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The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) has formed a new coalition to focus on the development of a Supported Payments framework that will enable vulnerable customers to make everyday payments themselves, with a trusted thirdparty providing visibility, guidance and safeguards.

While the immediate focus is on people with a learning disability, the relevance is far broader. With 11 million (around 19.3%) of UK adults already helping someone with digital banking.

Funded by HM Treasury, the initiative builds on previous Coalitions on Open Finance, Digital Company ID, SME Access to Finance and Open Property.

From: CFIT forms coalition to develop supported payments framework for learning disabled.

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Instagram says it has resolved an issue which saw hackers trick its AI support tool into giving them access to other users’ accounts.
According to claims shown in screenshots and videos shared on social media, Instagram’s AI chatbot allowed users to “hijack” accounts in recent days.
Hackers could reportedly change passwords for other accounts by faking their location and then asking the AI to change the emails associated with them.

From: Meta AI chatbot enabled hackers to access others’ Instagram accounts.

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The UK’s identity landscape is currently a fragmented battlefield where public service necessity meets private-sector commercial drive. While both sectors rely on digital verification, their core motivations pull the ecosystem in opposite directions, preventing the emergence of a unified strategy.

From: From the Magna Carta to the Digital Wallet: Why the UK’s Identity Strategy Baffles the EU | LinkedIn.

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Here’s the question I keep coming back to: if I have perfectly authenticated the consumer and confirmed they authorized the transaction, why do I also need to “know the agent”?

From: Is Know Your Agent (KYA) Really Necessary? | Noyes Payments Blog.

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Digital IDs in Google Wallet allow consumers to prove their age and identity in a safe and secure way, and we’re bringing this capability to more people. Following our recent digital ID launches in Brazil, India, Singapore and Taiwan, we’re now planning to bring ID passes to select European Union member states this summer.
We’re expanding in other ways, too, working with trusted private issuers to support digital age credentials, starting with Sparkasse Bank in Europe. We’re now giving Sparkasse customers an easy and secure way to prove their age in Google Wallet, so they can show they meet age requirements without revealing personal information, such as their name, address or date of birth. This helps ensure companies engage with customers in age-appropriate ways while keeping sensitive user information private. We’ll bring this capability to more issuers and customers in the future.

From: Google Wallet and Pay are getting even better.

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Shadow Identity. AI deployment requires trusting digital identities, but enterprises cannot validate who—or what—is actually operating AI systems. When organizations cannot reliably distinguish legitimate AI agents from adversary-controlled imposters, they cannot confidently grant AI systems access to sensitive data or decision authority.

From: How 2026 Could Decide the Future of Artificial Intelligence | Council on Foreign Relations.

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Chinese intelligence services have demonstrated AI tools autonomously executing 80 to 90 percent of intrusion workflows. Meanwhile, more than 80 percent of workers in the United States use unapproved AI systems, with 40 percent doing so daily, bypassing security oversight entirely. This dual invisibility—into both adversary AI and internal AI usage—makes it impossible for organizations to trust that AI deployments will behave as intended. Security teams cannot verify what data employees feed into tools or how autonomous systems make decisions. Without observability, enterprises cannot confidently scale AI adoption, even when competitive pressures demand it.

From: How 2026 Could Decide the Future of Artificial Intelligence | Council on Foreign Relations.

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Western leaders often frame US–China competition as a zero-sum sprint to build the biggest, smartest AI models. This fixation on frontier breakthroughs misses the real determinant of power: the ability to deploy AI at scale, across the everyday machinery of the economy, earning public trust along the way. On this front, China may already be years ahead. Beijing treats AI as infrastructure.

From: America is Running the Wrong AI Race • Stimson Center.

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The more autonomously an AI system can operate, the more pressing questions of authority and accountability will become. Should AI agents be seen as “legal actors” bearing duties, or “legal persons” holding rights? In the United States, where corporations enjoy legal personhood, 2026 may be a banner year for lawsuits and legislation on exactly this point. Other societies are already approaching the debate differently—grounding AI’s status in collective frameworks, or spiritual rather than consciousness-based lenses.

From: How 2026 Could Decide the Future of Artificial Intelligence | Council on Foreign Relations.

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The prevailing implicit formula—financial health = education + literacy—is a myth. Consumers don’t want financial education—they want tools.

From: (9) The Illusion of Financial Health Programs: Mindset Matters More Than Literacy.

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