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Westpac has begun testing new customer protections for certain cryptocurrency payments to reduce scam losses. 

According to Westpac, investment scams account for account half of all scam losses and a third of all scam payments go directly to a cryptocurrency exchange. 

A phased trial of the new protection blocks will be rolled out over the coming weeks. 

Furthermore, these new measures follow other scam initiatives, including Westpac Verify. The service alerts customers if there is a potential account name mismatch for some payments to a new BSB and account number or when money is sent to an account Westpac has never transacted with before. 

Mediobanca has signed a strategic agreement with the partners of Arma Partners and US Arma Partners to team up in the digital economy space. 

As a result, Mediobanca will acquire Arma to create a leading digital economy franchise within the CIB division. 

The partnership will reinforce Mediobanca’s advisory capabilities by adding a technology practice for the benefit of CIB and wealth management clients. Also, it adds a greater each in Europe and the US. 

Sam Buckingham has joined the Abrdn portfolio solutions team as an investment manager, reporting to Darren Ripton, head of investments. 

Buckingham joins from the global wealth management company Kingswood Group, where he worked as an investment analyst. 

Prior to that, from 2016 to May 2019, he served as a portfolio manager at Thomas Miller wealth management, which Canaccord Genuity wealth management bought. 

Digital wealth platform Yield App has collaborated with Volt, the real-time payments gateway, to offer GBP and EUR on-ramps via FPS and SEPA Instant, a boost to crypto. 

Yield App customers can now buy cryptocurrency in real-time directly with their bank though the integration of Bolt’s pan-European open banking solution. 

Furthermore, with connections to more than 1,800 banks across the continent, the two-step process allows customers to authorise transactions with just ID or biometric authentication from their banking app. 

Stratos Wealth Enterprises has launched Stratos Private Wealth to boost services for UHNW and HNW clients. 

In addition, Stratos will increase its investment in BWM Financial to a majority stake and rebrand it as Stratos Private Wealth. Jeff Brown, CEO and founder of BWN, will serve as president of the new division and report to Lou Camacho, president of Stratos Enterprises. 

BWM Financial received its first strategic investment from Stratos in 2020. In 2021, BWM acquired Stratos-affiliated wealth manager Truuwater Financial.