#payment aggregator

[letspepaymentgateway]

Artificial Intelligence, aka AI, is playing a vital role in fraud prevention for Payment Gateways today. There are many tools updated in the market used to make payment gateway services more secure daily. Hackers are becoming advanced and there is always a threat that they may crack the code to break the latest technology used in fraud prevention for the payment gateways. This generated the need to update the AI technology used for the prevention of payment gateways.

[frenzo-pay]

Mastering UPI Transactions: A Comprehensive Guide to Unified Payments Interface

In today's fast-paced digital world, mastering UPI transactions is no longer just a luxury, but a necessity. With the increasing reliance on online payments and financial services, understanding the ins and outs of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system is essential for seamless and secure money management. That's where this comprehensive guide comes in! We've compiled everything you need to know about UPI, from its inception to its multitude of features, ensuring you're well-equipped to navigate this revolutionary payment platform with confidence. Whether you're a tech-savvy individual, a growing business owner or simply eager to stay ahead of the curve, this guide is your one-stop solution for mastering UPI transactions and unlocking the true potential of digital payments. So, buckle up and get ready to dive into the world of UPI with ease and expertise! How UPI transactions work The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a real-time payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which facilitates interbank transactions by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform. It operates on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), a real-time interbank electronic funds transfer service.

To use UPI, you need to have a bank account with a bank that is part of the UPI network, a mobile number registered with your bank, and a mobile device with internet access. You also need to download a UPI-enabled app, such as Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, or your bank's own UPI app, and link your bank account to the app. Once you've set up your UPI ID, which is usually your mobile number followed by '@' and the name of your bank or app, you can initiate transactions by simply entering the recipient's UPI ID or scanning their QR code.

UPI transactions work on a simple yet effective mechanism. When you initiate a transaction, your UPI app sends an encrypted message to your bank, which then forwards the message to the beneficiary's bank for processing. The beneficiary's bank sends a confirmation to your bank, which then sends a confirmation back to your UPI app. This entire process takes place within seconds, making UPI one of the fastest ways to transfer money digitally.

Advantages of using UPI for transactions UPI offers several advantages over traditional banking methods, making it a popular choice for digital transactions. Some of the key benefits of UPI include:

Speed: UPI transactions are processed in real-time, allowing for instant money transfers. This is a significant improvement over NEFT and RTGS transactions, which can take hours or even days to complete.

Convenience: With UPI, all you need is the recipient's UPI ID or QR code to initiate a transaction. This eliminates the need to remember and enter complicated bank account numbers and IFSC codes.

24/7 Availability: UPI transactions can be carried out 24 hours a day, seven days a week, unlike traditional bank transfers, which are limited by bank working hours and holidays.

Low Cost: Most UPI transactions are free of charge or attract minimal fees, making them more cost-effective than other digital payment methods.

Versatility: UPI supports various transaction types, including person-to-person (P2P), person-to-merchant (P2M), and bill payments, making it suitable for a wide range of use cases.

Security: UPI transactions are secured through encryption, device binding, and multi-factor authentication, ensuring your financial information remains safe.

Setting up a UPI-enabled bank account To get started with UPI transactions, you first need to set up a UPI-enabled bank account. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you through the process:

Check if your bank supports UPI: Before you can set up a UPI-enabled account, ensure that your bank is part of the UPI network. Most major banks in India support UPI, but you can confirm this by visiting your bank's website or contacting their customer support.

Register your mobile number: Your mobile number acts as your unique identifier for UPI transactions, so make sure it's registered with your bank. If you haven't already, visit your bank's branch to link your mobile number to your account.

Download a UPI app: Choose a UPI-enabled app that suits your needs. You can opt for your bank's UPI app, or go for popular options like Google Pay, PhonePe, or Paytm. Download and install the app on your smartphone.

Link your bank account: Open the UPI app and follow the on-screen instructions to link your bank account. You may need to verify your mobile number and provide your debit card details during this process.

Create a UPI ID and PIN: Set up your unique UPI ID, which will be used to identify you during transactions. You'll also need to create a UPI PIN, which serves as an additional security layer for your transactions.

Start transacting: Once your UPI ID and PIN are set, you're ready to start making UPI transactions. Simply enter the recipient's UPI ID or scan their QR code to initiate a transaction.

UPI transaction types and use cases UPI supports a wide range of transaction types, catering to various use cases. Some common UPI transaction types include:

Person-to-Person (P2P) Transactions: UPI enables you to send money to another person instantly, using their UPI ID or mobile number. This is useful for paying friends, family members, or any other individual.

Person-to-Merchant (P2M) Transactions: UPI can also be used to make payments to merchants, both online and offline. Simply scan the merchant's QR code or enter their UPI ID to complete the transaction.

Bill Payments: UPI supports bill payments for utilities like electricity, gas, water, and mobile postpaid services. You can also use it to pay insurance premiums, loan EMIs, and credit card bills.

Recharges: UPI enables you to recharge your mobile prepaid, DTH, and data card services with ease.

Ticket Bookings: Many travel and ticket booking platforms have integrated UPI as a payment option, allowing you to book flights, trains, busesand movie tickets with UPI.

Apart from these common use cases, UPI can also be used for various other transactions such as donations, online shopping, and even requesting money from someone. Its versatility and ease of use have made it a popular choice for digital payments, with its usage growing rapidly.

UPI security features and best practices UPI transactions are secured through a variety of measures to ensure that your financial information remains safe. Some of the security features and best practices to keep in mind when using UPI include:

UPI PIN: Every UPI transaction requires you to enter your UPI PIN, which is a four or six-digit code that serves as an additional layer of security. Make sure to keep your UPI PIN secret and avoid sharing it with anyone.

Device Binding: UPI apps are device-bound, which means that your UPI ID can only be used on the device it was registered on. This prevents unauthorized access to your account from other devices.

Encryption: UPI transactions are encrypted end-to-end, which means that your financial information is protected from interception by hackers or third-party entities.

Two-Factor Authentication: UPI transactions require two-factor authentication, which involves verifying your transaction through a combination of your UPI PIN, fingerprint, or OTP (One Time Password). This ensures that only you can authorize transactions from your account.

Regular Account Monitoring: Keep a regular check on your UPI transaction history and bank statements to detect any unauthorized transactions or suspicious activity. Report any such incidents to your bank immediately.

By following these best practices, you can ensure that your UPI transactions are secure and protected from fraud or unauthorized access.

Troubleshooting common UPI transaction issues Despite its many advantages, UPI transactions may sometimes encounter errors or issues. Some common reasons for failed UPI transactions include insufficient funds, incorrect UPI ID or PIN, network connectivity issues, or server downtime. Here are some troubleshooting tips to help you resolve these issues:

Check Your UPI ID and PIN: Make sure that you've entered the correct UPI ID and PIN while initiating the transaction. Double-check your inputs before proceeding.

Check Your Account Balance: Ensure that you have sufficient balance in your bank account to complete the transaction.

Check Network Connectivity: UPI transactions require a stable internet connection to function. Check your network connectivity and try again.

Wait and Retry: If the server is down or experiencing heavy traffic, wait for a few minutes and retry the transaction.

Contact Customer Support: If you're still unable to complete the transaction, contact your bank's customer support for assistance.

By following these simple troubleshooting steps, you can resolve most UPI transaction issues and complete your transactions seamlessly.

Comparing UPI with other digital payment methods UPI isn't the only digital payment method available in India. There are several other options available, each with its own advantages and limitations. Here's a comparison of UPI with other popular digital payment methods in India:

Debit/Credit Cards: Debit and credit cards are widely accepted for online and offline transactions. However, they require physical possession, making them less convenient than UPI. They may also attract higher fees and charges.

Mobile Wallets: Mobile wallets like Paytm, Mobikwik, and Freecharge offer similar functionality to UPI, but with limited interconnectivity. They may also require you to maintain a minimum balance and charge transaction fees.

Net Banking: Net banking allows you to perform online transactions directly through your bank's website. However, it may not be as fast or convenient as UPI, and may have limited interconnectivity.

NEFT/RTGS: NEFT and RTGS are traditional interbank transfer methods that can take hours or even days to complete. They may also attract higher fees and only work during specific hours.

Overall, UPI offers several advantages over other digital payment methods, including speed, convenience, and versatility.

The future of UPI and digital payments in India UPI has witnessed tremendous growth since its launch in 2016, with the number of transactions increasing by over 100% YoY. As more people embrace digital payments, UPI is expected to play an even bigger role in India's financial landscape in the coming years.

The government has also been promoting digital payments through various initiatives like BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money), a UPI-based app launched by NPCI. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also been pushing for wider adoption of digital payments, which is expected to boost UPI's usage further.

Apart from UPI, other digital payment methods like QR codes, NFC, and biometric authentication are also gaining popularity, offering even more convenience and security. As technology continues to evolve, it's likely that digital payments will become the norm, with UPI at the forefront of this revolution.

Conclusion In conclusion, UPI is a game-changer in the world of digital payments, offering a fast, convenient, and secure way to transfer money between bank accounts. By understanding how UPI works, setting up a UPI-enabled bank account, and following security best practices, you can master UPI transactions and enjoy the many benefits it offers.

As more people embrace digital payments, UPI is expected to play an even bigger role in India's financial landscape, unlocking new opportunities for individuals and businesses alike. So, what are you waiting for? Download a UPI-enabled app today and start transacting with ease and expertise!

[enterslices]

RBI Guidelines for E-Wallets

In a world where convenience reigns supreme, digital wallets have become our trusty sidekicks, making transactions as easy as a swipe or a tap. But with great power comes great responsibility! Enter the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)—the guardian of financial integrity and consumer protection in India. E-wallets, or digital wallets, have revolutionized how we make payments. These virtual wallets have made our lives easier and more efficient, from buying groceries to paying bills. However, with the increasing popularity of e-wallets, there has been a growing concern for security and consumer protection.

Introduction to e-wallets

The digital revolution has transformed how we handle money, making transactions faster and more convenient than ever. Enter e-wallets—your pocket-sized solution for managing finances with a tap or click. But what exactly is the complete form of an e-wallet? It's not just about convenience; it's also about security and compliance, especially in a rapidly evolving market like India’s.

With numerous options available, from mobile apps to online platforms, digital wallets in India have quickly become a staple for everyday transactions. However, as this tech-savvy landscape grows, so does the need for regulation. This is where the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) steps in with its guidelines designed to ensure safe practices within this aggregator business framework.

Understanding these RBI guidelines is beneficial and essential for both users and companies operating in this space. Let’s dive deeper into what these regulations entail and how they shape our experience with prepaid payments through e-wallets.

Importance of RBI guidelines for e-wallets

RBI guidelines for e-wallets play a crucial role in ensuring the safety and reliability of digital transactions. With the rapid growth of digital wallets in India, these regulations help maintain consumer trust.

They establish a framework that protects users from fraud and misuse. By mandating Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, RBI ensures that only verified individuals can use these services.

Moreover, RBI transaction limits prevent excessive financial exposure, safeguarding consumers and service providers against potential losses.

The security measures required under these guidelines create a robust infrastructure for online payments and promote safe practices among businesses operating in the payment aggregator market.

Overview of RBI guidelines for e-wallets

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has laid crucial guidelines to regulate e-wallets, ensuring a secure and reliable digital payment ecosystem. One key area is the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirement. Users must verify their identities, which helps combat fraud and money laundering.

Transaction limits are another essential aspect. The RBI stipulates caps on how much can be loaded or transacted through these wallets, promoting responsible spending and minimizing risk for users.

Security measures mandated by the RBI include encryption protocols and two-factor authentication. Such steps enhance user trust in digital wallets while safeguarding sensitive information from breaches.

These guidelines aim to foster a safer environment for both consumers and businesses, ultimately driving growth in the burgeoning sector of prepaid payments across India’s digital landscape.

KYC requirements

KYC, or Know Your Customer, is a critical aspect of e-wallet regulations. It ensures that financial services are safe and secure for users.

Under RBI guidelines, every user must provide valid identification before using an e-wallet. This typically includes documents like Aadhaar cards, passports, or driver's licenses. The goal is to verify the identity of each customer and minimize fraud risks.

Moreover, businesses must maintain updated records of their customers' information. Regular audits may be conducted to ensure compliance with KYC norms.

This process not only protects users but also enhances transparency in transactions. By adhering to KYC requirements, digital wallets in India can build trust among consumers and improve overall market stability.

As the popularity of prepaid payment instruments grows in the aggregator business sector, strict KYC measures become even more vital for maintaining credibility within this evolving landscape.

Transaction limits

Transaction limits are a crucial aspect of e-wallet functionality. They dictate how much money users can send or receive within a specified timeframe. For many, this is reassuring as it helps prevent fraud and misuse.

Under the RBI guidelines, these limits vary based on user verification levels. A fully verified account may enjoy higher transaction thresholds compared to an unverified one. This tiered approach encourages users to complete their KYC processes for enhanced benefits.

Such restrictions not only protect consumers but also contribute to maintaining financial stability in the digital payments ecosystem. Companies must ensure they adhere to these regulations while offering competitive services that meet consumer needs.

Security measures

Security measures play a crucial role in the realm of e-wallets. With increasing digital transactions, safeguarding user data is paramount.

One significant measure is end-to-end encryption. This technology ensures that sensitive information remains confidential during transmission. Only authorized parties can access it.

Two-factor authentication adds another layer of protection. Users verify their identity through multiple methods, making unauthorized access more difficult.

Regular monitoring for suspicious activities also enhances security. E-wallet providers often utilize advanced algorithms to detect unusual patterns and flag potential fraud instantly.

Additionally, biometric security features like fingerprint scanning are gaining popularity. These provide users with a quick yet secure way to authorize transactions without relying solely on passwords.

Robust security protocols foster consumer trust in digital wallets across India’s evolving financial landscape, creating a safer environment for all participants.

Advantages of following RBI guidelines for e-wallets

Following RBI guidelines for e-wallets brings multiple advantages. For users, it enhances security and builds trust in the digital payments ecosystem. When stringent regulations safeguard transactions, customers feel more confident using these platforms.

Companies benefit as well. Compliance with RBI standards helps them avoid legal complications and penalties. This creates a stable environment for business operations and fosters growth within the aggregator business model.

In addition, adherence to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms improves risk management for companies. They can better understand their user demographics while minimizing fraudulent activities.

Conclusion

Adhering to RBI guidelines for a smooth and secure experience with e-wallets cannot be overstated. With the rise of digital wallets in India, users and companies must prioritize safety and compliance. The Reserve Bank of India has laid out clear directives to protect consumers while fostering innovation in fintech.

[merchantservices444]

What is the Difference Between Bank Fees and Merchant Fees?

[kenresearch1]

UAE Debt Collection Market is Expected to Reach More Than AED 5Bn by 2027 Owing to Rise in digital collection techniques and Improvement in UAE legal system related to debt collection, bankruptcy and insolvency: Ken Research

Buy Now

UAE Debt Collection Market Ecosystem

Tahseel, First Solution Management Service are the market leaders in UAE Debt Collection Market; the market is highly fragmented consisting of many players. The UAE Debt Collection Market is composed of many players which are operating across the borders and not just within the UAE.

 Key Market Findings:

Digital collections are being extensively used which leverages analytics to make the process more

Collection agents are being trained to equip them with latest technology and to adept them to various consumer situations for providing more feasible solutions.

The industry is slowly becoming more customer-centric in its approach.

Interested to Know More about this Report, Request for a sample report

IT Policies and Proper Documentation: Companies are maintaining proper documentation and proof for all debt provided by them to corporates and individuals. This makes it much easier for debt collection agencies to recover the debt in case of a default both amicably and legally as well through payment order method. Collection companies which provide settlement plans to debtors have start taking post-dated cheques as a proof for future payment. Changing IT policies require companies to maintain complete confidentiality of client information due to threat of data breach. All this factors will provide more growth to collection industry.

Emphasis on NLP Techniques: Collection agencies are extensively using various speech analytics tools to record and analyse customer conversations. This enables to maintain security and gain insights into client expectations. In addition, the information gathered can further be used for training of employees adapting them to different situations while negotiating and hence, improving their performance which would act as a key growth driver for debt collection companies.

Favorable Changes in UAE Legal System: The new legal system at UAE makes it possible to recover debts via court in merely within 7 days if all the documents are readily available. The new Bankruptcy law also provides safety for debtors and changes the shape of debt collection industry. Ultimately, act as catalysts for the industry.

Analysts at Ken Research in their latest publication- “UAE Debt Collection Market Outlook to 2027- Characterized by fierce competition and high growth prospects” by Ken Research provides a comprehensive analysis of the potential of the debt collection market in UAE. Rise in digital collection techniques and increasing use of AI and ML for recovery predictions are expected to contribute to the market growth over the forecast period.

UAE debt collection market is expected to grow at a robust CAGR over the forecasted period 2022-2027.

Key Segments Covered

Segmentation by Segment

Non-Finance

Finance

Insurance

Segmentation by Type of Firm

Debt Collection Agency

Law Firm

Segmentation by Age of Firm:

0 to 10 yrs

10 to 20 yrs

20 to 30 yrs

Segmentation by Geographical Presence

Abu Dhabi

Dubai

Fujairah

Sharjah

Ajman

Umm Al-Quwain

Ras Al-Khaimah

Sub-segmentation of insurance segment & financing segment

Sub-segmentation of insurance segment:

Motor & Transportation

Property/Fire

Liability & Others

Sub-segmentation of financing segment:

Real State

Personal

Financial institution

Services

Manufacturing

Trade

Others

Visit this Link :- Request for custom report

Key Target Audience

Existing Debt Collection Companies

Law Firms

Financing Companies

Non-Financing Companies

Insurance Companies

Debt Collection & Management software providers

Government Agencies

Finance Consultants

Others

Time Period Captured in the Report:

Historical Period: 2017-2022

Base Year: 2022

Forecast Period: 2022–2027

Companies Covered:

SUPPLY SIDE:

Debt Collection Companies

Tahseel

CMS

Aman Debt Collection

First Solution

Credit Recovery

AW Holding

Bilkish

Derby Group of Companies

Alpha Debt Collection

Fort Equity

Quick Action

ATDC

com

ALQADA

Law firms/Debt Collection

Taswiyeh

ASKTHELAW

HHS LAWYERS

DUBAI DEBT RECOVERY

STA

AE

AL ROWAAD

AL SAFAR

BIN EID

Regulatory Bodies and Judiciary

Central Bank of the UAE

Judicial Department

DEMAND SIDE:

Insurance companies

Etihad Credit Insuranc

Atradiuse

CIGNA

COFACE

PACIFIC PRIME

MetLIFE

ACE

Emirates RE

Financing companies

Emirates NBD

ADCB

DUBAI FIRST

Mashreq

Commercial Bank of Dubai

Dubai Islamic Bank

HSBC

RAKBANK

ADIB

FAB

CITYBANK

Non-Finance companies

Etisalat

Emircom

Etihad Water and Electricity

Abu Dhabi Distribution Companies

Emaar

Nakheel

Lufthansa

Choithrams

Asian Paints

Majid UL Futaim

Naseej

Key Topics Covered in the Report                            

Global Debt Collection Market Overview

Ecosystem of UAE Debt Collection Market – Demand and Supply Side

Value Chain Analysis – Amicable Settlement and Litigation Settlement

Market Size and Segmentation of Debt Collection Industry in UAE, 2017-2022

UAE Debt Collection Market Industry Analysis

Software used in UAE Debt Collection Market

Market Shares of Major Debt Collection Companies in UAE on the basis of Debt Collected, 2022

Competitive Analysis

Future Outlook and Projections, 2022-2027

For More Insights On Market Intelligence, Refer to the Link Below: –

UAE Debt Collection Market Outlook to 2027

Related Reports by Ken Research: –

KSA Debt Collection Market Outlook to FY’2026

[covid-safer-hotties]

If you've got a couple bucks to spare, consider checking out my Patreon.

For as little as $2 a month, you can support the aggregation and information efforts I make every day. I need to figure out how to reward the different tiers a bit better, but for now your monthly payment gets you early warning for social events and game nights as well as unfettered access to my crisis mitigation skills if you ever have an in-home exposure (say your partner or housemate gets infected: I've gotten through one such infection without myself getting infected, and I'm happy to share my experience if and when you have a crisis). Thanks to anyone who thinks about supporting me!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The credit card fee victory is a defeat

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me next weekend (Mar 30/31) in ANAHEIM at WONDERCON, then in Boston with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then Providence (Apr 12), and beyond!

The headline was pure David and Goliath: America's small businesses had finally triumphed in their 20-year litigation campaign against Visa and Mastercard over price-gouging on fees, and V/MC were going to cough up $30B as reparations:

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/26/economy/visa-mastercard-swipe-fee-settlement/index.html

But if you actually delve into that settlement, the victory gets very hollow indeed. Here's the figure that didn't make the headline: as a part of this settlement, the sky-high fees merchants pay to process your credit-card transaction are going up by 25%:

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2024/03/the-proposed-credit-card-interchange-settlement.html

The payments system is a hellish complex, rotten cartel, dominated by a handful of firms who have raised their already-high fees by 40% since the start of covid:

https://prospect.org/power/2023-02-07-small-business-credit-card-fees/

These companies who take 2-5% out of virtually every dollar exchange in the American company are wildly profitable, but their aggregate profits are still much lower than the profits of all the merchants they prey upon. More: the combined market capitalization of every company that accepts credit-cards is orders of magnitude larger than the payment processing companies. If we're just talking about sheer economic muscle, the "Goliath" here is "all the companies" and the "David" is "the three companies that process payments for them."

So, how is it that these puny middlemen are able to run circles around this massive retail sector? To learn the answer, you need to consider the fine technical details of the lawsuit and the settlement. That's something few of us are capable of doing on our own, because – as is ever the case with finance – the whole system is wreathed in an enormous amount of performative complexity. It's what finance bros call "MEGO," for "My Eyes Glaze Over." Finance loves things that are made complicated so that they'll be hard to understand – because so many of us will assume that they are hard to understand because they are complicated and just "leave it to the experts."

Thankfully, not all of the experts are on the side of finance. When I want a cheat-sheet for the lies buried in Uber's balance sheet, I look to Hubert Horan:

https://horanaviation.com/publications-uber

And when I want to understand credit markets, I go to Adam Levitin and his co-authors at the indispensable Credit Slips blog – and the Credit Card Interchange Settlement is no exception:

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2024/03/the-proposed-credit-card-interchange-settlement.html

Formally, the fight over credit-card fees is over "interchange fees" – the fees charged to a merchant's bank by Visa and Mastercard. But of course, these fees are passed on to the merchants. If you've ever shopped for a credit-card, you'll know that some cards offer massive rebates to consumers (especially wealthy consumers with great credit scores). These gifts don't come out of V/MC's bottom-line: every time you use one of those Platinum/Emerald/Unobtanium cards, V/MC levy an even higher interchange fee. So ultimately, when a wealthy customer with a "good" credit card shops at a merchant, the merchant ends up paying more to process their payment.

But merchants aren't allowed to charge that back to their customers – and that's the crux of the lawsuit. It's why American merchants pay the highest interchange fees in the developed world.

Enter the $30b settlement. Under its terms, average interchange fees will go down by 7 basis-points (0.07%) over the next five years, while all fees will go down by 0.04% over three years – a reduction of about $3b/year. Additionally: merchants will now be able to levy small, extremely limited surcharges based on either the type of card or the card brand (e.g., "We charge a fee for Visa" or "We charge a fee for gold cards"). If merchants are able to levy these fees and figure out how to max them out, they stand to make another 3b/year.

In other words, the $30b settlement comes from $15b in guaranteed savings and $15b in possible savings, for just five years – while V/MC will continue to charge more than $100b/year in interchange fees.

This litigation began in 2005, with merchants outraged over the sky-high average interchange fee of 1.75%. Today, after the settlement, those fees have climbed by 25%, to 2.19% – and they'll start climbing again after just five years. A 20-year fight over high fees resulted in a victory in which the fees are even higher.

How did this happen? Levitin gives us some tantalyzing hints. Over the two decades of litigation, the credit card cartel were able to peel off different groups of merchants and settle with them separately. Some of those settlements were vacated by courts, and other ones are still pending, but fundamentally, the merchants were not unified in the way the credit-card companies are.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Hundreds of thousands – millions? – of merchants are unable to coordinate strategies in the way that just two credit-card companies can. Indeed, when you have hundreds of thousands of companies, that represents many, many different kinds of businesses, each of which has different kinds of customers and different labor, inventory, cash-flow and profitability specifics.

But as an industry grows more concentrated, all the firms within that industry converge on a single, homogeneous style of operations. Walmart operates very differently from the mom-and-pop shops it forced out with predatory pricing and sweetheart deals with wholesalers – but Costco, Walmart and Sam's Club are all remarkably similar to one another. As a shopper, that means that if have needs that aren't well-served by a big box store, you're out of luck – and it means that a credit-card settlement that works for Walmart will probably work equally well for Costco and Sam's Club.

Think of the mobile phone duopoly of Apple/Google. These two "competitors" have nearly identical ways of dealing with their suppliers – both charging 30% fees for processing payments (and yes, that's a racket that makes Visa/Mastercard look like pikers). These two "competitors" are also one another's most important business-partners: the single largest transaction either company makes every year is with the other – the $26B that Google pays Apple every year to be the Ios and Safari default search engine, through which Apple exposes every one of its customers to Google's incredibly invasive, continuous surveillance.

Speaking of surveillance: consider the surveillance advertising duopoly of Google/Facebook. Not only do these companies extract the nearly identical (sky-high) fees from advertisers and dribble out the nearly identical (miserly) payouts to publishers – they also illegally collude to rig the advertising market, dividing it between themselves:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

The economists' term for this is the "collective action problem." It's a problem we want corporations to have. The problem with monopolies and cartels isn't merely that they're "too big to fail" and "too big to jail" – it's that a handful of companies can form a cartel to capture their regulators:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

The surveillance industry is unified; the surveilled are not. The rewards from surveillance are concentrated. The costs of surveillance are diffused. This is as good a working definition of corruption as you could ask for: conduct that produces concentrated gains and diffuse losses.

Our generations-long failure to enforce antitrust law created monopolies that rippled out through whole supply chains. As David Dayen described in his brilliant 2021 book Monopolized, it's the story of US health industry:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

First, pharma companies merged to monopoly and started to gouge hospitals on drug prices. So hospitals formed regional monopolies that could resist these pricing demands – and then turned around and started gouging insurance companies. So insurance companies merged, too. Every corner of health-care is now a monopoly or a cartel – from pharmacy benefit managers to hospital beds:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/05/hillrom/#baxter-international

The only parts of the industry that aren't concentrated are the parts that can't concentrate: patients and health-care workers. The monopolized health care sector reaps the concentrated gains, and the patients and workers pay the diffused costs. Those costs are diffused, but they're still substantial – a literal matter of life or death:

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/investors-private-equity-nonprofit-nursing-homes-quality-of-care/

Monopolization lets businesses solve their collective action problem, so they can run circles around less concentrated, less organized sectors. But concentration also lets companies solve the collective action problem of lobbying governments and capturing their regulators. A concentrated industry can maintain message discipline in front of regulators and legislators. A diffuse sector will always have credible defectors who'll say, "No, we can absolutely function with tighter controls – my competition is bullshitting you and I have receipts to prove it."

The surveillance industry's massive concentration is why America can't seem to pass a federal consumer privacy law. The last consumer privacy law Congress passed was 1988's Video Privacy Protection Act, a law that bans video-store clerks from telling anyone which VHS cassettes you're renting. But federal law is effectively silent on every other kind of invasion – your ISP, your TV, your car, your phone, your medical implant, your dishwasher and your smart speaker can all harvest your data, charge you for the privilege and sell it to anyone, for any purpose.

That silence didn't come cheap: whenever Congress moots a privacy law, the concentrated surveillance industry is all on the same page for the ensuing lobbying blitz, which it can afford thanks to the massive profits that an industry reaps when it eliminates "wasteful competition."

This is a point that leftists sometimes miss about competition law. The point of competition isn't merely to discipline companies into finding more efficient ways to run their businesses so that their prices go down. Sure, that's sometimes a good thing for the public.

But there's plenty of commercial conduct that we don't want to improve – rather, we want to extinguish that conduct. We don't want more efficient commercial surveillance – we want no commercial surveillance.

Without competition, an industry can outmaneuver the government. Think of IBM: the DOJ sued IBM for antitrust violations from 1970 to 1982. For 12 consecutive years, IBM spent more on lawyers to fight the DOJ's Antitrust Division than the DOJ spent on all the lawyers it employed to fight every antitrust violation in the country. IBM literally outspent the US government, year after year, for 12 years! That let them delay the DOJ's breakup long enough for Ronald Reagan to be elected, and then Reagan dropped the suit.

This doesn't just effect customers for a monopoly's products – it also (and especially) effects the workers for that monopoly. When employers don't have to compete for labor, they can pay workers less and save money they might otherwise have to pay for benefits and workplace safety. Those additional profits can be plowed into lobbying against pro-union laws, and to pay the eye-watering sums charged by scumbag union-busting law firms.

Look at the companies who've gone to the Supreme Court to get the National Labor Review Board abolished: these are giant corporations from heavily concentrated sectors with little competition to erode their profits. And while Tesla, Trader Joe's and Amazon all have very different businesses, they're all similar enough that none of them sees an advantage to courting workers by offering a unionized shop:

https://newrepublic.com/article/179165/musk-supreme-court-nlrb-labor

It's not just leftists who fail to grasp the relationship between competition and the ability of regulators to do their job. Libertarians miss this, too. Even if you're a fully Fountainhead-poisoned freedom-to-contract hobgoblin, you still want a government that can enforce those contracts and defend the property rights they invoke. For a government to force a corporation to abide by its contractual obligations, that government has to be more powerful than the corporation it is charged with policing. Which means that however large you're willing to let a monopoly or cartel grow, you're going to have to tolerate a government that's even larger:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/small-government/

The "$30b win" for America's merchants is, in fact, a loss. 20 years of litigation over high fees, and the fees are now much higher. But that loss is surely unevenly distributed. Walmart and Amazon and other retail giants are going to be able to bargain for all kinds of off-the-books rebates, promotions, and other sweetheart deals, meaning that they'll have even more unfair advantages over smaller, more disorganized retailers. That means more of those mom-and-pops will vanish, leaving shoppers with less choice and higher prices – and workers with less choice and lower wages.

The lesson of 40 years of pro-monopoly policy couldn't be clearer: you can either have an economy that is regulated by lawmakers who are at least nominally transparent and democratically accountable, or you can have an economy regulated by totally unaccountable and opaque monopolists. Fail to do the former, and you will always end up with the latter.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/28/concentrated-benefits/#diffuse-harms

[canmom]

Hypothetical Decentralised Social Media Protocol Stack

if we were to dream up the Next Social Media from first principles we face three problems. one is scaling hosting, the second is discovery/aggregation, the third is moderation.

hosting

hosting for millions of users is very very expensive. you have to have a network of datacentres around the world and mechanisms to sync the data between them. you probably use something like AWS, and they will charge you an eye-watering amount of money for it. since it's so expensive, there's no way to break even except by either charging users to access your service (which people generally hate to do) or selling ads, the ability to intrude on their attention to the highest bidder (which people also hate, and go out of their way to filter out). unless you have a lot of money to burn, this is a major barrier.

the traditional internet hosts everything on different servers, and you use addresses that point you to that server. the problem with this is that it responds poorly to sudden spikes in attention. if you self-host your blog, you can get DDOSed entirely by accident. you can use a service like cloudflare to protect you but that's $$$. you can host a blog on a service like wordpress, or a static site on a service like Github Pages or Neocities, often for free, but that broadly limits interaction to people leaving comments on your blog and doesn't have the off-the-cuff passing-thought sort of interaction that social media does.

the middle ground is forums, which used to be the primary form of social interaction before social media eclipsed them, typically running on one or a few servers with a database + frontend. these are viable enough, often they can be run with fairly minimal ads or by user subscriptions (the SomethingAwful model), but they can't scale indefinitely, and each one is a separate bubble. mastodon is a semi-return to this model, with the addition of a means to use your account on one bubble to interact with another ('federation').

the issue with everything so far is that it's an all-eggs-in-one-basket approach. you depend on the forum, instance, or service paying its bills to stay up. if it goes down, it's just gone. and database-backend models often interact poorly with the internet archive's scraping, so huge chunks won't be preserved.

scaling hosting could theoretically be solved by a model like torrents or IPFS, in which every user becomes a 'server' for all the posts they download, and you look up files using hashes of the content. if a post gets popular, it also gets better seeded! an issue with that design is archival: there is no guarantee that stuff will stay on the network, so if nobody is downloading a post, it is likely to get flushed out by newer stuff. it's like link rot, but it happens automatically.

IPFS solves this by 'pinning': you order an IPFS node (e.g. your server) not to flush a certain file so it will always be available from at least one source. they've sadly mixed this up in cryptocurrency, with 'pinning services' which will take payment in crypto to pin your data. my distaste for a technology designed around red queen races aside, I don't know how pinning costs compare to regular hosting costs.

theoretically you could build a social network on a backbone of content-based addressing. it would come with some drawbacks (posts would be immutable, unless you use some indirection to a traditional address-based hosting) but i think you could make it work (a mix of location-based addressing for low-bandwidth stuff like text, and content-based addressing for inline media). in fact, IPFS has the ability to mix in a bit of address-based lookup into its content-based approach, used for hosting blogs and the like.

as for videos - well, BitTorrent is great for distributing video files. though I don't know how well that scales to something like Youtube. you'd need a lot of hard drive space to handle the amount of Youtube that people typically watch and continue seeding it.

aggregation/discovery

the next problem is aggregation/discovery. social media sites approach this problem in various ways. early social media sites like LiveJournal had a somewhat newsgroup-like approach, you'd join a 'community' and people would post stuff to that community. this got replaced by the subscription model of sites like Twitter and Tumblr, where every user is simultaneously an author and a curator, and you subscribe to someone to see what posts they want to share.

this in turn got replaced by neural network-driven algorithms which attempt to guess what you'll want to see and show you stuff that's popular with whatever it thinks your demographic is. that's gotta go, or at least not be an intrinsic part of the social network anymore.

it would be easy enough to replicate the 'subscribe to see someone's recommended stuff' model, you just need a protocol for pointing people at stuff. (getting analytics such as like/reblog counts would be more difficult!) it would probably look similar to RSS feeds: you upload a list of suitably formatted data, and programs which speak that protocol can download it.

the problem of discovery - ways to find strangers who are interested in the same stuff you are - is more tricky. if we're trying to design this as a fully decentralised, censorship-resistant network, we face the spam problem. any means you use to broadcast 'hi, i exist and i like to talk about this thing, come interact with me' can be subverted by spammers. either you restrict yourself entirely to spreading across a network of curated recommendations, or you have to have moderation.

moderation

moderation is one of the hardest problems of social networks as they currently exist. it's both a problem of spam (the posts that users want to see getting swamped by porn bots or whatever) and legality (they're obliged to remove child porn, beheading videos and the like). the usual solution is a combination of AI shit - does the robot think this looks like a naked person - and outsourcing it to poorly paid workers in (typically) African countries, whose job is to look at reports of the most traumatic shit humans can come up with all day and confirm whether it's bad or not.

for our purposes, the hypothetical decentralised network is a protocol to help computers find stuff, not a platform. we can't control how people use it, and if we're not hosting any of the bad shit, it's not on us. but spam moderation is a problem any time that people can insert content you did not request into your feed.

possibly this is where you could have something like Mastodon instances, with their own moderation rules, but crucially, which don't host the content they aggregate. so instead of having 'an account on an instance', you have a stable address on the network, and you submit it to various directories so people can find you. by keeping each one limited in scale, it makes moderation more feasible. this is basically Reddit's model: you have topic-based hubs which people can subscribe to, and submit stuff to.

the other moderation issue is that there is no mechanism in this design to protect from mass harassment. if someone put you on the K*w*f*rms List of Degenerate Trannies To Suicidebait, there'd be fuck all you can do except refuse to receive contact from strangers. though... that's kind of already true of the internet as it stands. nobody has solved this problem.

to sum up

primarily static sites 'hosted' partly or fully on IPFS and BitTorrent

a protocol for sharing content you want to promote, similar to RSS, that you can aggregate into a 'feed'

directories you can submit posts to which handle their own moderation

no ads, nobody makes money off this

honestly, the biggest problem with all this is mostly just... getting it going in the first place. because let's be real, who but tech nerds is going to use a system that requires you to understand fuckin IPFS? until it's already up and running, this idea's got about as much hope as getting people to sign each others' GPG keys. it would have to have the sharp edges sanded down, so it's as easy to get on the Hypothetical Decentralised Social Network Protocol Stack as it is to register an account on tumblr.

but running over it like this... I don't think it's actually impossible in principle. a lot of the technical hurdles have already been solved. and that's what I want the Next Place to look like.

[girlactionfigure]

israel.against.hamas

The Authority pays a monthly payment to any Israeli or Palestinian terrorist who has been convicted of carrying out an attack against Israeli Jews, or against the governing bodies of the State of Israel. The amount of the salary was defined in section 12 of the Palestinian government’s decision number 23 in 2010. According to the decision, the amount was determined according to the number of years the terrorist served in prison. In the first three years in prison, the salary is 1,400 NIS per month. In the fourth year, the salary increases to 2,000 NIS, and so on. From the 31st year, the prisoner receives 12,000 NIS per month. For comparison, the average salary in the PA is about 3,000 NIS . The payments continue even after the terrorist is released, and may reach millions of shekels in aggregate.

[bluesturngold]

findhelp.org is the biggest aggregator of resources in the US, and if you're in a bad way (or if something is on the horizon that would put you in a bad way) it's worth looking through

if you reach out to the american red cross or united way for something they can't handle in-house, there's a good chance the caseworker is using findhelp to locate potential avenues of assistance

input your ZIP code to filter out programs that don't service your location, then you can filter by several categories based on what you're looking for help with. not all of them will be relevant to your situation, but i live in a pretty rural area and it's got just under 1,900 program results between the 10 categories.

if you check a subcategory and don't see what you're looking for there, try other similar subcategories just to make sure you aren't missing out on something.

just based on the work i've done helping people the past few months, here are some things i've noticed:

if you have money to pay some bills but not all of them, turn off auto pay for everything, then you'll generally want to prioritize rent/mortgage and your cell phone bill if you can.

do everything you can to not lose your cell phone number, even if that means transferring it to a really cheap prepaid service. if you can't help but lose the number, please reach out to someone beforehand and let them know where you are and where they might be able to get ahold of you (i.e. by calling a local library you intend to frequent, contacting your email, etc.). i frequently speak with friends and family members trying to help someone they lost contact with and i cannot stress enough how few options there are for locating and reconnecting people. if you're using a free calling/texting app on your phone, please make note of the phone number someone can call you back at. (also, they tend to rely on strength of wi-fi signal for clear service, there's a possibility a slow public wi-fi connection could make the call choppy.)

seek help early. some programs have caps on how much money you can request (this can make getting enough money to catch up on multiple missed payments difficult), or will only help after you meet a certain need threshold (this sucks, the US is deeply broken), but it's better to know the criteria ahead of time so you can reach out to them again later. and if that's not a requirement for the resource you reach out to, even better.

a lot of programs are likely to have turnaround times longer than you would like, and very few places have different tiers of urgency. if you expect to get an eviction notice or a utility shutoff notice, start looking for assistance ASAP, because if your landlord gives you a week to pay or get out, sometimes processing your application with a resource can take that whole week.

on that note, here's a resource for getting the gist of your state/territory's eviction laws: https://www.lsc.gov/initiatives/effect-state-local-laws-evictions/lsc-eviction-laws-database just in case you're being evicted unfairly, and here's guidance on how to deal with eviction: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/housing/housing-insecurity/help-for-renters/what-to-do-if-youre-facing-eviction/

have exact dates and numbers, always keep record of the bills that are unpaid, whether it's emails, screenshots of online payment portals saved to your phone, or paper bills

it's demoralizing if you reach out to a bunch of places and they can't help. however, you should keep reaching out while you're still in a position where you can. the more people you talk to, the more likely you are to find someone especially knowledgeable who can point you in the right direction, because the people you reach out to will vary so widely in terms of expertise and ability to assist: you may reach people who are paid employees with very specific training and little else to offer beyond that, you may meet brand new volunteers who are eager to help but need time to ask others for advice, or you might talk to career employees/seasoned volunteers who can get you set on the right path even if their organization can't help personally

you should apply for state and federal resources also. some places will only help if you're turned down by the government, or government aid is insufficient, so that's always a good avenue to try first.

[letspepaymentgateway]

Mobile payment gateways Solutions are growing in the business industry on a daily basis. If you are an entrepreneur or have an established business, you must be aware of the term payment gateway. 

[seat-safety-switch]

There's a sort of cosmic unfairness to the idea that you need to have a garage in order to effectively own shitbox cars. A garage almost always comes with a house, and a house requires its own maintenance. Maintenance that takes you away from your car. That's a huge bummer. It's nowhere near as much fun fixing leaks on garage doors as it is to fix leaks in your oilpan.

Naturally, I try to do as little maintenance as possible to the home in which I live. Legally, it would be incorrect to refer to it as "my" home, as my attorney informs me that I should try to maintain the illusion that my landlord is still alive for as long as possible. Squatter's rights are great and all, but eventually the bill collectors are going to come looking for me if they cotton on to the fact that he disappeared under mysterious circumstances, which I am pretty sure is the name of a town in Illinois.

That said, you still need to fix up your place once in awhile if you want it to serve the important task of storing all your hoarded car parts. What, you thought I kept my cars in here? No. These old batteries and bent steel wheels are worth more than any of my cars. Much more, even in aggregate. If any of them got wet, then I'd have to immediately drive very fast to the recycler to get rid of them, which would very much reduce any leverage I have when negotiating my payment. You want to seem cool and aloof when you roll up to We Don't Ask Questions Metals, and frantically powersliding into the lot with some dramatically sparking 25-year-old lead-acids undermines that entire thing.

All this is to explain why the roof of my garage is now three or four layers of tarps, duct-taped together. You might think that you recognize these tarps as being the ones on the construction site down the road, but such an accusation is ridiculous. Why would I do such a brazen, stupid theft, when the very construction workers affected drive by my house every day? Maybe because their own fancy trucks have batteries, and they'd have to stop to read off the address number written on the side of the building? That's a very good guess. Maybe you'd like a Group H7 battery, fresh out of the front of an F-250 King Ranch, for your observational skills. Just don't put it in the corner over there. It's gotten a little wet.

[corpzoventuresprivatelimited]

In today’s fast-paced world, digital transactions have become the lifeline of businesses. From online shopping to paying bills, customers expect seamless payments. But here’s the catch—only those with a Payment Aggregator (PA) License can legally handle such payments. If you're planning to start your own payment gateway business, this guide will walk you through every step to get that coveted PA license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

[mariacallous]

Syria’s Central Bank transported large shipments of U.S. dollars and euros to Russia by air between March 2018 and September 2019, The Financial Times reported on December 15, citing data from the Russian customs aggregator Import Genius.

According to the FT, the Assad regime sent nearly two tons of $100 and 500 euro banknotes to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. Over the period in question, 21 flights carried more than $250 million in cash from Syria to Moscow.

Records reviewed by the FT show that the funds were deposited into two Russian banks: Russian Financial Corporation (RFK) and TsMR Bank, both under U.S. sanctions. RFK is a subsidiary of Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state arms exporter.

A source familiar with the Syrian Central Bank’s finances told the FT that by 2018, Syria’s foreign reserves were nearly depleted. Due to international sanctions, the bank relied on cash payments to procure Russian wheat, pay for printing currency, and cover “defense” expenses. The source said the payments were made using “what was available in the vault.”

Russian customs documents also indicate that military components and newly printed Syrian banknotes — produced by Russia’s state-run printing company Goznak — were sent to Syria over several years, including both before and after the cash shipments. However, there is no evidence that the two Russian banks involved handled cash transfers from Syria or any other country outside the 2018–2019 period.

The FT noted that these cash transfers occurred when “the then Syrian dictator was indebted to the Kremlin for military support and his relatives were secretly buying assets in Russia.” In 2019, the FT wrote that relatives of Bashar al-Assad had acquired at least 20 apartments in Moscow since 2013.

[easyconcretesupplygoldcoast]

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[transpondster]

From Warren Buffett's Letter to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders - Feb. 2025

Surprise, Surprise! An Important American Record is Smashed

Sixty years ago, present management took control of Berkshire. That move was a mistake – my mistake – and one that plagued us for two decades. Charlie, I should emphasize, spotted my obvious error immediately: Though the price I paid for Berkshire looked cheap, its business – a large northern textile operation – was headed for extinction.

The U.S. Treasury, of all places, had already received silent warnings of Berkshire’s destiny. In 1965, the company did not pay a dime of income tax, an embarrassment that had generally prevailed at the company for a decade. That sort of economic behavior may be understandable for glamorous startups, but it’s a blinking yellow light when it happens at a venerable pillar of American industry. Berkshire was headed for the ash can.

Fast forward 60 years and imagine the surprise at the Treasury when that same company – still operating under the name of Berkshire Hathaway – paid far more in corporate income tax than the U.S. government had ever received from any company – even the American tech titans that commanded market values in the trillions.

To be precise, Berkshire last year made four payments to the IRS that totaled $26.8 billion. That’s about 5% of what all of corporate America paid. (In addition, we paid sizable amounts for income taxes to foreign governments and to 44 states.)

Note one crucial factor allowing this record-shattering payment: Berkshire shareholders during the same 1965-2024 period received only one cash dividend. On January 3, 1967, we disbursed our sole payment – $101,755 or 10¢ per A share. (I can’t remember why I suggested this action to Berkshire’s board of directors. Now it seems like a bad dream.)

For sixty years, Berkshire shareholders endorsed continuous reinvestment and that enabled the company to build its taxable income. Cash income-tax payments to the U.S. Treasury, miniscule in the first decade, now aggregate more than $101 billion . . . and counting.

* * * * * * * * * * * * Huge numbers can be hard to visualize. Let me recast the $26.8 billion that we paid last year.

If Berkshire had sent the Treasury a $1 million check every 20 minutes throughout all of 2024 – visualize 366 days and nights because 2024 was a leap year – we still would have owed the federal government a significant sum at yearend. Indeed, it would be well into January before the Treasury would tell us that we could take a short breather, get some sleep, and prepare for our 2025 tax payments.

Full Report is available here

I don't think any other major CEO actually brags about how much his or her company pays in taxes.