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Yet the state-led, zero-fee model has downsides. Indian bankers claim that a shortage of revenue has dissuaded banks and fintech firms from investing in consumer protection. “There are tech costs, maintenance costs, fraud and dispute costs,” complains one. “Why would a financial firm incur all those expenditures when there’s no revenue stream?” asks Ajay Shah of the xkdr Forum, a think-tank in Mumbai. “This is a wake up call…maybe the answer is to charge a little more,” says Mr Rajan, the former rbi governor.

From A digital payments revolution in India:

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Aleksi Grym, writing in the Bank of Finland Economic Review (August 2020), suggests that the story of the Avant electronic cash system can provide valuable perspective to the ongoing discussions regarding CBDC, and I agree. Specifically, he notes a key difference between Avant and the CBDC systems being designed today is that for modern CBDC systems cards would probably be an additional feature which is absolutely correct. But I think that another important difference is that Avant was for purchases, whereas a CBDC is a

 

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Crypto will not remake the global financial system because it has proved neither efficient nor immune to regulation. Instead, a stronger candidate for digital change may be central banks

From The promise of crypto has not lived up to its initial excitement:

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A study by the World Bank finds that cross-border remittance costs have fallen from 7% a decade ago to 5%. And if consumers are savvy enough to use the best option (often a new-age fintech)? Transfer costs may then fall to just 3%.

From The promise of crypto has not lived up to its initial excitement:

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Financial infidelity has become increasingly sophisticated, as investors “hop” coins across blockchains and sink their cash into metaverse properties.

From Bitcoin in divorce: How spouses hide assets, crypto hunters find them:

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As regulation comes for crypto, it will make transactions more expensive. Mr Poon of Hong Kong Polytechnic University says much of the cost of financial transactions comes from complying with regulations like know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering laws. The question then is: if crypto faces the same regulation as fintech firms, does it offer anything uniquely valuable?

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In Shanghai, the police recently broke up a crime syndicate accused of making and selling nearly $50 million in bogus Lego.

From A Lego Crime, a YouTube Rivalry, and the End of a Star Wars Friendship:

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The new Consumer Duty requires firms to act in good faith and help consumers to achieve their financial objectives and sets out four key outcomes it expects from organisations: consumer understanding (helping them to make the right financial decisions based on information that is understandable and available at the right time), value (and without excessive fees), products that are matched to the consumers’ and service that is responsive and helpful. There is also a duty for providers to avoid foreseeable harms throughout customer journeys which will in particular mean preempting financial vulnerability.

The SEPA Proxy Lookup scheme covers the exchange of the data necessary to initiate payments between proxy-based payment solutions on a pan-European level. It aims to facilitate interoperability between participating payment solutions.
The scheme is limited to a look-up function with the sole purpose of initiating a payment. The scheme covers (mobile) payments whereby the mobile telephone number or optionally the email address is used as a proxy to an IBAN. It is envisaged that the scheme will evolve further over time to support additional proxy types, account identifiers and use cases.

As an optional feature, the scheme also foresees the possibility to perform a reachability check to determine whether a mobile number or optionally email address is registered.

From SEPA Proxy Lookup | European Payments Council:

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Another key type of identity fraud is account takeover fraud, which amounted to $11 billion in losses. This type of fraud is a particularly pesky variety.

“If fraudsters can insert themselves into the validation process of the fraud alerts that banks and credit unions send out, it can be very devastating,” Robbins said.

From Identity Fraud Study Highlights the Changing Nature of Fraud:

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