Top 5 Fraud Manager Considerations During COVID-19

Top 5 Fraud Manager Considerations During COVID-19 Being nimble and awake to the rapid changes occurring to bank fraud will be essential. by Adam Davies History tells us that things like natural disasters, times of economic instability, and fears of recession or unemployment provide the perfect environment for increased fraud and financial crime. Criminals also run their own businesses, and fear is an opportunity to exploit. So, I thought I would outline my top 5 fraud manager considerations during COVID-19. The scale of those affected during this pandemic, not necessarily…

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Can AI discriminate against you?

One of the most common misperceptions in the world of Machine Learning about bias is “If I don’t use age, gender or race, or similar factors in my model, it’s not biased.” Well, that’s not true. Even though the same people holding this opinion know that Artificial Intelligence can ‘learn’ and compute relationships between data, they don’t understand that there are proxies to biased data types in other features that are captured. These proxies are called confounding variables and, as the term indicates, unintended variables can confuse the model into…

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Five Things We Value More Because of COVID-19

Five Things We Value More Because of COVID-19

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How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Disrupted the Global Mining Industry

Some have called the COVID-19 crisis a black swan event. It has had an extreme impact and the world was unprepared for what has transpired, even though, in hindsight, it was not unexpected. The mining industry has also been caught up in the turmoil. While previous global economic downturns hold clues as to what will happen next, there are several aspects to this crisis without similarities to the other economic collapses that have affected the mining industry. A mining downturn like no other Mining industry downturns are usually due to…

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COVID-19 & TERS-FUNDING WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER MILLIONS?

According to a NEASA survey, 37% of employers who have applied to the UIF for assistance in order to pay their employees, or at least a portion of their salaries, have indeed received it. A large portion of employers who received payment, however, complained that it was the incorrect amount. The UIF has just announced that they have crossed the 1 million employees mark in respect of employee payouts. Put in context, this is very unsatisfactory. The South African workforce consists of over 10 million workers, of which over 8…

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Brand Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic Karena Crerar, Edelman Africa Advisory Practice Lead

The rapidly evolving Covid-19 pandemic has not only presented an alarming health crisis, but is also causing significant social and economic implications across the globe. In uncertain environments like this, trust in institutions – businesses, organizations, and governments – becomes even more critical. Strong leadership and decisive action are needed to earn that trust and shape our post-crisis future. We have observed groups of people ignoring critical health guidance, in part because they doubted the veracity of available information or because they relied on disinformation. At the same time, a…

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AI poised to make customers more powerful than bank

Increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is likely to see the banking industry moving towards an environment where the customer owns their data and can easily move between banks or other financial organisations with their historical financial information. Prema Varadhan, chief architect and head of AI at Temenos, says this is a long-term aspiration that traditional banks may struggle to attain in the medium term. However, the first step was taken with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe in 2018.…

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S.African rand falls as Moody’s cuts growth forecast, stocks firm

(Reuters) – South Africa’s rand weakened on Monday, as ratings agency Moody’s cut its forecast for the country’s economic growth due to lacklustre private sector demand at home and power cuts. As of 1510 GMT, the rand ZAR=D3 was 0.4% weaker at 15.00 against the dollar. Moody’s cut its 2020 GDP growth forecast to 0.7% from a forecast of 1.5% set in September, due in part to the detrimental impact of widespread power outages on manufacturing and mining activity. Moody’s is the last of the major international agencies to keep an investment grade rating…

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Moody’s cuts South Africa’s 2020 GDP growth forecast to 0.7%

(Reuters) – Ratings agency Moody’s has cut its 2020 growth forecast for South Africa to 0.7%, saying the economy remained stuck in low gear due to lacklustre private sector demand at home. Moody’s, which in September had foreseen growth of 1.5%, also attributed the downgrade to the detrimental impact of widespread power outages on manufacturing and mining activity, it said in a research report released on Monday. State-owned utility Eskom produces more than 90% of South Africa’s electricity, but its ailing fleet of coal-fired plants have struggled to keep up with demand,…

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