A library of snippets
xxx
Monzo also continues to suffer costs related to fraud. Last year, it reimbursed £20.4 million to customers, equivalent to 4% of its total expense base. The company has been investing in systems to reduce fraud and currently screens out around 700 impersonation attempts per month, but the costs of both detection and remediation remain higher than the original business case likely assumed.
xxx
xxx
Ripple has added another $25 million to the coffers of Fairshake, a federal crypto super political action committee (PAC) that’s spending big this election year to support crypto-friendly Congressional candidates.
Ripple also made a $25 million donation to Fairshake in 2023, bringing its total contribution to the political action committee (PAC) to a whopping $50 million.From: Ripple Donates Another $25M to Crypto Super PAC Fairshake.
xxx
xxx
JPMorgan later this year plans to expand the use of a generative AI tool that flags questionable decisions by portfolio managers, such as potentially selling top-performing stocks too soon, company officials told the Financial Times.
The tool, dubbed “Moneyball”, is meant to show portfolio managers “how they and the market have behaved in similar circumstances and helps them correct for bias and improve their process”, said Kristian West, head of investment platform for JPMorgan Asset Management.
From: AI is promoted from back-office duties to investment decisions.
xxx
xxx
The good news is that customers are growing in profitability, with average revenue per customer increasing to £81 from £48. In combination, card transaction fees, subscription income and partnership income rose to £24 per customer from £20.
xxx
xxx
Over the period, they spent £58.5 million on marketing, compared with £21.7 million the year before, equivalent to £25 per net new customer versus £14 last year (and £4 the year prior). A high number of customers still come via referrals (rewarded at a cost of £10 per new customer) but at 17% of the growth, it’s nothing like the groundswell that occurred in the first few years
xxx
xxx
ypically, de-dollarization means the movement away from US dollars in favor of the local currency. Countries wanting to regain control over monetary and exchange rate policy, recoup seigniorage, and reduce foreign exchange risk in the financial system and other sectors have initiated de-dollarization policies to varying degrees of success in the past.
However, the goal of the BRICS effort is not to increase the use of local currencies—although “alternative financial plumbing” is an interim step of the de-dollarization process—but rather to replace the US dollar with the “R5,” a reference to the five currencies used by the founding BRICS members: the renminbi, ruble, rupee, real, and rand, or with other multilateral central bank digital currency (CBDC) as the new global currency that undergirds international finance. In practice, China and its BRICS partners are pushing de-dollarization as an economic weapon to reduce US influence in the global financial system.
From: China’s de-dollarization message finds a receptive audience in North Africa – Atlantic Council.
xxx
I wonder how many fintech players understand just how big a deal Visa’s recent announcements were? Here’s a benchmark: Tom Noyes’ blog is a must-read for those of us who are fascinated by payments and in his new post about Visa Flex, he gets to the heart of the matter: “using a credential instead of a PAN creates a many-to-one relationship and acts much more as an ‘identity’ than an instrument”. Identity is indeed the new… well, you know.
A few years ago I remember talking about digital wallets at a
xxx
A Visa study found that more than half of card users want the power to access multiple accounts through a single credential.1 The Visa Flexible Credential will allow a single card product to toggle between payment methods, putting the power of choice in the hands of the consumer.
Now people can easily set parameters or choose whether they use debit, credit, “pay-in-four” with Buy Now Pay Later or even pay using rewards points. Visa Flexible Credential is live in Asia and will be launching with Affirm later this summer in the US.From: Visa reinvents the card: New suite of digital products.
xxx
This doesn’t come out of nowhere: Visa is smart. It’s now about 15 years since I worked on a Visa project (which in those days was called Non-Payment Authentication, or NPA) to experiment with using a Visa card as a credential and I don’t doubt that there have been many other experiments since then.
Now, of course, some people might argue that using some other token (eg, an EU Digital ID) instead of a Visa card might bring more competition into the payment space, since it could allow customers to choose payment mechanisms that bypass banks (ie, Visa’s customers) and bank networks completely (eg, stablecoins) but there’s no denying that Visa have seized the commanding heights.
In reality, the battle for the consumer’s identity is only just beginning. In addition to what’s going on here with credentials, keep an eye on what is bubbling under with request-to-pay (R2P) and variable-recurring-payments (VRP) because I expect we’ll see more innovation here before the year is out.
xxx
The first is the latest Microsoft Work Trends report published at the beginning of May 2024. To assess AI adoption in the workplace, Microsoft and LinkedIn conducted extensive research involving 31,000 people from 31 countries, analyzing hiring trends and productivity data. Their findings provide essential insights and actionable steps for leaders and professionals to navigate the evolving landscape of AI in the workplace. It concludes that in 2024 the use of generative AI in the workplace has surged, with 75% of global knowledge workers now utilizing it, and continued rapid adoption. The challenge they see is how to move faster. Despite the recognition of AI as a crucial business tool, many leaders feel unprepared to transition from individual AI use to leveraging it for significant business transformation. The pressure to demonstrate immediate ROI has left many leaders hesitant, even as the integration of AI becomes increasingly inevitable. This mirrors past tech disruptions I have experienced where widespread adoption was necessary for substantive business transformation, such as with the internet and personal computers. The report encourages companies to focus on integrating AI to boost growth, manage costs, and enhance customer value to gain a competitive edge.
Simultaneously, the report points out that labour market is poised for another shift driven by AI. While there are concerns about job losses, its analysis concludes that many leaders report a shortage of talent for essential roles, and AI proficiency is becoming as crucial as experience. This trend suggests that AI will not only elevate job standards but also offer new career opportunities.From: Digital Economy Dispatch #186 — Exploring the AI Divide: A Tale of Two Studies.
xxx
Monzo once said that it was on a mission to usurp “legacy” banks, particularly the Big Four of HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest that dominate the UK market. A decade after these fintechs burst on to the scene, they have arguably succeeded in their mission of setting new standards for digital banking; features such as foreign currency transactions and bill-splitting, along with reliable, smartphone-friendly technology, are loved by younger customers.
xxx
Like many of OnlyFans’ top earners, she had hired a management agency to help keep up with her customers’ demands for personal attention. “The chat specialists they give you, that was a huge deal for me,” she said. The agency provided a team of contractors whose sole job is to masquerade as the creator while swapping DMs with her subscribers.
From: I Went Undercover as a Secret OnlyFans Chatter. It Wasn’t Pretty | WIRED.
xxx
Wired Magazine July 2024
“She Contains Multitudes”
p.98(10)
Brendan Koerner
Snippings