Snippings

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The digital yuan could give those the U.S. seeks to penalize a way to exchange money without U.S. knowledge. Exchanges wouldn’t need to use SWIFT, the messaging network that is used in money transfers between commercial banks and that can be monitored by the U.S. government.

The chance to weaken the power of American sanctions is central to Beijing’s marketing of the digital yuan and to its efforts to internationalize the yuan more generally. Speaking at a forum last month, China’s Mr. Mu, the central bank official, repeatedly said the digital yuan is aimed at protecting China’s “monetary sovereignty,” including by offsetting global use of the dollar.

From China Creates Its Own Digital Currency, a First for Major Economy – WSJ:

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“[If] China’s long bitcoin, perhaps from a geopolitical perspective, the U.S. should be asking some tougher questions about exactly how that works,” he said.

From China may be using bitcoin as ‘financial weapon’ against U.S., says Peter Thiel – MarketWatch:

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In the last two weeks alone, agents seized 31 shipments with about $423,000 in counterfeit currency, the agency said. Almost all the shipments were arriving from China destined for places in the U.S., including some cities in Illinois.

From $1.64 million in counterfeit currency seized by Customs this year at O’Hare – Chicago Sun-Times:

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Banking as a platform

Banking as a service

Banking as a marketplace. But there is competition here from “super apps”

 

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PayPal wants to weave consumer financial services into an ecosystem that draws strength from its existing relationships with merchants. Consumers will come to PayPal to make purchases, either in physical stores or, more likely, online; they’ll receive personalized offers and rewards based on their purchase history, which will encourage them to return more frequently; and eventually, they may treat their PayPal digital wallet like it’s their primary bank account.

From PayPal is building a ‘super app.’ Should banks be worried? | American Banker.

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A digital pound must be at the heart of Britain’s efforts to strengthen the City of London’s global attraction as a financial centre after Brexit, think-tank CityUnited Project said on Friday.

From Digital pound would boost post-Brexit City of London, think-tank says | Reuters.

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A vicious cycle is fueling ransomware, one of the world’s worst cybercrimes, in which criminals seize control of companies’ computer networks, encrypting their data with secret codes. Companies paralyzed by the attacks paid hackers an average of $312,493 in 2020 – triple the average of the year before. The criminals are reinvesting their profits in increasingly-efficient operations, making for even bigger and bolder attacks.

From Ransomware Is Getting Worse, and Cybersecurity Has No Easy Answers.

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On Etsy, eBay, Facebook and Twitter, little rectangular slips of paper started showing up for sale in late January. Printed on card stock, they measured three-by-four inches and featured crisp black lettering. Sellers listed them for $20 to $60 each, with a discount on bundles of three or more. Laminated ones cost extra.

All were forgeries or falsified copies of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination cards, which are given to people who have been inoculated against Covid-19 in the United States.

From Online Scammers Have a New Offer For You: Vaccine Cards – The New York Times.

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Notable gems in Westpac’s archives besides Mary Reibey’s passbooks include the ledger from the Jerilderie bank branch with meticulous entries detailing the 1879 heist of the notorious bushranger Ned Kelly and his gang. Coupled with this are board meeting minutes describing improvements needed to security of branches and safety of staff in the face of escalating bank robberies. Together, these records provide a context generally unexplored in the historical retelling of these infamous events.

From If private archives could talk | Westpac:

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Over the years, TrueLayer CEO and co-founder Francesco Simoneschi and I have often pontificated on what open banking’s killer use case or use cases may turn out to be. We may finally have our answer: payments.

That’s because one aspect of open banking is payment initiation, which lets an authorised third party initiate the transfer of money out of your bank account on your behalf as an alternative to card payments, which were never built with online payments in mind.

From TrueLayer raises $70M for its open banking platform | TechCrunch.

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To see how this can fail, look at the various supply-chain security systems that are using blockchain. A blockchain isn’t a necessary feature of any of them. The reasons they’re successful is that everyone has a single software platform to enter their data in. Even though the blockchain systems are built on distributed trust, people don’t necessarily accept that. For example, some companies don’t trust the IBM/Maersk system because it’s not their blockchain.

From Blockchain and Trust – Schneier on Security.

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