Global

May 23, 2021 @ 11:30 am By Omar Faridi  |  

We recently connected with Joachim De Koning, the Founder of hybrix, a Utrecht, Netherlands-based company offering a technically borderless cross-ledger (or cross blockchain) platform where users can swap, store, build, explore, and conduct asset transfers across different distributed ledger tech (DLT) networks. Joachim explained how… Read More

May 23, 2021 @ 9:07 am By Omar Faridi  |  

During the past 10 years, there’s been a significant increase in technology-focused firms that have attempted to disrupt traditional sectors. New initiatives such as payments firm Square (NYSE: SQ) grocery delivery service Instacart, and Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) are just some of the companies that… Read More

May 22, 2021 @ 6:59 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

x15ventures (x15), which is Commonwealth Bank of Australia‘s venture-scaling division, has introduced a stand-alone or independent platform for helping new digital initiatives and business owners with fulfilling regulatory, risk and compliance requirements – which are part of scaling operations. The “xStack” platform is based on… Read More

May 22, 2021 @ 9:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Ireland’s Regtech firm Fenergo reveals that it has been acquired by private equity companies, the Paris-headquartered Astorg and London’s  Bridgepoint, from Insight Partners. Although the financial terms of the deal haven’t been shared publicly, the Irish Times said that industry sources claim that the transaction… Read More

May 22, 2021 @ 9:02 am By Xu Gao  |  

Hotels of the HUAZHU Group in Shanghai Will Now Accept Digital RMB Payments From May 21st, all hotels of HUAZHU Group in Shanghai will be able to accept digital RMB payment. According to HUAZHU, digital RMB will be accepted when guests check in at the… Read More

May 22, 2021 @ 8:51 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at BitOoda, a global digital asset financial technology and services platform offering risk management solutions, “best-execution” brokerage and market analysis, notes that in China, Vice Premier Liu He, in a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Committee, had stated on Friday (May… Read More

May 21, 2021 @ 10:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be postponing the implementation of strong customer authentication (SCA) rules by another 6 months in order to minimize disruption for individual consumers and merchants. First scheduled for release in September 2019, the SCA guidelines – which require a… Read More

May 21, 2021 @ 8:02 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

For many digital commerce platforms, ACH payments debited directly from customer bank accounts offer a more affordable and accessible alternative to traditional credit cards. Although cards may expire and can also go missing, account and routing numbers for ACH payments tend to be more permanent,… Read More

May 21, 2021 @ 7:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Standard Chartered (LON: STAN)  has committed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with payments company Tazapay in order to provide digital escrow services to buyers and sellers interested in trading globally via Proxtera, a B2B marketplace network. The initiative is Standard Chartered’s very first escrow-as-a-service… Read More

May 21, 2021 @ 5:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Sanctions research from blockchain security firm CipherTrace reveals that over 72,000 “unique” Iranian IP addresses have been linked to over 4.5 million “unique” Bitcoin (BTC) addresses. CipherTrace notes that since monitoring sanctions-related IP usage across the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain network, they’ve been able to identify… Read More

May 21, 2021 @ 2:16 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Chainalysis, the blockchain analysis firm, revealed on Thursday (May 20, 2021) that it has launched Chainalysis Business Data, which is described as a “first-of-its-kind” data offering to assist digital asset exchanges and other Fintechs that provide crypto-related services. Chainalysis Business Data should allow service providers… Read More

May 21, 2021 @ 9:04 am By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this week, the UK Financial Conduct Authority issued a “Dear Chief Executive” letter to payment and e-money firms warning about adequate disclosure when it comes to affiliated risk and consumer money. Some Fintechs provide similar services as banks while not being fully regulated as… Read More

May 21, 2021 @ 8:14 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Ireland’s B2B card payments Fintech CleverCards has finalized a €10 million funding round. The company has also acquired a European Money Institution license via the acquisition of spend management service provider, ExpendiaSmart. Since introducing its payments platform back in December 2019, CleverCards has managed to… Read More

May 21, 2021 @ 7:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Revolut Business revealed on Friday (May 21, 2021) that it’s introducing currency forward contracts (FX Forwards) in the United Kingdom. Revolut Business’ FX Forwards will allow firms of any size – from large corporates to single-person businesses – to set future exchange rates via an… Read More

May 20, 2021 @ 11:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Bosch, Ocean Protocol represented by BigchainDB, and Fetch.ai have all joined Catena-X, in order to bring their “collective expertise” in market, mechanism, and token-based incentive design Catena-X is described as an “agile” ecosystem with automotive industry stakeholders. All firms taking part in Catena-X are working… Read More

May 20, 2021 @ 9:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Instant money transfer Fintech Spoko.app reveals that it has teamed up with Sumsub, an ID verification firm that claims to offer bank-grade security. Through their partnership, Spoko.app will aim to enhance fraud protection and lower average user verification time down to a minute, in order… Read More

May 20, 2021 @ 8:40 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at DFINITY, which is described as the Internet Computer and a “revolutionary” blockchain hosting “unlimited” data and computation “on-chain,” (while easily building scalable dapps, DeFi, and websites), reveals that their Internet Computer effectively replaces usernames and passwords with “a more advanced and secure… Read More

May 20, 2021 @ 3:21 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Blackhawk Network, a global payments provider, has confirmed that product management and payments executive, Cory Gaines, will now be serving as the company’s its Chief Product Officer. Gaines will be expected to lead Blackhawk’s growth and development efforts  in payments products, which includes globalizing the… Read More

May 20, 2021 @ 11:15 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Israel-based ThetaRay, a Fintech firm that enables banking institutions to monitor payment activity in order to identify potential money laundering risks, has secured $31 million in capital via a new funding round. New ThetaRay investors reportedly include Eric Benhamou, investing via Benhamou Global Ventures, and… Read More

May 20, 2021 @ 8:30 am By JD Alois  |  

Digital asset trading platform and crypto mining firm Apifiny has hired Jason Jiang as Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Apifiny, Jiang was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs where he led technical development efforts within the company’s Global Markets Division, overseeing Quantitative Trading, Electronic… Read More