Category: Money

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The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering launching a fully digital euro within the year. The move follows an increasingly digitalized landscape of payments and cash transfers across the 27-nation bloc.

The digitized euro is also designed to compete with crypto-currencies, private sector currencies like Facebook’s Libra, and the Chinese renminbi, as China also plans to digitize its currency in the coming months to increase the national currency’s standing in the world.

The move will have broad implications for private banks, and as a result, will be carefully tested before the ECB fully commits to any digitized version of the euro.

(THREAD) As technological changes are transforming how we pay, a digital euro could offer a universally accepted, risk-free and trusted means of payment to complement cash. We’ve analysed its possible benefits and challenges in our report https://t.co/RiwOCers68 1/3 pic.twitter.com/FLv1eRAkBL

— European

© Lee Yiu Tung/Shutterstock.com
Lee Yiu Tung/Shutterstock.com

• Beginning this week, travelers on select airlines can download the CommonPass, which is a digital certificate passengers can use in order to prove that they’ve tested negative for the coronavirus.
• The CommonPass is backed by The World Economic Forum and can be download to your phone.
• The pilot program at the airlines begin as the coronavirus pandemic has led to a decrease in demand for flights, and over 32,000 US airline workers are in the process of getting furloughed.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The airline industry is testing a new digital health pass that could remove some of the headaches associated with traveling amid a pandemic.

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Beginning this week, travelers on select airlines can download the CommonPass, a digital certificate that passengers can use in order to prove that they’ve tested negative for the coronavirus, the Financial Times

Weeks into the academic year, state education officials in New Jersey still can’t account for the number of students unable to get online for remote learning, which is playing a critical role during the pandemic. Despite strides made in the last few months, they also don’t have a full picture on the number of families who have a device or those struggling to stay reliably connected.

“The state just has to accept that internet connectivity at home now has to be part of a free, public education,” said David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center, a Newark-based nonprofit that advocates for school equity. “We have to make sure that every kid has this, whether or not they can afford it.”

Sciarra said it’s hard for the state to fix a problem without updated information because closing the digital divide is more than just giving every student a device.

Talk of digital twins ordinarily sparks associations with evil lookalikes and doubles, who have appeared in Gothic novels and horror films for centuries. The notion is not entirely out of place.

Fraud is now the most common crime in the UK, with identity fraud taking the lion’s share at 58%, with 223,163 cases recorded in 2019 alone. 19 out of every 20 identity frauds involves a fraudster who has used an innocent victim’s name to apply for products and services. Roughly half of all identity fraud is linked to the misuse of a bank account, and worryingly, malicious actors are increasingly praying on the young and over 65s. For those affected, the ordeal may feel like discovering they have an evil (digital) twin, who is out to get their hard-earned money by masquerading as them online.

Creating a digital identity hasn’t

In one of our earlier columns, we noted, citing its central bank, that the volume of digital payments in Ghana increased by 81 per cent in Q1 2020.

The lockdown in response to COVID-19 was the main factor although we should also mention the judicious waiving of fees on mobile money transfers. From a webinar on digitalization this week, we have learnt about the impact of COVID-19 and the broader direction of the process.

A senior employee at a Pan-African Bank stated that COVID-19 had brought a major shift in customer behavior and noted a steep increase in the use of the ‘chat’ facility for the asking of questions. The sale of products on digital had also picked up.

We learnt from a fintech company which provides business loans for small and micro enterprises via mobile money in East Africa that it had stepped up its lending during lockdown. It

Clare Holburn-Archer is the chief marketing officer at Cafu, the region’s first on-demand fuel delivery service app. Born and raised in Britain, Ms Holburn-Archer moved to Dubai in 2001 when she joined the Emirates Group in the corporate communications department. Passionate about building brands and brand equity, Ms Holburn-Archer lives in Dubai with her four-year-old twins.

How did your upbringing shape your attitude towards money?

I was born and brought up in the south of England. Both my parents worked. My father is a retired nuclear scientist and my mother was in HR. From a very early age, I remember watching how they worked very hard to save enough money to send both my sister and me to private school. I think that really instilled the value of money in me from an early age.

But in terms of their attitude towards money, I think it’s different to mine. They’re

Turn the clock back a year and the world for small businesses was very different on the eve of the 2019 holiday-shopping season. The economy was still booming and small businesses were doing well — so much that cash flow wasn’t a top concern, Lisa McFarland, Ingo Money’s executive vice president and chief of product, told Karen Webster in a recent conversation. 

According to Ingo’s data, only 37 percent of small businesses were citing cash flow as a major concern, down from more than 60 percent two years earlier. But the past six months have made a huge difference, particularly since it included a global pandemic, a nationwide shutdown of physical commerce and a slow (and highly digital) road to recovery for both consumers and merchants. That’s left many small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) cash-strapped and looking to bankers, acquirers, ISOs and FinTech

While other countries may be placing central bank digital currencies — also known as CBDCs — at the top of their agenda, Australia could buck the trend.

According to a local news report on Sept. 17, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest payments paper has taken a cautious and sceptical line toward CBDCs as well as private-sector stablecoins.

The RBA does not believe there is currently a strong policy case for issuing a CBDC in Australia, pointing to the success of the country’s efficient, real-time New Payments Platform.

Moreover, while the use of cash for transactions is broadly declining, Australians are not relinquishing banknotes as quickly as other citizens, as for example, are the Swedes.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for cash actually saw a significant uptick, the paper stated. RBA has therefore pledged to continue to provide access to banknotes “for as long as Australians wish to keep using

By Chanelle Bessette

As the Covid-19 pandemic leads banking customers to lean into online technology to manage their money, those trying online banking for the first time may find themselves with questions about how to handle things previously done in person or with paper documents.

If you’re stuck on how to handle some of the practical aspects of online banking, here are answers to common questions.

Should I save monthly statements?

Experian  (EXPGY) , one of the three major credit bureaus, recommends keeping bank statements for tax purposes to confirm your income or deductible expenses. If you do end up using your statements for your taxes, you may want to hang onto your statements for up to seven years in case the IRS decides to audit you. Even if your bank keeps digital records of your statements, you may want to print or download your statements just in