Snippings

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The dramatic rise of cryptocurrency has led to some spouses hiding those digital assets during divorce settlements, and tracking down the funds isn’t easy, experts say.

From Divorcing spouses are using cryptocurrency to hide money. How experts find it:

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Credit card payment networks like Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover permit participating merchants to impose credit card surcharges, when allowed by law. However, they place multiple restrictions on this practice.

Understandably, Visa, for example, officially opposes surcharging as a practice, because it penalizes cardholders from using their preferred method of payment. Merchants that choose to impose surcharges are required to notify Visa at least 30 days in advance of implementing the policy.

Furthermore, merchants are required to create signage at the point of entry and point of sale, alerting customers about credit card surcharges, and they must itemize the surcharge on transactions. Finally, the surcharge must not exceed the merchant’s cost of accepting the credit card. American Express, Mastercard and Discover all have similar requirements for merchants that choose to impose surcharges on their customers.

From Credit Card Surcharge: Where Are These Card Fees Legal? | Money:

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Merchants have always had the option to offer a cash discount on the advertised price. This way

From Credit Card Surcharge: Where Are These Card Fees Legal? | Money:

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Modulr is one of the UK fintechs that have taken advantage of the Bank of England’s forward-looking policies. It is a directly connected BACS (the clearing system) participant and as a direct member of the Faster Payments scheme (FPS) has a central bank settlement account. The company, which recently secured new investment from FIS Ventures, is providing a Payments-as-a-Service (PasS) api platform for software companies that deliver services to primary small and medium-sized businesses.

Emily Stewart writes (accurately) that “America’s poor foot much of the bill for credit card points, miles, and cash back”. She is absolutely correct, of course. But it’s not only in America. It’s the same here in the UK where, bafflingly, 

 

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“The American payment system has evolved into a reverse Robin Hood whereby middle-class and working-class Americans who pay with a debit card, prepaid card, or cash are subsidizing the wealthy, who pay less for everything,” said Aaron Klein, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution who has studied and written about this issue extensively.

From Credit card rewards, points, and miles are paid for by America’s poor – Vox:

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The global wearable payments devices market size was valued at $10.35 billion in 2020 and is expected to post a 29.8% growth rate by 2028. Rising demand for NFC-enabled wearable payments devices, which can be attributed to their fast payment capability, is likely to further accelerate market growth. Smartwatches, fitness trackers, and pre-paid wristbands (mostly for events such as concerts) are the most popular wearable devices.

Wearable payments devices enable quick and convenient payments, especially small and moderate value transactions. Increasing digitization and the emergence of cashless economies are among the other factors driving market growth. With banks focusing on integrating card management systems with various service providers, digitization in banks will rise.

From Wearable Payments – Will They Remain Just a Fad?:

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Apple Card users may not be able to manage their card, make payments or see recent transactions due to an ongoing outage on Wednesday. The outage started around 6:17 a.m. PT, according to Apple’s system status dashboard, and is affecting all users.

From Apple Card outage impacting ‘all users’ drags on – CNET:

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Police in London discovered more than £5m in cash (pictured) in a flat after a criminal gang reportedly “didn’t know what to do with it”.

From Police in London discover Stg£5M in cash piled high in a flat, gang could not launder the money due to Covid restrictions – AML Intelligence:

Buy Bitcoin, obviously.

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The government of South Australia is boasting about the high compliance rate for a new law that requires the use of facial recognition in many gambling establishments. The law went into effect in December, and specifically applies to any gaming venues that have more than 30 poker machines, where at least one of those machines has the ability to accept traditional bank notes.

From South Australia Clamps Down On Problem Gambling With Facial Recognition Tech:

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There is less danger of a panopticon where digital money balances are issued by a plurality of profit‐​seeking competing banks and other private firms. Competing banks do not deny access to certain customers based on suspicions about those customers’ loyalty to the bank.7 Unless a customer requests it, banks do not share client account information with rival firms. Where there is suspicion of a crime, banks may be compelled to share information with the police.

From Should the State or the Market Provide Digital Currency? | Cato Institute:

I agree, of course, and have been consistent in my view that federated strong pseudonymity is the best way to organise the digital cash infrastructure necessary to support a digital currency.