All posts tagged: banking

The Download: cyberscammers’ banking bypasses, and carbon removal troubles

The Download: cyberscammers’ banking bypasses, and carbon removal troubles

Published by skeptic

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Cyberscammers are bypassing banks’ security with illicit tools sold on Telegram  Inside a money-laundering center in Cambodia, an employee opens a banking app on his phone. It asks for a photo linked to the account, so he uploads a picture of a 30-something Asian man.  The app then requests a video “liveness” check. The scammer holds up a static image of a woman who doesn’t match the account. After 90 seconds, he’s in.  The exploit relies on illicit hacking services sold on Telegram that break “Know Your Customer” (KYC) facial scans. MIT Technology Review found 22 channels and groups advertising these services. This is what we discovered.  —Fiona Kelliher  Is carbon removal in trouble?  —Casey Crownhart  Last week, news emerged that Microsoft was pausing carbon removal purchases. It was a bombshell—Microsoft effectively is the carbon removal market, single-handedly purchasing around 80% of all contracted carbon removal.  The report sparked fear across the industry, raising questions about the future of carbon removal and the role of Big Tech. Read …

Elon Musk Is Banking on Fanboys

Elon Musk Is Banking on Fanboys

Published by Sam Flores

Elon Musk likes to do everything on a grand scale. When he takes SpaceX public in the coming months, it will likely be the biggest initial public offering in history. Although SpaceX’s recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing for the IPO was confidential, indications are that the conglomerate is looking for a valuation of $2 trillion. That would instantly make it the sixth-most-valuable U.S. company. By conventional standards, SpaceX isn’t worth anything close to $2 trillion. The company is in fact relatively small and losing money. Yet there is little doubt that Musk will get the valuation he wants. He is one of the finest corporate dream weavers we’ve ever seen, and he has a dedicated following of fanboy investors who will happily buy whatever he’s selling. SpaceX has a collection of interesting businesses—its rocket business was responsible for more than 80 percent of all commercial rocket launches in the United States last year, its healthily profitable Starlink division provides high-speed satellite-internet service to more than 9 million subscribers, and after a merger in February, …

Financial risk management platform Pillar raises M seed in round led by a16z

Financial risk management platform Pillar raises $20M seed in round led by a16z

Published by skeptic

Pillar, a platform that helps commodity-driven businesses (like those in metals, food, and airline companies) manage financial risk, announced Tuesday a $20 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz.  Others in the seed round include Crucible Capital, Gallery Ventures, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. The company has raised $23 million to date. Pillar, founded in 2023, automates hedging processes for such businesses. Hedging is when a company places a trade that can offset or cancel out losses from other priced trades. Geopolitics has not been kind to the commodities market, which has seen much volatility in the past year.  Harsha Ramesh, the company’s co-founder and CEO (founded alongside Chinmay Deshpande, the company’s CTO), said the company uses AI to ingest and parse data from client contracts, cash flows, inventories, ERP software, spreadsheets, and even WhatsApp messages to “continuously analyze exposure across commodities, FX, and freight.” It can then build and manage a hedge portfolio for its clients, and adjust positions automatically based on “market conditions, volatility, and the client’s risk tolerance,” Ramesh continued. The platform …

Iran war risks private credit crisis and AI bubble bursting, Bank of England warns – POLITICO

Iran war risks private credit crisis and AI bubble bursting, Bank of England warns – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

“A tightening of supply could also affect relatively more resilient borrowers reliant on private-market finance, including UK corporates, especially as UK private markets are heavily dependent on overseas investors,” it said. Market participants should, it added, have a “clear understanding of their direct and indirect exposures to risky credit markets.”  At the same time, fears that the record-high prices of AI-focused stocks could collapse and send ripples through the financial system have persisted, with the FPC highlighting that valuations for U.S. tech firms focused on AI remain “particularly stretched.” “Despite the volatility that the conflict has generated, risk premia in global equity and debt markets remain compressed by historical standards, heightening the risk of a sharp correction if macroeconomic conditions worsen,” said the committee. “AI-related repricing could transmit widely throughout the financial system and impact the real economy.” Finally, the FPC warned that existing sovereign debt vulnerabilities could be worsened by the conflict, as “a relatively high use of leverage by a small number of hedge funds pursuing similar strategies” risked causing stress on the …

Irish lawmaker urges Stripe to flout US sanctions on UN investigator Albanese – POLITICO

Irish lawmaker urges Stripe to flout US sanctions on UN investigator Albanese – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Sanctions imposed on Albanese by the Trump administration, after she accused governments and corporations of complicity in genocide in Gaza, cut her and her family off from U.S. banking, travel and tech — including transactions by American intermediaries like Stripe. Israel’s government has strongly denied committing genocide. “I understand as a dual headquartered company, in Dublin and San Francisco, you must follow sanctions imposed by Trump in the U.S.,” Andrews said in an X post. But Albanese is “simply doing her job, standing for international humanitarian law and the UN Charter,” he added. Stripe did not respond to a request for comment. Source link

Two new suspects arrested over foiled Bank of America bomb plot in Paris

Two new suspects arrested over foiled Bank of America bomb plot in Paris

Published by Sam Flores

French police have arrested two more people over an apparent bid to place a homemade explosive device outside the Paris headquarters of Bank of America, prosecutors told AFP on Sunday. Police also extended the detention period of a minor, arrested on Saturday over the foiled incident, which occurred at around 3:30am (0130 GMT) in front of a Bank of America building in the chic 8th arrondissement, a couple of streets from the Champs-Élysées. French police stopped the apparent bomb attack when they arrested a man about to ignite a homemade explosive device, sources close to the case said. Police grabbed the man just after he placed a device, made of five litres of liquid believed to be fuel and an ignition system, one of the sources said. Read moreFrance foils Paris bomb plot outside US bank, opens anti-terror probe France’s counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office on Saturday said it had taken over the investigation. The office confirmed that a suspect caught in the act was in police custody and said it was investigating “attempted damage by fire or other dangerous …

Never mind Winston Churchill and beavers, here’s what should really be on Bank of England notes – POLITICO

Never mind Winston Churchill and beavers, here’s what should really be on Bank of England notes – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

What was intended as a way to refresh the look of the currency while also bringing in new anti-counterfeit measures has developed into a full-blown culture war. On the BBC’s “Question Time” politics debate show, one audience member blamed the Greens for wanting to ditch wartime leader Winston Churchill, even though it has nothing to do with any political party. The issue even brought together political rivals Nigel Farage of Reform and Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats, who both slammed the move, as did countless other “everything’s woke these days” talking heads. But what should really be on the Bank of England’s notes? What do English and Welsh people (the good folk of Scotland and Northern Ireland have their money issued separately, even if it’s all legal currency throughout the U.K.) want on their notes? Here’s what everyone can surely agree on and what the illustrations on the notes will look like (please send complaints to the Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London)… A nice cup of tea Everyone loves a cup (or mug) …

UK announces largest sanctions package against Russia since start of full-scale invasion – POLITICO

UK announces largest sanctions package against Russia since start of full-scale invasion – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Britain is also targeting Russia’s shadow fleet — oil tankers used to evade sanctions which have been surveilled, intercepted and boarded by the U.K. and its allies. It is sanctioning 48 vessels and 175 companies in Russia’s “2Rivers” illicit oil network — a move the U.K. Foreign Office said will send a “clear” message that “Russian oil is off the market.” U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is in Kyiv Monday to mark the anniversary of the invasion. She said: “The UK has today taken decisive action to disrupt the critical financing, military equipment and revenue streams that sustain Russia’s aggression, in our largest raft of measures since the early months of the invasion.” Source link

Christine Lagarde says she will see out her term as ECB chief – POLITICO

Christine Lagarde says she will see out her term as ECB chief – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Christine Lagarde said her “baseline” is that she will stay at the European Central Bank until her term as president ends in October 2027. “I think that we have accomplished a lot, that I have accomplished a lot,” she said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, published on Friday. “We need to consolidate and make sure that this is really solid and reliable. So my baseline is that it will take until the end of my term.” Her comments come two days after a report in the FT, sourced to a single person “familiar with her thinking,” suggested the opposite. The article triggered controversy, implying that the appointment of the next ECB president could be moved up to deny a possible far-right president in France any say in the matter. President Emmanuel Macron is due to step down in April next year. Source link