Snippings

xxx

The result was over $1 billion more in the hard folding stuff was out there as at March 25, 2020 than had been the case a year earlier. Total cash in the hands of the public was just under $7.318 billion, compared with $6.285 billion (the previous record) a year earlier.

The big stuff was in vogue, with over $3 billion worth of $50 notes (up over half a billion dollars on a year earlier) and well over $2.5 billion in $100 notes (up from over $2.2 billion).

Despite the apparent shunning, by the masses, of cash, the amount of cash in circulation has never been higher – and there was plenty of it moving around before the start of the lockdown | interest.co.nz:

xxx

xxx

Big companies like PayPal, Mastercard and Visa “will still be in attack mode, because they’re all in a fierce battle.” And a middle-market segment will include companies that aren’t yet desperate but are underperforming in this new economy—they’ll get bought at lower prices than they would have fetched otherwise.

Nigel Morris, the cofounder of Capital One and managing partner of venture capital firm QED, says incumbent banks should jump at the opportunity to snap up startups with innovative technologies and significant customer bases. “If there was a time to make a move on a merger or acquisition, this would be it,” he says. “Never waste a good crisis.”

From Fintechs For Sale: Post-Covid, It’s Partner Or Perish For Many Startups. Here’s A Buy List.:

xxx

xxx

The new great-power competition won’t necessarily take place on battlefields or in boardrooms; it will happen on smartphones, computers, and other connected devices and on the digital infrastructure that supports them.

From Making Cyberspace Safe for Democracy | Foreign Affairs:

xxx

xxx

Essentially they require the private sector to build in a privacy leaking front-door in all blockchain applications, so that law enforcement officials in the whole world will have useful information already available nearby (rather than having to ask for it when need arises).

While at first I merely looked at it technically, seeing it as a disproportional silly measure by regulators who don’t understand blockchain technology,

From Simon’s blog on Payments and Money: G20 and FATF should not infringe on the human right to privacy by prescribing mass surveillance for virtual assets !:

xxx

xxx

The United States and its democratic allies have not adjusted to this reality. They have been reactive, focusing on what they are trying to defeat; they have not developed a strategy for success.

From Making Cyberspace Safe for Democracy | Foreign Affairs:

xxx

xxx

Should a merchant have to identify whether a customer’s wallet is using cryptocurrencies that come from ransomware, the darknet, or terrorist fundraising?

From The Travel Rule Is Not Enough If Crypto Gets Adopted:

xxx

xxx

The report also found that labor is the single largest driver of high compliance costs. While there are indeed a whole host of different factors which contribute to higher financial crime compliance costs—chief among them being increasingly complex regulations, data privacy limitations and penalties for sanctions violations—labor costs nevertheless take the cake.

On average, the global distribution of compliance costs stands at 57% for labor, 40% for technology and 3% for other factors, according to the survey.

From Global Cost of Financial Crime Compliance Over $180 Billion, Report Reveals – CPO Magazine:

xxx

xxx

The projected total cost of financial crime compliance across the global finance sector amounts to around $180.9 billion, a new report by legal research and risk solutions firm LexisNexis Risk Solutions reveals.

From Global Cost of Financial Crime Compliance Over $180 Billion, Report Reveals – CPO Magazine:

xxx

Wow. So the bad guys must be on the run. Well, no.

xxx

David Lewis, executive secretary of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), said governments were failing to stop organized criminals and corrupt regimes from washing vast sums each year.

From ‘Everyone is doing badly’, anti-money laundering czar warns – ICIJ:

xxx

We can’t spend our way out of this and more of the same is just pissing money away.

xxx

The report also found that labor is the single largest driver of high compliance costs. While there are indeed a whole host of different factors which contribute to higher financial crime compliance costs—chief among them being increasingly complex regulations, data privacy limitations and penalties for sanctions violations—labor costs nevertheless take the cake.

On average, the global distribution of compliance costs stands at 57% for labor, 40% for technology and 3% for other factors, according to the survey.

From Global Cost of Financial Crime Compliance Over $180 Billion, Report Reveals – CPO Magazine:

xxx

xxx

Ingenico Group, Nets, Nexi, and Worldline have announced the launch of an EU advocacy alliance bringing together Europe’s independent payment services providers.

The “European Digital Payments Industry Alliance” (EDPIA)’s vision is for Europe to become a global leader in digital payments,

From Payments specialists launch European Digital Payments Industry Alliance – ThePaypers:

xxx

xxx

“We are not against Apple and Google but we don’t want to be forced into a certain technology approach based on their internal policies,” said Cédric O, France’s junior minister for digital affairs. “States should be able to make their own choices on such a critical matter — it’s a question of sovereignty.”

From How Europe splintered over contact tracing apps | Financial Times:

xxx