Opinion

December 20, 2020 @ 6:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Cynthia Marie Lummis Wiederspahn, an American politician and attorney who is the U.S. Senator-elect from Wyoming (having been elected to succeed Mike Enzi in 2020), reveals that she’s been doing work on the “rumored” transaction reporting rule (potentially) impacting crypto-assets (currently being contemplated by the… Read More

December 17, 2020 @ 12:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Fintech is expected to play an important role in Saudi Arabia’s efforts to further diversify its economy, according to commentary from the nation’s Budget 2021 report. Padmini Gupta from Fintech Rise notes in an update published by Arab News that sustained support this year from… Read More

December 13, 2020 @ 8:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped consumer mentality and habits, especially as it relates to people’s financial needs. But it remains unclear what new habits born out of necessity are here to stay and what will vanish as the pandemic grinds to an eventual halt. We recently… Read More

December 13, 2020 @ 6:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Simon Torrance, Advisor to Boards and Leadership teams on business model transformation, platform strategy, and digital ventures, claims that embedded insurance is a $3 trillion market opportunity, which may help “close the protection gap.” Torrance, a Senior Advisor at Rainmaking, explains that embedded insurance is… Read More

December 11, 2020 @ 8:18 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The United Kingdom has maintained its status as a major global Fintech hub. But will the country be able to capture a significant share of the world’s financial technology business after Brexit and can it retain its dominant status despite the challenges created by the… Read More

December 10, 2020 @ 1:50 pm By Milena Naitoh  |  

Digital lending platforms have made strong inroads in Southeast Asia over the past few years. In 2016 alone, peer-to-peer (P2P) business lending generated US$115.01 million—more than half of Southeast Asia’s total alternative financing market that year.  This growth can be attributed to a combination of… Read More

December 10, 2020 @ 11:52 am By JD Alois  |  

The US Department of Treasury has published the annual FSOC report. The Financial Stability Oversight Council convenes every year to review potential systemic risks to the financial services industry. FSOC members include the top financial services regulators including the SEC, the Fed, the OCC, etc…. Read More

December 8, 2020 @ 9:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ralph Hamers, CEO at UBS Group AG (SWX: UBSG), a Swiss multinational investment bank and financial services company based in Switzerland with around $1 trillion in assets, has noted that innovation and collaboration haven’t really been the norm for many traditional financial institutions. Hamers, whose… Read More

December 8, 2020 @ 7:24 pm By JD Alois  |  

Carla Carriveau has recently joined CoinList as their new Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel (the previous GC, Georgia Quinn is now at Anchorage). Prior to joining CoinList, Carriveau was at Forge.  Carriveau entered the fray with an interesting blog post today addressing expectations for… Read More

December 7, 2020 @ 10:42 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Alfonso Garcia Mora, VP for Asia and Pacific at International Finance Corporation, recently commented on how Fintech can play a key role in a post-COVID environment. Mora, whose comments came during “Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia” from the sidelines of the Singapore Fintech Festival, said that the… Read More

December 7, 2020 @ 8:30 am By Amit Anand  |  

Emerging from the pandemic while other regions are still in the midst of crisis is giving the region an advantage.  The venture market in Southeast Asia has grown exponentially in the last five years but it’s not too late for LPs to dive in. While… Read More

December 5, 2020 @ 5:33 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), recently commented on developments related to Islamic finance, digital payments, and Fintech platforms and services. Zahid, whose comments came during the 3rd Islamic Fintech Dialogue (IFD2020) on December 1, 2020,… Read More

December 5, 2020 @ 4:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday, the Democratic members of the Committee on Financial Services, led by Chairwoman Maxine Waters, published a letter addressed to President-elect Joseph Biden demanding that the incoming administration should prioritize the elimination of certain rules and regulations on day one of his presidency. In a… Read More

December 4, 2020 @ 7:51 am By Omar Faridi  |  

We recently connected with Scott Freeman, Co-Founder and Partner at JST Capital, a New York-based financial services firm currently focused on the digital asset market. The partners of JST have spent more than twenty years working in the traditional financial services sector. They’ve now entered… Read More

December 4, 2020 @ 7:31 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Huobi Global, a leading digital asset exchange, claims that when it comes to the blockchain and crypto sector, there are “arguably no blockchain projects more important than Ethereum.” The second-largest digital currency by market cap has also been credited with being “the mother of ‘Generation… Read More

December 2, 2020 @ 11:27 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Vikas Raj, the Managing Director at Accion Venture Lab, a global non-profit firm focused on creating a “financially inclusive” world, with a “pioneering legacy” in microfinance and Fintech impact investing, notes that we’ve now entered a new age of Fintech and financial inclusion. Raj, an… Read More

December 2, 2020 @ 9:06 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

During the past few weeks, Ari Paul, CIO at BlockTower Capital, and Luke Martin, a prominent digital asset trader, have noted that Bitcoin’s (BTC) upward price movements since late October 2020 have mostly taken place during US market hours. A report from Coin Metrics points… Read More

December 2, 2020 @ 1:48 pm By Geoffrey Michener  |  

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating technology adoption across all industries in Latin America, the financial services sector is experiencing some of the fastest progress. The Fintech sector has been particularly resilient during the crisis over the past year, and its growth may even match… Read More

December 1, 2020 @ 11:51 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Justin Sun, the Founder of Tron (TRX), a major platform for building blockchain-based decentralized applications (dApps), has announced that TRON is planning to “adjust the incentive mechanism of the entire network with a focus on encouraging long-term holders who stake tokens for voting.” It’s worth… Read More

December 1, 2020 @ 8:52 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The team at Coinrule, a cryptocurrency trading startup that recently secured over £410,000 in funding through its Seedrs round, notes in a blog post published by crypto futures and options exchange Deribit that Investors now have a new option they can add to their investment… Read More