Bitcoin Blues

From The Economist

Bitcoin speculators had a jittery week, pushing the cryptocurrency down from a record high. Janet Yellen, America’s treasury secretary, added to the febrile atmosphere when she described bitcoin as an “extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions”. Meanwhile, New York state’s attorney-general branded Tether “fraudulent” and barred the stablecoin—commonly used to buy bitcoin on crypto-exchanges—from trading in New York. Tether long claimed its coin was backed one-to-one by the dollar, but New York concluded that it overstated its reserves and is “a stablecoin without stability”.

The knock to bitcoin was a factor behind a sharp fall in Tesla’s share price. The electric-car maker made a controversial $1.5bn investment in bitcoin recently. Shortly before the cryptocurrency plunged, Elon Musk mused that its price seemed “too high”. The drop in Tesla’s stock at one point wiped $15bn off his fortune.

“Must Reads” for 26 February

Today’s “Must reads” in banking, fintech, payments, cybersecurity, AI, IoT and risk management include:

• Lack of Digital Maturity Threatens Survival of Banking Organizations Worldwide
• 5 Steps to Financial Services App Modernization
• Two banks explain how they’re using biometrics
• Will FinTech bring revolution in the Financial Services Industry?
• Millions of jobs probably aren’t coming back, even after the pandemic ends
• Building a Global Financial Cloud with Banking Partners

The Texas Blackout - A Disaster Foretold

Those in charge of Texas’s deregulated power sector were warned again and again that the electric grid was vulnerable.

More than 4.5 million customers in Texas were without power during the peak of outages in the state, as freezing temperatures hit parts of the country.

In November, when the officials who run Texas’s main electric grid took stock of whether the system could handle the coming winter, they felt confident. There would, even under “extreme conditions,” be plenty of power. But last week, an arctic blast mocked their assessment, freezing in about 40 percent of the grid’s power-generation capacity and throwing much of the state into the cold and dark. How could the state’s energy managers have gotten things so wrong?

Find out HERE - The Texas Blackout Is the Story of a Disaster Foretold - Texas Monthly

“Must Reads” for 25 February

Today’s “Must reads” in banking, fintech, payments, cybersecurity, AI, IoT and risk management include:

• Trends in Fintech Collaboration: Start With The User Experience
• What We’ve Learned About Digital Banking in 2020
• YouTube AI Blocked Chess Channel after Confusing 'Black' and 'White' for Racist Slurs
• Fintech companies must balance the pursuit of profit against ethical data usage
• Fintech Amid COVID-19

“Must Reads” for 24 February

Today’s “Must reads” in banking, fintech, payments, cybersecurity, AI, IoT and risk management include:

• When bad actors have AI tools: Rethinking security tactics
• Banking and fintech security regulations for 2021
• Combining Three Pillars Of Cybersecurity Security
• The Secret Financial Lives of Consumers that Banks Don't Know About
• What Business Uses Will AI Have in 2021?
• Fintech companies must balance the pursuit of profit against ethical data usage

How much money is wasted by banks on digital?

This is the question that Chris Skinner is asking in his Blog.

He writes that while he sees banks maintaining their systems and approaches, they are not innovating. Given that banks have had Chief Innovation Officers and Chief Digital Officers for years where is the innovation? Where is the digital innovation?

Read his full post on Chris Skinner’s Blog

“Must Reads” for 23 February

Today’s “Must reads” in banking, fintech, payments, cybersecurity, AI, IoT and risk management include:

• Barclays pulls plug on flagship payments app Pingit
• Emerging Markets Driving the payments transformation
• Fintech Investments in Banking
• 6 common types of cyber attacks and how to prevent them
• IT services firm Centreon downplays reports of backdoor software vulnerabilities linked to Russian hacking group Sandstorm
• France identifies Russia-linked hackers in large cyberattack