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UK: Contactless Payments Rise As Transaction Cap Lifted
Data from UK Finance has shown the average value per contactless payment has increased by 29 percent after the spending limit was increased from £45 to £100.
In December 2021, the average transaction value of contactless payment was £15.30, up from £11.86 in September 2021, a month prior to the contactless limit increase.
More broadly between 2019 and 2021, the total value of contactless transactions doubled from £80.5bn to £165.9bn, while the total number of transactions grew 52 percent from 8.6bn transactions to 13.1bn in the same period.
Lee Hopley, director of economic insight and research at UK Finance, said: “These figures show the continued popularity of contactless payments, as well as the fact people are making higher value payments. From October last year, the new £100 limit was rolled out and it gives customers greater choice about how they pay for things like their weekly shop or a tank of fuel.
“For 2021 as a whole there were over 13 billion contactless transactions, which was a significant increase on the previous year, and in December a record 69 percent of all debit card payments were contactless purchases.”
EU: Time to Target Online Advertising, Says Data Protection Supervisor
Wojciech Wiewiórowski, the European Data Protection Supervisor, has written an article calling time on the data usage practices of online targeted advertisers. In it, he wrote of how “painfully aware” he had become of how the online targeted advertising model could lead to potential consumer harms.
Wiewiórowski is advocating for “regulatory incentives to favour less intrusive forms of advertising that do not require tracking of user interaction with content”, such as restricting the categories of personal data that could be used for targeted advertising purposes.
“Special categories of data or other data that can be used to exploit vulnerabilities should not be used to target ads. Processing of data from vulnerable groups, such as children, can have unexpected results for an entire generation.”
These ideas mirror the vision of data usage by the UK government, in "Data, A New Direction", which promises to reduce barriers to responsible innovation.
United States: Departments Of Treasury And Justice Launch Multilateral Russian Oligarch Task Force
Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland have met virtually with representatives from the G7, plus the EU, to launch the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) multilateral task force.
The task force members each committed to collect and share information to take concrete actions, including sanctions, asset freezing, civil and criminal asset seizure and criminal prosecution against sanctioned individuals.
Already the task force has seized several “vessels” controlled by sanctioned persons, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Our sanctions, trade restrictions, and other measures have already imposed significant costs on Russia, its leadership, and those who enabled Putin’s unprovoked invasion into Ukraine,” said Yellen.
“This multilateral task force will raise those costs even more, by galvanising coordinated efforts to freeze and seize assets of these individuals in jurisdictions around the world and deny safe haven for their ill-gotten gains.”
“We are already working with our international partners to freeze and seize properties belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs worldwide,” said Garland. “We will continue to work together to take all appropriate actions against those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war against Ukraine.”
The REPO task force members discussed ways to ensure the effective, coordinated implementation of the group’s collective financial sanctions relating to Russia, as well as assistance to other nations to locate and freeze assets located within their jurisdictions.
Participants also discussed the need to preserve evidence and determine whether these frozen assets, or other assets linked to these sanctioned individuals or entities, are subject to forfeiture.
Finally, the task force discussed ways to bring to justice enablers and gatekeepers who have facilitated the movement of sanctioned assets or other illicit funds.
Australia: Bank Exemption From Crypto Registration Requirements
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has launched a consultation proposing various amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Instrument 2007.
The consultation includes a proposal to remove the requirement for financial institutions that are enrolled with AUSTRAC to register as digital currency exchanges.
The proposed amendment will not exempt financial institutions from any other provision or obligation of the AML/CTF Act, including reporting obligations.
The proposal also includes changes to the National Consumer Protection Framework for Online Wagering, and to the requirements for cross-border money movement reporting.
The consultation is open until April 8.
Singapore: Asian Financial Hub Becomes Latest To Sanction Russia
Singapore has become the latest jurisdiction to join the likes of the EU, Japan, UK and US in imposing sanctions on Russia, expressing its condemnation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its solidarity with the invaded country.
“The sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity of all countries, big and small, must be respected. Singapore takes any violation of these core principles seriously, as they are fundamental to the survival of Singapore, a small state,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore said in a release.
“While we continue to value good relations with Russia and the Russian people, we cannot accept the Russian government’s violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another sovereign state. For a small state like Singapore, this is not a theoretical principle, but a dangerous precedent. This is why Singapore has strongly condemned Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine.” the ministry added.
The sanctions include a number of financial measures such as freezing assets of four Russian banks that are already subject to Western sanctions, as well as banning financial services that facilitate fund raising by the Russian government or central bank.
They spell out that businesses must not facilitate any cryptocurrency transactions that are used to circumvent these prohibitions.
Aimed to restrain Russia’s capacity to continue the war against Ukraine, the measures apply to all financial institutions in Singapore, including payment service providers, banks, finance companies, insurers, capital markets intermediaries and securities exchanges.
