Elon Musk has appointed a team of technologists from #DOGE to "rewrite the code that runs the #SSA in months." This codebase has over 60 million lines of #COBOL and handles record keeping for all American workers and #payments for all Social Security recipients. DOGE aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL ... and onto a more modern replacement like #Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months. After all, what could possibly go wrong? https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
Liberapay: Open, Nonprofit Recurring Donations
Liberapay is a nonprofit platform that enables recurrent donations, supporting creators and projects that contribute to the commons. It was designed as an open alternative to commercial crowdfunding services, with a focus on funding free and open‑source software, art, and the free sharing of knowledge.
Read More: https://machaddr.substack.com/p/liberapay-open-nonprofit-recurring
A Proactive Approach to Payment Fraud Prevention
Consumer education is critical to fraud management
Positive Pay is a vital investment for fraud prevention
https://news.bloombergtax.com/payroll/a-proactive-approach-to-payment-fraud-prevention
Retailers are pushing payment modernization as customers ask for more
A KPMG survey found that a majority of retailers plan to keep updating their payment programs to keep up with consumer tech demands.
Mastercard courts community banks
The card network has initiated a new partnership with the Independent Community Bankers of America that will extend its services to that group’s financial institution members.
https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/mastercard-community-banks-payments-digital-wallets-fraud/743080/
Can New 'Credential' Concepts from Mastercard and Visa Recapture Consumers' Eroding Loyalty?
My two cents: it’s a complicated scheme that very few people will adopt.
Bakkt stock down after Bank of America breaks ties
Bank of America and Webull Pay LLC opted not to renew their commercial agreements with the digital asset and payment fintech
https://www.americanbanker.com/news/bakkt-stock-down-after-bank-of-america-breaks-ties
Klarna seeks to flex advertising muscle
#BNPL provider Klarna has become an advertising juggernaut, and the new tie to Walmart will give it access to troves of additional customer data.
https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/klarna-buy-now-pay-later-bnpl-merchant-advertising-revenue/742883/
EU risks more Trump tariffs in looming Big Tech crackdown – POLITICO https://www.byteseu.com/842448/ #Antitrust #Apps #BigTech #Competition #DigitalMarkets #DigitalMarketsAct #DonaldTrump #Enforcement #Europe #HennaVirkkunen #Markets #Payments #Regulation #tariffs #TeresaRibera #trade #TransatlanticRelations #UnitedStates
A key payment standard keeps getting delayed.
The Federal Reserve's decision to move the ISO 20022 deadline for FedWire transfers from March to July 14 was attributed to industry feedback and readiness
https://www.americanbanker.com/payments/news/banks-credit-unions-still-face-iso-20022-delays
Klarna, nearing IPO, plucks lucrative Walmart fintech partnership from rival Affirm
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/17/walmart-klarna-nearing-ipo-wins-fintech-partnership-from-affirm.html
Sweden’s central bank urges banks to prepare for war | PaymentsSource https://www.byteseu.com/825462/ #Australia #Barclays #EuropeanUnion #Payments #PSOContent #PSOFeature #Sweden #U.K.
Discover how exceptional customer experience drives successful payment solution adoption.
Our industry-leading CX guidelines for Australian Payments Plus’ PayTo solution facilitated rapid merchant and biller adoption, earning a prestigious Good Design Award.
Read the full story: https://ter.li/6d8acd
3/4
Together, let's build a strong, coherent community that drives NGI TALER forward!
#Join us today at https://ich.taler.net/ and be part of the #future of #digital #payments.
there's a of a lot of new #X URLs with the words "#payments" and "#money" in them when you load the bird app (in addition to #Plaid), just in time for the administration to remove #CFPB oversight of payments apps...
* sdn.payments-dev.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.payments-staging.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.payments-prod.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.money-dev.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.money-staging.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
* sdn.money.x.com/assets/loader.min.js
Krugman: I don't know if you've seen it, but there's this point in ‘Oppenheimer’ where’s he’s dealing with General Groves, who pretends to be a dumb general, but is actually not. And he suddenly realizes, ‘you didn't hire me despite my communist connections. You hired me because of them, because that means that you can get rid of me whenever you want.’
https://www.crisesnotes.com/musk-in-your-computers-paul-krugman-interviews-nathan-tankus/
Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, "Weaponized Interdependence: How Global Economic Networks Enable State Coercion," International Security, Summer 2019 https://www.dropbox.com/s/27mnqcxrxwapkit/%20Weaponized%20Interdependence_IS_Submission.pdf?dl=0 
