Should banks be worried about Zelle?

Should banks be worried about Zelle?

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.

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Binance debuts Bifinity

Binance debuts Bifinity

Binance announced this morning that it would launch Bifinity, a payments technology company and fiat-to-crypto payments provider. Bifinity will partner with payments platform Paysafe as well as Checkout.com to scale its operations.

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Will UnionPay gain traction due to sanctions?

Will UnionPay gain traction due to sanctions?

On 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.

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SEC eyes NFT regulation

SEC eyes NFT regulation

The 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.

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New tool to tackle bias in finance

New tool to tackle bias in finance

On 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.

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Dutch Bros. doubles down on rewards

Dutch Bros. doubles down on rewards

In an earnings call with analysts on Tuesday, the coffee chain’s executives said they would invest in expanding customer use of the Dutch Rewards app. Between 20% and 25% of rewards transactions include stored-value activity, according to the company’s CFO.

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BNPL payments now reflected in credit reports

BNPL payments now reflected in credit reports

On 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.

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Bank of America to launch all-in-one app

Bank of America to launch all-in-one app

In 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.

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Will sanctions affect trust in payments networks?

Will sanctions affect trust in payments networks?

Visa and Mastercard have blocked several Russian financial institutions from its payments systems. A run on Russian banks has begun.

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What follows Russian exclusion from SWIFT?

What follows Russian exclusion from SWIFT?

In 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.

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Crypto exchanges may face legal demands from Ukraine gov

Crypto exchanges may face legal demands from Ukraine gov

Mykhailo 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.

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Under martial law, Ukraine limits withdrawals and suspends digital wallets

Under martial law, Ukraine limits withdrawals and suspends digital wallets

The National Bank of Ukraine imposed several temporary restrictions to avoid economic panic and collapse. The PFTS Stock Exchange also suspended trading on Thursday.

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Baltic states, Poland, UK call for Russian removal from SWIFT

Baltic states, Poland, UK call for Russian removal from SWIFT

Hours 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.

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Opera adds Ethereum Layer 2 wallet to its Android browser

Opera adds Ethereum Layer 2 wallet to its Android browser

Through a partnership with DiversiFi, Opera users on Android will be able to make cheap and instant crypto transactions within their mobile browser wallet. The Layer 2 swapping feature is 100 times cheaper than Ethereum Layer 1.

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FTX looks to luxury market for growth

FTX looks to luxury market for growth

The crypto exchange announced that it has hired Lauren Remington Platt, a beauty entrepreneur, to spearhead partnerships with luxury brands. The move hopes to capture the wealth of the crypto class.

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