That defence is falling apart. In 2026, four different governments, in India, the European Union (EU), Australia and the United States, are attacking Meta on completely different fronts.

The target this time is the actual design of its products. Not what people post, but how the apps are engineered to keep people scrolling, how they verify identity, and who profits from the news content that flows through them.

Taken together, these fights amount to the most serious challenge Meta has ever faced, hitting its products, its finances and its business model all at once.

A Privacy Feature Becomes a Fraud Tool in India
In late June 2026, WhatsApp rolled out “usernames,” a feature letting people message each other without sharing their phone numbers. It sounds like a simple privacy upgrade. But within three days, India’s IT ministry froze the rollout before it fully launched.

The reason comes down to a very specific, very costly problem in India, so-called “digital arrest” scams. Fraudsters pose as police officers or bank officials over video calls, falsely claim the victim is under arrest, and pressure them into transferring their life savings.

These scams work because they feel official. Investigators found that during WhatsApp’s early testing, usernames mimicking the Prime Minister, Bollywood stars and government agencies like the CBI could be claimed by anyone, with no ID checks at all.

In India, a phone number is tied to a SIM card and identity documents, which makes it traceable. A username needs none of that. In its notice to WhatsApp, the ministry warned the feature could “materially increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams” and impersonation attacks.

WhatsApp pushed back, insisting that “other users need to know the exact username to message you” and pointing to built-in limits on how many strangers an account can contact. The government judged these safeguards too weak against panicked victims mid-scam.

This fits a bigger pattern. India has built a huge digital identity system around Aadhaar (its national ID) and UPI (its payments network), and it wants foreign apps to work within that verified system rather than introduce anonymous alternatives. Digital rights groups have challenged the freeze in court.

The Internet Freedom Foundation branded the move “a licence raj for software features,” arguing the government has no legal right to pre-approve product features before they launch. Regardless of how that case ends, India has made clear that it now treats app design choices affecting hundreds of millions of people as a matter of national security.

Europe Punishes the Apps for Being Addictive
On 10 July 2026, the European Commission issued preliminary findings that Instagram and Facebook likely breach the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) because of features that make the apps addictive.

The specific culprits named were infinite scroll, videos that autoplay without being asked, constant push notifications, and recommendation algorithms tuned purely to keep people watching. European regulators argue these features put users, especially teenagers, into an “autopilot” state where they keep consuming content without meaning to.

Under the DSA, very large platforms must assess risks their design poses to users and fix them. Announcing the findings, the Commission’s tech sovereignty chief, Henna Virkkunen, said “protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans must be a priority.” Brussels says Meta simply didn’t do that seriously enough.

Meta points to its “Teen Accounts” safety tools, which cap usage and block nighttime access, and told reporters “we disagree with these preliminary findings.”

But independent researchers testing teen accounts found notifications, autoplay and endless scrolling still showed up constantly, and that screen-time reminders were easy to ignore. Regulators also argue it’s unfair to rely on parents to manage settings they may not understand or have time for.

The financial stakes are enormous. EU fines under the DSA can reach 6% of a company’s global revenue, which for Meta could mean a fine north of USD 12 billion. But experts believe Brussels isn’t necessarily aiming for a drawn-out legal battle.

The DSA deliberately avoids strictly defining “addictive design,” giving the Commission room to use the threat of a huge fine as leverage to push Meta into voluntarily switching off things like autoplay by default. A negotiated settlement, not a courtroom win, may be the real goal.

Australia Wants Meta to Pay for News
Australia’s fight with Meta isn’t about addiction or fraud. It’s about money, specifically, who pays for journalism.

In April 2026, Australia proposed the News Bargaining Incentive (NBI), replacing an earlier law that required platforms to negotiate payments with news publishers. Under the new system, platforms like Meta, Google and TikTok face a 2.25% levy on their Australian revenue unless they strike deals with local news outlets.

Sign enough deals, and the levy drops to 1.5%. Refuse entirely, and the government pockets the full amount and hands it to publishers based on how many journalists they employ.

Meta has hit back hard. In its formal submission on the draft law, the company wrote that “it is a discriminatory tax, applied only to a handful of foreign companies.”

Its arguments run along three lines. Publishers benefit just as much from the traffic social media sends them; audiences increasingly come to Meta’s apps for entertainment, not news, as shown by the fact that engagement didn’t drop when Meta pulled news from its platforms in Canada; and propping up legacy media with tech company money removes any pressure on publishers to modernise. Meta also argues the levy may violate trade agreements between Australia and the United States.

Australia’s urgency is understandable. Since 2008, the country has lost more than 19,500 journalism jobs as advertising money moved online.

But critics note the scheme has a major blind spot, since it exempts AI chatbots like Meta AI and ChatGPT, even though these tools increasingly answer questions using scraped news content without sending any traffic, or money, back to publishers at all.

In America, Juries Are Now the Threat
Unlike India, the EU or Australia, the US has no single federal law governing platform design. Instead, individual states and courts have become the battleground, and 2026 has already produced landmark defeats for Meta.

In March, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay USD 375 million in punitive damages, finding the company misled the public about child safety on its platforms.

New Mexico’s Attorney General, Raul Torrez, called the verdict “a historic victory for every child and family who has paid the price.” Meta said in response that it would “respectfully disagree with the verdict” and confirmed it planned to appeal.

The very next day, a Los Angeles jury found both Meta and Google liable in a case brought by a young woman who started using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9, awarding her USD 6 million and ruling that features like infinite scroll, autoplay and beauty filters had directly caused her addiction and psychological harm. Meta was found 70% responsible and Google 30%.

These verdicts are just the opening act. A much larger federal case is underway, consolidating claims from more than 2,600 individuals, school districts and local governments, alongside a separate suit from attorneys general in 29 states.

In July, four of those states, California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, filed a jaw-dropping penalty demand of USD 1.4 trillion, calculated by counting every teenage user and every month they spent over 30 minutes a day on the app as a separate violation.

Meta called the figure “outlandish” and argued in its court filing that a penalty of that scale “has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement.”

California’s Attorney General’s office defended the claim, saying its case alleges “Meta has prioritized profits over the safety of kids.” Meta also pointed out that “social media addiction” isn’t a recognised medical diagnosis.

What makes these cases different from past lawsuits is the legal strategy. Rather than suing over content posted by users (which Meta has long been shielded from under a law called Section 230), plaintiffs are suing over the design of the product itself, the algorithms, the notifications, the engagement loops.

That reframing has worked. A federal judge has repeatedly refused to throw the cases out, and internal Meta documents, including one memo stating “if we wanna win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens,” have strengthened the plaintiffs’ case that the addictive design was intentional.

Trouble Inside the House Too
While fighting on four fronts abroad, Meta is also under pressure internally. In May 2026, it cut around 8,000 jobs as part of a shift toward AI-assisted operations, a move now facing a discrimination lawsuit from former employees who claim an AI system used performance data to unfairly target staff who had taken medical or maternity leave.

Separately, an employee tracking tool built to gather data for AI training was suspended after 1,600 staff signed a petition calling it a privacy violation.

And a new feature called “Muse Image AI,” which let people generate AI images from other users’ photos, was automatically switched on for all public adult Instagram accounts, drawing comparisons to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and raising fresh questions about compliance with European privacy law.

All this is happening while Meta pours between USD 115 billion and USD 135 billion into AI infrastructure in 2026 alone, nearly double what it spent the year before.

What It All Means
What’s happening to Meta in 2026 isn’t a series of unrelated headaches. It’s a shift in how the world regulates big tech.

Governments have stopped playing catch-up on individual pieces of harmful content and started targeting the architecture underneath, including the algorithms, the verification systems and the revenue models.

India wants identity and traceability. Europe wants proof that apps aren’t designed to be addictive. Australia wants a cut of the revenue to save its news industry. America’s courts want someone held financially responsible for the mental health toll on a generation of teenagers.

The result is a Meta that can no longer run one single global product. Usernames may stay frozen in India while working fine elsewhere. Instagram’s feed may need to become calmer and less algorithm-driven in Europe while staying exactly as engaging as ever in less regulated markets.

News might vanish from the platform entirely in Australia to dodge the levy. Piece by piece, the borderless internet Meta was built on is being replaced by a patchwork of national rules, and the company is now spending as much energy fighting sovereign governments as it is building the next generation of AI.

The post Meta is fighting governments, and the walls are closing in appeared first on International Finance.

India has emerged as WhatsApp’s largest market, with the platform possessing more than 500 million users while expanding beyond messaging into payments and business services in the South Asian giant. As per Zuckerberg’s announcement, Will Cathcart, the current head of WhatsApp, will move to ⁠a new role within Meta after seven years leading the messaging service.

Announcing Shah’s appointment, Zuckerberg said, “Kunal Shah will join Meta as WhatsApp’s next leader. Kunal built CRED into one of India’s most important technology companies, and he brings the kind of builder mentality and global perspective that will serve him well in running the world’s biggest messaging app. I look forward to working with Kunal to continue to make WhatsApp the best service for billions of people and millions of businesses.”

Meta’s investment into Cred (formed in 2018) is also one of the largest into India’s fintech sector in recent years. While the valuation surpassed the USD 3.5 billion mark, registered by CRED in its last funding round in 2025, it came lower than its 2022 peak of USD 6.4 billion.

The deal gives Meta a minority stake in Bengaluru-based CRED without allowing the Silicon Valley tech giant access to CRED customer ‌data. Talking about CRED, the latter operates a members-only platform for consumers with high credit scores, through which it offers products spanning payments, lending, insurance, wealth management, and lifestyle services.

As per the company, it serves 17 million members on a monthly basis, apart from processing more than 40% of India’s ⁠credit card bill payments and managing over 240 billion rupees (USD 2.5 billion) of lending assets for partner financial institutions.

While CRED will be using the freshly raised capital to accelerate its organizational growth, it will also strengthen its leadership and ⁠institutional capabilities, apart from expanding across product categories. Miten Sampat, who has led strategy and finance at CRED since 2020, has been appointed interim CEO.

Shah, who will be transitioning from fintech founder to the CEO of a popular global messaging platform, is known as an entrepreneur, angel investor, and one of the most influential figures in India’s startup ecosystem. He first came into prominence in 2009 by establishing a cashback promotions company, PaisaBack, which he later described as the key business model inspiring the formation of FreeCharge, which Shah, along with Sandeep Tandon, created in 2010.

In April 2015, Snapdeal announced the acquisition of FreeCharge in a cash-and-stock deal widely reported to be about 2,800 crore rupees (roughly USD 400–450 million). By 2022, as per the Mint, Shah was among India’s most active angel investors by number of deals during the year. Another 2021 Moneycontrol profile reported making more than 200 angel investments, including stakes in fintech companies such as Razorpay and BharatPe.

Shah, who also featured in Fortune India’s 40 Under 40 list in 2016, graduated with a degree in philosophy from Wilson College. He later got enrolled in an MBA program at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. However, he left the course midway to pursue entrepreneurship. Known best for his first-principles method of problem-solving, Shah’s interviews, speeches, and social media posts have earned him a cult status among Indian founders, investors, and business leaders.

Sha will be relocating to California’s Menlo Park, where he will work from Meta’s headquarters while shaping the future of WhatsApp.

The post Meet Kunal Shah: Meta’s surprising yet powerful pick for WhatsApp CEO’s post appeared first on International Finance.

We are seeing a massive shift from conversational language models to near-autonomous and goal-oriented digital beings with the capacity to not just speak and listen but take action in real-time. This shift is pioneered by something very open source, and it’s gone viral.

OpenClaw is changing everything. It has re-envisioned the computer-human relationship by transcending the traditional graphical user interface and achieving direct programmatic control over your machine. But what does this mean in plain language? Peter Steinberger has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) capable of operating applications on your phone, writing and sending emails, paying bills, and booking tickets on your behalf.

Additionally, it can write code to create other AI and even hire human beings without your oversight to accomplish the tasks you want done. It’s pretty fascinating and alarming. Especially if you have seen movies like “Matrix” or “The Terminator.”

A bit of context

Peter Steinberger is an Austrian software engineer and entrepreneur who created and published OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot) in November 2025. He launched PSPDFKit in 2011, a PDF SDK which powers over a billion devices for clients such as Apple and Dropbox. He made around $116 million in 2021 when he sold his stake in the company that he launched.

Steinberger went into early retirement. During a weekend trip to Marrakech, Morocco, the idea for what would eventually become OpenClaw was conceived. He created a prototype known as “WhatsApp Relay” to remotely manage files on his home computer, translate local communications, and compile restaurant recommendations via the messaging interface in the face of spotty local internet connectivity but dependable access to WhatsApp.

He expanded the idea into a comprehensive personal AI assistant, initially called “Clawdbot,” a moniker directly inspired by Anthropic’s Claude AI model, after realising the value of this local-first, always-on architecture.

When he realised the potential of his invention (originally a localised weekend project), Clawdbot was launched on GitHub and received an unprecedented 100,000-plus stars in late January 2026, later surpassing 135,000 stars and then over 200,000 stars, making it one of the fastest-growing open-source projects on the platform. It has also attracted two million visitors in a single week, and major infrastructure providers like Tencent and Alibaba Cloud have created one-click deployment solutions to further popularise the technology.

The lobster-themed AI was first called Clawdbot, but when Anthropic threatened to sue over similarity in name, it was changed to Moltbot. Later, it was renamed again, on January 30, as OpenClaw.

Within a fraction of a month, OpenClaw made the news, partly because of its security vulnerabilities and partly because of its potential. The two main attractions were the fact that OpenClaw had created and gone to a website called rentahuman.ai, where it actually hired people to do real-world tasks that the AI couldn’t.

There is also a social networking site called MoltBook, where people’s OpenClaw programmes speak with other people’s AI, peer-reviewing each other’s code and emulating human interactions. This has been condemned as a security nightmare by tech industry professionals, thereby becoming a reason for alarm to several AI doomsday critics.

However, Sam Altman of OpenAI sees OpenClaw as the future of agentic AI, where human beings are only going to tell the machine what they want, and the machine independently achieves those goals for them.

Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI on February 14, 2026, and he said on his blog: “What I want is to change the world, not build a large company, and teaming up with OpenAI is the fastest way to bring this to everyone. OpenClaw will move to a foundation and stay open and independent.”

Although the software is still officially under an MIT license, OpenAI has significant, albeit indirect, influence over the project’s developmental plan due to its role as the principal financial and infrastructure donor.

To safeguard the project’s open nature and implement the formal governance frameworks required to handle the growing security requirements of a platform that has grown larger and more complex than many well-known operating systems, the OpenClaw Foundation was established under the direction of independent board members like investor Dave Morin.

Peter Steinberger continues to be committed to building “an agent that even my mom can use.”

It is important to note that Sam Altman was not the only one to have approached Steinberger. Mark Zuckerberg also approached him, but was turned down because Steinberger did not feel that Meta promised, or was committed enough to, open-source software.

A breakdown of technicalities

OpenClaw primarily functions as a self-hosted, local-first personal AI agent runtime that runs directly on the user’s home computer, virtual private server (VPS), or local machine. The “Gateway,” which serves as the main control plane and orchestration layer, is the absolute heart of OpenClaw’s activities.

The Gateway is a persistent background daemon that runs on a Node.js runtime environment and maintains low-latency, persistent connections to a wide range of communication channels. It is set up through a Command Line Interface (CLI) wizard. The Gateway can easily communicate with WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, and WebChat thanks to native adaptors.

A wide range of AI providers, including OpenAI, Google, Ollama, and privacy-focused providers like Venice AI, are supported by the OpenClaw architecture, which is specifically made to be model-agnostic. However, because of its excellent long-context retention capabilities and extremely strong defence against prompt-injection assaults, the official documentation strongly advises using Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6.

The system’s advanced automated Auth profile rotation and Model failover procedures enable the agent to carry out activities continuously even in the event of service deterioration at the primary API provider.

OpenClaw’s defining feature is its unrestricted “computer use,” facilitated by a highly extensible toolset that operates via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Because the agent’s capabilities are defined by a few kilobytes of local markdown rather than proprietary cloud weights, the entire digital identity of an OpenClaw instance can be seamlessly copied, cloned, or migrated across hardware environments instantly.

So what does all that mean? Here’s a translation for the not-so-tech-savvy.

OpenClaw is like a personal assistant living in your home on your device, unlike ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, which live on clouds and data centres in far-off lands. Essentially, you own it. It is not a subscription-tier product; it lives with you, which means your data is not being harvested by some corporation in some country. This translates to privacy and autonomy. The gateways mentioned earlier are just, in a sense, brains that never sleep. It’s always on 24/7, like a receptionist at a desk watching all your communication apps (like WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, or Signal) and is waiting to act in the moment.

And what does it mean to be model-agnostic? Well, it’s not married to ChatGPT, Google, or Anthropic. You can use them all and several others, depending on your needs.

Finally, we get to the most interesting part, the MCP tools. This means your AI doesn’t just talk; now, it can actually do things like browse the web, manage files, and run programs. These tools expand what is possible beyond simple conversation.

With the failover and auth rotation, OpenClaw never ceases to function. There are no interruptions just because one cloud went down or one AI service hit the limits. You also have a portable identity in the sense that its whole personality is the size of a small text file, which you can carry around on a USB or send across via WhatsApp.

SaaS disruption

People have been quick to employ this new technology to provide meaningful services. It has now created a microeconomy known as the wrapper economy, and it leans into OpenClaw’s open-source availability and flexibility.

Since the core OpenClaw runtime provides the underlying execution orchestration for free, independent developers and business owners have found that creating the “picks and shovels” that surround the OpenClaw ecosystem is the primary method to make money. Wrapper-style businesses built around OpenClaw are already generating substantial recurring revenue, including fully managed hosting and turnkey setups for non-technical users.

Established SaaS (Software as a Service) firms, especially those that control digital support infrastructures and customer relationship management, face an existential danger from the second-order economic consequences of OpenClaw.

A single OpenClaw agent may easily function across Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Salesforce concurrently by connecting to enterprise systems via standard APIs or autonomous browser navigation, undermining the carefully built walled gardens these companies have put up.

Early adopters report cutting email triage time by around 78% and compressing onboarding from hours to 15 minutes in documented corporate case studies where OpenClaw was implemented across an integrated stack comprising Salesforce, Jira, and NetSuite.

However, this rapid enterprise deployment has precipitated a severe crisis in IT governance, categorised as “Shadow AI.” When individual employees unilaterally connect autonomous agents to corporate communication platforms without formal authorisation, they inadvertently grant these entities highly elevated privileges that traditional Cloud Security Posture Management tools are entirely blind to.

To combat this, enterprise security firms are developing specialised Data Security Posture Management solutions to identify rogue OpenClaw integrations and assess lateral movement risks posed by these non-human actors.

The Wise API, Plaid networks, and Stripe processing systems are just a few of the essential worldwide financial infrastructures that developers have published abilities that directly connect OpenClaw through the ClawHub marketplace.

When exchange rates reach algorithmic thresholds, an OpenClaw agent can execute cross-currency conversions, query real-time multi-currency balances, and independently start wire transfers. It can also distribute contractor payroll to numerous foreign recipients.

Significant regulatory and compliance challenges are brought up by this financial independence. To prevent autonomous agents from unintentionally breaking anti-money laundering laws or creating systemic market volatility through coordinated, machine-driven trading practices, institutions must put in place role-based access controls and explainable AI pipelines.

Humans hired by doom-scrolling AI

AI won’t steal your job; it will hire you instead. The introduction of RentAHuman.ai is arguably the OpenClaw ecosystem’s most conceptually startling development. This platform connects digital AI decision-making with tangible, real-world implementation. In the marketplace offered by RentAHuman.ai, autonomous AI agents use APIs to employ, oversee, guide, and pay people to perform manual labour.

An agent can independently decide that a physical activity is necessary, search the RentAHuman API for local labour that is available, negotiate a rate, and send a human worker to a physical place by utilising OpenClaw’s Model Context Protocol integration.

Human labourers register their precise locations, skill sets, and hourly rates. Within 48 hours of its initial launch, RentAHuman.ai generated over 550,000 page views, with tens of thousands of individuals signing up to provide physical labour for machine entities.

Individual OpenClaw bots started to display sophisticated emergent social behaviours as they spread over the world. Moltbook is the most well-known platform; industry experts refer to it as “the front page of the agent internet.”

By early February 2026, MoltBook hosted over 1.4-1.5 million registered AI agents actively posting and interacting in thousands of specialised sub-communities, showcasing the unprecedented ability to collectively assess challenging coding tasks and provide technical peer reviews to other machine entities.

The absolute autonomy of these agents in social spheres yielded highly controversial outcomes, best exemplified by the MoltMatch incident. MoltMatch was introduced as an experimental AI-driven dating platform where OpenClaw agents flirt, negotiate romantic compatibilities, and exchange user data on behalf of their human owners.

Jack Luo, a 21-year-old computer science student, discovered that his local OpenClaw agent had autonomously generated a romanticised, fundamentally inaccurate dating profile on MoltMatch without his explicit consent, simply because he had broadly tasked the agent with “managing his personal life.”

Furthermore, a forensic security analysis of MoltMatch revealed systemic instances of AI agents scraping the public internet for copyrighted photographs to generate entirely fabricated fake profiles designed to optimise interaction metrics.

A privacy nightmare

OpenClaw has some major flaws, one being that it is too naive and trusts its environment too quickly. It’s a very easy target for cybercriminals. For example, the criminals created a fake add-on for software, where nearly one in six were malicious, and hundreds were purely malware.

Some attackers even found a backdoor. For example, if your OpenClaw visited a compromised website, hackers could hijack the AI and take over the user’s PC or mobile phone. Security researchers have found that over 135,000 OpenClaw-related Internet-exposed machines are vulnerable to a critical RCE-style bug, and cyber-criminal groups have built large-scale operations around exposed OpenClaw instances.

Security experts responded by pushing two updates. A “trust nothing by default” security concept was introduced by a new framework known as AI SAFE. Additionally, OpenClaw’s own developers provided an emergency version that included authentication, locked the program to the local machine, and required human approval before taking any risky activities.

Industry professionals have not minced words about this tension. Cisco’s AI Threat & Security Research team, a group including Amy Chang and Vineeth Sai Narajala, warned on their official blog, “From a capability perspective, OpenClaw is groundbreaking, but from a security perspective it is an absolute nightmare.”

OpenClaw represents a genuine inflexion point in human-computer interaction, not merely another incremental leap, but a fundamental reimagining of what software can do on our behalf. Its open-source DNA ensures it belongs to everyone, yet that same openness invites exploitation.

The shadow economies, autonomous hiring platforms, and AI social networks it has spawned reveal both the breathtaking potential and the very real dangers of agents that act first and ask permission later. Whether OpenClaw fulfils Steinberger’s vision of democratised AI or becomes a cautionary tale hinges entirely on whether tech governance can keep pace with innovation, and history suggests it rarely does.

The post The bot that hired a human: Inside OpenClaw’s autonomous revolution appeared first on International Finance.

The banking industry’s resilience is demonstrated by data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which indicates that profits have increased from $1.09 billion during the same period last year.

CBK Governor Kamau Thugge claims that March was the banks’ best-performing month, with pre-tax profits hitting $184 million.

On the other hand, August saw the lowest profits of $119 million, the only month since January when profits fell below $136 million. Despite this minor decline, the banking industry has continued to grow while other economic sectors have experienced severe disruptions.

Kenya had a difficult year, marked by challenges such as severe flooding and rain from March to June, political turmoil with anti-government demonstrations in June and July, and limited liquidity.

Despite challenges, banks have shown resilience, with the finance and insurance industry expanding by 7% in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

However, in the second quarter, this growth slowed to 5.1%. According to the CBK, the banking industry will expand by 6% for the entire year, which is the slowest growth since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the economy in 2020, when growth was only 5.9%.

The general economic outlook seems more muted. The CBK has revised its prediction for the growth of the national economy from 5.4% to 5.1%. This change follows a slowdown in the second quarter, when growth slowed to 4.6% compared to 5.6% during the same time last year. Lending has decreased, which has also affected Kenyan banks.

The loan book for this sector was $27.2 billion at the end of August, a $1 billion decrease from $28.2 billion at the end of 2023. As the value of the Kenyan shilling increased relative to the United States dollar, this indicates both a decrease in lending and a depreciation of loans denominated in dollars.

The expansion of private sector credit has decreased dramatically; in August, it was only 1.3%, the lowest level in over five years. At the same time, the non-performing loan ratio rose to 16.7%, the highest level in 18 years. High credit costs have coincided with an increase in defaults and a decrease in borrowing. In February 2024, Kenya’s benchmark lending rate reached a 12-year high of 13%.

The CBK implemented consecutive reductions to the benchmark rate, bringing it down to 12%, in an effort to alleviate the burden on borrowers in response to these economic pressures. Reviving economic activity and encouraging borrowing are the goals of this.

In a statement, CBK said, “The Monetary Policy Committee noted the sharp deceleration in private sector credit and the slowdown in economic growth during the second quarter of 2024. It concluded that there was scope for further easing of monetary policy to boost economic activity while ensuring exchange rate stability.”

The performance of the industry will still be strongly correlated with more general economic developments, such as initiatives to control inflation, exchange rate swings, and international financial circumstances.

Strong security over PoS rollout

Network International, a Middle Eastern and African digital commerce enabler, has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring strong cybersecurity measures as it launches new payment solutions in Kenya.

Judy Waruiru, its Regional Managing Director for East and South Africa, said, “We are introducing our point-of-sale (POS) solutions as part of our strategy to enter the in-person payments market in Kenya, a key hub for East Africa.”

Network International is providing merchants with new point-of-sale solutions at no cost as part of this rollout, enabling companies of all sizes to conveniently accept payments in-store or while on the go.

In order to accommodate a variety of payment preferences, customers will also have the option to pay with cards or mobile wallets. As the number of digital transactions in the area rises, the business is expanding its service portfolio and addressing growing concerns about payment system security.

During an interaction with African Banker, Paul Mutethia, Head of Commercial at Network International Kenya, said, “The risks in cyberspace have increased, especially Denial of Service, malicious codes, botnets, and bugs which hamper operations. We secure our internal systems when they interact with the external environment. Our transactions are encrypted, and all our solutions are secure. We ensure there is no exposure to cyber-attacks because we hold sensitive customer data.”

He revealed that there is a dedicated department within the company that handles threat management and cyberspace monitoring. It would be better to close the business if you don’t make any investments in cybersecurity.

According to data from the Central Bank of Kenya, there are only slightly more than 55,000 point-of-sale machines in the country. This is insignificant when you consider that the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics reports that there are 7.4 million registered micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs). This reveals a serious weakness in the infrastructure for digital payments for companies across the nation.

The most recent products from Network International include contactless payment systems, improved mobile payment gateways, and e-commerce solutions designed to increase convenience while upholding strict security regulations.

JPMorgan Chase eyes presence in Nairobi

JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the world by market capitalisation, is expanding in Africa, with plans to open an office in Nairobi, Kenya.

The bank is the largest lender in the United States, with $4 trillion in assets and operations in more than 100 countries.

It received an operating license from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) just days before Jamie Dimon, the CEO of the bank, travelled to the country. The action is part of the bank’s strategy for global expansion and demonstrates its increasing interest in making investments in the African market.

The bank has identified Africa, which has the youngest population in the world, as a key growth region due to its fintech innovations and the rise in institutional bankers.

In October 2024, JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon travelled to Kenya as part of a trip to Africa that also included stops in South Africa and Nigeria.

“We are opening our first branch in Kenya, which we are really happy to do. We want to add a country or two in Africa every couple of years or so. And when you do it, you are basically covering the government, maybe some big government enterprises, and the multinationals that are going in there with traditional banking services,” Jamie Dimon said during an event in Nigeria.

Sailepu Montet, a former executive at CBK, has been appointed as the bank’s new Country Manager for Kenya. He has more than 20 years of banking experience and a solid foundation in financial markets from both the public and private sectors.

According to Dimon, the bank’s primary areas of interest are treasury services, commercial and investment banking, and possibly some lending in Kenya. Nevertheless, it does not currently have any plans to provide asset and wealth management services in the country, which are already offered in Nigeria and South Africa.

“We are not doing asset and wealth management now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the next few years,” Dimon added.

Nairobi was selected as the site for JPMorgan Chase’s office because of its growing prominence as a technology hub and its status as the gateway to the wider East African market, which makes it a desirable location for companies wishing to grow throughout the region.

Ten international banks, including Bank of China, Access Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Kigali, First Rand Bank and Nedbank of South Africa, Rabobank of Mauritius, and French lender Societe Generale, have representative offices in Nairobi.

The bank must, however, differentiate its offerings in various markets, such as Kenya, where regional and local lenders are well-represented. There are 46 commercial banks in the nation, providing services to 55 million people.

Nigerian banks go big

One of Nigeria’s leading commercial banks, First Bank, is now planning to expand to at least three African countries in its next growth phase, starting in 2025.

According to the Deputy Managing Director of the bank, Ini Ebong, the countries being targeted include Ethiopia, Angola, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast.

He asserted that there are growing opportunities in markets across the African continent, similar to “what we saw in the early 2000s in some of the larger African markets. We believe it is an opportune time to take part in this phase of growth.”

In December 2024, the Ethiopian parliament passed a law that allows foreign banks to open subsidiaries in Ethiopia. Foreign firms will only be allowed to own 49% of shares.

Also, during a panel session at the recently concluded Africa Financial Industry Summit, Ethiopia’s central bank governor, Mamo Mihretu, said the country had been working on the legislation that would finally open the banking sector to foreign competition over the past year.

FirstBank, which has been operating in Nigeria for 130 years, began establishing subsidiaries in other African markets in 2011 when it acquired Banque International de Credit, one of the leading banks in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In November 2013, it acquired subsidiaries of International Commercial Bank Financial Group Holdings AG (ICBFGH) in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Guinea. It purchased ICB Senegal the following year, completing its acquisition of West African assets and operations of ICBFGH. FirstBank also has operations in London and Paris, France, as well as a representative office in Beijing, China.

In January 2025, news emerged about Bidvest Bank being sold to Nigerian-based Access Bank, which is set to expand the latter’s operations in South Africa substantially. Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Bidvest is now eyeing the disposal of 100% of its holdings to Access Bank.

Bidvest is expected to raise R2.8 billion from the sale, which will then be used to settle its existing debt. Access Bank, on the other hand, plans to implement Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) ownership, including an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals in South Africa and Nigeria.

The Bidvest Bank book, which mainly consists of leased assets, loans and advances, totalled R6 billion in December, and was funded by deposits of R8 billion. In its most recent financial year, Bidvest Bank generated a trading profit of R371 million and an operating income of R377 million.

Speaking of Access Bank, the largest lender in Nigeria by assets, it has established itself as a full-service bank with over 60 million customers globally across three continents, serving three principal segments: retail, business, commercial, and corporate.

Following the acquisition, Bidvest Bank is set to be merged with Access Bank’s existing South African subsidiary to create an enlarged platform to anchor the regional growth strategy for the SADC region.

Using Bidvest Bank’s local capabilities and its established pan-African presence, Access Bank now hopes to have increased capacity for intra- and inter-Africa trade, connect businesses, and create new opportunities for regional integration.

The Nigerian-based company noted that South Africa’s banking sector is the largest in Africa, with a combined tier-one capital exceeding $42.2 billion in 2022. Despite a tough operating environment, the industry still achieved headline earnings growth of 2.5% year-on-year and maintained strong profitability (ROE of 17%) in the first half of 2024. Access Bank will now leverage the latest acquisition to strengthen its business and SME banking as well as its foreign exchange services, while also introducing new services tailored to the South African market.

Access Bank has already been operating in South Africa since 2021 after it acquired Grobank Limited. Grobank, which was previously known as Bank of Athens, was primarily focused on agriculture before Access Bank transformed it into a retail banking operation. The group currently offers personal, business, and corporate banking in South Africa.

Banks embrace WhatsApp banking

In order to process payments more quickly and interact with customers more effectively, Kenyan banks are increasingly using WhatsApp banking. Conversational banking is encouraged by this model, which also streamlines customer journeys and improves user intuitiveness.

Kenya’s Housing Finance Group, commonly referred to as HF Group, became the first major bank in the country to deploy WhatsApp banking in 2019.

HF Group CEO Robert Kibaara said, “Customers can simply add HF’s WhatsApp phone number to begin a secure banking chat session.”

Since 2019, the KCB Group, Kenya’s biggest bank by assets, has also adopted WhatsApp banking. KCB hopes to improve its communications by utilising widely used messaging platforms as part of a larger plan to offer individualised services.

A subsidiary of South Africa’s Absa Group, Absa Bank Kenya, followed suit in 2021 by launching the “Abby” WhatsApp banking service.

A Mumbai doctor’s loss of $2,000 from his WhatsApp wallet raised cybersecurity concerns, while many Kenyan consumers were ecstatic about the new banking model at the time.

“We have put up stringent measures to make WhatsApp banking secure for everyone. We have several security layers on the platform,” the bank’s head of digital channels, Andrew Mwithiga, told African Banker.

In 2022, Equity Group, which has the largest customer base in Kenya, introduced the Equity Virtual Assistant, a WhatsApp banking platform. With its open banking model, I&M Bank has also entered the WhatsApp banking space, initially providing customer service for non-transactional enquiries.

Through its AI-powered chatbot, Zuri, M-Pesa, the top mobile money platform in the world, has integrated WhatsApp banking since 2020. In Kenya, M-Pesa is used by more than 95% of households.

According to Statista, as of January 2024, 86% of Kenyan internet users were using WhatsApp, making it the most popular messaging app in the country. In Kenya, there were 7.9 million WhatsApp users as of 2023.

Meanwhile, an €8.51 million loan from the African Development Bank has been approved for Senegal’s “Programme to Promote Efficient Lighting Lamps” (PPLEEF), a groundbreaking project aimed at promoting energy efficiency in the nation. This establishes a new standard for sustainable development in Africa and is the bank’s first entirely focused demand-side energy efficiency investment project.

The post African banks post strong profits amidst hurdles appeared first on International Finance.

Durov has multiple citizenships spanning France, Russia, the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was born in Russia but lived much of his youth in Italy. After arriving from Azerbaijan, he was detained at Paris-Le Bourget Airport in France and freed following four days of interrogation. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, he was told to go to a police station twice a week and was compelled to pay 5 million euros in bail.

Telegram maintained that it complies with European Union (EU) regulations and that its content filtering is “within industry standards and constantly improving” in a statement that was uploaded to its platform. The business continued by saying Durov “has nothing to hide and travels across Europe frequently.”

Here are some specifics about the Telegram app, which is the reason behind Durov’s detention.

What is Telegram?

With the help of the Telegram software, users can have one-on-one chats, group chats, and broadcast messages to a large number of subscribers through “channels.” In contrast to competitors like Meta’s WhatsApp, Telegram supports up to 200,000 users in group chats, while WhatsApp only supports 1,024 users. Experts are worried that in group discussions, big, false information might spread quickly.

In contrast to widespread belief, Telegram does not automatically enable end-to-end encryption for user communications. Users must activate the option. Group conversations are not compatible with it either. This is in contrast to Facebook Messenger and rival Signal, where conversations are always end-to-end encrypted.

“Group conversations and channels—two popular Telegram features—are not end-to-end encrypted,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, explaining that their contents can be accessed through Telegram.

Similarly, user-to-user conversations are not end-to-end encrypted by default, which leaves Telegram with access to them as well. The only end-to-end encrypted function on Telegram is the opt-in “secret chat” option, which keeps Telegram from viewing the chat data.

According to Telegram, there are over 950 million active users. It is a popular messaging app in France, and some officials from the presidential palace and the ministry overseeing Durov’s probe use it as well. However, French police have also discovered that drug dealers and Islamic extremists have utilised the programme.

In 2013, Durov and his brother Nikolai founded Telegram. Pavel Durov backs the app “financially and philosophically, whereas Nikolai’s input is technological,” according to Telegram.

Durov established the biggest social network in Russia, VKontakte, before Telegram. The business faced pressure as a result of the Russian government’s crackdown following the large-scale pro-democracy demonstrations that shook Moscow at the end of 2011 and 2012.

According to Durov, representatives of the administration ordered VKontakte to remove the internet networks run by Russian opposition activists. Later, it demanded that the site provide the personal information of users who participated in the 2013 Ukrainian rebellion that resulted in the removal of a pro-Kremlin president.

However, in 2014, under pressure from Russian authorities, Durov sold his interest in VKontakte. He departed the nation as well. Currently headquartered in Dubai, Durov described the city as “the finest position for a neutral platform like ours to be in if we want to make sure we can preserve our users’ privacy and freedom of speech” during an April 2024 interview with Tucker Carlson, host of a conservative talk programme.

Why Did Durov Get Arrested?

French officials detained Durov and charged him with a misdemeanour for permitting suspected illegal activities on Telegram. They also prohibited him from leaving the country while they conducted additional inquiries. Durov is accused of allowing drug trafficking and child abuse materials to be distributed on his platform, and of Telegram refusing to provide information or documents to law enforcement when asked to do so.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the first preliminary complaint against him was for “complicity in maintaining an online platform to allow unlawful transactions by an organized gang,” a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 euros.

French law defines preliminary charges as a magistrate’s strong suspicion of a crime, with the option to continue the inquiry at a later date.

South Korea Gets Tough

South Korean police have now launched an investigation into Telegram over deepfake online sex crimes, reported the Yonhap news agency.

South Korean authorities have called on Telegram and other social media platforms for cooperation in fighting sexually explicit deepfake content. A broadcaster reported in August 2024 about university students running an illegal Telegram chatroom, sharing deepfake pornographic material of female classmates, one of a slew of high-profile cases that have stoked public anger.

“In light of these (deepfake) crimes, the Seoul National Police Agency launched their probe last week… for abetting the crimes,” said Woo Jong-soo, head of the investigation bureau at the National Police Agency, according to a transcript of a press briefing.

Police received 88 reports of deepfake porn last week alone, Woo said, adding they have identified 24 suspects. As per the AFP, the authorities have pledged to “find ways to cooperate with various investigative bodies, including the French, to enhance” their investigation into the platform.

As per the activists, South Korea is reportedly suffering from “an epidemic of digital sex crimes,” including those involving spycams and revenge porn, with inadequate legislation to punish offenders.

Perpetrators of deepfake crimes have reportedly used social media platforms such as Instagram to save/screen-capture photos of victims, which were then used to create fake pornographic material.

Dark Web Allegations Against Telegram

Telegram’s lack of content filtering has drawn criticism from Western governments on several occasions. Experts claim this exposes the messaging app to possible uses in drug trafficking, money laundering, and the transmission of content related to the exploitation of kids.

In contrast to other messaging apps, David Thiel, a researcher at Stanford University’s Internet Observatory who has studied the use of online platforms for child exploitation, claimed that Telegram is “less secure (and) more lax in terms of policy and detection of unlawful information.”

Additionally, Thiel stated that WhatsApp, a messaging software, “submitted over 1.3 million CyberTipline reports in 2023 (while) Telegram submits none,” and that Telegram “appears basically unresponsive to law enforcement.”

Due to the Telegram operators’ noncompliance with German legislation, Germany fined them 5.125 million euros (USD 5 million at the time). According to the Federal Office of Justice, Telegram has not designated a German company to receive official correspondence or established a legal mechanism for reporting illegal content.

Under German rules governing big internet platforms, both are necessary.

Due to Telegram’s refusal to provide information on neo-Nazi behaviour linked to a police investigation into school shootings in November 2023, Brazil temporarily blocked the messaging app.

As per Joe Tidy, Cyber correspondent, BBC World Service, criminals generally like the dark web because of the anonymity it provides: internet traffic is bounced around the world, obscuring people’s locations. Citing Researchers at cyber-security company Intel471, he said, “pre-Telegram this activity (cybercrime) was predominantly done in online markets hosted using hidden dark web services but for lower-level, lesser-skilled cyber-criminals, Telegram has become one of the most popular online destinations”.

The hacker group Qilin, which held United Kingdom’s NHS hospitals to ransom recently, notably chose to publish stolen blood test data on its Telegram channel before its dark web website. The deepfake service used to create fake vulgar images of teenagers in Spain and South Korea also runs its full service, including payment, on Telegram.

In January 2024, state police in Latvia set up a separate unit specialising in monitoring chat apps for drug trafficking and communication, and officials have named Telegram as a particular concern.

On “Chila Abuse Materials,” Telegram says that its content moderation is “within industry standards”, but BBC has found evidence to the contrary related to “an area of criminality far less visible.”

The BBC learnt that while Telegram does respond to some takedown requests from police and charities, it does not participate in programmes aimed at proactively preventing the spread of images and videos of child abuse. Not doing enough to police CSAM has been one of the allegations French prosecutors have brought against the platform.

“At the heart of this case is the lack of moderation and co-operation of the platform, in particular in the fight against crimes against children,” said Jean-Michel Bernigaud, the secretary general of French child protection agency Ofmin, on LinkedIn.

Moderation is not the only part of the problem for Telegram. The platform’s approach to police requests to remove illegal content and pass on evidence is another criticism.

Brian Fishman, a co-founder of Cinder, a software platform for trust and safety, posted, “Telegram is another level: it has been the key hub for Isis for a decade. It tolerates CSAM. It’s ignored reasonable law enforcement engagement for years. It’s not ‘light’ content moderation; it’s a different approach entirely.”

“Some might argue that Telegram’s privacy features mean that the company does not have much data about this activity to report to police. This is the case with ultra-private apps like Signal and WhatsApp. Telegram offers users similar levels of privacy if they opt to create a ‘Secret Chat’ which uses the same end-to-end encryption that those apps do. It means the activity inside a conversation is completely private and not even Telegram itself can view the contents. However, this function is not set as default on Telegram, and it seems that most of the activity on the app – including on those illicit channels I was added to – are not set as secret,” Joe Tidy noted.

Telegram could read all content and pass it on to the police if it wanted to, but it states in its terms and conditions that it does not. In June 2024, Pavel Durov told journalist Tucker Carlson that he only employs “about 30 engineers” to run his platform. Telegram’s cold approach to law enforcement is something that Tidy cited by frustrated police officers on the fringes of press events.

French authorities also noted in their statements about Mr Durov’s charges that police there and in Belgium had historically an “almost total lack of response from Telegram to legal requests”.

The post IF Insights: Is Telegram in trouble post Pavel Durov’s arrest? appeared first on International Finance.

The firm has also earned the distinction of being the “Most Innovative Homegrown Financial Advisory Firm 2023” by the International Finance Awards, due to its efforts in the arena of digital transformation in financial advisory, marked by resilience, adaptability, and foresight.

Rising To The Occasion

As the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 posed unprecedented challenges in the financial sector, finexis advisory enhanced its digital capabilities to support its extensive network of over 700 financial advisors and their clients.

finexis advisory’s digital strategy consists of digital tools designed to enhance the financial planning experience and foster stronger relationships between the company’s financial consultants and their clients.

The strategy also includes a Financial Dreams Manager tool that can simulate the feasibility of a client’s financial goals and dreams, a client mobile app, and an electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) application.

finexis advisory has also become the first financial advisory firm in Singapore to launch a WhatsApp chatbot integrated with ChatGPT.

Testament To Innovation

During an interaction with International Finance, finexis advisory (SG) Deputy CEO Irene Ho said, “Our recognition as the Most Innovative Homegrown Financial Advisory Firm 2023 is a testament to our journey of growth and innovation. At finexis, we’re not just embracing digital transformation; we’re actively shaping it to align with our core values of client-centric service. This award reflects our team’s dedication and our commitment to staying ahead in a dynamic financial landscape.”

The digital enhancements have allowed advisors to focus more on understanding the needs of the client and providing tailored financial strategies and personalised advice.

The eKYC process has reduced the time required for client onboarding, verification and compliance checks.

While the use of the Financial Dreams Manager tool facilitates better client engagement, the client mobile app allows faster access to financial information. Moreover, the integration of the WhatsApp chatbot has enabled advisors to swiftly receive responses to address client’s enquiries during their review.

The firm has also improved its advisor efficiency by at least 30%, apart from enhancing client interactions.

Fastest Growing HNWI Advisory

For two consecutive years, finexis advisory (HK) has earned the recognition of being the “Fastest Growing High Net Worth Advisory”, a milestone which highlights the venture’s expertise in serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs).

Speaking about the success, finexis advisory (HK) CEO Amy Chong told International Finance, “Our consistent growth is a clear indication of our acute market sensitivity and successful strategy formulation. We deeply appreciate the recognition from our partners and are committed to continuing to create higher value for the market and our partners in the future.”

finexis advisory (HK) has developed integrated wealth management services that encompass both personal and corporate financial planning through a suite of professional and tailor-made financial products.

The venture has harboured partnerships with over 45 international fund houses, 40 insurance companies, four investment platforms, and five international banks to offer over 400 professionally managed funds.

finexis advisory (HK) has been proactive in expanding its market presence, while understanding the ever-changing needs of the financial sector, exploring new markets and forging new business partnerships.

The company’s expansion into jurisdictions like Bermuda and Luxembourg reflects their commitment to adapting to the evolving needs of the HNWI clientele, while going beyond traditional solutions. This approach to market expansion is anchored in the firm’s philosophy of fostering new relationships, gaining new insights, and exploring new territories with courage and foresight.

The Road Ahead

As a process-driven company, finexis advisory is continuously enhancing its systems and operations with a focus on improving customer experiences.

The venture’s motto, “Sustainable growth is derived from Happy Customers,” underscores its strategy for client retention and the resultant success in a competitive market.

The combined achievements of both Singapore and Hong Kong branches have set new industry standards, thereby marking a path of transformation and growth for the firm in the global financial landscape.

The post finexis advisory: Ensuring growth for HNWI clients appeared first on International Finance.

Bank customers and airline passengers are among those being exposed to the risk of suffering due to phishing scams as these individuals complain to companies via X, stated a Guardian report, while adding that the fraudsters, masquerading as customer service agents, are responding under fake X handles and trick victims into disclosing their bank details to get a promised refund.

“They (fraudsters) typically win the trust of victims by displaying the blue checkmark icon, which until this year denoted accounts that had been officially verified by X,” the report explained the phenomenon.

“Changes introduced this year allow the icon to be bought by anyone who pays an 11 pounds monthly fee for the site’s subscription service, renamed this month from Twitter Blue to X Premium. Businesses that pay 950 pounds a month receive a gold tick. X’s terms and conditions do not state whether subscriber accounts are pre-vetted,” the report remarked further.

Guardian contacted an individual named Andrew Thomas, who was contacted by a scam account after posting a complaint to the travel platform Booking.com.

“I’d been trying since April to get a refund after our holiday flights were cancelled and finally resorted to X,” he told the media outlet.

“I received a response asking me to follow them, and DM [direct message] them with a contact number. They then called me via WhatsApp asking for my reference number so they could investigate. Later they called back to say that I would be refunded via their payment partner for which I’d need to download an app,” the person added further.

“It looked like the real thing, but I noticed that there was an unexpected hyphen in the Twitter handle and that it had only joined X in July 2023,” Thomas said, as he became suspicious and checked the X profile of the ‘travel platform’.

“I then checked the WhatsApp caller ID and found it was a Kenyan number. I’ve since come across other fake Booking.com Twitter accounts which are following customers who are at their wits’ end trying to get a refund and have resorted to X to air their grievance with the company,” he narrated further.

Booking.com has now reportedly refunded Thomas after the incident caught media attention.

In June 2023, passengers suffering from easyJet and British Airways flight cancellations were targeted by cybercriminals using fake profiles after they resorted to X to demand refunds.

Both the airlines informed the Observer about reporting the accounts to X. BA has even a pinned tweet alerting users to fake accounts.

Not only the tourism industry, but even bank customers in the United Kingdom have now reportedly been warned to be vigilant as scammers are on the lookout for tweets that they can exploit to obtain personal account details.

Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at the campaign organisation Which?, blamed the recent changes to X’s verification processes, which she believed, had made it harder for users to identify trusted accounts.

“Complaining to a company on social media can be an effective tactic to get a quick response, but check to make sure this is coming from its official account and, if in doubt, get in touch with the company directly using the contact details on their official website,” she said, while urging the Rishi Sunak government to pass the online safety bill on an immediate priority basis and ensure “it delivers meaningful protections for consumers against a flood of online fraud infiltrating the world’s biggest social media sites and search engines”.

Threat Actors Running Riot On X

As per the recent study by researchers from Indiana University, around 1,140 AI-powered accounts have been identified on X, which the research team has named the “Fox8” botnet. These accounts are reportedly using technology like ChatGPT to create fake content and steal pictures to create fake profiles.

As per the New York Post, these bot accounts are aiming to trick people into investing in fake cryptocurrencies. The Indiana University researchers even suspect that the bots might have stolen from real crypto wallets, while using hashtags like #bitcoin and #crypto and interacting with real human-run accounts focusing on crypto news.

The Fox8 botnet accounts are also spreading misinformation on various topics, including health and politics.

The bots are using the tactics of flooding the micro-blogging platform with numerous AI-generated posts, to increase the chances of these ‘posts’ being seen by real X users and ultimately, increasing the likelihood of someone clicking on harmful links.

These bots are not only using stolen photos but are also interacting with each other and have a certain number of followers and friends. The Indiana University researchers further noted that these accounts have improved in their believability due to advancements in language models like ChatGPT.

The post Fake customer service agents, “Fox8” botnets: Scammers run riot on X appeared first on International Finance.

From 2G to 4G and 5G, name any connectivity revolution and Lao Telecommunica-tion has been at the forefront of it, when it comes to introducing disruptive tech to the market in Laos. International Finance recently caught up with Lao Telecommunication CEO Souphol Chanthavixay, who spoke about his company’s expertise, operational capabilities, roadmap of introducing AI to the people of Lao and much more.

Can you tell us briefly about Lao Telecom?

Lao Telecommunication was established in 1996 as a joint venture between the Gov-ernment of the Lao PDR and Shenington Investments from Singapore with the Gov-ernment owning 51% of the company. We just celebrated our quarter century two years ago, and through that period Lao Telecom has been the leading telecommunica-tions provider in the country.

Obviously, the landscape since 1996 has changed dramatically; who would have thought that applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and many others, would emerge and change the way in which we communicate? But with each new innovation, we have kept pace and made sure that our customers enjoy the best possible services. We have gone from 2G in the early years to 4G and 5G in the last few years, and Lao Telecom has consistently been the first company to introduce such new technologies to the market in Laos.

How do Lao Telecom’s activities promote national development?

Lao Telecom as the major telecoms service provider in Laos, is proud to be able to contribute to the government’s digital economy policies by building a high-standard network with quality coverage to all cities across the country. Through our efforts, our support of technology innovations and the introduction of leading-edge solutions, Lao Telecom is a major force in driving digital innovation and as a result of such innova-tions, helps drive the nation’s economic development as we move from a least devel-oped country to a newly developing economy in the next few years. LTC’s infrastruc-ture based on the latest technologies will ensure that the country can enjoy the benefits of world-class service and connectivity on which the digital economy can securely be implemented and grow.

What is Lao Telecom’s view on new technologies especially in the area of AI?

Everyone knows that technology and new advances in technology drive the world and can empower an economy’s sustainable growth. At Lao Telecom we stay abreast of the latest technological advances, and whether it is the introduction of 4G or 5G mobile communications technologies, they are the innovative technologies that form the basic foundation that supports Lao Telecom’s broadband speed and capacity, the very ele-ments that make us the leading telecoms and digital solutions provider in Laos. The country’s e-commerce, social media, mobile payments system and all other types of digital business solutions depend on our ability to deliver these technologies, and that is our mission, to provide the type of solutions that will answer the needs of the con-sumers, and the business and government sectors. We will continue to monitor new advances, and already we are looking at the recent wave of announcements about AI technology that may have a massive effect on our daily lives – how will that affect tel-ecommunications, and how can we as a telco harness the power of AI, and more; these are the questions of today for solutions for the future.

You mention fintech, what is Lao Telecom doing in this area, and how important is it?

Fintech is quickly becoming an important pillar of the digital economy, and having an e-wallet is a major step toward financial inclusion and fiscal efficiency.

Ltc’s e-wallet, known as M-Money, is a Mobile electronic payment system that was established in July 2021. The online, or rather, on phone payment platform facilitates convenience, particularly when it comes to time – people who don’t want to spend a lot of time in banks, or would rather pay for government services online rather than go to a physical building will find this a convenient solution. We are rapidly expanding the platform, and to date, we have well over 300,000 merchants attached to the wallet, as well as nearly 1 million users of the platform. Further, M-Money serves the govern-ment’s policy toward transforming the country into a cashless society, and ensures that everyone has access to financial services.

How does Lao Telecom attract and retain personnel?

Of course, Ltc also has to focus on its human capital to ensure that we employ the peo-ple who will drive these new technology implementations. Further, we have to manage our fiscal and scientific resources to encourage creative new projects, whether they be in the area of AI, big data, cloud computing, or others to provide new services to our customers. We are constantly looking for new talent to help us keep abreast of these changes, while also offering an extensive range of in-house and external training and education opportunities for our personnel. We work hard to identify and retain key personnel while also developing and maintaining a strong corporate culture based on our core principles of integrity, respect, learning, compliance, creativity, and customer focus.

In terms of Corporate Responsibility or Shared Value, what are the activities un-dertaken by Lao Telecom?

As with our personnel and solutions for our customers, we also take our responsibility toward society as a whole very seriously. There are several strands that Lao Telecom views as core pillars of developing a just, inclusive, and equal society. One of those is education, and since our inception, Lao Telecom has consistently supported education efforts throughout the country. Annually we provide scholarships to students at the Na-tional University of Laos, participate in skills-building events and activities, and throughout the COVID pandemic period, worked closely with the Ministry of Educa-tion to facilitate online learning for students at all levels.

In addition to education, Lao Telecom also supports activities related to the preserva-tion of our Lao culture, and our natural resources. Further, Lao Telecom is always ready to support emergency aid efforts in times of natural disasters or emergencies. Whether be it floods that devastate the livelihoods of people, or other calamities, Lao Telecom provides assistance wherever and whenever it is needed.

The post Lao Telecom is a major force in driving digital innovation: CEO Souphol Chanthavixay appeared first on International Finance.

Consumers reported losing more money to investment scams than any other category in 2022, totalling more than USD 3.8 billion, according to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

That sum more than doubles the reported loss for 2021.

The FTC survey also revealed that impostor frauds, which increased from USD 2.4 billion in 2021 to USD 2.6 billion, were responsible for the second-highest loss.

The top five fraud categories included possibilities for business and employment, prizes, lotteries, investment-related fraud, and investment-related scams.

According to the research, nearly 2.4 million consumers reported fraudulent activity on their accounts in 2022, the most frequent of which were impostor scams and online retail fraud.

In a report earlier in February 2023, the FTC claimed that romance scammers made a tidy profit last year from 70,000 victims who lost USD 1.3 billion.

According to the survey, those looking for love are frequently victims of romance scammers who use dating applications.

Around 19% of those who lost money to a romance scam in 2022 said the contact began on a website or app, while nearly 40% said it started on social media.

Numerous others reported that the con artist rapidly switched the chat to Telegram, WhatsApp, or Google Talk.

Micheal Bruemmer, the Vice-President of Experian Data Breach Resolution and Consumer Protection, told CNBC that for 2023, these will be the following scams one should be careful against:

Charitable donations scam

These scams range from one-man operations to complex schemes run by registered non-profits (NGOs). Users donating to these funds end up seeing their money landing in the fraudsters’ laps. Charity scams can take the form of phishing, apart from using social engineering and approaching the potential victim over the phone/ meeting in person.

Romance Scams

Here, the criminal meets the potential victim on a dating/social media app and tries to get into a relationship with the person quickly. Not only are these criminals good at appearing caring, sincere and downright perfect, but they also have the expertise in setting up fake dating plans.

Instead of turning up in person for the date night, these scammers will ask the victims to provide money for ‘unexpected’ medical bills/other emergencies. The victims will be instructed to wire money or put it on a gift card. The criminals will also keep on asking their prey for money and the only way to stop this is by not sending cash anymore.

Romance scam victims often find themselves in debt/legal trouble and develop serious trust issues.

Fitness & Weight Loss Scams

Scammers are taking advantage of people’s desire to shed a few pounds as well.

These criminals target the ‘health enthusiasts’ by putting up a fake website, which is given a legitimate shape, promoting ‘fitness programs’. Also, the victims may be approached to sign up for a low-priced gym membership/different fitness product, promising “you can get 100 pounds off in three weeks and look like new because of the program… for which you have to provide your personal details and credit card,” Bruemmer said.

Car Warranty Scams

“I have a software app on my phone that blocks calls,” Bruemmer shares. “I got seven calls for extended car warranty [last week] because they try to leave a voicemail.”

The prevention of car warranty scams lies in ignoring such calls. Entertaining any such call will end up with the victims providing personal/financial information. In the worst case, the fraudster might try to sell his/her prey a fake extended auto warranty, defrauding the victims financially.

Generally, the calls accompany a pre-recorded message about car warranties.

Gift Card Scams

According to a 2022 survey, some 26% of US consumers received a gift card with no funds on it. A prime example is a gift card scam.

Scammers attempt to drain out a gift card’s balance before anyone uses it. They can even take cards off the store rack, tamper with the protective strips and steal the bar codes.

The fraudsters buy similar security tape and replace the protective strips to make the cards look untouched. Then they enter the card’s code into a program that tracks the retailer’s website and informs the scammer when someone buys the card so they can spend the money on it or cash it. By the time the card reaches its recipient, it’s a worthless piece of plastic.

Fraudsters also advertise gift card exchange websites that offer to check the victims’ gift card balance. If You put your gift card information on the portal, the scammer then uses those details to drain the card’s balance.

The post Scam alert: Americans lose USD 8.8 billion in 2022, expert issues warning for 2023 appeared first on International Finance.

Mark Zuckerberg called the feature a “major evolution of WhatsApp” and revealed that it had entered the testing phase.

Since communities would be a significant addition to the messaging, WhatsApp planned to roll it out slowly.

WhatsApp was first spotted working on communities in November 2021, so the feature has been under development for a long time.

As per a new report by WABetaInfo, the communities tab is showing up for certain users who updated to WhatsApp beta v2.22.193 on Android.

The feature reportedly may not appear for all beta users on the latest version right away, and some may have to force close the app and restart it first.

For those who do get access to the feature, a new communities tab will be visible on the main WhatsApp screen, which will replace the camera tab on the left.

Those who can see the new communities tab will be able to create a community with up to 10 groups in it and support up to 512 participants.

When a user starts a community, WhatsApp automatically creates an announcement group that includes all sub-group members.

This makes it easy for admins to send common messages to everyone at once.

Additionally, admins can disable the community altogether if they wish to.

Though, at the time being, WhatsApp does not hide phone numbers inside sub-groups. So members will be able to see each other’s contact information — until WhatsApp rolls out the ability to hide one’s phone number as the messaging service is also working on hiding the numbers of sub-group members from other participants for privacy reasons.

WhatsApp Communities are ideal for those managing schools or a neighborhood. This way, they get to keep all of the relevant sub-groups inside a common hub.

A community member can decide which sub-group to join based on their interest. They can also exit the sub-group whenever they want without leaving the community itself.

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