Snippings

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.

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“Any doofus can be a cybercriminal now,” said Sergei A. Pavlovich, a former hacker who served 10 years in prison in his native Belarus for cybercrimes. “The intellectual barrier to entry has gotten extremely low.”

From Secret Chats Show How Cybergang Became a Ransomware Powerhouse – The New York Times:

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Square, Stripe, Amazon, PayPal and Shopify are in an arms race right now, using partnerships and acquisitions to build their defences against the banks and their lending businesses. In a recent (excellent) piece on this here in Forbes, Ron Shevlin recommends that banks fight back against the masses forces of embedded finance by capturing adjacencies, but I wonder if this is really viable.

Paul Stoddart, President of New Payments Platforms at Mastercard, made an interesting presentation at this year’s Payments Canada Summit. He was talking about the future of payments and after a quick world tour looking at the state of implementation of real-time payments, he went on to highlight three trends that will shape payments across the next generation: open banking, digital currency and digital identity. Paul knows what he is talking about, so I was particularly interested in his comments on the need for “inclusive identity”.