A library of snippets
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While ‘challenger’ banking isn’t a winner take all market, there are some clear early favorites (Chime, Varo), some late arrivals that have significant advantages (Cash App, Venmo), some wild cards yet to be played out (Google Pay / Plex), and everyone else.
From Are Challenger Banks the New Online Lenders? – Fintech Business Weekly:
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The Bank of England’s December 2020 Financial Stability Report devotes a section to stablecoins and says the bank is considering the potential effects on financial stability if stablecoins were to be adopted widely. The Bank is preparing a discussion paper on how the regulatory system should adapt to assure confidence in the value of stablecoins at all times, while supporting innovation, and the connection to the concept of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
However, for systemic stablecoins backed by a much narrower range of less risky assets, and in a legally ring-fenced manner, it may be possible to design an appropriate regime that would deliver the standards of protection currently required of commercial bank money without application of the full regime applied to commercial banks. For example, one possibility could be a regime in which systemic stablecoins are backed with high-quality, highly liquid assets, such as government bonds, held in a legal structure only for the benefit of coinholders.
Another possibility would be to back systemic stablecoins with central bank money in one form or another. Such an approach exists in the UK for private issuers of physical cash in Scotland and Northern Ireland. If a stablecoin were backed only by central bank money, it would be economically similar to a CBDC.
If they meet the necessary requirements and standards, systemic stablecoins could emerge as a substitute for commercial bank deposits as a means of payment. This could mean that deposits flow out of the banking system into stablecoin ‘wallets’.
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The Bank for International Settlements’ Innovation Hub (BISIH) Swiss Centre, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the financial infrastructure operator SIX today announced the successful completion of a joint proof-of-concept experiment that integrates tokenised digital assets and central bank money. The proofs of concept are experiments conducted at the BISIH and should not be interpreted as an indication that the SNB is to issue wholesale CBDCs onto SIX Digital Exchange’s (SDX) platform or to allow settlement of SDX transactions in the Swiss Interbank Clearing system.
From Press release: BIS, Swiss National Bank and SIX announce successful wholesale CBDC experiment:
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“Romance scams” rose by as much as 46% month-on-month from September to October and extracted an average of 9,000 pounds from lovelorn Britons, sources at Barclays said.
From From romance scams to phantom PPE, banks battle coronavirus crimewave | Reuters:
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BAE Systems Applied Intelligence research suggests U.S. insurance fraud, where scammers seek to dupe insurers on costs incurred as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, has doubled in 2020, so far costing the industry $100 billion.
From From romance scams to phantom PPE, banks battle coronavirus crimewave | Reuters:
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What is around the corner, I think, is a new multi-generational type of financial service that responds to the need to involve
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e-commerce giant Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post , has launched a well-received function on its shopping platform Taobao that enables young people to help pay for their parent’s items.
From As China goes cashless, it’s the elderly who pay the price | South China Morning Post:
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Even more frustrating for the elderly has been the mandatory requirement amid the pandemic to produce a QR code on their smartphones containing their health status and location history before being allowed into certain buildings or on public transport
From As China goes cashless, it’s the elderly who pay the price | South China Morning Post:
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One showed a 94-year-old being carried to a local bank in Hubei province by her family members, who lifted her face to a camera for a facial recognition scan to activate her social security card.
From As China goes cashless, it’s the elderly who pay the price | South China Morning Post:
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It is so common for mainlanders to use these virtual wallets that many no longer carry cash or credit cards on them, leading to an increasing number of shops that refuse to accept cash – much to the annoyance of China’s central bank.
From As China goes cashless, it’s the elderly who pay the price | South China Morning Post:
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Electronic payments, whether domestic or cross-border, are not so much a technological problem but rather a problem of governance, standards, and regulation.
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