By CCN: According to Reuters sources, about 12 banks are investing in a blockchain ledger complete with digital cash. While it’s unclear which banks are currently participating in the $50 million project, a spokesman for Barclays told the news organization that “the Research & Development phase is coming to an end.” R&D Phase Ending The rarely discussed project began in 2015 with little...
Should banks design their own cryptocurrencies? According to Agustin Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, the answer is a definitive “no.” Crypto Isn’t Cool? Carstens has never been a fan of crypto, having likening bitcoin to a “bubble,” a “Ponzi scheme” and an “environmental disaster” in the past. At a speech in Dublin, Carstens explained his fear of...
By CCN.com: The South African Reserve Bank has released a consultation paper to regulate cryptocurrencies in the region. However, the government is seemingly introducing banking-like features to the crypto-markets, going against the very ethos of what Bitcoin stands for. The bank chooses to call cryptocurrencies as crypto “assets” over the former term, deeming the distinction makes it easier for...
Regulatory and bank challenges are pressuring cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, as evidenced by a 90% decline in volume on bitcoin trading platforms. The Reserve Bank of India, its central bank, has not put the hammer down on trader accounts, but Indian banks have taken a two-pronged approach that's denting trading activity, including closing bitcoin exchange accounts and limiting...
The top two US banks took what little wind was left in investors' sails today. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have both placed a ban on cryptocurrency transactions via credit cards, according to Bloomberg reports. The bitcoin price is holding at about a 5.75% decline, trading at $8,589 in what is shaping up to be a rocky 2018 for cryptocurrency trading so far. JPMorgan, whose CEO Jamie Dimon...
A video every bitcoiner should watch is Andreas Antonopoulos’ “Money as a System of Control.” In it, he shows us how money is being used to control those who send and receive it and to surveil transactions all over the globe. Plus, he exposes how big of a fraud the banking system really is. Not only can banks simply freeze or confiscate our money without our consent, and without us being able to...
Companies that handle digital currencies are being forced to open bank accounts elsewhere as British banks continue to shun them. Investor interest in digital currencies has surged this year with bitcoin's price rising to a record high of $6,200 over the weekend, pushing its market cap to $102.8 billion. Yet, despite this traditional banks remain weary of the market. The Financial Times reports...
The Royal Bank of Canada's CEO has said that he would never call bitcoin a fraud, but he admits he does have 'real concerns' about the currency. Banker David McKay said: I would never call it a fraud because it’s not misrepresenting what it is. People have placed value on what it is in different ways and they’re fine to do that, but it’s not fraudulent in its misrepresentation. This is compared...
Earlier this week, two local bodies representing the local financial technology (fintech) industry have revealed that Singaporean banks have denied banking services to bitcoin and blockchain startups. Singapore’s Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Industry Association, or Access, submitted a formal complaint to the Singaporean government, requesting officials to step in and create a fair and...
Critics deride initial coin offerings (ICO) as get-rich quick schemes - perhaps this decade’s equivalent of the dot-com bubble. But get-rich quick scheme or not, ICOs continue to soar in popularity, and the mainstream financial sector is calculating how it can get its slice of the pie. A recent feature in Bloomberg Technology details numerous instances of financiers ditching well-paid careers to...
Banks around the world, particularly in Asia, have, over the years, realized the changing currents in financial technology, and as such many have begun to consult the likes of Ripple Labs in an effort to integrate 21st century solutions into their 19th century models. Asian banks in particular have been on the move, as CCN reported earlier this year. However, a counselor/executive at one of the...
Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up every day and see your money doubled, and then again, and again? Welcome to Ripple, the latest to go parabolic in a musical chair that started with Monero some months ago and seems to be going around digital currencies. Ripple seemingly did not want to be left out and so far their show is the most spectacular. Up 10x in just two weeks, rising in market cap from...
What exactly is bitcoin’s price? $1,174 as Coinbase is currently reporting, $1,211 as Bitfinex is saying or $1,028 as the Chinese exchanges are claiming? Normally, the arbitrage opportunity created gives us an answer within a day or two, but in this case, there may not be such easy answer as, although free money is up for grabs - some $40 per coin between Bifinex and Coinbase, while there’s a...
Banks are slowly coming around to the idea of blockchain technology compared to what many previously thought several years ago. Yet, while banks are keen to explore the technology integration and collaboration remain its biggest hurdles. In a report from the American Banker, it looked at how far the blockchain has grown over the last two to three years, as such surpassing peoples’ expectations as...
The COO of UBS’ Wealth Management sector said recently that banks are now focusing on working with FinTech companies instead of regarding them as competition. Speaking at a recent Economist’s Finance Disrupted event in London, Dirk Klee said to Business Insider that: We are embracing fintechs and actually we believe that there is great innovation. We need to find very smart ways to partner up and...
Deutsche Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann recently said that FinTech requires more regulatory oversight because of its potential to threaten financial stability and the banking sector, but some believe this isn’t the case. In a report from PYMNTS, FI.SPAN’s founder and CEO, Lisa Shields, is reported as saying that the FinTech sector can help banks out and boost their commercial B2B business...
European FinTech firms believe that banks are lobbying against EU legislation that could see the power balance shift, in a report from the Financial Times. In the report, it discusses PSD2, which is the second payment-services directive that has been created to improve competition by getting banks to allow third parties, such as FinTech companies, to access the data of customers who sanction it...
European banks are at risk of losing a significant portion of their profits with digital disruption cutting their profits in half by 2020, according to a report from McKinsey. The report, A Brave New World for Global Banking, states that major developed markets in Europe and the United Kingdom have $35 billion, or 31 percent, of profits at risk. It adds that more severe digital disruption could...
Big banks are threatening to ship British jobs overseas and cripple the economy if the nation’s Treasury fails to slow the nation’s exit from the European Union. This would leave Britain under the thumb of Brussels for longer than the nation’s voters have demanded. The outrage has already begun. Two camps arose after the election. One for a quiet exit, and one for a longer term exit. Markets...
“You know what my fucking bank did to me?” Bill Burr, well-known comedian, says in a recent podcast. “I walked in. I had this account in New York, a little checking account. Had a little bit of money in it. All the sudden I notice they’re taking some fees out. That shouldn’t be. I get to New York, talk to the douchebag who works there.” Mr. Burr learns what’s been going on. “Yeah, they’re taking...
Bitcoin Suisse founder, Niklas Nikolajsen, has said that European bank accounts will eventually be offering bitcoin wallets. In an interview with finews.ch at the Fintech Conference Finance 2.0, Nikolajsen explained that while European banks will soon be providing bitcoin wallets he didn’t specify which banks these would be, only that it would ‘not be an exotic bank.’ While digital currencies...
Even though blockchain is seen to have a number of useful features for banks to utilize they are finding that putting these features into practice may prove difficult. The banking world may not trust the idea behind bitcoin, but they have realized that bitcoin’s underlying technology, the blockchain, has many valuable features that they could use, according to a Financial Times report. The...
Companies are stepping up their recruitment process by offering a number of blockchain technology related jobs as companies realize the potential of the blockchain. According to Yahoo Finance, IBM recently announced that it was undergoing a major internal reorganization to focus on the blockchain. IBM has created a new unit called Watson Financial Services, which includes Watson, cloud, and...
Bitcoiners champion how blockchain technology could undermine the financial system and effectively destroy banks. Bitcoiners mention how banks are going the way of the buffalo and blockchain inspired technology - or simply Bitcoin - will revolutionize the way the world does, basically, everything. Bitcoin, they say, will allow individuals to become their own banks. But, what if the opposite is...
Sometimes it is hard to understand just how little finance institutions actually understand blockchain technology. While blockchain is certainly not a panacea for financial institutions, it's pretty close. And SWIFT is certainly no match. In a recent article featured on the website American Banker, the ability for blockchain tech to render an antiquated settlement and messaging technology called...
Earthport, known for its extensive payment network for cross-border transactions and robust ACH infrastructure, has created the world’s first Distributed Ledger Hub (DLH). The DLH service is accessed through Earthport’s Distributed Ledger Gateway, previously announced in August of 2015, and will provide full connectivity to the Ripple ecosystem, including Ripple instances, Ripple market makers...
Nine of the largest investment banks have partnered with a block chain startup to integrate the block chain into financial services. Barclays, BBVA, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, State Street, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS all formed a partnership with a block chain oriented firm to create industry standards for using block chain technology in banking. The initiative...
If you were a large bank or another type of large financial interest, and you had finances say, in Greece, wouldn't you potentially be looking for a good way to get them out quickly? Why wouldn't you consider Bitcoin? With Bitcoin, you could buy a large portion of them, and then transfer the money for a fraction of the cost, and then cash it back out into a fiat currency wherever you've sent it...
Like the Internet did 25 years ago, Bitcoin and its block chain technology are bringing the next generation of technological advancement to industries around the globe. One industry that certainly needs an infusion of new technology and efficiencies is the banking industry. Major financial companies like Goldman Sachs, NASDAQ, and The New York Stock Exchange have stepped forward to invest and...
Germany might be the next country to take definitive steps towards the removal of hard currency. The economist Peter Bofinger has been campaigning for the abolition of cash in Germany. His primary merits for the removal of hard currency apparently targets the markets for undeclared work, those earning a little cash in hand and wanting to avoid declaring this and being taxed. And allegedly...
Australian Bitcoiners seems to have a champion within the government, a rare sight that may have the potential to reverse Australia's current Bitcoin regulatory haze. Labor Senator Sam Dastyari, the chairman of the Australian Senate's Economic References Committee, has urged a list of 74 organizations and companies from around the world to provide comment to his committee's inquiry into digital...
In Monday's Global Financial Stability Report, the IMF warned of a coming liquidity crisis and ramp-up in market volatility. Digging deeper into the report, CCN uncovers IMF admissions of the banking sector's failure to manage risk, as well as, advice to banks to prepare for a public backlash due to perceived excesses. Part three of the IMF's Global Financial Stability Report entitled Risk Taking...