More than 17 million Americans were the victims of fraud on digital wallets or peer-to-peer payment apps in 2020. A large proportion of these crimes took place on Zelle, according to the New York Times.
Read MoreOn Saturday, Visa and Mastercard announced that they had suspended network operations in Russia, which prevents cards issued in Russia from working abroad, and disables cards within Russia that were issued outside the country. Amex and PayPal have enacted similar measures.
Read MoreThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into fractional NFTs, in which assets are broken down into tradable pieces. Such NFTs may qualify as securities under the Howey test; investors fund these NFTs with the intention of making a profit.
Read MoreOn Monday, machine-learning solutions provider Stratyfy released UnBias, which helps financial institutions discover and undo bias in their systems. UnBias will be available as a standalone offering.
Read MoreOn Monday, Equifax started adding “pay-in-four” installment loans to its credit reports. Experian and TransUnion said they would roll out similar developments this year as well.
Read MoreVisa and Mastercard have blocked several Russian financial institutions from its payments systems. A run on Russian banks has begun.
Read MoreIn a joint statement on Saturday, the U.S., U.K., E.U., and others announced that they would move to exclude “selected Russian banks” from SWIFT, the international payments system. The group of countries has also frozen assets belonging to Russia’s central bank in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Read MoreMykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, called on crypto exchanges to block Russian and Belarusian accounts following the invasion of Ukraine. Exchanges like Kraken and Binance pushed back at the demand.
Read MoreThe National Bank of Ukraine imposed several temporary restrictions to avoid economic panic and collapse. The PFTS Stock Exchange also suspended trading on Thursday.
Read MoreHours into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania encouraged “disengaging Russia from SWIFT,” the international payments system. Polish and UK officials echoed these calls as well.
Read MoreFinancial regulators told banks that they must prove that the use of AI in loan applications does not discriminate against minorities. The move follows growing concerns over systeming racism in banking.
Read MoreIn a settlement with regulators, BlockFi agreed to register with the SEC and pay $100M in federal and state fines. It plans to launch an SEC-approved crypto interest-bearing security.
Read MoreIndia’s state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) announced yesterday that it would sell 5% of its shares to raise $8B. If approved, it would be the largest IPO in the country’s history.
Read MoreRegulators in the U.S. and U.K. have voiced greater interest in reigning in BNPL providers. Consumer rights groups warn that consumers do not realize that they’re assuming debt through these services.
Read MoreForbes announced this morning that Binance is buying a $200M stake in the publication. Binance previously sued Forbes for defamation, and then voluntarily dropped the suit.
Read MoreThe Financial Revolutionist is weekly newsletter and blog focused on the torrid pace of financial innovation. Today, thanks to the exponential rate of technological change, explosion in global trade and new regulations ushered in by the Great Financial Crisis, a new financial revolution is under way. In this battle, virtually every aspect of the greater financial services sector is subject to rigorous challenge. With the Financial Revolutionist, we are aspiring to create a boots-on-the-ground and highly opinionated assessment of important financial innovation developments in the past week.
