A library of snippets
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Kraken Financial, a Wyoming-chartered bank owned by crypto platform Kraken, has been granted the first Federal Reserve master account awarded to a digital asset bank.
This will enable it to hold reserves at the US central bank and connect directly to core US payment rails without relying on intermediary banks.
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International payments are arguably the least efficient part of most financial systems and are thus ripe for disruption. Before 2025 central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) appeared to be the most likely vehicle for such disruption, given monetary systems are best built on the settlement finality of central bank money. This changed in 2025 with the support of the Trump Administration for stablecoins. There is now a contest between stablecoins, CBDCs and tokenized bank deposits to underpin international payments in the future. This article analyses the three different architectures and argues that tokenized deposits are the most likely to prevail longer term.
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Last year, a record number of scams were reported to the national fraud database, fuelled by AI, which allows for large-scale deception on “industrialised” levels, according to Cifas, the fraud prevention organisation.
Its report showed 444,000 cases of fraud were reported by its members last year – a 6% increase on 2024. The tactics of criminals are shifting towards account takeovers, where they take control using stolen data and make unauthorised transactions.
From: ‘Convincing’ AI scams drove UK fraud cases to record 444,000 last year | Scams | The Guardian.
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At the beginning of this month, hackers published what appears to be the full remaining cache of stolen customer data from Dutch telecom provider Odido, following the telco’s decision not to pay ransom demand. The cache contains information on more than 6.5 million individuals and about 600,000 companies, includeing more than five million unique identification documents (eg, driver’s licenses and passports). The files also contain dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses. Bank account numbers and internal customer service notes were withheld by the hackers, not said that such data would be kept “for their own use”.
And how did the hackers get in to this Aladdin’s Cave full of fantastically valuable data? Deep cover spies recuited years ago who are now in management positions? Sophisticated bugging equipement that bounces lasers off of windows to eavesdrop on snstivie conversations? No, of course not. They called Steve from Account while pretending to be from IT staff and tricked him into approving fraudulent logins, thus bypassing multi-factor authentication.
xxxAmericans lost billions of dollars to scams in 2025. Meanwhile, banks lost hundreds of billions to fraud. Criminals laundered more than $1.1 trillion in illicit funds through the U.S. financial system in 2025, including from the proceeds of organized crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
From: AI and cartels push global financial crime to $4.4 trillion | American Banker.
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ne woman told BBC Scotland News she was able to see the accounts of six different users on the Bank of Scotland app, including some National Insurance numbers, over a 20-minute period.
Those included transactions from a pub in Newcastle, 154 miles from her home in Kirkcaldy, Fife, fees for using one card abroad and wage payments from a company based in England.
The 55-year-old also reported being able to view benefits payments from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), which use the National Insurance numbers of recipients as a payment reference.
She said: “There were transactions from Waitrose, there isn’t a Waitrose near us.
“I kept logging out and back in, and every time the details changed.
“I can see another person’s bank account, he got paid £6,000 yesterday. Others, I can see their benefits payments, their National Insurance numbers, I can see where they work, almost their whole identity.”From: Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and Halifax apps showed customers other users’ transactions – BBC News.
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Women and girls could be put at risk of harassment, stalking, and abuse if Meta presses ahead with plans to add AI facial recognition features to its smart glasses, leading charities have warned.
Experts said the technology, which would allow wearers to identify people and find out information about them using the platform’s AI tool, could pose a “direct and serious” risk to survivors by placing them “in harm’s way” and enabling abusers to locate and track them.
They added that the feature also has the potential to threaten the safety of “all women and girls in public” by giving wearers the ability to access information about them without their consent.
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The theft of personal data of 6 million customers from the firm, T-Mobile’s former Dutch operations, included names, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, bank account numbers, birth dates and passport numbers.
From: Hacking group begins leaking customer data in Dutch telecom Odido hack | Reuters.
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Sir Keir Starmer’s plans for digital ID face a fresh setback after cabinet ministers refused to co-operate with the project.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, are both said to have made clear that their departments will not hand over some data for the scheme.
From: Cabinet revolt deals fresh blow to Starmer’s digital ID scheme.
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A government source said: “People are fed up to their back teeth of having to fill in paper forms and repeat themselves five times to different parts of government. Public services have been left behind by banks and shops, which moved a lot of their services online years ago. So we’re confident in the case for catching up.”
From: Cabinet revolt deals fresh blow to Starmer’s digital ID scheme.
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