Why is the UK retail payments landscape so unprepared for a digital Pound? – Digital Pound Foundation

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It is, however, notable that the Strategy makes no reference to the emergence of new forms of digital money, including both privately issued stablecoins and the potential introduction of a publicly issued central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the UK.

From Why is the UK retail payments landscape so unprepared for a digital Pound? – Digital Pound Foundation.

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Authentify | Online services simplified | U.S. Bank

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We’ll ask you for your consent each time you use the U.S. Bank Mobile App to verify your identity when connecting to companies or online services. After you opt in and confirm the accuracy of your information, we’ll encrypt and securely pass it to the company or government entity of your choice, enabling you to sign up or access new accounts and services using trusted personal information from U.S. Bank.

From Authentify | Online services simplified | U.S. Bank.

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‘Biggest fraud in a generation’: The looting of the Covid relief program known as PPP

 

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They came into their riches by participating in what experts say is the theft of as much as $80 billion — or about 10 percent — of the $800 billion handed out in a Covid relief plan known as the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. That’s on top of the $90 billion to $400 billion believed to have been stolen from the $900 billion Covid unemployment relief program — at least half taken by international fraudsters — as NBC News reported last year. And another $80 billion potentially pilfered from a separate Covid disaster relief program.

From ‘Biggest fraud in a generation’: The looting of the Covid relief program known as PPP.

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Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who oversees Covid relief spending, told “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt in an exclusive interview that Covid relief programs were structured in ways that made them ripe for plunder.

“The Small Business Administration, in sending that money out, basically said to people, ‘Apply and sign and tell us that you’re really entitled to the money,’” said Horowitz, the chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. “And, of course, for fraudsters, that’s an invitation. … What didn’t happen was even minimal checks to make sure that the money was getting to the right people at the right time.”

From ‘Biggest fraud in a generation’: The looting of the Covid relief program known as PPP.

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“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” said Matthew Schneider, a former U.S. attorney from Michigan who is now with Honigman LLP. “It is the biggest fraud in a generation.”

At the root of all of these frauds is a broken identity system in which individuals and companies can 

Weaponisation of finance: how the west unleashed ‘shock and awe’ on Russia | Financial Times

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the plan agreed by Yellen and Draghi to freeze a large part of Moscow’s $643bn of foreign currency reserves was something very different: they were effectively declaring financial war on Russia

From Weaponisation of finance: how the west unleashed ‘shock and awe’ on Russia | Financial Times.

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Early Warning Announces Authentify, a New Identity Verification Service

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Early Warning Services, LLC and seven of the largest banks in the US introduce Authentify, a new identity verification service for consumers and businesses. While on a participating business’ website or app, consumers can choose to be redirected to log into their online or mobile banking experience. The consumer can then share their bank-trusted data with that company, helping them streamline their identity verification process.

From Early Warning Announces Authentify, a New Identity Verification Service.

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We’ll ask you for your consent each time you use the U.S. Bank Mobile App to verify your identity when connecting to companies or online services. After you opt in and confirm the accuracy of your information, we’ll encrypt and securely pass it to the company or government entity of your choice, enabling you to sign up or access new accounts and services using trusted personal information from U.S. Bank.

The latest marketing tactic on LinkedIn: AI-generated faces : NPR

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That chance message launched DiResta and her colleague Josh Goldstein at the Stanford Internet Observatory on an investigation that uncovered more than 1,000 LinkedIn profiles using what appear to be faces created by artificial intelligence.

From The latest marketing tactic on LinkedIn: AI-generated faces : NPR.

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UK watchdog takes on card schemes

The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has included in its plans for 2022/23 the removal of barriers to to the uptake of A2A retail payments, which it says can provide a “credible” alternative to card schemes.  As part of these plans it intends to investigate whether the commercial incentives for banks, intermediaries and merchants are there to support greater use of A2A payments and to see what it can do to increase uptake and promote competition with cards. The PSR is also working with the CMA, FCA and Treasury on the future of open banking regulation, which will play a major role in A2A payments uptake.

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