Snippings

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Robocalls have been a plague on society for years, but they made headlines recently when an AI-generated robocall imitating President Joe Biden’s voice told New Hampshire Democrats not to vote in the presidential primary.

Days later, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed the commission should recognize calls made with AI-generated voices as “artificial” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), thus making them illegal. On Thursday, February 8, the FCC unanimously adopted that Declaratory Ruling, formally making AI robocalls illegal.

From: Robocalls that use AI-generated voices are now illegal, rules FCC.

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The Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest estimates

Against the backdrop of declining cash use for day-to-day transactions, it is useful to understand how banknote use has changed in recent years. We estimate that of all the banknotes currently in circulation:
9–26 per cent are used for transactional purposes
5–9 per cent are lost
7–11 per cent are used in the shadow economy
55–80 per cent are hoarded domestically or internationally.
The estimated share of banknotes used for transactions has declined by around 5 percentage points since the onset of the pandemic and is consistent with the decline in cash payments, as shown in the Bank’s latest CPS.

From: Understanding the Post-pandemic Demand for Australia’s Banknotes | Bulletin – January 2024 | RBA.

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When businesses stop accepting cash, the unbanked are forced to use payment methods like prepaid debit cards. However, these prepaid cards are costly. For example, Walmart, one of the largest U.S. retailers, offers a reloadable basic debit card. The card costs $1 to buy and charges $6 per month in fees, in addition to $3 each time someone wants to load the card with cash at Walmart’s registers. Paying a minimum of $10 just to set up a debit card for a few purchases is a steep price.

From: ‘No cash accepted’ signs are bad news for millions of unbanked Americans.

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America is an outlier from its Western peers in one crucial respect. In Britain, the largest share of the outstanding currency is made up of 20-pound notes, which are widely used; in the eurozone, likewise, it’s the omnipresent 50 euro banknote that is most often printed. In the United States, however, it’s the $100 bill, which most Americans rarely encounter. ATMs typically don’t dispense them; shopkeepers regard them with suspicion. Whoever is using them, it’s not ordinary Americans.

From: The Dark Side of the $100 Bill – Mother Jones.

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While libertarian president Javier Milei slashes spending in Buenos Aires to tackle Argentina’s severe economic crisis, 600 miles away the northern province of La Rioja is trying a different approach: printing its own currency.

From: Milei clashes with Argentine province over plans to issue its own currency.

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There is, however, one industry that can be considered Big Tech’s ultimate target, an industry that has spurred their imagination more than any other: financial services. It is among the largest economic sectors by and of itself. The global financial market will reach 37.34 trillion USD in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 9,6%. In short, entry into finance is the only way that Big Tech’s balance sheets have a chance to continue to swell the way they did in the past. This is particularly important as their corporate valuations are still suffering from the correction of the pandemic-induced overvaluation of tech stocks.

From: Big Tech’s interest in your financial data – the strategy and the dangers behind it.

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The problem is that the flood of ad spam, as insiders refer to it, has coincided with a surge in credit card firms asking X for refunds on unauthorized transactions. That indicates that at least some of the spam ads are paid for with stolen cards, say people familiar with the situation, which means X doesn’t get to keep any money generated from the ads.

From: Musk’s X is Flooded With Ad Spam—Stolen Credit Cards May Be Key — The Information.

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What better way to give the thumbs down to biometrics than with AEVI’s suggestion of gesture based payments? The concept seems to involve waving at the payment device with a pre-registered hand signal. Presumably, not a rude one.

From: Business of Payments – February 2024.

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Gesture-based payments

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Irish customers will be delighted they can now use their Revolut card to buy a ticket on the Aer Lingus website. Revolut Pay,  a new product, transforms what looks to the cardholder like a debit card transaction into an account transfer. Aer Lingus is reporting impressive performance. Cart abandonment rates are sub 10% and authorisation rates at 98.5% which is pretty good for the airline industry. Published merchant fees for Revolut Pay start at 1% + 20c.

From: Business of Payments – February 2024.

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The age group most likely to prefer cash is those aged 55 and over. Nearly a quarter (22%) of Over 55s said that cash was their preferred payment method, compared with just 1 in 10 (10%) 18-24s

From: Study reveals Apple Pay and contactless payments have overtaken cash payments as favourite ways to pay in-store.

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