General News

December 4, 2025 @ 11:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Analysis of Bank of Ireland customer behavior during the third quarter (Q3) of 2025 shows that contactless payments rose again while ATM usage continues on a downward trend, compared to the same period in 2024. In Q3 2025, eCommerce contactless card transactions (digital wallets, Apple… Read More

December 2, 2025 @ 2:23 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The ECB noted that financial stability vulnerabilities still remain fairly elevated given uncertainty over current geo-economic trends and the anticipated tariffs impact. Moreover, the central bank said that the currently stretched valuations in increasingly concentrated asset markets raise risk of sharp price adjustments. The ECB… Read More

December 2, 2025 @ 12:19 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Carta has released its Q3 2025 State of Private Markets report. Authored by Ashley Neville and Kevin Dowd,  the extensive research report has noted that the industry continued to grow steadily, marked by several key trends: Early-stage valuations keep on rising, meanwhile, down rounds are… Read More

December 1, 2025 @ 9:21 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Small and mid-sized business owners operating across the US are now said to be cautiously optimistic about the coming year, with the majority or 74% expecting revenue increases and around 60% planning to expand their businesses, according to the latest Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)… Read More

November 30, 2025 @ 1:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

PitchBook noted in its latest global private market fundraising report that dry powder on the rise despite a fairly tough fundraising environment. PitchBook also mentioned in the extensive research report that even though fundraising was a bit slow so far this year, private markets remain… Read More

November 29, 2025 @ 2:26 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UK business confidence softens but still reportedly remains above long-term average. This, according to the latest update from the Lloyds Banking Group. As mentioned in a report from UK‘s Lloyds Bank, the overall business confidence fell a number of points to just over 40% in… Read More

November 27, 2025 @ 12:11 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Xero, the global small business platform, has found that shifting only 10% of spending from bigger to smaller businesses could potentially mean $11 billion more in the hands of small businesses. Xero economists have analyzed 2024 New Zealand household consumption data and “excluded spending unlikely… Read More

November 27, 2025 @ 10:45 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Ahead of the busiest retail weeks of the year, including Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas shopping period, Bank of Ireland is advising consumers to “remain vigilant” of purchase scams. Recent analysis by Bank of Ireland’s Fraud team revealed that purchase scam cases rose… Read More

November 25, 2025 @ 8:01 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Xero research has revealed a seemingly critical AI “paradox” for U.S. based small businesses: while regular or more typical AI users are more likely to see revenue growth, more than half (53%) say their business “wouldn’t be impacted if AI tools disappeared tomorrow.”  Xero’s white… Read More

November 25, 2025 @ 7:55 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

More consumers intend to make purchases during the upcoming Black Friday-Cyber Monday week, however, a report from Deloitte noted that increasing cost pressures and financial constraints are expected to bring spending down by a lot this year. Key takeaways from the extensive Deloitte report are… Read More

November 25, 2025 @ 5:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Entrust, a global enabler of identity-centric security solutions, released its Identity Fraud Report. The report examines key trends, tactics, and techniques used in identity fraud in the past year, offering insights in order to help businesses protect customers and operations. Data reveals deepfakes account for… Read More

November 25, 2025 @ 4:53 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Aberdeen Investments reports that it is now seeing positive momentum across its Emerging Market Debt strategies, with assets under management  rising from $20 billion at the end of 2024 to $22.4 billion as of 30 September 2025. This growth has been driven by active investment… Read More

November 24, 2025 @ 4:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Equifax (NYSE: EFX) announced that it has completed the acquisition of Vault Verify, a provider of HR services, such as employment and income verification services. According to the update from Equifax, this acquisition enhances the data that Equifax provides to verifiers to “help them make… Read More

November 24, 2025 @ 8:07 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Data and tech company, Experian, and fraud prevention service, Cifas, released a report which reveals a 9% rise in identity fraud, signaling the scale of fraud facing UK based firms as the festive season approaches. ‘Unwrapping fraud: helping you to prepare for the festive season’… Read More

November 24, 2025 @ 8:06 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky noted recently that there was a significant increase in the number of résumés and jobs that had been posted on so-called underground forums in Q1 2024 when compared to Q1 2023, and this figure reportedly remained on the same level in Q1… Read More

November 23, 2025 @ 11:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Kaspersky in collaboration with VDC Research have announced recently that during the first three quarters of this year, ransomware attacks on various manufacturing organizations could have generated more than $18 billion in losses. This figure is now said to reflect only the so-called “direct cost”… Read More

November 22, 2025 @ 8:01 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) announced that its EY Grants Accelerator platform, an AI-enabled platform intended to transform the way governments manage and disburse critical grant funding, has earned FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) Authorization. This reportedly confirms that the solution meets… Read More

November 21, 2025 @ 8:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Kalshi, one of the fast-growing prediction market platforms that allows users to wager on the outcomes of real-world events, has reportedly acquired $1 billion in new funding at a valuation of $11 billion. This, according to recent media reports that referenced a source claiming to… Read More

November 18, 2025 @ 8:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

Cloudflare, one of the most vital internet infrastructure firms serving tens of thousands of businesses, saw its services fail today, causing many well-known sites like X, Spotify, and this site you are visiting now. After several hours of disruptions, Cloudflare issued a statement sharing that… Read More

November 12, 2025 @ 8:07 am By Omar Faridi  |  

PitchBook noted that venture valuations are surging as liquidity begins to creep back up. Now, with liquidity returning, though still relatively modest when compared with recent years, venture market pricing has started to rise. The researchers at PitchBook also mentioned that across all investment stages,… Read More