Wall Street’s biggest bank lifts bonus cap | McDonald’s ends AI drive-thru| Mastercard’s upcoming changes
Wall Street’s biggest bank is lifting Brussels’ bonus cap for its London-based staff, weeks after rival Goldman Sachs fired the starting gun on a post-Brexit era in industry pay.
Sky News can reveal that JP Morgan Chase was in the process of notifying staff on Wednesday that it would preserve some elements of the remuneration packages introduced after the European Union’s cap on variable pay came into force in 2014.
The system prevents material risk-takers (MRTs) working in lenders’ operations in the EU from earning more than twice their fixed pay in variable compensation.
Sources said that JP Morgan, which employs 22,000 people in the UK, including roughly 14,000 in London, had decided to preserve a significant proportion of the fixed pay allowances used to calculate eligible employees’ maximum bonuses.
You can read more of our City editor Mark Kleinman’s story here…
McDonald’s is ending its AI drive-thru trial after customers reported errors in their orders – including bacon being added to ice cream.
The fast food chain’s AI ordering system, developed by IBM, uses voice recognition to process orders and has been rolled out at more than 100 McDonald’s locations in the US since 2021.
However, the technology’s reliability has been called into question in recent months, with members of the public sharing videos of order mix-ups on social media.
As well as topping a dessert with bacon, the AI drive-thru assistant added $211 (£166) worth of chicken nuggets to another customer’s order.
Mastercard has announced it will be changing the way customers make payments to bring them a contactless experience at online checkouts.
The card company has said it wants all online transactions to be “tokenised” by 2030.
The way it will work means you will input your card details to pay for a product once and then you’ll receive a “token” – a randomly generated number.
That number can then be used to make future payments, instead of you having to type in your card details each time.
“Contactless payments have made in-person payments seamless and ubiquitous – there’s an opportunity to bring that same experience to online checkout,” it said in a statement.
Mastercard said the move will reduce fraud, improve approval rates, and make it online checkouts “faster and safer”.
“As physical and digital experiences continue to converge, we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard.
“We’re focused on bringing best-in-class digital services together to deliver more value, access and safety to our customers and the end-consumer.”
