A library of snippets
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The central bank, which is around 78 per cent owned by Swiss public entities, revealed on Monday that it had lost CHf142.2 billion ($142.60 billion) in the first nine months of 2022.
The losses total more than the GDP of countries including Hungary, Ukraine and Morocco, but the SNB’s ability to create money means that it does not face bankruptcy.From Swiss National Bank records worst losses in its history – FStech Financial Sector Technology:
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In July, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed its plans to bring in a new Consumer Duty, which will fundamentally improve how firms serve consumers. It will set higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services and require firms to put their customers’ needs first.
We set out the final rules and guidance for a new Consumer Duty that will set higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services and require firms to put their customers’ needs first.
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So far, four European startups have made their superapp intentions clear: Klarna, Revolut, Bolt and Lydia. Three out of the four are fintechs: unicorns Klarna, Revolut and Lydia. Bolt started in transport then launched food delivery.
From Why do Klarna, Revolut and Bolt want to become Europe’s superapp? | Sifted:
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“I don’t think there will be a European superapp in the Chinese definition,” Joakim Dal, partner at Revolut and Klarna backer GP Bullhound, tells Sifted.
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In fact, any argument that says electronic cash should emulate any of the characteristics of physical cash is doomed because electronic cash and physical cash are fundamentally different things. They are not even apples and oranges, which are at least both kinds of fruit. Other than the use of the word ‘cash’, physical cash and electronic cash have nothing in common.
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Other features of the newly published specifications include a secure channel to provide privacy and protect sensitive data, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) for card authentication, support for biometric and mobile card verification, optimization for cloud operation and optional on-card data storage, according to the press release.
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The US Navy is working on ways to build, deploy, and control thousands of small drones that are able to flock together to overwhelm anti-aircraft defenses with sheer numbers, budget documents reveal.
From The US Navy wants swarms of thousands of small drones | MIT Technology Review:
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“Between 2003 and 2018, the number of automatic-roller car washes (that is, robots washing your car) declined by 50 percent, while the number of hand car washes (that is, men with buckets) increased by 50 percent,” the economist commentator Duncan Weldon told me in an interview for my podcast, Plain English. “It’s more like the people are taking the robots’ jobs.”
From How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe – The Atlantic:
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Almost 1 year into the bitcoin bear market, most who bought bitcoin in 2021 are facing heavy losses and appear to be waiting for any rallies to close their position. A record number of bitcoin units haven’t been used for any transaction in the past 6 months, currently at 78% of total and this number continues to rise
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JP Morgan has made a strategic investment in Tilia, the payments platform initially built to power the economy of online virtual world Second Life.
Tilia is built for game, virtual world and mobile app developers, handling payment processing, in-game transactions, as well as payouts to creators by converting in-world tokens to fiat currency including USD.
From JP Morgan invests in Second Life’s payment platform Tilia:
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The Netherlands in general has a high preference for digital payment methods — it has the lowest cash usage in the eurozone, and behind the Nordic countries when the whole of Europe is taken into consideration.
The data further reveals that of all online payments recorded, 41.1% were bank transfers, 36.1% were card-based, 19.2% were mobile payments, and 2.9% used buy now, pay later (BNPL).
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