Snippets

I’m always in awe of the inventiveness of fraudsters. Consider the recent example of the maps mountebanks who used Google Maps to trick unsuspecting Indian customers into giving up personal information. The Google Maps app lets users edit and update listings, so the fraudsters are changing banks’ phone numbers to their own!  

xxx Universal black box adoption has two appealing features for society. First, it is fair. Instead of drivers being lumped into broad-brush buckets, they can pay a premium that closer reflects the fair price for their unique probability of making a claim. Unlike in markets such as healthcare, the individual probability of driving incidents is less determined by inherent or genetic characteristics. The most common car insurance claims are rear-end collisions, which can often be avoided with more attention paid to speed, spacing and road conditions. Second, widespread use of black boxes is also likely to lead to higher quality driving and fewer fatalities. The WHO estimates that there are around 1.25 million annual deaths due to road traffic accidents across the globe. How many lives would be saved if drivers knew they could save large amounts of money by paying more attention to their driving habits? From Car insurance telematics: why the black box should become more transparent |

xxx "While we have had RealMe in New Zealand for many years it is time to relook at whether a single centralised ID is the best approach in a world where people want ease of use and mobility at the same time as privacy and security. From Kiwis starting to embrace digital identity - NZTech | Voxy.co.nz . xxx

xxx A Japanese company has developed an artificial intelligence-powered automated teller machine to prevent fraudulent money transfers, the first of its kind in the country. The system, which can recognize the appearance and movement of ATM users through an embedded camera, aims to help prevent crimes in which scammers guide elderly victims over the phone to transfer money by making them believe they will be refunded a higher amount. From Japan's 1st AI-powered ATM developed to combat money transfer fraud - Science & Tech - The Jakarta Post . xxx

xxx A new study from Juniper Research has found that annual online payment fraud losses from eCommerce, airline ticketing, money transfer and banking services, will reach $48 billion by 2023; up from the $22 billion in losses projected for 2018. From Losses from Online Payment Fraud to More than Double by 2023 . xxx

What an interesting experience the first Money2020 in China was. It was held in Hangzhou, the home of AliPay, and I was delighted to have been invited along to share some of our experiences in the payments and to learn first hand about the Chinese approach to the sector. Money2020 China gets underway The event was well-staged and with simultaneous translation from Chinese it provided an opportunity to hear about the wide variety of fintech activities in China. It was, as you might imagine, very different from the Las Vegas event last month. There was no discussion of cryptocurrency because of the Chinese regulatory context and while I did see one presentation on the use of digital signatures in smart contracts, there was little discussion of blockchain and related technologies. Ron Kalifa talking about value-added merchant services I particularly enjoyed Worldpay vice-chairman Ron Kalifa’s fireside chat (in which he said that people were underestimating the impact of open bankin

I had the good fortune to attend the Australian Payment Summit 2018 in Sydney this year, chairing the panel on Digital Currency and giving the first day closing keynote on the impact of artificial intelligence in the transaction space (I was developing the “where are the customers’ bots” theme).  Naturally, one of the areas that I wanted to find out about was digital identity. As in many other countries, Australia is trying to deal with a complex mixture of requirements, goals and constraints for some form of digital identity infrastructure and it is far from clear what is going to happen. In the lead up to the event, the CTO of Westpac was quoted saying that “ if you are going to move to a more open data-connected world, which we clearly are… you have to solve the problem of digital identity ”. Well, yes. I agree 100%. But how? There is scepticism about a government solution. The Department of Home Affairs is looking at a single national digital identifier, which I am not sure is

xxx new payment applications that provide a commercial return, not through charging for payment services, but by commercialising the value of the information that they obtain as a by-product of offering these services. From A Journey Towards a Near Cashless Payments System | Speeches | RBA . xxx

xxx Security researchers have found a vulnerability in the backbone of the electronic ID (eID) cards system used by the German state. The vulnerability, when exploited, allows an attacker to trick an online website and spoof the identity of another German citizen when using the eID authentication option. From German eID card system vulnerable to online identity spoofing | ZDNet . xxx

xxx neuroscience is a far greater threat to human distinctiveness than AI will ever be From Is Neuroscience a Bigger Threat than Artificial Intelligence? - 3:AM Magazine . xxx

xxx The government plans to give a 5 percent reward-point rebate to consumers on some payments made through credit cards and other cashless methods as a way of underpinning domestic demand after a planned tax increase next October, From Government plans 5% rebates for some cashless payments after 2019 tax hike | The Japan Times . xxx

xxx There are two proposals by the Swedish authorities to keep cash at hand. Parliament wants just the biggest banks to handle cash. The central bank is holding out for all banks to keep money flowing. Swedbank, SEB and other big Swedish financial institutions are fighting the lawmakers’ demands, saying it would place an undue burden on them to provide greater access. From Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’ - The New York Times . xxx

There’s an interesting case study about this at IKEA in Gavle, which is about 100 miles north of Stockholm. According to the New York Times, managers there decided to go cashless temporarily last month after they realized that fewer than 1 percent of shoppers used cash . The economics of this decision are compelling. They found that employees were spending about 15 percent of their time handling, counting and storing money. The usage statistics make for interesting reading. It turns out that to date only around 1 in every 1,000 customers wanted to pay with cash and that was mainly for low value transactions in the cafeteria (do they still call them “Swedish meatballs” over there?). For those few, IKEA has been giving them the food for free rather than mess around trying to bill them. xxx "Washington restaurateur Bo Blair, whose company Georgetown Events operates eight fast-casual and three sit-down restaurants in the District, decided to experiment going cashless when opening

xxx At the Ikea in Gavle, about 100 miles north of Stockholm, managers decided to go cashless temporarily last month after they realized that fewer than 1 percent of shoppers used cash. They also found that employees were spending about 15 percent of their time handling, counting and storing money. From Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’ - The New York Times . xxx

xxx Cash is disappearing in the country faster than anyone thought it would. From Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’ - The New York Times . xxx

xxx An aspiring Tory MP posed as the ‘youngest hereditary lord’ to slip into Parliament using a counterfeit security pass he bought online for £10. From Aspiring Tory MP used fake pass he bought online to pose as 'Lord Cramp' and sneak into Parliament | Daily Mail Online . xxx xxx But he was reported to security by a political assistant who recognised him from previous Conservative Party events. From Aspiring Tory MP used fake pass he bought online to pose as 'Lord Cramp' and sneak into Parliament | Daily Mail Online .   xxx

xxx Peer-to-peer business lending retained the top spot, with £2 billion in transaction volume in 2017 and 65% year-on-year growth, estimated to be equivalent of 29.2% of all new bank loans to small businesses in 2017. That's nearly double the 15.3% figure in 2016. From Alternative finance platforms report stellar growth . xxx

xxx “If you are going to move to a more open data-connected world, which we clearly are – open banking being the start, but we're going to see it across, and technology's going to create that – you have to solve the problem of digital identity,” From Westpac’s Dave Curran warns of “trust gap” hovering over digital identity, open banking - Finance - Strategy - Cloud - iTnews . xxx

xxx First, data and intellectual-property regimes should be used to fuel innovation, not protect incumbents. That means liberating individual users of tech services to take their information elsewhere. It also entails requiring big platforms to license anonymised bulk data to rivals. Patents should be rarer, shorter and easier to challenge in court. From The next capitalist revolution - Competition . xxx

xxx The term "money laundering" was never more appropriate than this week, when Dutch police found around $400,000 stuffed inside the drum of a washing machine. From Man suspected of money laundering after $400,000 found in washing machine - CNN . xxx

xxx IndusInbank has launched an interactive credit card with push button controls for customers to choose their preferred mode of payment at the checkout. From IndusIndbank introduces push button credit card . xxx

xxx Neos Ventures uses smart technology that enables its customers to use connected devices to monitor and protect their homes. The company combines connected home devices like cameras and sensor technology with home insurance. From Aviva to buy majority stake in smart technology insurance provider Neos . xxx

xxx China’s plan to judge each of its 1.3 billion people based on their social behavior is moving a step closer to reality, with Beijing set to adopt a lifelong points program by 2021 that assigns personalized ratings for each resident. The capital city will pool data from several departments to reward and punish some 22 million citizens based on their actions and reputations by the end of 2020, according to a plan posted on the Beijing municipal government’s website on Monday. Those with better so-called social credit will get “green channel” benefits while those who violate laws will find life more difficult. From Beijing to Judge Every Resident Based on Behavior by End of 2020 - Bloomberg . xxx

 Xxx novocain xxx Let’s begin by recapitulating the elements of the problem space. If I show up at the local practice in response to their dentist wanted ad on indeed.com there are three domains to consider. In the authorisation domain, I must present the appropriate qualification and the practice must be able to validate it. Of course, I must be able to demonstrate in the authentication domain that the qualification belongs to me. And although it is not at all necessary for the regular functioning of the practice, the identification domain must provide my “real” identity because of the rules of the medical world. Let’s walk through these steps. First, presenting the qualification. Second, authenticating the qualification.   Third, linking the qualification to identity.

xxx And this was exposed when the Supreme Court of India announced their recent verdict last week in which they struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, meaning that the private companies and individuals could not avail Aadhaar data to provide consumer services… The verdict has sent waves in the Indian FinTech community, as many of the FinTech players who positioned their offerings around instant KYC, now need to go back to their drawing boards to chalk out a strategy of conducting onboarding without Aadhaar From The Aadhaar Verdict – Learnings and Takeaways for Indian FinTechs . xxx

xxx For the financial industry, open banking is bigger than the internet and mobile, because while those technologies changed the edges, they weren’t able to meaningfully touch the core of banking and financial services with any magnitude. From Open Banking: A Wave Bigger Than The Internet And Mobile . You know, this is a reasonable point. I find my Barclays app very convenient and probably use it more than once per day on average. But the products that I access through the app are essentially the same ones that I accessed a couple of decade ago: a current account and  a savings account.

xxx This white paper is a shortened version of the actual research. Unfortunately, the exploitation bug is not fixed yet. The company was notified and informed about the issue. However, the bug is not fixable (at the moment). From Websec Canada: Launching replay attacks against the Wells Fargo Wallet service . xxx

xxx "But Manchester Magistrates Court heard he had no dentist qualifications, used a false name and was fraudulently using the registration number of a genuine dentist" From "Exposed: the fake dentist who ran bogus Manchester city centre practice - Manchester Evening News" . xxx

xxx "A bogus dentist, who treated more than 600 patients and made a career of lies, pain and botched treatments, was jailed for two years yesterday. Omid Amidi-Mazaheri, 41, an asylum seeker who told immigration officers he had a dental practice in Iran, and his dentist girlfriend, Mogjan Azari, who first let him practise on her patients, are believed to have defrauded the NHS of more than £120,000 for work that was never done. The Iranian national, who took a dead dentist's identity, repeatedly left patients in agony. He drilled without a local anaesthetic and did expensive fillings that crum bled within days, Southwark crown court, in south-east London, was told." From "Fake dentist jailed for two years | Society | The Guardian" . xxx

xxx "Austin, 23, of Croyd Avenue, Great Barr, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates' Court to two charges of carrying out dentistry work without holding any dentistry qualifications." From "'Fake dentist' carried out illegal teeth whitening in city apartment - Birmingham Live" . xxx

xxx "A bogus dentist with no qualifications managed to fool her employers at NHS hospitals for nine years before being discovered." From "Bogus NHS dentist earned £230,000 over nine years after bosses failed to spot fake qualifications | Daily Mail Online" . xxx

There’s been yet another story about fake qualifications in the news. A woman from New Zealand spent a couple of decades working as a consultant psychiatrist in our National Health Service (NHS) before it was discovered that she had made up her medical degree and forged a bogus letter of recommendation from Pakistan. The deception only came to light after she had been convicted of trying to defraud an elderly patient. Fake doctors seem to be something of an issue, but as I am English I am far more concerned about the epidemic of deceptive dentists across our green and pleasant land. When I read that a " bogus dentist with no qualifications managed to fool her employers at NHS hospitals for nine years before being discovered ” it makes me shiver. When I see a woman convicted at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on two charges of carrying out dentistry work without holding any dentistry qualifications , I get twitchy. When I find out that Manchester Magistrates Court convicted a m

Assets DBIs Yuri Biondi's paper on "Hyman Minsky’s Financial Instability Hypothesis and the Accounting Structure of Economy" from "Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium", edited by Avi-Yonah, Reuven S. / Biondi, Yuri / Sunder, Shyam Online ISSN 2152-2820 Volume 8, Issue 2 (Jul 2018) The Money Problem. Perspectives on Money, Banking and Financial Regulation De Gruyter doi 10.1515/ael-2013-0045 AEL: A Convivium 2013; 3(3): 141 – 166<.p> In this piece, Blondi says that Banking and government agencies can then be understood as dynamic holistic connections that layer upon ownership of wealth and entitlements to it. This naturally set me thinking, as I imagine the sender intended, that the nature of these connections might be different in the new world of cryptography and shared ledger. MY first and most obvious reflection is that the new structures available to us because of cryptography can separate these concepts. We have pseudonymous entitle

xxx Cash accounts for just a third of retail purchases by volume in Britain. Within a decade it will be used for just 16%, according to UK Finance, a trade body. The £50 note is used least of all: there are more than twice as many tenners in circulation and six times as many twenties. Few cash machines dispense them. Shopkeepers distrust them. With the exception of crooks, the only group that uses £50 notes in any number is tourists, so the sensible thing may be to choose an ambassador easily recognisable by visitors. William Shakespeare, perhaps—or, since the Bard used to feature on the £20 note, maybe Peppa Pig. From Who should appear on Britain’s new £50 note? - Funny money . xxx

xxx Retail banks will own the secured lending product, but all other transactional banking and lending products will be facilitated at the point of sale. From Adapting to the future of Open Banking four interesting scenarios . xxx

xxx "The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has launched a competition to name and design a new single currency, which is expected to be delivered by 2020." From "West African single currency plans move towards lift-off - Central Banking" . xxx

xxx "In the coming years, some hard choices will be required. One option is to do nothing, meaning we accept that the general public no longer has access to central bank money. Such a future would imply a changed scope for the public sector. The payment market would have to be regulated and supervised in new ways to meet fulfil the objective to have a safe, efficient and inclusive payment market. A second alternative is to issue central bank money in a digital form, as a complement to cash and the money held in bank accounts. We call the concept ‘e-krona’ – after the Swedish currency, krona. Central bank-issued digital currency is a new and relatively unexplored possibility, but it is attracting growing interest from a number of central banks." From "Why Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia | World Economic Forum" . xxx

xxx "Luca Enriques, professor of law at the University of Oxford, identifies four distinct types of regtech. In a short paper published earlier this year, he noted that market participants might use regtech for their operations or compliance, whereas supervisors and central banks might use it for oversight or policymaking purposes." From "Capitalising on regtech - Central Banking" . xxx

Writing for “Central Banking”, Joel Clark ask us to imagine the ideal financial supervision system saying that it would probably look rather different from today’s landscape because financial institutions " would report details of transactions to a central utility, from which regulators would be able to extract information in real time ”. This is surely correct ML/AI Modern cryptography

xxx "what is needed to have a good functioning, cashless society? A reliable payments network that stimulates innovation and competition Easy access to the network to every participant in society, both consumers as business entities" From "The war on cash: National Banks Strike Back – Data Driven Investor – Medium" . xxx

Rob Wainwright, the Director of Europol, has been talking about the great success of the continent's $20 billion per annum anti- money laundering regime. He said that “Professional money launderers — and we have identified 400 at the top, top level in Europe — are running billions of illegal drug and other criminal profits through the banking system with a 99 percent success rate”. Wait, what? We are only intercepting 1% of the dirty money? That doesn’t sound very good. It’s lucky that we don’t spend too much money on this ineffective system. Wait, what? Global spending on AML compliance with be more than six billion yankee dollars this year. So we are spending billions on a system that is, statistically, useless . Thankfully, the powers that be are taking stringent action to tackle those money launderers that Mr. Wainwright has identified. For example, while the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD) cut down the monthly transaction limit on prepaid cards to €250 (sp

xxx "Britain is a financial-crime-fighting trailblazer. In a bid to crack down on shell-company abuse, in 2016 it became the first G20 country to introduce a public register for company owners. However, submitted information is not systematically checked. Recent analysis by Global Witness, an NGO, found thousands of ‘highly suspicious’ entries, including firms creating circular structures where they appear to own themselves." From "Britain’s war on dirty money lacks oomph - Awash" . xxx

xxx "Once the app is activated with a face scan, a QR code is generated, which is scanned by the person who needs the identification. The person being identified can decide what information is revealed. So if you want to get into a bar, for example, you can decide to only show your name and age." From "Netherlands using face tech with digital ID pilot | Planet Biometrics News" . xxx

It’s that time of year again. I’ve had a chat with my colleagues at Consult Hyperion, gone back over my notes from the year’s events, taken a look at our most interesting projects around the world and brought together our “ live five ” for 2019. Now, as in previous years, I don’t expect you to pay any attention to our prognostications without first reviewing our previous attempts, otherwise you won’t have any basis for taking us seriously! So let’s begin by looking back a couple of years and then we’ll take a shot at the future! Remember 2017? This was the “live five” of technology-driven changes in the secure transactions field that we thought would have a real business impact over the previous year. In the spirit of openness and honesty and disclosure that we are famed for, let’s see how those predictions fared. RegTech . I think we did pretty well with this prediction. Interest in regtech has grown throughout the year and the ability of regtech to make real differences in major

xxx "'We shouldn't worry much about post-quantum cryptography but we should think about post-cryptography security,' added Shamir. ®" From "Prepare for 'post-crypto world', warns godfather of encryption • The Register" . xxx

xxx "Then, on match days, iPhone users who have added their ticket to Apple Wallet receive a notification on their lockscreen as they approach the stadium, with an instruction to tap on it to select their contactless ticket in Wallet." From "Los Angeles Football Club rolls out NFC ticketing on Apple Watch and iPhones • NFC World" . xxx

xxx The report notes that as a result, revenues increased from $113 million in 2016 to $143 million in 2017 to $42 million in the first quarter of 2018. From Regulation of Somalia’s Mobile Money Market Can Spur Innovation in Financial Sector Development . This means hhkhjgui

xxx Ms Nokes also revealed the system for EU citizens to register for settled status still didn't work on Apple phones. The US tech giant "won't release the upgrade we need in order for it to function", she told MPs. From No-deal Brexit: Employers to check EU migrants' status - minister - BBC News . What “upgrade” is she talking about? To the best of my knowledge, Apple have never once even hinted that they may open their NFC interface up to third-parties.

xxx Late last week, about 60 percent of the conversation was driven by likely bots. Over the weekend, even as the conversation about the caravan was overshadowed by more recent tragedies, bots were still driving nearly 40 percent of the caravan conversation on Twitter. From Here’s How Much Bots Drive Conversation During News Events | WIRED . xxx

Danny Gilligan, co-founder and managing director of the Westpac-backed Reinventure Group in Australia put forward a similar criticism recently, saying that " the fundamental flaw of the UK's open banking model is to stipulate the flow of raw, sensitive transaction data from high security banks to low security fintechs ” arguing that that is building systemic risk into the UK's digital economy.

Alex Tapscott wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in which he said that “ using blockchain technology, online voting could boost voter participation and help restore the public’s trust in the electoral process and democracy ”. He’s wrong about this, and it’s got nothing to do with the blockchain. It’s because online voting is a bad idea, even if you did implement it with blockchain. I wrote about this back in 2015, noting that politicians don’t understand the Internet (or, indeed, technology in general) and expressing some surprise that they don’t ask people who do (e.g., me) to provide some input to their plans. If, for example, the Speaker of our House of Commons had asked me about online voting back in 2015, I would never have advised John Bercow to say that people should be allowed to vote online in the 2020 general election (assuming the current government lasts that long, of course). Alex writes that “as citizens, we can trust the outcome of such a voting system: voters can

As the President of the FATF wrote in the Financial Times recently "This past week, the FATF, whose global network consists of 204 countries, amended the organisation’s standards as they apply to financial activities involving virtual assets and also to businesses which deal in them — including virtual currency exchanges and some ‘wallet’ providers. It has agreed that all countries must supervise and monitor these businesses, and that they should also ensure they apply key controls against money laundering and terrorist financing, including customer due diligence and suspicious transaction reporting." From "Virtual assets and financial crime now go hand in hand    | Financial Times" . xxx

xxx "A former United Airlines employee has been given a federal prison sentence after stealing meal vouchers from the carrier, Peoria’s Journal Star reports. The outlet reveals that despite being fired by the carrier back in 2016, Ollantay Corujo kept his uniform and badge, using them to access computers at various terminals around the country and to print off individual meal vouchers. Describing Corujo’s crime, the outlet explained that, ‘While each voucher was worth around $20 to $30 … they were the functional equivalent of cash … Corujo would then ‘redeem’ those vouchers through a food truck company that he owned, causing cash to flow to him without him ever buying or using the vouchers as intended.’" From "United Employee Sentenced for Stealing $500K Worth of Meal Vouchers – FlyerTalk - The world's most popular frequent flyer community" . xxx

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xxx "According to data from Crone Consulting, the number of online mobile app transactions using Apple Pay is 'growing much faster' than transactions made inside retail stores." From "Apple Pay 'Making Up a Lot of Ground' With Competitors Thanks to Success of Apple Pay Cash - MacRumors" . As I have consistently maintained, it’s all about app-and-pay, not tap-and-pay.

xxx "So why the clamor for its return? Nostalgia, said economist Charles Wyplosz. ‘People long for a simpler age,’ when the U.S. ‘was the dominant economy and there were no financial markets to speak of.’" From "Why Did the U.S. Abandon the Gold Standard? | Mental Floss" . xxx