14/09/2026

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | SEPT 14, 2026

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Roblox is a highly customisable gaming platform where users can create their own games and related content, and then share them for others to play and even purchase. The platform, which has millions of users, is particularly popular among kids, which has prompted regulators to scrutinise its safety. Roblox announced the new wallet during its annual developer conference in San Jose, California. It’s part of an effort to attract new players and retain creators, particularly adults who make up “an enormous part of the market”, co-founder and CEO David Baszucki said. The company said it tested more than 200 advertising campaigns in the United States this summer amid that push for growth. Around 123 million people played on Roblox every day in the second quarter of 2026, up 10 per cent from a year earlier, but down steadily from a peak of 151 million in the summer of 2025. WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve goes into a key rate-setting meeting this week with markets expecting policymakers to pull the trigger on a rate hike to tackle persistently high inflation – and analysts say central bank chief Kevin Warsh’s credibility is on the line. The world’s largest economy has been dealing with years of higher-than-target inflation, and prices have surged in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, his signature tariff policies and the ongoing AI boom. The Fed has held rates steady since January, choosing to wait to gauge the effects of energy price shocks and to let the tariffs’ effects on prices ripple through the economy. In recent weeks, however, several Fed policymakers – including Warsh himself – have hinted that if inflation does not show clear signs of slowing, the central bank will have to act by raising interest rates. On Friday, new data on consumer inflation for August showed it remaining steady at 3.4 per cent – no change from the month before, but still well above the Fed’s long-term two per cent target. Market expectations of a 25-basis-point rate hike on Wednesday surged in the wake of the data, with the probability at more than 85 per cent according to CME’s FedWatch tool. The Fed last raised rates three years ago, when it was fighting surging inflation in the wake of the pandemic. They currently stand at between 3.50 and 3.75 per cent. Trump has railed against the Fed over interest rates since taking office for his second term, launching unprecedented attacks on the central bank’s independence as he demands lower rates to spur economic activity. The US president launched a criminal probe against previous Fed chair Jerome Powell, is attempting to fire another Fed governor and has even threatened to cut trade ties with certain countries if the Fed raised rates. Warsh was appointed by Trump and analysts say this is his first real test since taking office: Will the Fed raise rates to combat inflation, or hold steady in line with what the White House prefers? “This is the test. This is what comes with that job, and now he has to decide how to handle it,” said David Wessel, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “He’s either going to completely disappoint the markets, or he runs the risk that he’s going to start to anger Donald Trump.” The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee, with its 12 voting members, will announce its decision after a two-day meeting at 2pm on Wednesday. “It’s quite likely that the Fed will raise interest rates (this week),” said Claudia Sahm, chief economist at investment firm New Century Advisors who previously worked at the Fed.

A man walks past the Federal Reserve in Washington. – REUTERSPIC

All eyes on US Fed to tackle high inflation o Raising interest rates is ‘costly medicine’ that acts as brake on further investment and consumption activity

to adequately protect children from sexual predators. During Friday’s conference, a protestor was escorted out after jumping on stage and shouting, while wearing a t-shirt that said “kids deserve better”. In the United States, two senators opened an inquiry in August, and around ten states have sued the company or reached financial settlements with it. The European Commission stated in August that, given the size of its market, Roblox now falls under its strictest digital services regulations, which notably require it to assess risks to minors. The company is also betting on artificial intelligence. Its Build tool, which generates an entire game from a written description, is being tested in Serbia and Singapore; around 9,000 games have been published this way by users, 71 per cent of whom had never used its creation tools before. Baszucki aims to capture 10 per cent of the global video game market. Its next earnings report is expected at the end of October. – AFP cut in what is known as “forward guidance”, with analysts saying it has introduced more uncertainty into how financial markets price in inflation and interest rate expectations. Warsh has advocated in the past for lower interest rates due to expected productivity gains from AI technology, but in recent weeks he has doubled down on the Fed’s mandate to bring inflation down. “There’s always been this doubt about whether Kevin Warsh is going to be like his predecessors and do what’s right for the economy, even if it’s politically inconvenient,” said Wessel of Brookings. “If he raises rates now and Trump goes ballistic, he will have established his credibility as an independent Fed chair for the rest of his term.”– AFP

would have to explain its decision clearly to markets. “If they surprise markets and they can’t explain why they’re surprising markets, then Wednesday afternoon will be pretty messy,” she said. Since taking office, Warsh has changed the way the Fed communicates about its decisions, advocating for less transparency into the process as he thinks it locks policymakers into courses of action that may need to be adjusted. Investors have had mixed reactions to the

But “it’s not a done deal”, she cautioned in comments to AFP. “This is a difficult decision for them to make.” Raising interest rates would increase borrowing costs across the board for the US economy, acting as a brake on further investment and consumption activity. Sahm warned such a move was “not a magic wand and it is a costly medicine”. She said the Fed could still hold rates steady rather than administer that medicine, but it

Roblox to launch digital wallet to pay creators faster SAN JOSE: The American company behind the wildly popular gaming platform Roblox announced last week that it is launching a new digital wallet to make it easier for creators to get paid quickly. Until now, creators who get paid had to manually request conversion of their Robux – the game platform’s virtual currency – into dollars once they reached a certain threshold, then wait through a long payment delay. Roblox told AFP that the wallet will be extended in 2027 to teenagers with parental consent, and the payment card will be available to any wallet holder.

By the end of the year, users will also be allowed to launch games directly from the Chrome browser via a simple shared link, without going through the Roblox app. Creators will then be able to distribute their games as standalone apps on mobile, PC, and consoles; an offline mode is also planned. The platform did not specify how its restricted-function accounts – introduced in June for users who are 5 to 15 years old – and its age verification system, required since January to access messaging, will apply outside its app. Those measures have slowed sign-ups, the company acknowledged; about one-third of its users are under 13. Roblox is forecasting a 14 per cent to 18 per cent drop in overall purchases made by players in the current quarter, and its share price has lost more than two-thirds of its value since its high. Roblox is also under close scrutiny around children’s safety and has been accused of failing

The “Roblox Wallet” will now allow them to automatically receive, on every business day, the real-world revenue generated by their games and transfer it to a bank account. It will be made available starting in December to adult creators in the United States, then rolled out internationally in 2027, alongside the launch of an associated payment card. “Roblox will not become a bank. The wallet is a financial account, not a bank account,“ Enrico D’Angelo, the company’s chief commercial officer, said at a press briefing. The wallet will be managed by payment company Airwallex. Since 2013, Roblox says it has paid out more than US$5 billion to creators, including US$1.7 billion over the past twelve months. According to the company, the median earnings of the roughly 42,000 paid creators are about US$1,500 a year.