A library of snippets
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Former Silicon Valley Bank chief executive Ken Wilcox has warned that Trump’s deregulation agenda could lead to more bank failures similar to those experienced by SVB and other lenders in 2023 and during the 2008 financial crisis, warning that “banks will run amok” if regulatory enforcement is loosened.
From: Former SVB chief warns Trump 2.0 could lead to more bank failures – The Banker.
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The AI Agent Index, the first public database to document information about currently deployed agentic AI systems, had 67 systems listed at the end of January 2025, most of them them pertinaing to software and computing tasks.
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UK neobanks are rapidly gaining ground, with new data showing a major shift in consumer behaviour. The share of UK adults using a fintech or neobank has surged from 16% in 2018 to 50% by the end of 2024. Meanwhile, the number of consumers holding their main debit card with a neobank has jumped from 1% in 2020 to 9% in 2024, while the Big Six banks have seen their share shrink from 85% to 71%. Notably, neobank users also spend 20% more than those with traditional banks, according to data from RFI Global.
From: Issue #143: eToro’s IPO Redux, Affirm To Fuel FIS’ BNPL Play, And UK Neobanks Keep Gaining Ground.
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The amended language in the bank’s terms and conditions will halt payments to social media sellers. It comes as banks on the P2P app face increased political pressure to step in and stop fraud on the platform.
From: JPMorgan Chase plans Zelle restrictions due to scam risk.
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With One Credential, consumers can tailor their payment preferences, choosing to pay for daily expenses under $100, like groceries and fuel, from their current account; charge expenses over $100 to credit; and pay for the occasional larger purchase via installments. Users can set their preferences online or in an app, with full control over how each transaction is funded and a holistic view of spending.
“Today’s consumers expect to be in the driver’s seat,” says Jorn Lambert, chief product officer, Mastercard. “That’s what sparked One Credential. It gives people an innovative way to pay that’s truly personalized to them. While Gen Z may be leading the way, the desire for personalization spans generations.”
Mastercard has already signed up a host of customers and partners for the launch, including Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Wio Bank, Marqeta, Episode Six, Galileo, i2c, and Lithic.
From: Mastercard rolls out One Credential for multiple scheduled checkout choices.
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The former CEO of a small Kansas bank was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for looting the bank of $47 million.
Shan Hanes, pronounced Shane, sent the funds from Heartland Tri-State Bank to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by scammers who had duped him in a “pig butchering” scheme that appealed to his greed, federal prosecutors said.
The massive embezzlement led to the collapse and FDIC takeover of Heartland Tri-State, one of only five U.S. banks that failed in 2023.
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The vLEI is a new form of digitized organizational identity. Uniquely, it provides automated and non-repudiable verification of an organization’s identity, as well as that of the individuals acting on its behalf. The vLEI addresses critical needs to tackle emerging identity-based risks, namely the permissions and authentication of organizational identity and the digital signing and submission of official documentation (such as filings, reports, data), including the signing of the content therein.
From: Transforming Organizational Identity in 2025 and Beyond – GLEIF Blog – News & Media – GLEIF.
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In Micropayments and Mental Transaction Costs, Nick Szabo pinpointed a truth that technologists often overlooked: while computational costs (like processing payments, preventing fraud, or validating cryptography) can be driven down, the mental overhead of deciding, monitoring, or worrying about every tiny expense remains stubbornly high.
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Stripe revolutionized internet payments, but it wasn’t built for what’s coming. Current payment infrastructure assumes relatively static pricing, clear product definitions, and human oversight. None of those assumptions hold in an AI-to-AI economy.
When one AI agent needs to use another’s services, it’s rarely for a single, clearly defined product. Instead, it might need:
Computational resources
Access to specialized models
Data processing
Complex orchestration
The cost of these services varies based on the complexity of the task. You can’t just set a fixed price and call it a day.
Enter License Tokenization
This is where License Tokenization comes in. It’s a system where computational resources and services are represented by tokens that can be traded and redeemed. Each service has its own “price” in tokens, creating a flexible way to handle complex, variable-cost transactions.
This creates a practical unit of exchange for computational resources. When one AI agent needs services from another, it can pay in tokens that directly represent the resources it’s using.From: Nevermined on X: “Why Crypto Agentic Payments Matter (Why AI Can’t Just ‘Use Stripe’)” / X.
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In fact, investment scams account for just over one quarter of all authorised push payment (APP) fraud cases, where victims are duped into directly transferring money to a scammer and, in the UK at least, the victims are often young professional men who have one thing in common — they thought they were too smart to fall for a deception.
The rise and rise of AI inevitably means that CEO scams, where minions are tricked into sending money by someone posing as a boss, are sure to become more common. This is a big deal, because while this kind fraud is just 1 per cent of total current APP cases by volume, it has the highest average loss of just under £50,000.
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