A library of snippets
Ravelin
Based on a survey of 6,000 adults across the UK, France, and Germany, this new research sheds new light on the soaring phenomenon of friendly and first-party fraud and policy abuse by consumers.
Download The dark side of online shopping – the rise of friendly fraud to find out who is committing fraud, why and how:
Why 40% of online shoppers committed fraud in the past year
xxx
xxx
When we asked Cassie to give up contactless she saved £15 on her weekly supermarket shop by swerving her usual sweet treat and a bottle of wine.
What this has to do with contactless I’m not sure.
If you read any business or finance news this week, it is impossible not to notice that it is Davos time again. Davos, which is the World Economic Forum’s annual event at which the global elite flying in by private plane and helicopter to discuss global warming and so on, never seemed particularly interesting to me. I rather agree with Andrew Curry, who says that the worst thing about the event is the temptation to take it seriously. Nevertheless, finance leaders do turn up and make speeches and in recent years these have naturally covered the evolution of fintechs and techfins, so I have from time to time found some interesting comments to reflect on.
xxx
Amazon Pay had less than 2% of U.S. digital wallet market share by payment volume as of 2022, compared to Shop Pay’s 6%, Apple Pay’s 21% and PayPal’s 58%, according to Bernstein analyst estimates.
From: Why Shopify Has Payments Power Over Amazon — The Information.
xxx
xxx
For Amazon, providing customer checkout and delivery services to merchants that don’t sell on its site offers a tantalizing growth opportunity. But to take full advantage of it, Amazon has to figure out how to work with archrival Shopify, which is a key gatekeeper because it sells e-commerce software to millions of mostly small online merchants. Now Amazon has agreed to let Shopify handle payments Amazon has traditionally arranged itself.
From: Why Shopify Has Payments Power Over Amazon — The Information.
xxx
xxx
Momentum around central bank digital currency development is building steadily. Of the central banks that responded to our survey, 41% expect to have launched a CBDC within five years (Figure 1). In last year’s survey, this figure was 36%. The proportion of central banks who do not expect to launch a digital currency has fallen from 35% in 2022 to 19% this year.
From: CBDCs set to acquire critical mass in next five years – OMFIF.
xxx
xxx
British crime fighters cracked a money-laundering network that they say moved more than £100 million, equivalent to $125 million. A London court found two men guilty of illegal smuggling on Thursday, taking convictions in the network of cash couriers to 16, according to the National Crime Agency.
The network’s couriers, typically posing as tourists, were paid up to £5,000 to carry the cash bags. They flew business class for the extra luggage allowances, and moved £1 million or more by checking-in three or four suitcases.
From: What’s in Those Huge Suitcases? $125 Million in Cash – WSJ.
xxx
xxx
The study reveals that 43% of consumers purchased a secondhand product in 2023, with high-income consumers being the most likely to make such purchases.
Additionally, younger and more affluent individuals reported making more secondhand purchases, indicating a shift in consumer behavior. Meanwhile, those who typically buy secondhand clothes are usually older and have lower incomes.
From: Nearly Half of High-Income Consumers Purchased Secondhand.
xxx
xxx
Payment processor Fiserv has applied to obtain a merchant acquirer limited purpose bank charter in Georgia, enabling the company to authorize, settle and clear payment transactions for merchants, according to a company spokesperson.
“We are taking this step in response to recent market changes, as third-party financial institutions that have traditionally provided access to the card networks as sponsor banks increasingly focus on other areas of their business,” the Fiserv spokesperson said in a Thursday email.
There’s no official approval timeline, but the Brookfield, Wisconsin-based company expects the process to be complete sometime during the first half of the year, the spokesperson said.From: Fiserv seeks special purpose bank charter | Payments Dive.
xxx
Historically, Fiserv has used a bank partner to handle the end-of-day transaction settling for merchants. The special purpose charter would allow Fiserv to own the transaction end-to-end, eliminating third-party risk, said Tony DeSanctis, a senior director at Cornerstone Advisors. It’s also a more profitable endeavor for Fiserv, because the company doesn’t have to pay a bank to handle those transactions, he said.
xxx
Arctic Ice harvests ice from the fjords of Greenland, and then ships them to the United Arab Emirates to sell to exclusive bars.
From: Greenland startup begins shipping glacier ice to cocktail bars in the UAE | Greenland | The Guardian.
xxx
Everything old is new again.
Snippings