Snippings

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Curve’s one-to-many card routing (allowed in EEA) allows similar functionality to Visa’s new Flexible credentials. Where Curve operates under the existing transaction mechanics, Visa’s Flex credential enables retrieval of the underlying card. It allows each Issuer to approve the “wrapping” entity or wallet just as they do under staged digital wallet rules. Both Visa VTS and MA MDES allow issuers to approve “wallets” and provision payment tokens. There are no US exceptions to this process.

From: ApplePay gets iOS Competition – Curve | Noyes Payments Blog.

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Drones have broadened the buffer zone between Ukrainian and Russian combatants from a couple of kilometers to as much as 20 km, Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation Alex Bornyakov told POLITICO. “Anything you put in this ‘gray area’, it can be destroyed by drones,” he said.

From: ‘Our Oppenheimer moment’ — In Ukraine, the robot wars have already begun – POLITICO.

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“The scammer convinced them to wire their $32,430 down payment to a fake bank account and vanished.”

 

 

Well, I’m sure it was a real bank account, otherwise the money couldn’t have been wired there. And given the famously expensive KYC/AML regime in the USA, it should be straightforward to arrest the scammer (or the bank’s compliance officer?). 

 

 

So what’s the problem?

 

 

“A detective who investigated our case told us that our money was transferred to an overseas account and turned into Bitcoin.”

 

 

Of course it was.

 

A detective who investigated our case told us that our money was transferred to an overseas account and turned into Bitcoin.

From: Millennial Couple Lost $32,430 Down Payment to Real-Estate Scammers – Business Insider.

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Eventually, Madrid’s porn passport is likely to be replaced by the EU’s very own digital identity system (eIDAS2) — a so-called wallet app allowing people to access a smorgasbord of public and private services across the whole bloc.

From: Spain introduces porn passport to stop kids from watching smut – POLITICO.

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The Spanish government has a plan to prevent kids from watching porn online: Meet the porn passport.
Officially (and drily) called the Digital Wallet Beta (Cartera Digital Beta), the app Madrid unveiled on Monday would allow internet platforms to check whether a prospective smut-watcher is over 18. Porn-viewers will be asked to use the app to verify their age. Once verified, they’ll receive 30 generated “porn credits” with a one-month validity granting them access to adult content. Enthusiasts will be able to request extra credits.

From: Spain introduces porn passport to stop kids from watching smut – POLITICO.

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Instead, active funds are struggling. That pokes a hole in one of Wall Street’s most cherished narratives—namely, that it’s worth paying a premium for active management and that stock pickers are sure to do better at some times than at others. The funds’ travails are a reminder of a basic rule: The asset-management industry depends more on marketing than on markets.

For starters, despite this purportedly ideal investing environment, stock pickers are doing even worse than usual. In the first half of 2024, according to Morningstar, only 18.2% of actively managed mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that compare themselves to the S&P 500 managed to outperform it.

From: Why Your Fund Manager Can’t Beat Today’s Stock Market – WSJ.

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Restaurant SMBs that use instant account-to-account payments have healthier balance sheets.

From: Instant Payments Can Help Restaurant Balance Sheets.

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The Government and regulators committed to the introduction of commercial VRPs last April and we are waiting for the kick off of ‘Phase 1’ later this year.

Despite the value they will provide to businesses and consumers, a consultation issued by the PSR suggests that UK banks will have to provide commercial VRPs for free in Phase 1. This may sound like great news for Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISPs) like GoCardless. But in the long run, it will hinder progress.

Fueling future payments

For commercial VRPs to become a competitor to card payments, all stakeholders involved must be incentivized to invest and innovate. This means changing the perception of open banking from a compliance obligation to an exciting new business opportunity, increasing the quality and resilience of the APIs banks provide.

We need to select which banks will provide the most relevant APIs. Since the CMA9 group was established in 2016, neo-banks have become more involved in retail banking. Bank coverage must start high and get higher, rather than staying low.

If banks are incentivized to play their part, then the main innovators in the open banking space – PISPs and AISPs like GoCardless – can test the robustness and quality of the newly-built APIs. We need all players to commit to Phase 1 if we’re to build a stronger Phase 2 and eventually power the mass rollout of VRPs. But to encourage widespread adoption, merchants need to be financially incentivized, meaning fees should be lower than current card acceptance costs.

From: Why we’re ready to pay the price for open banking | TechRadar.

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We’ll see how far the banks will push that. It might not be a wise move to deny some likeable octogenarian his £1,000 back because he didn’t notify the bank soon enough.

From: (3) New “Authorised Push Payment Fraud” rules from October!.

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The cost of supporting likeable octogenarians will be so great under the new reimbursement and duty of care rules that no sane bank will accept them as customers. I think the law of unexpected consequences will feature large in the near-future of retail banking.

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Plaid launched Layer, a new platform that allows fintechs to build customizable KYC and onboarding flows and which onboards prior Plaid users instantly.

From: Plaid Layer, Bilt headaches, and Brex banking (TWIF 6/21).

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