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Door unlocked
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has slammed Desjardins over security gaps that led to insider fraud and the largest breach ever at a Canadian financial institution.
The
The OPC's investigation found sensitive information was stored in two warehouses. While the staffer who originated the fraud did not have full access, other staffers who were in on the scam had enough access collectively to cause damage, placing stolen information on a shared hard drive. The OPC was critical of the scam's duration, 26 months, during which the bank's senior security staff had no idea the theft was taking place. The bank has since invested in new security staff and technology.
Paper chase
The new coronavirus relief package includes direct payments to Americans, but will mostly rely on existing disbursement technology.
Americans who get their tax refunds via direct deposit to their banks will get the payments as early as next week, reports
Legislators have proposed improvements for government payments, such as a "
In the club
Payments platform Wirex is now a principal member of Visa in Europe, giving the London fintech an easier runway to diversify its products.
Wirex completed Visa's Fast Track Program, and the membership status allows it to issue cards and more easily apply for payment licenses in different countries. Visa's existing partnership with Wirex includes a contactless cryptocurrency debit card.
Wirex earlier in 2020 partnered with
Digital currency
The Italian Banking Association is testing a digital euro with a network of more than 700 Italian financial institutions.
The tests will determine if a digital euro is possible via a distributed ledger. It will also look for value-added services that can be built off of payments, reports
The Italian project is linked to a larger central bank digital currency initiative in Europe. The
Opening up
Singapore fintech Finantier has been accepted into Y Combinator's Winter 2021 startup group, providing more visibility for its machine learning/API data combo that analyzes data for financial inclusion.
The company also received undisclosed pre-seed funding from a group of investors led by East Ventures, reports
It's in beta with more than 20 clients, and is preparing for its formal launch in Singapore and Indonesia, with other countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Belgium on its radar.
From the web
REUTERS | Wednesday, December 23, 2020
China's Ant Group is lowering borrowing limits for some young users of its Huabei virtual credit card product, the company said on Wednesday, a month after China suspended the fintech giant's $37 billion public listing plan.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL | Wednesday, December 23, 2020
As drugmakers distribute Covid-19 vaccines, cybersecurity experts are warning against the growing threat of tampering and theft by organized crime networks. WSJ explains how hackers are targeting the vaccine rollout during the pandemic.
REUTERS | Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Cryptocurrency XRP tumbled 24% on Wednesday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged associated blockchain firm Ripple with conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering.
More from PaymentSource
Compassionate billing, transparency and digital processing can all improve conditions for providers and patients, says Cedar's Florian Otto.
Rapidly spreading coronavirus and an unclear Brexit outcome are bearing down on the U.K., leaving the fate of London as a technology and finance hub in the air as 2020 draws to a close.
Consumers avoiding stores because of COVID-19 have driven triple-digit sales growth of Blackhawk’s digital gift cards sold through retailers’ websites, with the final weeks of the year expected to push digital cards to a tipping point.
International fintech Robocash Group has launched its first Buy Now Pay Later service in the Philippines.
XRP, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency, slumped after Ripple Labs said it faces a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit over its affiliated token.
The pioneer of a mobile-banking revolution in sub-Saharan Africa is in talks with financial-services providers about expanding its offerings over the next five years, as it seeks to emulate the success of Ant Group’s Alipay.
For anyone in the payments industry, it is common knowledge that the mechanisms behind gift vouchers and cards have been around for decades.
Data that mimics the original set is part of coronavirus vaccine trials, and also has ramifications for mapping financial services metrics, says Aite's Ginger Schmeltzer.
The pandemic has forced Bank of America, Chase, PCSB and other banks to find new ways to maintain connections with their customers and communities.
No one could predict the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Many companies in the payments industry first saw it as a short-term threat that they must endure, rather than a transformative event that would still be raising obstacles almost a year down the road.
The pioneer of a mobile-banking revolution in sub-Saharan Africa is in talks with financial-services providers about expanding its offerings over the next five years, as it seeks to emulate the success of Ant Group’s Alipay.
