Snippings

A white paper from Boston Consulting Group “Apple in Payments—Winning by influencing” explored how Apple’s various initiatives (around BNPL, NFC and so on) will change the retail payments sector and concludes that “many merchants will add NFC payment funcitonality to their proprietary apps” because the ability to drive consumer loyalty through in-app rewards and offers in a seamless checkout experience wiill increase consumer engagement and in-store efficiency.

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Google Wallet on Thursday (Sept. 12) unveiled enhanced features to improve the travel and commuting experience.

Starting soon, per a Thursday Google blog post, U.S. users can create digital IDs from their passports for use at select TSA checkpoints, making domestic travel more convenient. The service also expands support for state-issued IDs and prepaid commuter benefit cards, with plans to integrate more transit options globally.

From: Google Wallet Debuts Digital IDs and Enhances Commuter Features.

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I think and talk a lot about the risks of powerful AI. The company I’m the CEO of, Anthropic, does a lot of research on how to reduce these risks.

From: Dario Amodei — Machines of Loving Grace.

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I believe that in the AI age, we should be talking about the marginal returns to intelligence7, and trying to figure out what the other factors are that are complementary to intelligence and that become limiting factors when intelligence is very high. 

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What have we learnt from El Salvador’s four-year bitcoin experiment? I would suggest that it definitively proved that bitcoin is not destined to be money.

From: Moneyness: The end of El Salvador’s bitcoin payments experiment.

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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.

From: Crypto scam wrecks Kansas bank, sends CEO to prison.

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