Free Republic

Payment card giants Visa and Mastercard have announced plans to integrate with AI “agents,” enabling them to make purchases on users’ behalf by accessing their credit card information. According to Visa, the agents would verify purchases with users at first, but would gain more autonomy over time. AI agents, or “personal assistants,” are advanced versions of popular chatbot large language models (LLMs). They are designed to simplify users’ lives by taking over critical functions across work and day-to-day life. So far, progress on these AI agents has been slow, with little to show for it. However, the payment card companies...

Are you ready for the Circle IPO? The “stablecoin” giant just filed to go public. It’s aiming for a valuation between $4 billion and $5 billion and plans to list on the NYSE as early as June under the ticker CRCL. It will be the biggest crypto IPO since Coinbase (COIN) went public back in 2021. Circle is the company behind USD Coin (USDC)— the world’s second-biggest stablecoin. I’ll share my favorite way to profit from the rise of stablecoins in a minute. First, let me quickly break down what stablecoins are and why they’re a huge disruption to the...

Mayor Eric Adams is ending his administration’s controversial program supplying migrants in city shelters with prepaid debit cards to pay for groceries. The pilot program distributed the preloaded Mastercards to asylum seekers at hotels-turned-shelters with a family of four receiving about $350 a week to cover the cost of groceries and baby supplies. The city hired New Jersey-based tech startup, Mobility Capital Finance, in a $53 million one-year “emergency” contract that drew backlash when the city failed to conduct a typical bidding process before picking the company. But with the one year up shortly, the Adams administration decided against renewing...

The House Judiciary Committee released a damning report Wednesday morning with shocking details of corporate collusion to silence conservative viewpoints through targeting Breitbart News, Joe Rogan, and Twitter (now X) among others.The committee released its report just hours before hearing testimony from Herrish Patel, President of Unilever USA, and Christian Juhl, Global Chief Executive Officer of GroupM. Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) alleges those companies, as members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media’s (GARM) Steer Team, may have violated antitrust laws in their efforts to deprive conservative media outlets and personalities as well as companies daring to platform conservative viewpoints...

Ten members of the banking community are working with the New York Innovation Center (NYIC), which is part of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to explore the feasibility of the regulated liability network (RLN) — an interoperable digital money platform. The proposed RLN would use distributed ledger technology to improve financial settlements and would include central banks, commercial banks and regulated non-banks, the participating firms said Tuesday (Nov. 15) in a press release. “The 12-week PoC [proof of concept] will test a version of the RLN design that operates exclusively in U.S. dollars where commercial banks issue simulated...

American business titans who paid thousands to be in the room with Chinese President Xi Jinping gave the communist country’s leader a standing ovation after his remarks in San Francisco this week. On Wednesday evening, Xi dined with more than 300 American business executives and delivered remarks promoting investment in China, a country many Americans consider the greatest threat to the U.S., at a gala in the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency in downtown San Francisco. [cut] Among the American executives gathered to listen to Xi were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam, Salesforce...

An official meeting of all ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors kicked off on Tuesday (March 28) in Indonesia. Top of the agenda are discussions to reduce dependence on the US Dollar, Euro, Yen, and British Pound from financial transactions and move to settlements in local currencies. The meeting discussed efforts to reduce dependence on major currencies through the Local Currency Transaction (LCT) scheme. This is an extension of the previous Local Currency Settlement (LCS) scheme that has already begun to be implemented between ASEAN members. This means that an ASEAN cross-border digital payment system would be expanded further...

Bank Indonesia (BI) says it will introduce a domestic credit card system allowing for greater independence and lower fees, as transactions are settled locally rather than by foreign providers. BI spokesperson Erwin Haryono said on Saturday that the central bank had been in discussion with local industries and progress stood at 90 percent, but he declined to reveal when the domestic credit card would be launched or what it would be called. Erwin said a domestic credit card would have several benefits, notably lower fees, because offshore settlement and relying on foreign payment networks like United States-based Visa or Mastercard...

Visa and Mastercard dropped their plans to track firearm and ammunition purchases because of my legislation. When conservatives fight, we win. pic.twitter.com/m1rOfJSoVU— Riley Moore (@RileyMooreWV) March 9, 2023 NEW YORK (AP) — Visa and Mastercard paused their decision to start categorizing purchases at gun shops, a significant win for conservative groups and Second Amendment advocates who felt that tracking gun shop purchases would inadvertently discriminate against legal firearms purchases. The decision is, at the same time, also a defeat for gun control groups. There had been hope that categorizing credit and debit card purchases would allow authorities to potentially see...

BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2022 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — Boca Raton resident David Schnegelberger is facing a DUI charge after he allegedly gave a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper his Jetblue Mastercard when the Trooper asked for his license. Schnegelberger, according to a witness, had just crashed his vehicle into the median on the Congress Avenue off-ramp from I-95. The following excerpts from the arrest report explain what FHP claims took place: On 9/11/2022 at approximately 2:42PM I was dispatched to a reported single vehicle collision in the area of the Interstate 95 southbound exit ramp to Congress Avenue....

Visa, Mastercard and American Express will separately categorize sales at gun shops...The decision is a win for gun control advocates who say it will help track gun sales...Until Friday, gun store sales were considered general merchandise.

A chorus of prosecutors, gun legislation advocates, law enforcement officials, and corporate shareholders are calling on global credit card giants Visa and Mastercard to stop facilitating payments for “ghost guns,” or untraceable, easy-to-assemble firearm kits that are often sold over the internet. Visa and Mastercard, which process 75% of all credit card transactions in the United States, have so far refused to do so. Mastercard’s board unanimously recommended that shareholders vote against a new proposal that calls on the company to take action. “Payment processors like MasterCard absolutely have the ability to restrict transactions related to ghost guns on their...

Mastercard is piloting new technology that lets shoppers make payments with just their face or hand at the checkout point. The company on Tuesday launched a program for retailers to offer biometric payment methods, like facial recognition and fingerprint scanning. At checkout, users will be able to authenticate their payment by showing their face or the palm of their hand instead of swiping their card.

For the most part, financial services companies erect employee bonus systems for one reason and one reason only: to maximize shareholder profits. However, a strange new occurrence is afoot in the financial services sector, wherein companies are no longer concerned with maximizing shareholder value—which is their fiduciary responsibility and reason for being—because they are more interested in lining their own pockets by aligning themselves with the latest woke investment scheme known as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores. Take Mastercard for example, which recently announced it will begin “linking employee compensation to ESG goals.” According to Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach,...

When MasterCard and the United Nations have joined forces, you know bad news is on the horizon. Auto manufacturers, companies, and governments increasingly have the power to track our every movement and prevent us from driving our own vehicles. Supposedly democratic governments can lock us down or even freeze our bank accounts on a whim (see also "Canada" and "Trudeau"). In this increasingly dystopian world, large multinational corporations are working hand-in-glove with said governments to reshape society in their preferred image, garden-variety citizens be damned. To that end, MasterCard and the United Nations have joined forces to produce a credit...

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation announced on Sunday that several banks will switch to the Chinese card system following the suspension of Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal in Russia. It can be recalled that Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal announced on Saturday they will suspend all operations in Russia. “We are compelled to act following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed,” said Al Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Visa Inc. On Sunday, several banks in Russia will start to issue new cards with the new Russian payments system “Mir” and China’s...

Several Russian banks said on Sunday they would soon start issuing cards using the Chinese UnionPay card operator's system coupled with Russia's own Mir network, after Visa and MasterCard said they were suspending operations in Russia. Announcements regarding the switch to UnionPay came on Sunday from Sberbank (SBER.MM), Russia's biggest lender, as well as Alfa Bank and Tinkoff.

Financial services companies Visa and Mastercard announced Saturday they are suspending business in Russia in response to the country’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. "Effective immediately, Visa will work with its clients and partners within Russia to cease all Visa transactions over the coming days," Visa said in a press release. "Once complete, all transactions initiated with Visa cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside the country and any Visa cards issued by financial institutions outside of Russia will no longer work within the Russian Federation." Al Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Visa Inc., said in the...

Credit card giants Mastercard and Visa late Monday began blocking Russian banks from access to their networks. “As a result of sanction orders, we have blocked multiple financial institutions from the Mastercard payment network,” the company said in a statement. “We will continue to work with regulators in the days ahead to abide fully by our compliance obligations as they evolve.” Visa is reported to have taken similar action.

Herein lies a glimpse into just what kind of knuckle-draggers the left thinks we are. They think patriotism means we’ll do whatever they say whenever they say it.“Rooting against Olympians, scoffing at Capitol police, broaching civil war — meet today’s conservative movement.”That’s the opening of an article last week at Vox.com. You’ve probably heard of Vox. Their self-proclaimed, self-aggrandizing purpose is to “explain the news.” But when Vox’s condescending reporters start talking about conservatives, Christians, guns, or really anyone outside of a few coastal cities, they have a habit of sounding like Jane Goodall observing apes.So, what’s their qualm now?...