Today is Wednesday (June 29) and it’s the 15th anniversary of the iPhone, which changed the trajectory of mobile phones. Turkey said it won’t stand in the way of Sweden and Finland joining the NATO alliance, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to address the 30 NATO leaders by video today as Russia’s invasion stretches into its fifth month. The worldwide military alliance said Russia’s war on Ukraine is its “biggest challenge” since World War II.
San Antonio officials are working to identify the people who died in the back of a tractor-trailer yesterday, and singer R. Kelly, known for his anthem “I Believe I Can Fly,” is expected to be sentenced today on sex trafficking charges.
Hedge-fund investment manager Bernie Madoff was sentenced to up to 150 years in prison on this day in 2009 for operating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Also on June 29, Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in 1974 from the Soviet Union while on tour with the Kirov Ballet in Toronto. Here’s what else should be on your radar this morning.
Unlicensed to Bank. Australian challenger bank Volt is returning more than $100 million to its estimated 6,000 customers next week and handing its banking license back to regulators after the FinTech startup failed to raise enough capital to keep growing.
“Volt is doing everything possible to return the deposits in an orderly and timely manner. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is closely monitoring this process,” explained a blog post on Wednesday (June 29). READ MORE
Modernizing Payments. Modernizing business-to-business (B2B) payments to avoid friction is always top of mind for financial institutions (FIs). The PYMNTS report “Meeting the Challenge of Payments Modernization: Understanding Customer Needs,” a collaboration with FIS, does a deep dive into how FIs are meeting corporate clients’ needs by addressing central issues around payments. READ MORE
Fighting Fraud. Tom Shell, vice president of business development and solutions engineering at DataVisor, told PYMNTS that banks and FinTechs need to be adept at fighting fraud and protecting their customers. Fraud detection solutions are not keeping pace with payments digitization. Educating consumers as well as using advanced technologies like biometrics can be potent weapons against cybercriminals. READ MORE
Blockchain Payment Perks. Blockchain payments are in a burgeoning stage as a replacement for fiat currencies, but payors are seeing the many advantages. In a recent survey, 30% of software developers said they are educating themselves about use cases. The June/July edition of PYMNTS “Blockchain Payments Tracker®” takes a look at how upping speed improving throughput and taking scalability into account have created added value for payors eyeing blockchain payments. READ MORE
ICYMI. States can issue their own fair credit reporting laws that are stricter than the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said. The agency said its ruling makes it clear that states have the authority to protect people from harm posed by credit reporting issues, using the example of a state barring a credit reporting company from “including information about a medical debt for a certain period of time after the debt was incurred.” READ MORE
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