Irregular study shows agents acting independently again
Irregular looked at a self-hosted system where an open-weights model supported both a coding agent and an AI app that the agent was supposed to maintain. When given a software maintenance task, the agent altered and replaced the model. Learn how at this link:
Cloned bank call bots selling for $30/week on Dark Web – Nord VPN
NordVPN has analyzed dark web forums and Telegram channels using NordLayer Intelligence, a threat exposure management platform, and found that commercial activity around AI voice cloning grew 7.4 times between January-July 2024 and January-July 2026. Posts advertising voice-cloning services, tools, and pricing rose 82% in 2025, then a further 75% in the first seven months of 2026 alone.
Posts describing specific fraud use-cases, including CEO wire fraud, vishing, family-emergency scams, and attacks on bank voice ID, are projected to triple from 2025 to 2026. Voice cloning mentions appeared more on the dark web in the first seven months of 2026 than in all of 2025.
“Voice used to be the thing that proved you were talking to a real person. That is over, and most people have not adjusted yet,” says Adrianus Warmenhoven, cybersecurity advisor at NordVPN. “The phone is still where the bank calls, where family calls, where anything urgent comes through. That trust is now something criminals can buy their way into cheaply.”
Voice cloning now appears as a feature inside broader criminal toolkits rather than as a standalone novelty.
Saint OTP Bot, a Telegram bot that captures banking and crypto one-time codes on automated calls, costs around $30 a week. Its seller advertises it as being built on the Twilio Voice API and ElevenLabs text-to-speech, both legitimate commercial services being abused here without the providers’ involvement.
Consumers can protect themselves by:
- Agreeing on a code word with family members. If a call from a relative is urgent and involves money, ask for it.
- Hanging up and calling back on a number you already have. A cloned voice cannot survive a callback to the real person.
- Treating urgency and secrecy as the warning signs, not the voice itself. Attackers rely on pressure, not perfect audio.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions sees strong SMB credit and lending growth, higher delinquency rates
LexisNexis Risk Solutions research found that 72% of institutions are expanding SMB credit and lending, while 77% report increased delinquency rates. The 2026 US SMB Credit Risk Report: Improving Decision Precision examines how financial institutions are approaching small and midsize business (SMB) credit risk decisioning.
Over the past two years, 71% reported SMB revenue growth of at least 5%. Similarly, 87% reported increased loan volume or demand and 60% reported increased approval rates. Looking ahead, 70% expect SMB credit approval rates to increase over the next 12 months. No respondents said they expect approval rates to decline.
Capgemini report finds increased stablecoin and tokenized deposit rates
According to the Capgemini Research Institute’s World Payments Report 2027, stablecoins, CBDCs, and tokenized deposits are projected to account for about 4% of global payments volume by 2030, affecting high-margin revenue streams such as foreign exchange spreads, correspondent banking, float income, and transaction processing fees.
- 74% of corporates describe cross-border payments as slow, costly, and unpredictable.
- 71% of corporates would choose a bank over a fintech for tokenized payments at equivalent cost and quality.
- Nearly 60% of corporate clients are willing to source stablecoin services from non-bank providers if their banking partners fail to keep pace.
Visa: Increased safeguards could grow stablecoin use
Money Travels 2026 is a global report on how technology is reshaping remittances.
The survey shows that consumer protections could unlock their adoption: in a hypothetical scenario with bank-level fraud protection and deposit insurance, U.S. adoption intent climbed from 36% to 56%. Nearly two-thirds (64%) say trust depends more on who offers a payment method than on the tech itself. Willingness to use stablecoins rises from 36% to 45% when offered through an existing financial provider.
Consumers expect almost 1 in 6 payments to be made by AI agents by 2031
At 15%, the rate rose from 9% one year ago. Across several everyday categories, shoppers are more than twice as likely as they were last year to say they are comfortable using AI to spend up to $50. The study was conducted by Global Payments.