https://streamcode.gr/en/news/ Technology stories with an English summary and a link to the source. en https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-youtube-music-ai-generated-labels/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-youtube-music-ai-generated-labels/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 YouTube Music has begun showing a label on the player page for tracks made with generative AI. Tapping it explains the role AI played, for example in composition or vocals, and the labels also appear in the main YouTube app. Partners declare whether a work is fully, partly or not at all AI-generated, and the platform also runs its own detection tools. Spotify, Deezer and TIDAL have taken similar steps. Labelling AI-generated content is moving from an experiment to a baseline expectation on large platforms, and that matters well beyond music. Since August 2026 the transparency duties in Article 50 of the EU AI Act apply to synthetic audio, images and text. Greek firms producing advertising jingles, call-centre voices or podcasts with synthetic narrators should know exactly what they declare to distribution platforms and be able to back it up. YouTube's three-tier scheme of fully, partly or no AI is a handy template for internal policies: simple for creators and easy for audiences to grasp. There is a commercial side too, because services such as Deezer keep such tracks out of recommendations and withhold payouts for suspicious streams, so a wrong declaration can cost revenue. For teams building content-creation tools, adding provenance metadata from day one is far cheaper than retrofitting it later when a platform or regulator starts asking questions. Open standards such as C2PA are a sensible starting point. (Source: TechCrunch) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-xbow-ai-chrome-full-chain-exploit/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-xbow-ai-chrome-full-chain-exploit/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Security company XBOW published details of a full Chrome exploit chain on Windows that let an attacker take over a computer when the user simply visited a malicious page. Its team, using a publicly available AI model, linked three unknown bugs together in six days. Google confirmed and fixed the bugs and paid a $250,000 bounty, the first under its new 2026 rules. Reports put the compute cost at about $40,000. The story shows how quickly the time and cost of finding serious vulnerabilities are falling. Work that once took specialist teams months can now be done in days with tools anyone can access. For Greek businesses the practical takeaway is simple: automatic browser and operating system updates are not optional, and the gap between a fix and its installation should be measured in hours, not weeks. Anyone managing a fleet of computers in offices or shops needs a central update policy and reporting on devices that fall behind. For software companies the same trend works in reverse: if AI can find holes in Chrome, it will find them in their own code too. They should add automated AI-assisted security testing to their development pipeline before an attacker runs the same tools against them. Security budgets also need to plan for faster patch cycles, because the volume of findings is set to grow sharply. Browser extensions deserve the same attention, since they are often missed during audits. (Source: XBOW) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-visa-ecommerce-risk-tools-agentic-commerce/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-visa-ecommerce-risk-tools-agentic-commerce/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 James Mirfin, Visa's global head of risk and security intelligence solutions, told American Banker that the technologies protecting online shopping can also be applied to payments made by AI agents. He pointed to strong authentication and tokenisation, where a digital token replaces the card number and is limited to a specific use. He stressed that agentic commerce standards should be open and should not compete with one another. Industry advisers note that rules for disputed transactions do not yet clearly cover purchases made by agents. The discussion comes in a week when banks are showing strong caution towards outside agents seeking account access. Visa's position is that not everything has to be invented from scratch: a token that only allows a specific merchant, amount or time window already works as a fence around an agent. For Greek merchants and payment providers this is good news, because the infrastructure built for PSD2 and strong customer authentication can be extended rather than replaced. The big open question is liability. If an agent buys five tickets instead of one, who pays: the user, the agent provider or the merchant? The EU Payment Services Regulation, now heading for a vote, is the right moment to settle this. Until then, Greek businesses accepting orders from agents should set a clear refund and dispute policy and log which tool started each order. Software vendors can already offer per-agent spending limits as a feature. (Source: American Banker) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-visa-china-domestic-clearing-preparation/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-visa-china-domestic-clearing-preparation/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 The People's Bank of China has approved Visa's application to prepare a domestic bankcard clearing institution. The approval lets the company start formal preparations but not yet process domestic yuan transactions. According to Chinese media, Visa has a year to complete preparations and must then apply for permission to operate. CEO Ryan McInerney linked the step to steadier relations between the US and China. China's payment market is dominated by UnionPay and by digital wallets such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, so a possible Visa entry will not shift the balance quickly. The significance of the news is more geopolitical and long term. It shows that payments remain an area where states control access, and that licences come step by step, often alongside diplomatic developments. For Europe the case is a reminder of why the EU is investing in its own rails such as Wero and the digital euro: reliance on a few international networks is a strategic risk. For Greek tourism and retail businesses the practical issue is different. Chinese visitors mostly pay with UnionPay and QR wallets, and anyone wanting to serve them should check whether their POS provider already supports those methods. Visa's approval does not change that soon. For exporters to China, a gradually opening market could eventually make collecting payments from Chinese buyers simpler. (Source: Visa) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-tempo-zones-deel-private-stablecoin-payouts/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-tempo-zones-deel-private-stablecoin-payouts/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Payroll platform Deel is now using Zones on the Tempo blockchain in production, so its contractors' balances and payout history are not publicly visible. Deel's stablecoin wallet launched in June 2026 in Argentina and by August had expanded to more than 80 countries. Deel's deposit into its Zone is visible on the public network, but who is paid and how much is not. The setup was built together with Stripe's Privy. One of the biggest barriers to using blockchains for business payments is that most networks show everyone who paid whom and how much. No company wants rivals to see its payroll, and no worker wants their balance to be public. Tempo's approach, with private spaces where the operator still sees what it needs for audit and reconciliation, comes closer to how a bank account works. For Greek businesses employing freelancers abroad, which is very common in software, stablecoin payouts become more attractive once privacy is addressed. From a GDPR point of view, keeping payment details off a public ledger is close to a precondition. There is another side, though: anti-money laundering authorities will want access, and the EU transfer of funds regulation requires sender and recipient data. The model in which the Zone operator carries bank-like compliance duties shows how a balance between confidentiality and oversight might be struck in practice. (Source: Tempo) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-straitsx-visa-stablecoin-cards-100-markets/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-straitsx-visa-stablecoin-cards-100-markets/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Singapore's StraitsX, which provides stablecoin settlement infrastructure, has announced a partnership with Visa to issue cards linked to stablecoin balances in more than 100 markets. Its activity had been focused on Asia, where its card programmes passed an annualised transaction volume of $6 billion. The service targets fintechs, wallets and digital payment token providers. Rollout in each market depends on local regulatory requirements and Visa's rules. Cards that draw on stablecoin balances are currently the most practical way to spend digital dollars in the real world. The merchant usually sees no difference, because it is paid in local currency through the card network. That means consumer use of stablecoins can grow without any change at shop tills. For the Greek market this matters in two ways. Tourists from countries where such cards are popular will pay smoothly at Greek POS terminals. And Greek users may soon get access to similar cards from European providers. MiCA plays a role here: in the EU, providers must use stablecoins authorised under the regulation and hold the right licences, and in many cases each purchase may be treated for tax purposes as a disposal of a crypto asset. For banks the trend is a challenge, as part of everyday spending moves outside traditional accounts. Greek fintechs considering a similar product should study the tax treatment for users carefully. (Source: StraitsX) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-starknet-shadow-accounts-defi-privacy/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-starknet-shadow-accounts-defi-privacy/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Layer-2 network Starknet has introduced Shadow Accounts, which let users interact with decentralised finance apps without publicly linking that activity to their main wallet. The feature creates separate persistent addresses for each app, funded from shielded balances in the STRK20 privacy pool. Balances and transactions of shadow accounts stay visible on-chain, but the link to the funding wallet is hidden. The first integration is on the decentralised exchange Ekubo. Privacy on blockchains is shifting from controversial mixing tools towards designs that try to combine confidentiality with some transparency. Shadow Accounts do not hide transactions themselves but who stands behind them, which resembles holding several bank accounts for different purposes. For professionals and businesses using DeFi, publicly linking every move to one wallet is a real problem because it reveals strategy, holdings and counterparties. In the EU, however, every privacy tool is treated with suspicion. The new anti-money laundering regulation will bar crypto-asset service providers from 2027 from keeping anonymous accounts or handling privacy-enhancing coins. A Greek exchange would need to consider whether funds coming from such pools call for enhanced due diligence. StarkWare's earlier private KYC demo shows the technology can prove identity without exposing documents, and that direction may prove the most useful for regulators trying to balance privacy with oversight. Greek developers working on wallets should follow this design space closely. (Source: Cointelegraph) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-square-kiosk-ai-voice-ordering/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-square-kiosk-ai-voice-ordering/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Square has unveiled Square Kiosk, a new self-service terminal for quick-service restaurants. It has an AI voice assistant that knows the menu, answers questions, suggests dishes and handles changes and substitutions, with the option to switch to a 21.5-inch touchscreen. It includes card payments, a barcode scanner, presence detection and loyalty sign-in. It costs $1,999 plus $99 a month per device in the US. Square's move shows that the next generation of ordering kiosks will not just be screens with menus but conversational systems that understand natural speech. For Greek hospitality, where staff shortages are a constant headache, the idea of a kiosk that clears a peak-hour queue is appealing. The transfer is not automatic, though. Greek speech recognition, with regional accents, shop noise and tourists speaking many languages, is harder than English. There is also tax compliance: every order must end in a valid receipt and a myDATA submission, which American products do not cover. For Greek ordering software vendors that is an opening, since they can add voice ordering on top of systems already linked to cash registers and e-invoicing. Square's price also offers a benchmark for what chains will pay for such a feature, and a sign that per-device subscription pricing is becoming the norm in restaurant technology. (Source: Square) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-splitit-world-mastercard-installments/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-splitit-world-mastercard-installments/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Instalment payments platform Splitit has announced the Splitit World Mastercard, a white-label credit card for mid-sized banks and credit unions. Everyday purchases are paid in full within 30 days, while purchases above a threshold chosen by the cardholder are automatically split into predictable monthly payments. Users can change the plan in the app before the statement is issued. Splitit supplies the instalment technology and app, while the bank keeps the customer relationship and its brand. The product shows how buy-now-pay-later providers are trying to work inside banks instead of competing with them at the merchant checkout. For mid-sized banks, a white-label solution lets them offer something comparable to Klarna without building it from scratch. In Greece, interest-free card instalments are already common but are usually set by the merchant at the point of sale. A model where the cardholder decides in advance above which amount they want instalments changes that relationship and could appeal to cooperative and smaller banks trying to retain customers. There is a regulatory side too. The EU's revised Consumer Credit Directive, which member states must apply over the next few years, brings BNPL products under stricter disclosure and creditworthiness rules. Anyone designing similar products in Greece should build those requirements in from day one. For merchants, wider use of such cards means instalments may no longer need a special acquirer agreement. (Source: Splitit (PR Newswire)) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-sberbank-crypto-exchange-register-approval/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-sberbank-crypto-exchange-register-approval/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 The Bank of Russia has added Sberbank, the country's largest bank, to its register of cryptocurrency exchange providers. Sberbank had already joined the digital depository register, so it can offer both trading and custody-related services. The step follows a law that took effect on 1 September and creates a regulated market involving banks, brokers and exchanges. Domestic crypto payments remain banned, and from July 2027 transactions will have to go through registered intermediaries. Russia is pursuing a controlled opening: it allows investment in crypto through large state-linked institutions but bans its use as a means of payment at home. The aim is to bring an informal market into the open and under central bank supervision. For Europe, the development matters mainly for compliance. EU sanctions against Russian banks remain in force, and any transaction that ends up on infrastructure linked to a sanctioned entity is a serious risk. For Greek crypto-asset service providers and banks, blockchain analytics and counterparty checks need to flag flows to or from Russian regulated players. Greek businesses, especially in shipping and trade, that receive offers to settle in stablecoins from counterparties with Russian links should be particularly careful. A market becoming legal in Russia does not make it acceptable under the European framework. The right response is a clear payment acceptance policy and documented checks on every new partner. (Source: CoinDesk) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-revolut-mobile-launches-germany/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-revolut-mobile-launches-germany/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Revolut has launched Revolut Mobile in Germany, a €14.99-a-month mobile plan that customers sign up for and manage inside its app. It runs on Telefónica Deutschland's network with 1GLOBAL as technical partner. It includes 120 GB of 5G data, unlimited calls within Germany, 40 GB of EU roaming and eSIM support, and the fee can be paid partly with RevPoints. Germany is the fourth market after the UK, Poland and the Netherlands. Revolut does not want to be a telecoms operator for the plan revenue but to bring customers into its app more often and keep them longer. Every added service, from insurance to mobile, makes switching to another bank harder. That is the super-app logic already common in Asia and spreading in Europe mainly through neobanks. For Greek banks, the example shows that competition is no longer only about rates and fees but about how useful the app is in everyday life. For Greek telecoms operators, it suggests that wholesale network access can become a distribution channel through third parties with large customer bases. If Revolut brings the service to Greece, where it has a sizeable user base, it will need a local network partner and compliance with EETT rules. For smaller businesses, linking subscriptions to rewards is an idea that also works at a modest scale, for example in loyalty apps built for local chains. (Source: The Paypers) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-qivalis-dnb-emi-licence-euro-stablecoin/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-qivalis-dnb-emi-licence-euro-stablecoin/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Qivalis, an Amsterdam-based company backed by 37 European banks in 15 countries, has received an electronic money institution licence from the Dutch central bank. The licence allows it to issue euro e-money tokens under MiCA. Before issuance it must publish a white paper and meet the remaining requirements, with a launch targeted in the coming months. Members include BBVA, BNP Paribas, ING and DZ Bank, and distribution will run through banks, exchanges and payment providers. The Qivalis licence may be the most serious European answer yet to the dominance of dollar stablecoins. When dozens of large banks put their name behind an on-chain euro, the debate is no longer only about crypto but about the core of payments. For Greek businesses the interest is practical: round-the-clock settlement in euros, programmable payments and possibly lower costs for cross-border transactions with EU partners. The open question is whether a Greek bank will join or whether Greek customers will only get access through foreign institutions. Because e-money tokens cannot pay interest, the product will compete mainly on speed and convenience rather than yield. There is also a link to the ECB's digital euro: the two can coexist, but the banks are clearly signalling that they want their own solution before public digital money arrives. Software firms building ERP or payment platforms should start studying how such payments will be booked and reconciled. (Source: CoinDesk) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-polygon-completes-coinme-acquisition/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-polygon-completes-coinme-acquisition/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Polygon Labs has completed its acquisition of Coinme, gaining regulated money transmission infrastructure in the US. The payments business now covers 48 states with 37 money transmitter licences and 11 exemptions, and is registered with FinCEN. It joins Polygon's Open Money Stack, which links bank deposits, cards and cash with blockchain wallets and payouts. First customers include Tazapay, Mesh, Toku and Kira, for cross-border payments, payroll and dollar access. Polygon's move shows that large blockchain platforms understand technology alone is not enough. Without licences to receive and send real money, they cannot serve businesses that need complete payment flows. By buying a company licensed in almost every state, Polygon skips years of paperwork. In Europe the equivalent strategy runs through MiCA licences for crypto-asset service providers and payment institution licences, and similar acquisitions are likely. For Greek businesses paying partners or suppliers in the US or emerging markets, services that combine bank rails with stablecoins could cut both time and fees. Before using them, though, they should check which entity provides the service in Europe and under what licence, because US licensing does not cover EU customers. Greek developers building payroll or freelancer payout apps can see here how a full product is structured, from money coming in to the final payout, behind a single integration point. The same pattern will matter once euro stablecoins under MiCA become widely available to European payment firms. (Source: Polygon) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-pliant-fca-emi-licence-uk/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-pliant-fca-emi-licence-uk/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Pliant, a Berlin company offering corporate cards and B2B payment technology, has secured an electronic money institution licence from the FCA for its British subsidiary. Pliant Payments Limited can now launch products and onboard UK customers directly rather than through a partner. The FCA review covered customer onboarding, risk management, safeguarding of funds and internal controls. The company aims to serve businesses, banks and public sector bodies. Since Brexit, European fintechs cannot use the EU passport to operate in Britain, so a separate licence is practically required for a serious presence. Pliant's case shows what a regulator looks at before granting one: how customers are identified, how funds are protected and whether internal controls are real. Those are the same points the Bank of Greece checks for payment institutions, so any Greek company thinking about applying for a licence will find a useful preparation guide here. For Greek businesses with subsidiaries or customers in Britain, more corporate card providers mean more options for per-employee spending control and automatic reconciliation with accounting. Competition in corporate cards usually pushes down FX charges and monthly fees. The question for a finance director is whether the provider connects to the company's accounting system and whether transaction data can be exported easily for tax filings and audits. Firms should also check where card data is stored after Brexit, since UK and EU data protection regimes now differ in detail. (Source: FinTech Global) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-payward-kraken-acquires-saldo-bank/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-payward-kraken-acquires-saldo-bank/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Finland's Saldo Finance Oy. Its subsidiary Saldo Bank UAB is a digital bank licensed in Lithuania, active in four markets with a passport into the Netherlands. After closing, expected in 2027 subject to regulatory approval, Payward plans to offer interest on deposits, loans, cards and SEPA payments. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal shows that large crypto firms are no longer satisfied with e-money or MiCA licences and want a full banking licence so they can hold deposits and lend. For European competition this means customers may soon see a euro account, crypto investments and loans backed by those assets inside one app, something traditional banks rarely offer. Through EU passporting, a bank licensed in Lithuania could in principle expand to other member states, Greece included, if it chooses to. For Greek banks and fintechs, the message is that competition for digital customers is also coming from companies with a different culture and pace. For supervisors, the case will test how prudential rules apply to a group with significant crypto exposure. Businesses already using crypto platforms to pay suppliers should watch which services become available and under what deposit guarantee, because that changes the risk profile of their cash holdings and how treasury policies should treat those balances. (Source: Payward) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-openai-eight-states-chatgpt-child-safety/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-openai-eight-states-chatgpt-child-safety/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Eight US states, including Iowa, Kansas, Arizona and Montana, have filed separate lawsuits against OpenAI. They argue the company marketed ChatGPT as a safe tool for young people while knowing about risks to vulnerable users. The complaints rely on local consumer protection laws and point to cases brought by families who link the chatbot to the deaths of relatives. The states also accuse OpenAI of collecting data from minors without adequate safeguards. This case moves the AI safety debate away from voluntary corporate pledges and into courts and consumer protection law. For Greek companies embedding large language models into consumer apps, the lesson is that liability does not stay only with the model vendor. If an app targets pupils, parents or vulnerable groups, it will be judged on what its marketing promises and on how it behaves in practice. In the EU the same questions touch the AI Act, GDPR rules on children's data and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. In concrete terms, a product team needs age assurance where it makes sense, filters for mental health topics that hand users over to human help, incident logging and careful wording of any safety claims. The lawsuits also show that regulators will ask for evidence rather than general reassurance. Small software houses building customer service or education chatbots should keep records of their testing and design decisions, because that documentation is the first line of defence if something goes wrong. (Source: The Verge) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-openai-early-talks-trail-of-bits/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-openai-early-talks-trail-of-bits/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 OpenAI is in preliminary talks to buy Trail of Bits, a New York firm that specialises in security audits and in finding vulnerabilities in open-source software, according to The Information. The value of a possible deal has not been disclosed and the talks may not lead to an agreement. The two companies already work together on Patch the Planet, where AI models find bugs and experts confirm and fix them. Trail of Bits has audited projects including Uniswap, Aave and Worldcoin. If the deal goes ahead, it will confirm that large model providers want to become cybersecurity service providers, not just tool vendors. For the European and Greek market this cuts both ways. Software companies could get cheaper and faster code review, especially for widely used open-source libraries. At the same time, even more expertise and access to sensitive code would concentrate in a handful of American groups. A fintech or e-invoicing provider that outsources security reviews to such a setup should check where its code is stored, who can access it and whether findings feed model training. Those questions tie directly to the third-party risk requirements in DORA. For Greek security auditors, the news is a warning that clients will expect a mix of AI and human judgement, so firms that do not adopt these tools will struggle to compete on price and speed in the next few years. Clients will still need named humans to sign off on findings and carry accountability for them. (Source: Crypto Briefing (citing The Information)) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-juspay-fy26-revenue-global-ai/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-juspay-fy26-revenue-global-ai/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 India's Juspay, a payments technology provider based in Bengaluru, reported revenue of $75 million for fiscal 2026, up 24%. The company processes about 400 million transactions a day for more than 500 enterprises and banks, with annualised volume above $1 trillion. It is investing in AI platforms, including the open-source enterprise tool Xyne, and in agentic commerce. Management says these investments weigh on near-term financials. Juspay is little known in Europe, yet it sits behind the payment flows of large digital businesses such as airlines, travel platforms and e-commerce players. Its expansion shows that know-how built around India's UPI, one of the busiest instant payment systems in the world, is becoming an export product. For Europe, where instant payments are now mandatory for banks and Wero is spreading, experience in orchestrating many payment methods and routing transactions with high availability is valuable. For Greek businesses with heavy online sales, payment orchestration deserves attention: a layer that automatically picks the best acquirer or method can cut failures and fees. The bet on open-source AI tools also points to a strategy smaller Greek providers could follow, releasing tools openly to win trust and a community while earning from support and services. The admission of margin pressure is a reminder that AI demands patience and capital before it pays off. (Source: FinTech Global) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-ivanti-connect-secure-zero-day-cisa/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-ivanti-connect-secure-zero-day-cisa/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 The US cybersecurity agency CISA is warning about CVE-2026-104935 in Ivanti Connect Secure, a flaw that attackers are already exploiting. The bug bypasses authentication and allows remote command execution without credentials, which attackers use to steal credentials and data. Versions 25.1.1.1, 25.1.2.2 and 22.8R2.4 and earlier are affected, and the flaw was added to the KEV catalogue on 13 October. Because commands run in memory, Ivanti's integrity checker may not reveal a compromise. Remote access appliances are the front door for many Greek businesses, from accounting offices to retail chains running a central ERP. When such a gateway allows command execution without login, an attacker is inside the network before anyone sees an alert. The most worrying detail is that activity lives in memory, so a quick check can create a false sense of safety. Anyone running Ivanti Connect Secure should upgrade at once, rotate passwords and certificates that pass through the appliance, and review logs for unusual sessions since early October. For organisations covered by the Greek NIS2 law, an incident like this may trigger an early reporting duty, so the call on whether a breach happened should not drag on. Strategically, version 22.8 reaches end of life in January 2027, which makes this a good moment to ask whether the company still needs a classic VPN or could move to per-application access with stronger identity checks. (Source: CISA) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-imf-world-bank-bangkok-blueprint-fraud/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-imf-world-bank-bangkok-blueprint-fraud/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, together with the Bank of Thailand, presented a framework for tackling fraud in digital financial services at their 2026 annual meetings in Bangkok. The Bangkok Blueprint sets out 12 considerations across five pillars. These are legal foundations, prevention and detection, supervisory and enforcement tools, domestic and cross-border cooperation, and consumer protection. It is a non-binding guide that each country can adapt. Fraud through calls, messages and fake websites has become the biggest problem in digital payments, and the fact that the IMF and World Bank treat it as a financial stability issue says a lot. The guide is not law, but texts like this often shape what national regulators ask for later. In Europe many of its elements are already under discussion: the Payment Services Regulation foresees name and IBAN matching checks, fraud data sharing between providers and, in some cases, liability to refund victims of impersonation scams. For Greek banks and payment providers, the message is that fraud protection will increasingly be judged as an obligation rather than an option. AI transaction monitoring, quick freezing of suspicious funds and cooperation with telecoms operators and platforms are the core tools. For SMEs, fake invoices and supplier IBAN change scams remain the biggest risk, and confirming every change of bank details through a second channel is a simple but effective defence. (Source: IMF) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-general-court-upholds-stripchat-vlop-designation/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-general-court-upholds-stripchat-vlop-designation/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 The EU General Court has dismissed in full the action brought by Technius, the company behind Stripchat, against its designation as a very large online platform under the Digital Services Act. The company had reported about 31.8 million average monthly active users in the EU, while the Commission, using Similarweb data, found unique visitors exceeded 62 million. The court held that the Commission's method was reliable and that a later correction of Similarweb's figures did not affect the legality of the decision. The DSA threshold is 45 million users. The ruling matters well beyond this platform, because it concerns how users are counted for applying the DSA. The court accepted that the Commission may rely on third-party measurement data and reject methods that artificially lower user numbers. It also held that legality is judged on the data available when the decision was taken, not on later corrections. For digital platforms near the thresholds, the message is that creative user accounting is not a safe strategy. For Greek platforms, far below the 45 million mark, the core DSA duties already apply: notice-and-action mechanisms for illegal content, advertising transparency and regular publication of EU active user figures. The judgment is a reminder that those numbers are not a formality but can be checked and challenged. Companies building marketplaces or social apps should document their measurement method and apply it consistently from the start. The judgment can still be appealed to the Court of Justice. (Source: Court of Justice of the EU (General Court)) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-fragment-12m-ledger-for-ai-agents/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-fragment-12m-ledger-for-ai-agents/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Fragment, a New York startup, announced a $12 million Series A co-led by FirstMark and BoxGroup. The company builds software building blocks that let AI agents handle billing, payments and accounting safely. Its system relies on double-entry bookkeeping and checks that entries balance before any money moves. It follows an $11 million seed round led by Stripe. The idea behind Fragment is simple but important: if an autonomous program is going to move money, every move should pass a neutral check that does not depend on the model's judgement. Double-entry bookkeeping has done exactly that for centuries, and using it as a brake on agents is more reliable than any instruction in a prompt. For Greek software companies building automation for invoicing, collections or supplier payments, the lesson is to separate decision logic from record keeping. An agent may propose a payment, but a rules engine should confirm there is a matching document, the amount fits and no limit is breached. In Greece this ties directly to myDATA, where income and expenses must match what is reported to AADE, so an agent's mistake can become a tax problem as well as a financial one. Builders of such tools should also keep an immutable history of entries, so the accountant can reconstruct who did what and when. (Source: Fortune) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-esma-cross-border-investment-services-2025/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-esma-cross-border-investment-services-2025/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 ESMA's annual analysis for 2025 shows that about 15.5 million clients in the EU and EEA receive investment services from firms based in another member state, almost double the 2023 figure. Compared with 2024, retail clients rose 47%, while the number of firms grew only 2% and complaints stayed stable. Cyprus remains the main home of passporting firms with a 20% share, followed by Luxembourg and Germany. France, Spain, Germany and Italy are the main destination markets. The data show that the single market for investment services works for retail investors mainly through a few digital platforms, many of them licensed in Cyprus. For Greek investors, that means the app they use to buy shares or ETFs is probably supervised by another country's authority, and resolving a dispute may be more complicated. The rapid rise in clients against an almost flat number of firms points to concentration: a handful of large players are winning most of the market. For Greek investment firms, competition from such platforms is already intense, and differentiation comes from local service, the Greek language and specialised advice. The fall in complaints per client is encouraging, yet regulators will keep watching aggressive marketing aimed at young investors. The Hellenic Capital Market Commission can use these figures to seek closer cooperation with home-country authorities. Greek fintechs with European ambitions can also see the room for growth here. (Source: ESMA) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-esma-2026-common-enforcement-priorities/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-esma-2026-common-enforcement-priorities/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 ESMA has published its European Common Enforcement Priorities for the 2026 annual financial reports of listed companies. For IFRS it focuses on geopolitical uncertainty and on restructuring provisions and debt restructuring. For sustainability statements under ESRS it calls for progress on materiality assessment and connected information on impacts, risks, policies, targets and metrics. For the ESEF digital format it highlights frequent errors in the statement of changes in equity. ESMA's priorities are in effect the checklist the Hellenic Capital Market Commission will use when reviewing Greek listed companies' 2026 accounts. Anyone preparing financial statements or sustainability reports now knows where the focus will fall. The stress on geopolitical uncertainty means generic references to war or tariffs will not do. Companies need to show how those risks affect specific estimates such as impairments and provisions. For ESRS the key is consistency: policies, targets and metrics must link to the risks the company judged material rather than appear in isolation. ESEF errors in the statement of changes in equity are a practical issue for reporting software vendors and accounting teams, because they often stem from incorrect XBRL tagging. For unlisted Greek SMEs the priorities are not binding, yet they indirectly shape what banks and large customers ask for in sustainability data. The emphasis on materiality signals that the goal is sharper reports, not longer ones. (Source: ESMA) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-esas-joint-committee-2027-work-programme/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-esas-joint-committee-2027-work-programme/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities, EBA, EIOPA and ESMA, has published its annual work programme for 2027. Key priorities are digital operational resilience, technological innovation, sustainable finance, securitisation and cross-sectoral risk monitoring. Under DORA the authorities will continue overseeing critical ICT third-party providers and will assess the implications of artificial intelligence. Consumer protection remains a central aim, alongside simplification of the regulatory framework. The programme brings no new rules, but it shows where supervisors will focus next year, which is useful for anyone planning a compliance budget. The emphasis on DORA and critical ICT providers means the large cloud and software vendors serving banks and insurers will stay under constant scrutiny. For Greek software firms selling to financial institutions, client demands for documentation, resilience testing and exit plans will keep rising, even if the vendors themselves are never designated critical. The mention of artificial intelligence also matters. Supervisors want to understand how AI models affect credit scoring, insurance pricing and customer service, which could lead to guidance that complements the AI Act. The nod to simplification shows political pressure to reduce burden has reached the supervisors, although that rarely means less work for regulated firms in the short term. Compliance leads should build these themes into their plans for the coming year, starting with an updated register of ICT contracts. (Source: European Banking Authority (EBA)) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-eba-usdc-first-significant-emt/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-eba-usdc-first-significant-emt/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 The European Banking Authority has classified USDC, issued in the EU by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, as a significant e-money token under MiCA. Of the 45 such tokens notified in the EU, it is the first to receive this designation. From 12 November 2026 the EBA takes over direct supervision of own funds, reserves, liquidity and recovery and redemption plans, while France's ACPR keeps oversight of governance and fit-and-proper matters. The EBA has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the New York Department of Financial Services. The designation shows MiCA moving from theory to practice for large stablecoins. Dual supervision means the core elements of a token's stability, namely reserves, liquidity and redemption at par, move to the European level. For EU users this strengthens confidence in USDC as a settlement asset, since a European authority now checks it directly. For the issuer, significant tokens carry higher own funds and liquidity requirements and therefore higher compliance costs. For Greek crypto-asset service providers and fintechs the takeaway is practical: choosing a stablecoin for payments or treasury should depend on its regulatory status, not just its market liquidity. ESMA has already told providers not to serve stablecoins lacking MiCA authorisation, so the line between approved and unapproved tokens is becoming decisive. The memorandum with New York also shows that supervising global stablecoins requires cross-border cooperation, which will matter for future euro stablecoins as well. Greek firms holding USDC should review issuer disclosures after November. (Source: European Banking Authority (EBA)) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-drivewealth-ripple-rlusd-settlement/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-drivewealth-ripple-rlusd-settlement/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 DriveWealth, which provides brokerage infrastructure to investing apps, is partnering with Ripple to use the RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger. Settlement will start in Europe and later expand to the US. Clients will be able to fund collateral accounts with stablecoins that convert to cash in near real time instead of waiting for a bank wire. DriveWealth is also moving treasury and custody functions onto Ripple's infrastructure. The problem this partnership tackles is very specific: US equities now settle in one business day, but money arriving from another continent gets stuck in bank opening hours and time zones. A stablecoin that moves around the clock closes that gap. For European investors buying US shares through apps, the change could mean faster access to funds and less money tied up as prefunding. For Greek investment firms and fintechs considering access to foreign markets, the news shows that infrastructure providers are already wiring stablecoins in behind the scenes. Compliance is the catch. In the EU, offering services in stablecoins without MiCA authorisation is under growing pressure from ESMA, so any European partner must check the status of the specific token in the EU before using it. The decision to start in Europe will show how supervisors treat such flows. Treasury teams should also weigh the counterparty risk of the issuer before relying on it. (Source: Ripple) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-cxmt-dram-claim-memory-stock-rout/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-cxmt-dram-claim-memory-stock-rout/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 China's ChangXin Memory Technologies said it had made progress on a new 4F² DRAM cell architecture that increases storage density. According to reports, it plans to ship a server DDR5 product using the design by the end of 2026. The news sent SK Hynix down 10%, Samsung down 7.4% and Micron down about 3.6%. CXMT has not yet shared speeds, capacities or customers. The market reaction shows how sensitive the AI supply chain is to any sign of Chinese competition. Memory is one of the most expensive parts of a server, and prices have risen sharply on AI demand. If CXMT really can produce competitive server memory, it could push prices down over the medium term, which would help anyone buying infrastructure or cloud services. For Greek businesses planning server upgrades or private cloud projects, that is no reason to wait. The announcement came without specifications, and US export rules may limit the use of Chinese components in some markets. Public procurement and financial sector clients also increasingly ask for documentation on hardware origin. The more useful lesson is to diversify suppliers and sign contracts with price clauses, so that a sudden swing in memory prices does not wreck a project budget halfway through delivery. Software teams can also cut exposure by tuning memory-hungry workloads, since caching and smaller models often reduce how much RAM a service really needs. (Source: CNBC) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-boe-breeden-no-rush-retail-digital-pound/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-boe-breeden-no-rush-retail-digital-pound/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden said at an event on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings that the UK may not need a retail digital pound quickly. She argued that sterling stablecoins from regulated firms and tokenised bank deposits could deliver similar benefits. She noted that central bank money's share of transactions has fallen to 8%. The Bank aims to finalise its code for systemic stablecoins by the end of 2026, with a temporary issuance cap of £40 billion. The Bank of England's stance differs markedly from the ECB's, which is pressing ahead with the digital euro and a pilot programme. London is betting that a tightly regulated private sector can meet the demand for digital money, while the central bank modernises its own settlement system for round-the-clock operation. Europe, by contrast, believes that without public digital money payments will depend on American networks and dollar tokens. Breeden's remark that it would be madness for Britons to access innovation only through dollar stablecoins shows both sides worry about the same thing and simply choose different tools. For Greek businesses trading with the UK, the future may include settlement in sterling stablecoins, while the euro area will see a digital euro, bank tokens and euro stablecoins side by side. Payment software providers should design platforms that handle several forms of digital money at par, as Breeden herself describes. Interoperability will be the key technical challenge. (Source: Payment Expert) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-base-earn-borrow-stack-for-apps/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-base-earn-borrow-stack-for-apps/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Base, the network developed by Coinbase, has launched Earn & Borrow, a toolkit that lets wallets, exchanges and fintechs offer variable stablecoin yield and loans backed by crypto assets. It relies on third-party lending markets such as Morpho and Aave and is not a protocol of its own. Independent curators choose the markets and set risk limits, and Coinbase says it does not guarantee the vaults. Average yield on dollar stablecoins was reported at about 4.45% before incentives. Base's pitch is to make decentralised finance a building block that slots into any app, much as card payments did through APIs. For fintechs that means offering yield or loans without becoming a bank. In Europe the picture is more complicated. MiCA does not fully cover crypto lending, and ESMA and the EBA have already asked for it to be examined in the regulation's review. A Greek app offering such yield to customers would need to check whether it is an investment service, a crypto-asset service or something that is not allowed without a specific licence. The risk for end users is real as well: smart contracts can have bugs, collateral can be liquidated in a sharp price fall and returns are not guaranteed. For Greek businesses holding cash in stablecoins, an attractive yield should not hide the fact that this is a completely different risk profile from an insured bank deposit. A clear treasury policy has to come first. (Source: Base) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-barclaycard-visa-unified-checkout-uk/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-barclaycard-visa-unified-checkout-uk/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Barclaycard Payments is embedding Visa's Unified Checkout into its Smartpay Fuse payment gateway. Merchants get access through a single integration to cards, Click to Pay, digital wallets, pay-by-link and invoicing. The solution is low-code and built on modular APIs, so it does not require a large developer team. The aim is higher online conversion and a more consistent experience across channels. The move shows that the payments battle is shifting from who accepts cards to how easily a merchant can add new payment methods without rewriting its online shop. One integration that covers cards, wallets and pay-by-link cuts development cost and reduces the number of places where things can break. In Greece, where many small online shops rely on basic bank solutions, the question is how fast local acquirers will follow. Pay-by-link and invoices with built-in payment are especially useful for service professionals and B2B sales, where customers pay after receiving the document. If that is tied to e-invoicing, which is becoming mandatory in Greece, collections could speed up noticeably. Click to Pay also shows the card schemes trying to compete with Apple and Google wallets. Greek developers building e-shops should favour gateways with modular APIs, so adding Wero or other methods does not mean starting a new project from scratch. (Source: Visa UK) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-bank-of-america-mythos-1000-contractors/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-bank-of-america-mythos-1000-contractors/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said the bank added 1,000 outside contractors in the second quarter to fix software vulnerabilities uncovered by advanced AI models such as Anthropic's Mythos. They work alongside about 3,000 internal staff. Software remediation together with anti-money laundering compliance work cost more than two hundred million dollars in the third quarter. The bank expects these costs to fall and projects $700 million in savings from 130 internal AI projects. This is one of the first times a major bank has put concrete numbers on the cost of defending against vulnerabilities exposed by new AI models. The conclusion is that AI does not only bring savings, it also creates a sudden bill for anyone with old code and many software vendors. Greek banks and payment providers face a similar problem on a smaller scale: decades-old systems, third-party dependencies and limited security staff. Under DORA, responsibility for flaws in third-party software does not pass to the vendor, so contracts need fix deadlines and audit rights. For Greek software firms selling to banks, it means they will be asked to prove they have tested their code with the same tools attackers use. The right response is not panic but an application inventory, prioritised critical systems and scheduled AI-assisted reviews before rushed mass hiring becomes necessary. Security budgets for 2027 should reflect this new workload. (Source: CNBC) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-baillie-gifford-tokenised-bond-fund-singapore/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-baillie-gifford-tokenised-bond-fund-singapore/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Baillie Gifford is offering the Baillie Gifford Enhanced Yield Fund in Singapore, an actively managed short-duration bond fund. The fund is natively tokenised: investors receive tokens on Ethereum and the blockchain is the legal record of ownership. It is a US dollar UK-regulated OEIC investing in government and corporate bonds, with a yield of around 7%, a duration of about two years and an average credit rating of BBB. The firm sees tokenisation as a route to faster settlement and greater transparency. Most tokenised funds so far are money market funds or simple wrappers around existing products. The difference here is that the blockchain is not a copy of a traditional register but the register itself. That is a meaningful step, because it moves tokenisation from liquidity tools into actively managed investment products. For the European market, the question is how such a product fits UCITS rules and central securities depository rules, and how the EU's DLT pilot regime applies. For Greek fund managers, the news is a reminder that large competitors are experimenting actively while the Greek market remains largely traditional. For investors, a 7% yield should not hide the fact that these are mid-grade bonds carrying credit risk, regardless of the technology. Tokenisation changes how ownership is recorded and settled, not the nature of investment risk. Greek fintech developers can study how transfer restrictions and investor identification are built into such tokens. (Source: International Adviser) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-asml-q3-2026-record-sales-capacity/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-asml-q3-2026-record-sales-capacity/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Dutch chip equipment maker ASML reported record third-quarter 2026 net sales of €11.7 billion and net income of €5 billion, with a 57.5% gross margin. CEO Christophe Fouquet said some customers want to place orders as far out as 2029 and 2030 because of AI investment. The company expects its planned output for 2027 and 2028 to fall short of demand and is looking at adding more capacity. It guides full-year 2026 sales of €44 to €45 billion. ASML is the only maker of the EUV lithography machines needed for the most advanced chips, so its results are one of the best gauges of where AI demand is heading. Customers wanting to book orders for 2030 means chipmakers see demand as long-lasting rather than a bubble of a few quarters. For Europe, ASML is one of the few strategic strongholds in the semiconductor chain, and its success supports the case for European technology autonomy. For Greek businesses, the direct consequence is that AI compute will stay in short supply for years. Anyone planning services that depend on GPUs or premium models should budget for persistently high costs and consider smaller, cheaper models for tasks that do not need top performance. For investors weighing Greek hardware startups, the news strengthens interest in specialised components and software that squeeze more efficiency out of the infrastructure already installed. Chip export rules and geopolitics remain the main risk to this outlook, so any plan that relies on cheap compute should include a fallback scenario. (Source: ASML (GlobeNewswire)) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-anz-tokenised-deposits-bhp-citi-swift/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-anz-tokenised-deposits-bhp-citi-swift/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Australia's ANZ became the first bank in the country to carry out live cross-border corporate payments in dollars using tokenised deposits, together with Citi, Swift and mining group BHP. BHP paid from its existing ANZ account through standard banking channels. Token processing and interbank messaging took place on Swift's distributed ledger without any extra step from the customer. ANZ has been testing tokenised asset exchanges for years, including in Project Guardian. The most interesting detail of the test is that the customer noticed nothing. BHP paid as usual, while behind the scenes the money moved between banks as a token. That is probably how blockchain will enter corporate payments: not as a new app for the accountant but as an infrastructure change that makes settlement faster and liquidity management more efficient. Swift's involvement matters, because it means banks do not have to choose between the existing network and a new blockchain. For Greek banks, already connected to Swift, this path looks more realistic than a standalone system. For Greek exporters and shipping companies that make large dollar payments, faster settlement means less capital tied up in transit. Tokenised deposits also remain a liability of the bank and sit within the existing supervisory framework, which makes them easier for finance directors to accept than stablecoins when setting treasury policy. Banks in Greece could start with intragroup transfers for multinational clients, where the legal questions are simplest. (Source: CoinsPaid Media) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-anthropic-singapore-office-government-mou/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-anthropic-singapore-office-government-mou/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Anthropic has opened an office in Singapore, its fifth in the Asia-Pacific region. It also signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the country's Ministry of Digital Development and Information on the sidelines of Singapore International Cyber Week. The MOU covers model safety and evaluation, research on AI adoption and responsible use in the public and private sectors. Claude is already used by organisations such as GovTech Singapore, Grab and DBS. The move shows a model of state and AI vendor relations that could interest Greece too: not just buying licences, but joint work on testing, evaluation and incident response. Singapore has spent years building model assurance capacity and now uses it as leverage. For the Greek public sector, which is already experimenting with digital assistants on gov.gr, the example suggests that in-house evaluation skills are a precondition for having a real voice with large providers. For private companies, the point is that vendors invest in local presence where usage is high and rules are clear. Europe has the second ingredient through the AI Act but still needs more of the first. Greek startups building on Claude or other models should watch where providers open offices, because partner programmes, local support and pilot credits tend to follow those decisions closely. A Greek counterpart to Singapore's testing sandbox, run with universities and the national AI authority, would also give local firms a trusted place to validate Greek-language deployments before launch. (Source: Anthropic) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-anthropic-self-replicating-ai-iot-devices/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-anthropic-self-replicating-ai-iot-devices/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Anthropic's Frontier Red Team published experiments suggesting that small AI models may be months away from being able to copy themselves onto cheap IoT devices. In tests, a 9-billion-parameter model got inference running on 8 of 9 hardware types, while a larger model ran distributed across 15 Android TV boxes costing about $55 each. Stronger models completed full replication cycles in a simplified setting. The company stresses that no working rogue replicator exists yet. The research does not describe a threat that exists today, but it shows where risk is heading: away from expensive data centres and towards cheap, poorly protected devices found in every office and shop. Cameras, smart TVs, thermostats and point-of-sale gadgets often run old software with factory passwords. If a future program carrying its own model can work out how to use unfamiliar devices, old-style botnets gain new flexibility. For Greek SMEs the practical answer is well known but rarely applied: a separate network for IoT devices, changed passwords, remote access switched off where it is not needed and hardware bought from vendors who ship updates. The EU Cyber Resilience Act will gradually push such requirements onto manufacturers, yet equipment already installed will stay in use for years. Companies building devices or firmware, such as ordering kiosks, should design on the assumption that someone will try to run foreign code on them. (Source: Anthropic) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-aade-oecd-aeoi-forum-athens-crs-carf/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-15-aade-oecd-aeoi-forum-athens-crs-carf/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Greece's tax authority AADE is hosting in Athens, from 12 to 15 October 2026, the 25th meeting of the OECD Global Forum's Peer Review Group on the automatic exchange of information. Governor Giorgos Pitsilis said that in 2024 alone, information on more than 171 million financial accounts holding assets of almost €13 trillion was exchanged internationally under the Common Reporting Standard. The figures are global totals, not Greek data. He also highlighted the amended CRS and the new Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, CARF. The reference to CARF is the most important point for Greek businesses and individuals holding crypto assets. The new framework, applied in the EU through the DAC8 directive from 2026, requires crypto-asset service providers to report client and transaction data to tax authorities, which then exchange it among themselves. Put simply, trading on foreign exchanges is no longer invisible to AADE. For accountants, clients with crypto holdings must declare gains and income correctly, because cross-checking will be automatic. For Greek crypto-asset service providers, reporting duties mean collecting clients' tax residence and tax ID properly from the start. The amended CRS also extends coverage to e-money and central bank digital currencies, which matters for fintechs offering payment accounts. Hosting the meeting in Athens shows AADE's wish to present itself as a modern, data-driven authority. Businesses should assume the transparency of their holdings abroad will keep increasing year after year. (Source: Η Καθημερινή (δελτίο τύπου ΑΑΔΕ)) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-workday-anthropic-sana-claude/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-workday-anthropic-sana-claude/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Workday and Anthropic announced a partnership connecting Workday’s Sana AI agents with Claude. Employees can start work in Claude or in Sana, exchanging context through the open Model Context Protocol. Every action follows the customer’s existing Workday permissions and audit controls, and the user confirms changes. The Sana in Claude plugin is available to early-access customers and is expected to reach general availability late in 2026. The partnership shows how major enterprise platforms want frontier reasoning inside HR and finance workflows without loosening existing permissions. For Greek companies already on Workday or evaluating agentic tools, the key point is that rules stay in the system of record instead of drifting into an uncontrolled general chatbot. That lowers the risk of an agent approving a payment or changing pay outside company policy. It also opens practical cases such as invoice exception review or internal mobility planning inside tools teams already use. Builders of custom integrations should watch standards such as MCP and keep human confirmation for sensitive actions. Late-2026 availability leaves room for pilots, but not for delaying an agent access policy, because buyers will soon expect governed AI inside core people and money processes across everyday business operations. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: Workday) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-workday-acquires-c1-ai/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-workday-acquires-c1-ai/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Workday announced a definitive agreement to acquire C1.ai, an agentic identity platform that governs access for employees and autonomous AI agents. C1.ai connects to systems such as email, CRM, code repositories, finance tools and cloud infrastructure. The deal is expected to close in Workday’s fiscal fourth quarter ending 31 January 2027. Workday frames the move as becoming the identity governance layer for people, money and agents across the enterprise. The deal shows the market moving from experimental AI agents to access control. When agents open email, change payroll data or call payment APIs, the hard question is not only what they can do, but who granted the right and when it is revoked. Greek firms on Workday or similar HR and finance stacks should ask vendors for agent inventories, time-bounded permissions and audit trails. The same logic applies to companies building their own agents on ERP, myDATA or ordering platforms: without identity and revocation, a mistake or breach scales instantly. The move also maps to AI Act and cybersecurity expectations, where proof of control over automated systems becomes part of compliance. Software vendors selling to businesses should design role-based rights for agents now, not only for human users, because buyers will increasingly treat agent identity as a procurement requirement rather than an optional add-on in enterprise deals. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: Workday) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-wells-fargo-stablecoin-consortium/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-wells-fargo-stablecoin-consortium/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 On its earnings call, Wells Fargo’s CEO said the bank is building digital payment solutions while U.S. stablecoin use cases remain unclear. Wells Fargo is part of a group of about 21 institutions aiming to issue a dollar stablecoin in the first half of 2027. It has already launched tokenized deposits for corporate clients. Named participants include Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs and European banks such as Deutsche Bank and Santander. Wells Fargo’s prepare-without-clear-demand stance is useful for Greek banks studying EMTs under MiCA: rails must exist before commercial use is obvious. Large-bank consortia may set interoperability standards that later shape euro and dollar cross-border flows. For importers and exporters, the near-term interest is 24/7 transfers and programmable payments via tokenized deposits. GENIUS Act and MiCA compliance will decide which products reach European customers. SMEs should ask their banks which digital settlement options will be supported in 2027 so they are not stuck on slow correspondent channels. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: Spheric News) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-ubitium-14m-physical-ai/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-ubitium-14m-physical-ai/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 European semiconductor startup Ubitium raised $14 million in a new seed round led by Ibex Investors. It is building a reconfigurable processor that combines sensing, AI inference and real-time control for robots, drones and industrial equipment. Its first chip, the UB108, was made on Samsung’s 8nm process. The funding will advance the commercial UB410 toward production, with tape-out and evaluation units planned for 2027. The raise shows physical AI depends not only on big data centers but also on specialised edge silicon. For Greek industry, logistics and automation firms, future robotics may get cheaper and simpler if multiple specialised chips shrink into one architecture. Product teams combining sensors and autonomous control should watch RISC-V designs and unified toolchains, because they change software cost. Foundry concentration remains a supply-chain risk. Greek system integrators can trial evaluation kits when they appear, but should avoid locking designs before 2027 hardware exists and before safety certification paths are clear for their markets. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: Tech.eu) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-sp-kaiko-tokenized-iboxx-swap/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-sp-kaiko-tokenized-iboxx-swap/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 S&P Dow Jones Indices, Kaiko and Derivnex announced the first OTC swap on the Canton Network referencing a fully tokenized index. The total-return swap between DRW and Marex references the iBoxx USD Liquid Investment Grade Index tokenized on Canton by Kaiko. The trade lives as a shared digital record for valuations and lifecycle events. The firms present it as a template for institutional derivatives on distributed-ledger infrastructure. The deal mainly serves institutional derivatives markets, yet it shows how benchmarks and data licences can move into on-chain workflows without losing IP control. For Greek and European data or fintech firms that sell benchmarks, a token-plus-permissions model may become a licensing pattern. Banks and brokers planning tokenized credit products should study how valuation, margin and future digital cash connect on the same network. Canton is chosen for counterparty privacy, which matters in OTC. Legal analysis of derivatives rules, risk reporting and accounting treatment is needed before adoption. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-ripple-privy-xrpl-wallets/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-ripple-privy-xrpl-wallets/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Ripple is partnering with Stripe-owned Privy to bring XRP Ledger wallet infrastructure into applications. Developers will be able to create and manage wallets in software and sign transactions for XRP, RLUSD and other ledger assets. The integration also targets payments by AI agents. Ripple said agents have already processed about 13 million payments on the network. Privy’s involvement shows embedded wallets becoming a core layer for in-app payments and agentic commerce. For Greek product teams, the question is whether such flows can be offered lawfully to EU customers under MiCA and travel-rule duties. Without a clear crypto-asset service provider and identity checks, compliance risk is high. Agent payment counts should be treated cautiously until independently verified. Teams building stablecoin checkout need recovery paths, transaction limits and human oversight before letting agents pay on their own. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: crypto.news) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-ripple-meritz-korea-custody/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-ripple-meritz-korea-custody/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Ripple announced a strategic partnership with Meritz Securities to explore bringing Ripple Custody and tokenisation infrastructure into South Korea’s capital markets. It is Ripple’s first partnership with a Korean securities firm and its fourth institutional deal in Korea in 2026. Work starts under current securities rules. Meritz is also reviewing topics such as spot ETFs, fractional products, security tokens and won-denominated stablecoins. The deal is exploratory, not a product launch, yet it shows Asian institutions preparing before security-token rules change. For Greek and European brokers, the lesson is that custody comes before ETFs and STOs. Without reliable safekeeping and settlement, tokenized products stay in slide decks. Firms planning similar offers under MiCA must separate CASP services, traditional securities licences and the custodian role. Parallel talk of national stablecoins is a reminder that settlement asset and payment medium must be designed together. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: Ripple) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-rain-embedded-stablecoin-wallets/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-rain-embedded-stablecoin-wallets/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Rain introduced embedded stablecoin wallets that partners can offer inside their own apps. Non-custodial wallets are available today across 12 networks and connect to cards, virtual accounts, onramps, offramps and local-currency payouts. Users can receive, spend and send from one balance without managing a seed phrase. Custodial wallets and balance-earning features are planned by year-end. The launch shows stablecoin payments moving from experiments into account-like experiences inside existing apps. For Greek fintechs and marketplaces, the appeal is one integration for receipts, cards and payouts, provided MiCA compliance and key custody are clear. Non-custodial designs reduce some custody risk but shift UX and recovery duties into product design. Firms serving cross-border freelancers must check supported currencies, chains and AML duties. Before adoption, legal teams should assess whether the service is a CASP activity or must run through a licensed EU partner. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: Rain) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-nvidia-europe-2b-french-startups/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-nvidia-europe-2b-french-startups/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in Paris that the company plans to announce roughly $2 billion of European investments within a week. That would come on top of about $8 billion it has already put into the continent over the past year. He also named minority stakes in four French startups: Doctolib, Genesis AI, Pigment and Entalpic. Huang urged Europe to join the AI race more forcefully and promoted open models as a path to technological sovereignty. Nvidia’s pledge matters for European software and fintech firms because the leading accelerator vendor is still committing capital and strategic stakes on the continent instead of concentrating only in the US and Asia. For Greek product teams, that raises the odds of nearby partners, cloud capacity and co-innovation with European startups that suddenly have Nvidia-linked backing, while GPU cost and availability remain central to roadmaps. Huang’s open-model pitch also aligns with companies that need Greek language, local data and regulatory fit without relying only on closed APIs. Builders should watch where capacity lands and which local players receive strategic money, because that shapes latency, cloud pricing and supplier choices. The cash does not rewrite the AI Act, yet it increases pressure for real productive infrastructure in the EU rather than rules alone, and Greek SMEs buying AI tooling will feel the effects through partners’ pricing and regional coverage. It belongs in operational planning, not only in a leadership news briefing. (Source: The Next Web) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-nca-meta-west-africa-scam-takedown/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-nca-meta-west-africa-scam-takedown/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 The UK National Crime Agency hosted a joint operation with law enforcement and technology firms against fraud networks based in West Africa. Meta removed more than 3.7 million profiles, pages and groups. Nearly 30 people were arrested, mainly in Ghana and Nigeria, trafficking victims were rescued, and about $11 million in potentially freezable funds was identified. Participants included the FBI, Microsoft and Google among others. The scale of removals shows platforms remain a front line for investment and impersonation scams that also hit Greek users. Businesses should train staff and customers not to trust investment pitches or urgent payments that start on social media. Brands that run ads or pages need stronger identity checks and fast reporting of lookalike pages. Public-private crackdowns will grow, so platforms may demand more verification from advertisers. Fintech and payments firms should link social-fraud signals to anti-money-laundering controls and transaction freezes before funds leave the country. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: National Crime Agency) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-microsoft-maia-300-multigigawatt/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-microsoft-maia-300-multigigawatt/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Microsoft said it will scale the Azure Maia family to multi-gigawatt deployments starting in 2027, making Maia its primary inference system for Microsoft products and services. Maia 200 is already serving production workloads including Microsoft Copilot. Maia 300 targets long-context reasoning, low-latency conversation and multi-step agents, with Microsoft claiming up to 40% more tokens per megawatt versus leading GPU systems. Production deployments of Maia 300 are planned for 2027. Microsoft’s push into custom inference silicon changes the cost math for anyone relying on Azure Copilot, Foundry and related APIs. For Greek businesses, prices, capacity and regional availability may depend more on Microsoft’s own stack and less on third-party GPU markets. Teams building long-context or continuous agent workflows should test performance and rate limits before locking critical processes to one path. Supplier diversification remains prudent, because a strong internal platform reduces Microsoft’s incentive to price every rival model equally. Greek SaaS vendors should plan fallbacks to open or alternative models when inference cost squeezes margins, and they should revisit cloud contracts as Maia capacity ramps through 2027. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: Microsoft) https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-meta-gem-ads-conversions/ https://streamcode.gr/en/news/2026-10-14-meta-gem-ads-conversions/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:00:00 +0300 Meta published a technical account of its 2026 GEM ads model, claiming an 18.9% conversion improvement and a 12% CTR lift across ad surfaces. The system unifies predictions for Facebook, Instagram and Reels in one central foundation model. The figures come from Meta itself without independent audit or a full methodology. For advertisers, the changes mostly arrive through automated delivery rather than new Ads Manager controls. Meta’s performance claims matter for Greek businesses spending on Meta ads, because they change how the system learns from clicks and conversions across apps. Without independent measurement, the numbers should be treated as directional, not as guaranteed ROI. Advertisers should compare them with their own incrementality tests and watch cost per real sale. Cross-surface learning means behaviour on one placement can shape optimisation on another, complicating placement reports. Teams using Advantage+ should keep holdout tests and avoid raising budgets only because the dashboard shows higher conversions attributed by Meta. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. (Source: PPC Land)