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The PBoC’s 2020 report on internationalising the yuan indicates that Chinese authorities increasing their efforts to promote the currency’s use abroad. The move comes amid growing tensions between China and the US.

The report, published on August 14, says Chinese authorities expect the yuan to play a bigger role in international transactions and reduce reliance on the dollar.

From PBoC says it wants greater international use of renminbi – Central Banking:

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Credit brueau Experian has suffered a data breach that exposed the personal details of 24 million South African consumers and almost 800,000 businesses.

Experian admitted that it handed over the data to a fraudster posing as a client.

From Experian handed over the details of 24 million SA consumers to a fraudster:

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Venezuela might soon mandate collecting taxes in Petro, the state’s digital currency, as the Bolivarian Council of Mayors have signed the “National Tax Harmonization Agreement.”

From Venezuela Moving to Accept Taxes in State-Issued Crypto:

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Offering a Google checking account makes sense for large regional and mid-size financial institutions who are playing digital catch up to the large banks. They can certainly benefit from the whiff of innovation that sitting close to Google can provide. In addition, a Google partnership will help them reduce their cost of acquisition.

You have to wonder, though, if banks are selling their souls for the opportunity to partner with Google. As little more than the “provider of the banking license” what else are the banks bringing to the table?

From Who Wants A Google Checking Account?:

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New York-based Haystack AI Inc. says its customers use its race-classification feature for ad targeting, market research and to help authenticate people’s identities. Germany’s Cognitec Systems GmbH offers ethnicity detection for retailers and other companies to collect statistical data about their visitors

From The Quiet Growth of Race-Detection Software Sparks Concerns Over Bias – WSJ:

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I have been unable to receive a payment I am owed because automated messages repeatedly inform the sender that the payee’s name doesn’t match the name on my account.

Because nearly all my work has dried up due to the pandemic, payments are more important than ever. A friend tried to send me a bank transfer and also got the “name does not match” warning.

From Spelling out the problems as banks’ name-checker rejects vital payments | Money | The Guardian:

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aze on Thursday rolled out a new feature that allows US drivers to link the navigation platform to fuel partner apps for contactless payments at participating Exxon, Mobil and Shell gas stations.

When drivers arrive at those stations, a notification in the Waze app will prompt them to securely pay using the fuel partner’s contactless payment app (the Exxon Mobil Rewards app or the Shell app). They’ll then be able to earn rewards through those loyalty programs. If a driver doesn’t have those apps installed, Waze will direct them to download it.

From Waze rolls out contactless fuel payments with ExxonMobil, Shell – CNET:

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Instagram plans to start asking accounts it deems suspicious to verify their identities using a government-issued ID.

From Instagram requires government ID to verify suspicious accounts – Business Insider:

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Citigroup is suing hedge fund Brigade Capital for the return of $176 million accidentally sent in a wire transfer screw up.

The money is part of the $900m the bank accidentally transferred to creditors of the struggling cosmetics company Revlon.

The bank says it meant to send Brigade just $1.5m to cover interest on a $174.7m loan the hedge fund holds.

It instead got $176.2m and has refused to repay the funds

From Citi takes hedge fund to court for return of $176m in fat-finger wire transfer:

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Here, we consider an attack in which an adversary attempts to manipulate the behavior of energy consumers by sending fake discount notifications encouraging them to shift their consumption into the peak-demand period. Using Greater London as a case study, we show that such disinformation can indeed lead to unwitting consumers synchronizing their energy-usage patterns, and result in blackouts on a city-scale if the grid is heavily loaded…These findings demonstrate that in an era when disinformation can be weaponized, system vulnerabilities arise not only from the hardware and software of critical infrastructure, but also from the behavior of the consumers.

From How weaponizing disinformation can bring down a city’s power grid:

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