Snippings

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Ng said that checks with other e-hailing groups found that the culprit had registered fake accounts on e-hailing apps to approach drivers and lure them with supposed long-distance trips.

From 10 e-hailing drivers conned by same man | The Star:

Now, when you look at the details, this is quite a clever scam and I can’t help but admire clever scams just as I admire other kinds of clever business ideas. But the specifics of the fraud (which was about using the mark’s account to buy credits for mobile gambling) aren’t important. The general point is this: virtually all of the “payment” scams that I read are actually identity scams.

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Official data show the nation’s mobile payment platforms, led by Alipay, reported Rmb295tn ($45.2tn) in transactions last year. That compared with Rmb117tn for bank card purchases in the same year

From Jack Ma’s Ant demands bigger fees to rebuild valuation after pulled IPO | Financial Times:

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“There is one Alipay everyone uses and dozens of credit cards that do not distinguish themselves from each other,” said [a Beijing-based finance executive]. “Who do you think has more bargaining power?”

From Jack Ma’s Ant demands bigger fees to rebuild valuation after pulled IPO | Financial Times:

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Merchants in China pay a fee on each transaction made using Alipay, which is split between the fintech, the customer’s bank and Unionpay, the country’s card services company. Alipay’s share of this fee has been increasing while that of the banks has been shrinking.

From Jack Ma’s Ant demands bigger fees to rebuild valuation after pulled IPO | Financial Times:

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Unbanked is not the problem, and banks are not the solution

The CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman, has said that one of the benefits of digital currency is inclusion and that the adoption of such digital alternatives to cash would benefit millions of unbanked Americans. But why is this? Why would the use of digital cash help people who are excluded?

The millions of Americans who are unbanked (or underbanked) are not in that position because there is a shortage of banks. Quite the reverse, in fact. America has thousands of banks. So clearly a lack of banks isn’t the problem. There must be some other problem. Why don’t the millions of unbanked people use PayPal instead? 

 

 

As Wired magazine pointed out, basic bank accounts (which are mandated by the UK government) are accessible to those with poor credit histories, while challenger banks including Revolut and Monzo do not usually ask potential customers for proof of address in order to open an account. So it seems reasonable to ask why almost two million British adults do not have a bank account.

Jamaican central bank plans digital currency, but not blockchain – Ledger Insights – enterprise blockchain

A decision was made not to use blockchain, primarily based on the ease of integration with the Bank’s real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), rather than the merits of the technology itself.

From Jamaican central bank plans digital currency, but not blockchain – Ledger Insights – enterprise blockchain:

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Cryptocurrency’s whole purpose is being able to move large quantities of money around without censorship,” says Amir Taaki, lead developer of Dark Wallet.

From The bitcoin terrorists of Idlib are learning new tricks | WIRED UK:

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new evidence points to jihadis becoming more security conscious: switching away from the heavily monitored bitcoin into a wider range of cryptocurrencies and using VPNs to side-step surveillance and sanctions.

From The bitcoin terrorists of Idlib are learning new tricks | WIRED UK:

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Bank customers don’t just want personalized messages (if they want them at all)—they want personalized products. And if the mobile banking app is the product, then the app needs to be personalized.

From The 12 Most Important Mobile Banking Features (And Why No Bank Can Have Them All).

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The trend toward “embedded finance”, whereby the provision of financial services becomes a part of some other customer proposition rather than a distinct proposition of the financial services provider, has been clear for some time but seems to me to be accelerating as the spread of open banking around the globe makes it easier for third parties of all kinds to incorporate finance. My good friend Sophie Guibuad phrased this rather well recently, saying that for the next generation of consumers, banking will be something that you ‘do’ with your favourite brands rather than your chosen bank.

From The rise of embedded finance: It’s the end of fintech (as we know it) – AltFi.

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