life savings totalling approximately $800,000.

The woman, in her 70s, contacted police Wednesday to report a scam that began in March.

She told police her computer “began making strange noises and flashing,” and she called a phone number that popped up on the screen, said Guelph police release Thursday.

“She called that phone number, ends up speaking to someone that she believed was a representative of her bank,” Guelph police spokesperson Scott Tracey told CBC News. “And that person informed her that her accounts have been compromised and essentially enlisted her to supposedly try to catch those who are responsible.”

3 victims gave a stranger their bank and credit cards, prompting a warning from Guelph police
OPP investigate computer scam after victim handed over $320K in gold bars
Over a series of phone calls, the woman was told to withdraw all funds from her account and deposit the cash into cryptocurrency ATMs.

She was also told to cash in her life insurance policies, and on three different occasions, she met with men near her home and handed over gold bars she had purchased.

Police say the victim was repeatedly told she would receive all the funds back once the bank had completed its investigation. After she didn’t hear anything for several months, she contacted police. The victim believes she lost approximately $800,000.

From: Guelph senior loses $800K to scammers pretending to be bank representatives | CBC News.

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Donald Trump called for credit card interest rates to be capped at 10 per cent as his administration seeks to address Americans’ concerns about the cost of living ahead of closely watched midterm elections later this year.

In a post on social media on Friday evening, the president called for the cap to come into force on January 20, the anniversary of his inauguration, and said it should remain in place for one year.

“We will no longer let the American Public be “ripped off” by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump said. “I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10%.”

It was not clear whether Trump would take any regulatory steps to enforce a cap. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US credit card debt is about $1.1tn, with an average interest rate of roughly 20 per cent, according to data from the St Louis Federal Reserve.

From: Donald Trump calls for credit card interest rates to be capped at 10%.

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