Vince Graziani

The idea of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) – a blockchain-based digital currency issued by a central bank – is now a reality, with the launch of the Sand Dollar in the Bahamas, the first fully-deployed digital version of a country’s fiat currency. Taking this to an entirely new scale, the launch of a major CBDC trial in China involves six of the country’s largest banks promoting the country’s digital currency to consumers as an alternative to existing popular private payment apps, such as WeChat Pay and Alipay. The rise of the CBDC offers huge potential for the financial…

The events of this year have exacerbated a number of challenges for vulnerable members of our society. Fears over health have been compounded by the accelerated digitisation of activities in their daily lives, such as video calls with family, shopping online and mobile banking – activities they may have already been daunted by. Chief among these evolutions has been the pronounced lean away from the use of cash. With many not comfortable with the complexity and security of digital payments, banks must explore an alternative in the form of biometric identification. COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown restrictions have not only made…

The frequency of debit and credit card fraud has risen to unprecedented levels since the start of the pandemic. Even as many national economies falter from coronavirus, and millions of citizens struggle with job losses and debt, fraudsters haven’t stopped. Quite the opposite, in fact. It seems many have taken advantage of the disruption caused during the crisis to aggressively pursue fraudulent transactions. According to data from Experian and the National Hunter Fraud Prevention Service, fraud rates across all UK financial products rose by 33% year-on-year in April 2020. Fake car and other asset finance applications saw the most extreme…