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US consumer watchdog proposes rules for Big Tech payments, digital wallets

The proposal would cover about 17 companies that together send more than 13 billion payment

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US consumer watchdog proposes rules for Big Tech payments, digital wallets

The top U.S. consumer financial watchdog on Tuesday proposed to regulate tech giants’ digital payments and smartphone wallet services, saying they rival traditional payment methods in scale and scope but lack consumer safeguards.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) proposal would subject companies like Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Apple (AAPL.O), PayPal (PYPL.O) and Block’s CashApp (SQ.N) to bank-like supervision, with CFPB examiners inspecting their privacy protections, executives’ conduct and compliance with laws barring unfair and deceptive practices.

If finalized, the proposal would cover about 17 companies that together send more than 13 billion payments annually, according to a CFPB official. The agency declined to name the other platforms that would be covered beyond GooglePay, ApplePay, PayPal and CashApp.

Apple, PayPal and CashApp did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Google declined to comment.

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The proposal marks a long-anticipated and ambitious move by CFPB Director Rohit Chopra to assert the agency’s full authority over Big Tech, a sector he has frequently criticized for privacy and competition issues.

Since becoming director in 2021, Chopra has steadily increased CFPB scrutiny of the sector, seeking information in 2021 on how Big Tech companies use consumer data and last year launching an inquiry into their payments platforms.

In a statement on Tuesday, Chopra said the tech sector had expanded into financial services traditionally provided by the closely regulated banking sector.

“Today’s rule would crack down on one avenue for regulatory arbitrage by ensuring large technology firms and other nonbank payments companies are subjected to appropriate oversight,” he said.

In a speech last month, Chopra said CFPB research had found tech giants collected vast amounts of consumer payments data with few limits, scant transparency and confusing corporate policies, putting consumers at risk of Chinese-style surveillance by the companies.

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Speaking about Tuesday’s proposal, senior CFPB officials said it was imperative to look into privacy compliance at these larger firms with a wealth of consumer data, noting that many of their business models focus on monetizing that data.

Representatives of Big Tech companies have previously highlighted their efforts to protect consumer data.

Tuesday’s proposal would apply to companies handling more than five million transactions a year. The agency said the rule would also foster competition by ensuring that both traditional financial players and the tech sector were equally subject to the same oversight.

In a statement, the Consumer Bankers Association called the proposal “a step in the right direction.”

“For a healthy, innovative, and competitive financial services ecosystem to function, consumers need to know that they are protected equally, regardless of who they do business with to meet their financial needs,” said CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson.

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The Electronic Transactions Association, representing banks, fintechs and big tech companies, said in a statement it wants “to ensure the proposal achieves the goals of consumer protection and consistent application of public policy for all players.”

The proposal is now subject to a notice-and-comment period expected to end in early 2024.

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Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

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Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

 Shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust jumped 2.4% on Monday after the exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the price of bitcoin saw its first day of inflow since January.

The move marks a major milestone for GBTC, which has seen $17.46 billion in withdrawals since it converted from a trust to an easily tradable ETF in January, due to the higher fees it charges compared with rivals.

Some of the outflows were also tied to the wave of bankruptcies in the crypto industry, as companies that collapsed in the last two years pulled money out of the fund to repay their creditors.

GBTC saw inflows of $63 million on Friday, according to investment management firm Farside Investors. It currently manages $18.08 billion in assets, according to its website.

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However, its position as the biggest spot bitcoin ETF by assets under management (AUM) has come under threat from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, which manages $16.91 billion, according to its website.

Grayscale said in March that it would seek approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to spin off a portion of GBTC’s assets into a new, lower-fee Bitcoin Mini Trust. The company has yet to decide on the fees for the Mini Trust.

Spot bitcoin ETFs, which were approved by the SEC in January following a decade of rejection, provide investors with bitcoin exposure without the need to directly hold the cryptocurrency. 

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China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

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China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

China’s top engineering and rail design experts have exciting news: they’re planning to build the country’s very first hyperloop train line!

This futuristic project will connect two bustling cities, Shanghai and Hangzhou, spanning a distance of 150km (about 93 miles).

What makes this project so special? Well, it’s all about speed! The hyperloop train will travel inside a special vacuum tunnel, allowing it to reach mind-blowing speeds of up to 1,000km/h (that’s about 621mph!).

Before choosing the Shanghai-Hangzhou route, the experts carefully evaluated several options.

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They considered factors like economic potential, population density, and existing transport infrastructure. In the end, they decided that connecting Shanghai and Hangzhou would bring the most benefits to the region.

This project is a big deal for China, and it’s being led by some of the country’s top engineers and scientists.

They’re excited about the potential for this hyperloop train to revolutionize transportation and boost economic growth in the area.

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Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth’s surface

Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth’s surface

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Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth's surface

There’s all sorts of intriguing stuff hidden beneath the Earth’s surface, from massive oceans to water leaking directly into the planet’s core – the latest discovery, though, might be the most interesting of all.

New research has pointed to fascinating findings close to the Earth’s core which experts are claiming to be remains from an ancient planet.

The planet, named Theia, could have collided with our planet billions of years ago and evidence of this event is supposedly found within two blobs far beneath the surface.

These blobs have fascinated the scientific community since they were first discovered back in the 1980s. These structures are the size of entire continents and around twice the size of the moon.

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They’re located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean, and due to the high iron content of these structures, seismic waves pass through them at a slower rate – leading to them being labelled “large low-velocity provinces” (LLVPs).

A study into these LLVPs was published at the end of 2023 in the journal Nature and featured new findings from Caltech researchers.

Most significantly, the study argues that these structures, which have divided opinion for decades, are actually the remains of Theia, which collided with Earth billions of years ago.

This collision caused the creation of the moon, and the new study argues that the planet was absorbed into the Earth and formed the LLVPs.

“Seismic images of Earth’s interior have revealed two continent-sized anomalies with low seismic velocities, known as the large low-velocity provinces (LLVPs), in the lowermost mantle,” researchers wrote.

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“The LLVPs are often interpreted as intrinsically dense heterogeneities that are compositionally distinct from the surrounding mantle.”

They added: “Here we show that LLVPs may represent buried relics of Theia mantle material (TMM) that was preserved in proto-Earth’s mantle after the Moon-forming giant impact.

“Our canonical giant-impact simulations show that a fraction of Theia’s mantle could have been delivered to proto-Earth’s solid lower mantle.”

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