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Australian Big Four bank NAB is partnering with Banked to launch Pay by Bank capabilities, leveraging Australian open banking rails PayTo to settle near-instant transactions.

Pay by Bank capability will enable merchants to avoid costly card surcharges by sending PayTo Agreements to their customers to initiate payments and refunds directly from their banking app. The roll out addresses a range of scenarios for merchants such as online payments, scheduled recurring payments with fixed or variable amounts, and split payments.

From: NAB to launch Pay by Bank for Australian merchants.

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From October, in what it describes as a “step-change” in fraud protection that will see the vast majority of money lost to APP frauds reimbursed to victims, the Payment Systems Regulator has set a £415,000 maximum reimbursement level.

Industry group the Payments Association has written to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Bim Alami, to protest the cap, calling it “simply not proportionate,” according to Bloomberg.

Signed by around 30 firms, the letter argues for a cap of £30,000, which is in line with the average APP fraud loss. The letter also warns that the refund systems may not be ready by the October deadline.

From: UK payment firms push back on APP fraud refund plan.

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The bank had quickly spotted signs of potential fraud and blocked a number of transactions. They also warned James what was going on, at first by phone and then in an person at a meeting in a branch, but he still insisted on making the payments.

From: Pensioner victim of romance scam shock at £150,000 bank refund | The Independent.

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(Apple recently introduced the “Stolen Device Protection” feature that adds a layer of security when your iPhone is away from familiar locations such as your home or work. With this turned on, you may be required to wait for an hour before using your iPhone to make changes to critical security settings or your Apple ID. What’s more, if your iPhone is not in a familiar location, you must authenticate using Face ID or Touch ID, wait for the security delay to end, then authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID again to update security settings. Hopefully for most people an hour is plenty of time to get to another machine and log in to change your iCloud password.)

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One of the use cases of the EUDI Wallet will be authenticating users on Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) designated under the Digital Services Act, such as Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Booking.com. The state will issue the first basic identity, and a chain of trust can be built for private sector use, says Laura Kask, CEO of Proud Engineers.

From: How to explain the EUDI Wallet? Industry and citizens discuss Europe’s digital ID | Biometric Update.

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Shopify has led the way distributing payments and here’s a good explainer of how 70% of the ISV’s revenue actually comes from merchant solutions. European ISVs have been generally slower than their US counterparts to maximise payment revenues but UBS suggests that the shift to software-led payments will deliver 5-10 years of above market growth in payment processing on this side of the Atlantic. Banks currently account for 50% of merchant processing but the analysts believe 11% pts of this will move to ISVs by 2026.

Flagship Consulting says PSPs should be making at least 20% of revenue from VAS, notably vertical software for small businesses and foreign exchange, payouts and virtual bank accounts for enterprise clients.

From: Business of Payments – May 2024 – by Geoffrey Barraclough.

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Economic advisors to Donald Trump are working out plans to blunt de-dollarization efforts, which could include penalties on any economy that moves away from the greenback.

Tariffs, export controls, and currency manipulation charges are among some ideas discussed by advisors to the former president, sources told Bloomberg. These measures would target countries that take part in bilateral trades not based in dollars, and could also include US allies.

From: Trump Advisers Want to Penalize De-Dollarization, Report Says.

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Clear Barrett, writing about “What I wish I’d know before my phone was snatched”, summarises our modern age succinclty. Look up and down any London street, she says, and you will see many, many people walking around with their phones unlocked in their hands despite the fact that the latest official figures (from the Office of National Statistics) show that over the last decade mobile phones have overtaken cash and payment cards as the items most often stolen from individuals in the United Kingdom.

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Ukraine on Wednesday presented an AI-generated spokesperson called Victoria who will make official statements on behalf of its foreign ministry.

The ministry said it would “for the first time in history” use a digital spokesperson to read its statements, which will still be written by humans.

Dressed in a dark suit, the spokesperson introduced herself as Victoria Shi, a “digital person”, in a presentation posted on social media. The figure gesticulates with her hands and moves her head as she speaks.

From: Ukraine unveils AI-generated foreign ministry spokesperson | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian.

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First, no matter how far we get in improving AI’s performance, AI’s adopters — users at home and in businesses, decision-makers in organizations, policymakers — must traverse a persistent trust gap. Second, companies need to invest in understanding the risks most responsible for the trust gap affecting their applications’ adoption and work to mitigate those risks. And third, pairing humans with AI will be the most essential risk-management tool, which means we shall always have a need for humans to steer us through the gap — and the humans need to be trained appropriately.

From: AI’s Trust Problem.

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