General News

October 3, 2019 @ 4:57 pm By Timothy Li  |  

Initial Thoughts Every year, thousands of finance professionals from banks, credit unions, specialty financing companies and Fintech companies converge at Lend360. It’s an annual pilgrimage where decision-makers in the financing sector come together to learn from each other and plan ahead for the new year…. Read More

October 3, 2019 @ 10:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The global digital banking market is expected to grow by $2 billion, with a compounded growth rate of 4%. The retail banking sector is projected to expand by more than 4.1%, according to a recent study. As noted in a release, the retail banking industry… Read More

October 3, 2019 @ 7:39 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The developers of Facebook’s Libra stablecoin have unveiled a new roadmap that outlines the main steps leading to the project’s mainnet launch. The announcement, published on October 2, reveals several important updates for the crypto project’s developers and for those who are running the Libra… Read More

September 28, 2019 @ 3:48 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

IOVLabs, the parent company behind RSK’s open-source Bitcoin smart contract network, announced on September 27 its acquisition of Taringa, a Spanish-language social media network. IOVLabs has reportedly set aside $5 million in assets for developing products for Taringa, according to a release. The company’s management… Read More

September 28, 2019 @ 9:06 am By JD Alois  |  

eToro, a crypto/traditional investment platform, has partnered with Goren Holm Ventures (GHV) to provide access to education on adoption of cryptoassets and has also become the title sponsor of GHV’s  West Coast blockchain investment conference, CIS. Earlier this year, eToro launched its trading platform in… Read More

September 27, 2019 @ 12:56 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking public comment on proposed changes to Exchange Act Rule 15c2-11. The amended rule seeks to, “provide greater transparency to the investing public by requiring that information about the issuer and the security be current and publicly available… Read More

September 27, 2019 @ 11:53 am By JD Alois  |  

Fraud takes place daily in the financial services industry. Crowdfund Insider reads about it every single day. It is just a fact of life. There will always be a miscreant somewhere looking to separate good money from good people. That is why the industry must… Read More

September 27, 2019 @ 9:20 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Global innovation platform Plug and Play announced on Thursday the 130 startups selected to participate in their Winter 2019 batches. According to the accelerator, the selected startups will participate in one of the following programs: Enterprise 2.0, Health, Insurtech, Internet of Things, Mobility, Real Estate & Construction, or Travel & Hospitality. Speaking… Read More

September 27, 2019 @ 12:31 am By JD Alois  |  

Small businesses are in urgent need of more government support if no-deal Brexit lands on October 321st, according to research from the UK Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The clock is ticking and the UK still does not have a deal in hand. Meanwhile, it is… Read More

September 26, 2019 @ 6:04 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Facebook’s stablecoin project Libra might solve some of the problems in the global payments industry, however, it could also create other types of issues that would have to be addressed by regulators, according to Benoit Coeure, a member of the executive board at the European… Read More

September 24, 2019 @ 10:32 am By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), at Cambridge Judge Business School, is out with the Asean Fintech Ecosystem Benchmarking Study published in partnership with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and FinTechSpace in Taiwan. CCAF is the leading research institute covering the global alternative… Read More

September 24, 2019 @ 8:20 am By JD Alois  |  

Following recent $6.2 million funding round, “KNØX” has announced the launch of a digital asset custody service and insurance coverage for the assets. KNØX seeks to provide the service to institutional clients, such as asset managers, as securities and other assets migrate to the digital… Read More

September 24, 2019 @ 3:29 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Palo Alto-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm Vianai has raised $50 million through its seed round. Launched by former SAP executive Vishal Sikka, Vianai aims to transform the current machine learning (ML) industry. The company was introduced at the Oracle Open World, where Sikka was one… Read More

September 23, 2019 @ 7:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Association of Online Investment Platforms (AOIP) visited both House and Senate staffers last week, along with a meeting at the US Department of Treasury. The goal of the trip was to review the status of current crowdfunding exemptions and what must be done to… Read More

September 23, 2019 @ 9:47 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) has published its updated market surveillance report which revealed that US-based digital asset exchange Kraken and Coinbase are among the cleanest trading platforms in the crypto industry. On September 19, the BTI released its 5th market report that examines and… Read More

September 22, 2019 @ 9:50 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Facebook has acquired Servicefriend, a Tel Aviv-based company that provides artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled customer service bots for messaging. The acquisition has been made as the social media giant prepares to launch its stablecoin project Libra next year. According to Techcrunch, the news was initially reported… Read More

September 22, 2019 @ 8:43 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The  is launching a blockchain-enabled pilot project that verifies the authenticity of diplomas within seconds, instead of taking several days when using the traditional system. Harald Rotter, the university’s CIO, told CNN Money in a recent interview that the degree verification software “could be necessary… Read More

September 20, 2019 @ 11:24 am By Omar Faridi  |  

India has slashed its corporate tax rates in order to encourage companies to make investments and help grow the nation’s struggling economy. Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted that the base corporate tax rate would be reduced from 30% to 22%.  Shortly after the announcement,… Read More

September 19, 2019 @ 10:04 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Overstock’s (NASDAQ:OSTK) recently departed founder and CEO, Patrick Byrne, sold his entire 13% stake in the company for $90 million USD in the past three days, MarketWatch reports. Byrne left Overstock in August after disclosing in a company news release and in interviews that he’d… Read More

September 19, 2019 @ 9:15 am By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has published its 2nd Global Enterprise Blockchain Benchmarking Study. CCAF is the leading Fintech research in the world. The Centre has published multiple reports on the global alternative finance market which are frequently referenced by policymakers and industry… Read More