Global

May 12, 2020 @ 7:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Henri Arslanian, the global leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers‘ (PwC) cryptocurrency and blockchain-related projects, shared the auditing firm’s 2nd Annual PwC-Elwood Crypto Hedge Fund Report on May 11, 2020. Arslanian summarized the key findings from the report as follows. The median crypto asset hedge fund returned +30%… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 5:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Australian digital bank UBank has made significant changes to its bank account products. UBank, which is owned by the National Australia Bank (one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia), confirmed on May 11, 2020 that it will be simplifying its digital product offerings,… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 4:00 pm By Lee A. Schneider  |  

In the wake of the announcements of Facebook’s Libra and the Chinese government’s intention to have a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the topic of CBDCs as a new component of a country’s legal tender has become popular with governments and commentators. The basic idea… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 11:48 am By JD Alois  |  

HM Treasury provided an update today on the progress of the various programs designed to backstop the UK economy. These programs include the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) targeted at sole traders and small firms, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) for small and… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 10:47 am By JD Alois  |  

Starling Bank, a UK based digital bank, has shared that during the first day and half of availability the Fintech paid out £90 million in Bounce Back Loans. The bank also made a total of £120 million in offers for these loans. Simultaneously, Starling Bank… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 10:09 am By JD Alois  |  

This should come as no surprise but Q1 was horrible for VC-backed Fintechs as the Coronavirus pounded private capital markets and crash-landed the once robust market. According to CBInsights, the first quarter of 2020 was one of the worst quarters for Fintech funding in years…. Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 8:40 am By JD Alois  |  

LendInvest, a marketplace for property financing, has launched a new one year fixed rate product labeled “BTL Plus,” to a “select panel of key intermediary partners and packagers.” According to LendInvest, a one year fixed rate of 3.45% is available up to 65% LTV, and… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 7:34 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based digital bank Revolut, which was most recently valued at $5.5 billion, has reportedly laid off around 60 workers, as the COVID-19 outbreak appears to have negatively impacted the firm. Nikolay Storonsky, the Russian  CEO at Revolut, announced the layoffs on May 11, 2020, according to… Read More

May 12, 2020 @ 7:23 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based digital bank Monzo has reportedly hired David Laramy, the former head of fraud at JPMorgan Chase. Laramy will be serving as Monzo’s new vice president and head of its global financial crime division. Laramy’s appointment has come shortly after the banking challenger appointed former American… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 10:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Bitcoin (BTC), the flagship cryptocurrency’s third block reward halving was completed on May 11, 2020. The digital asset’s algorithm (and protocol) has reduced the per-block subsidy from the previous 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, an amount valued at nearly $54,000 at the time of writing…. Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 9:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

India-based digital bank RazorPay announced on May 11, 2020 that it’s planning to recruit more staff members for key positions across its engineering and product design teams. As previously reported, the banking challenger had revealed that there had been a significant increase in the number… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 9:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Accel, a platform owned by Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a global provider of financial services technology solutions, has decided to temporarily increase the limits on its digital debit payments from $50 to $100. The limit increase has been made in order to meet some of… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 6:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The COVID-19 crisis has significantly reduced the revenue generated by some of the largest banks in Australia. The pandemic may present opportunities to banking challengers such as 86 400 to gain market share. As the nation’s Big Four banks try to deal with a dramatic… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 2:56 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The developers of the Loom Network, a platform-as-as-service blockchain initiative, seemed to have abandoned their project or become inactive. However, representatives from Loom reportedly told Cointelegraph that the project is not “dead,” as several social media users and community members had claimed. After CEO Matthew… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 12:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

Equisafe, a digital asset solution and tokenization platform based in France, has been selected by Koytcha Immo based in Reunion. The collaboration was conducted with the assistance of Tezos Réunion, the Indian Ocean branch of the Tezos project. Koytcha Conseil is a wealth management firm… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 10:54 am By JD Alois  |  

Rightangled, a healthtech firm that is currently offering COVID-19 testing, has launched a crowdfunding offering on Crowdcube – quickly topping its £50,000 target now standing at £354,131 backed by 655 investors. Rightangled is offering equity in the company at a pre-money valuation of £9.5 million…. Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 8:50 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Search engine giant Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has reportedly removed several Chrome browser extensions that were impersonating widely-used cryptocurrency wallet service providers, including popular hardware wallet maker Ledger and MetaMask. This update has come about a month after Google removed around 50 similar extensions, according to a recent… Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 8:25 am By Omar Faridi  |  

United Kingdom’s trade group, TheCityUK, recently recommended that the country should update its regulatory framework for Fintech, as the COVID-19 crisis has made it challenging for businesses to operate while following traditional models of finance. There are around 1,600 Fintech companies based in the UK…. Read More

May 11, 2020 @ 7:59 am By Omar Faridi  |  

A potential $5 million online heist in Brazil had attempted to target Spanish financial giant, Banco Santander, however, it was reportedly stopped after the money was seized from local over-the-counter (OTC) digital currency exchanges. The alleged thieves had tried to convert the stolen money into… Read More

May 10, 2020 @ 10:33 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Samsung Pay announced last week it is set to join forces with online lending platform SoFi to launch a new debit card. This news comes just days after Swipe launched Samsun Pay for Swipe Visa cardholders.  Launched in 2015, Samsung Pay describes itself as a… Read More