U.S. states join forces on fintech licenses
Banking regulators of seven U.S. states have agreed to simplify the way financial technology companies can apply for licenses, in a bid to make it easier for businesses to offer their services nationwide. The states of Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, will recognize each other’s findings when assessing the suitability of companies applying for money service business licenses, the national organization of state bank regulators said on Tuesday. Money business licenses are used by a wide range of young digital companies that provide financial services, from money transfer startups to bitcoin exchanges. The initiative responds to longstanding complaints by fintech startups about the costly and time consuming […]
Singapore says no strong case to ban cryptocurrency trading
Singapore’s central bank has been studying the potential risks posed by cryptocurrencies, but there is as yet no strong case to ban trading of the digital coins in the city-state, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said. “Cryptocurrencies are an experiment. The number and different forms of cryptocurrencies is growing internationally. It is too early to say if they will succeed,” Shanmugaratnam said. “If some do succeed, their full implications will also not be known for some time,” the deputy prime minister said in a written answer to questions from members of parliament on banning the trading of bitcoin or cryptocurrency. To read more, please click on the link below… […]
North Korea is a suspect in the $530 million Coincheck cryptocurrency heist
North Korea is no stranger to cryptocurrencies: The rogue regime has been accused of launching a global ransom attack to raise bitcoin, hacking South Korean exchanges, and mining crypto both within its borders and secretly on your computers. Now, it has become a suspect in the world’s largest crypto heist, Reuters has reported. South Korea’s national spy agency told a parliamentary committee on Monday that North Korean hackers may have been behind the theft last month of about $530 million worth of digital tokens from Japanese exchange Coincheck, according to the Reuters report, which cited anonymous sources. On Jan. 26, Tokyo-based Coincheck said someone hacked into its digital wallet and […]
Cybersecurity dominates EU Fintech Action Plan
Cybersecurity takes top billing in the European Union’s upcoming Fintech Action Plan, with a draft emphasising efforts to improve cooperation and coordination between market participants and regulators. Recognising its potential threat to the stability of the financial sector, the European Parliament has called on the EC to make cybersecurity “the number one priority” in the FinTech Action Plan. In response, a plan draft identifies three specific moves: A public-private workshop to investigate barriers limiting information-sharing on cyberthreats, followed by a look into how these can be fixed. A call for the three European supervisory authorities (ESAs) to map, by Q1 2019, the existing supervisory practices across financial sectors around ICT […]
Alibaba is picking up 33% of Ant Financial, its fintech affiliate that’s valued at over $60B
Alibaba has added an additional angle to the announcement of its latest financial report today with news that it is taking a 33 percent stake in Ant Financial, its fintech affiliate that operates Alipay and other financial services. The deal, which both parties said stems from an agreement made in 2014, will see Alibaba pick up newly issued shares in Ant, seemingly paving the way for a public listing. It will also mark an end to a profit-share agreement which saw Ant give Alibaba “royalty and technology service fees” equal to 37.5 percent of its pre-tax profits each quarter. The agreement will give Alibaba direct ownership of Ant, which is […]
Paris is city of Fintech love for startups seeking hookups
The fintech dating game is on in Paris. Entrepreneurs in Europe’s financial-technology sector are pushing low-cost payments solutions to steal market share from banks, hoping the challenge they pose will spur the lenders to buy them or seek partnerships with them. Many startups are eyeing deals or potential backing as they converge on Paris this week to meet with the top executives of French finance, from BNP Paribas SA’s Jean-Laurent Bonnafe to Societe Generale SA’s Frederic Oudea, at the city’s annual Fintech Forum. How fintechs defy incumbents is a prime theme of discussion there, with payments an area of focus, as banking alternatives from Alipay to M-Pesa already dominate in […]
Israel’s OurCrowd to hit $1 bln in assets from crowdfunding in ’18
Israel’s equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd said on Wednesday it expects to surpass $1 billion in assets under management in funds raised through equity crowdfunding in 2018. Since its inception in 2013, OurCrowd has raised $650 million for 145 startup companies and 12 funds, it said at the outset of its annual investor summit. In 2017, its investor base grew to more than 25,000 from 112 countries. OurCrowd’s primary investor base is the United States, with 49 percent of funding, followed by Asia at 26 percent. The company also said its seed stage incubator will invest in 100 early stage companies in the next 10 years, focused on technologies such as […]
India’s flourishing fintech sector is craving the finance minister’s attention
While most industries have long lists of demands from finance minister Arun Jaitley leading up to the budget on Feb. 01, India’s booming fintech sector primarily has just one wish—that its presence be acknowledged. While the Narendra Modi government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have already laid down regulations for certain segments, such as peer-to-peer lending, others like cryptocurrencies and online lending startups are yet to be regulated. Such regulation may mean stricter compliance, but the management at these firms believe it will lend legitimacy to the industry, which is expected to be worth $2.4 billion by 2020. That, in turn, will help them grow faster. “Given the […]
