Opinion

June 10, 2020 @ 5:23 pm By JD Alois  |  

In May, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee met to discuss pending decisions by the SEC regarding an update to the exempt offering ecosystem. The SEC Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee was established by the SEC Small Business… Read More

June 10, 2020 @ 1:16 pm By JD Alois  |  

  The Libra Association continues its push to create a fortress management team with another high-profile appointment. Today, Libra has announced Sterling Daines as its Chief Compliance Officer. Daines is said to be an expert in financial crime and compliance. Currently, Daines is the Managing… Read More

June 6, 2020 @ 2:48 pm By Will Hurst  |  

    The financial services competitive landscape has evolved in recent years and it’s clear that fintechs have certainly disrupted traditional banks. Fintechs include any financial tech company that serves any of the following areas; lending, blockchain, Regtech, personal finance, payments and billing, insurance, capital… Read More

June 5, 2020 @ 9:51 am By JD Alois  |  

The Future Fund, a UK government initiative to support startups and early-stage ventures – many of which are not profitable, reported 464 applications for the program as of May 31st. As part of a weekly update, HM Treasury quantified the number of applicants – a… Read More

June 2, 2020 @ 4:34 pm By Charles Hoskinson  |  

When you go to a bar and give your ID to the bartender, do you ever think about how much you’re giving away? Let’s say you use your driving license as your ID; you’re letting the bartender know that you’re not underage, but you’re also… Read More

June 1, 2020 @ 9:30 am By Helga Kaminski  |  

The last few years have seen a revolution in how business thinks about itself. A business doesn’t just serve its shareholders, it serves a community. It has responsibilities to its employees and its customers but also its suppliers and even the environment. Recent events have… Read More

June 1, 2020 @ 9:03 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Although Latin America (LatAm) may have introduced Fintech services after they had been established in more advanced economies like the US and in Europe, the region is growing fast because of the launch of several financial technology initiatives. While it may be difficult to accurately… Read More

May 29, 2020 @ 5:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

  A couple of months ago Grupeer, a peer to peer lender ostensibly based in Latvia, shut-down all lending and allegedly halted all investor redemptions. In multiple statements, Grupeer management claimed the COVID-19 pandemic had harmed its ability to operate. At the end of March,… Read More

May 27, 2020 @ 3:07 pm By Brian Farber  |  

How fundamental misunderstandings about the function, behavior, and purpose of digital securities have stymied the path to liquidity — but there is hope… We’re nearly 18 months into the digital security (security token) market and it’s fair to say that meaningful liquidity hasn’t yet materialized…. Read More

May 26, 2020 @ 7:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Global consulting group Kearney has distributed a report predicting that 1 in 4 European bank branches will close in the next three yeas as the shift away from brick and mortar bank branches ups the pace. Kearney states the obvious that new customer habits, boosted… Read More

May 25, 2020 @ 12:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

SIM Swaps, the nefarious act when criminals surreptitiously take over your mobile phone with a different SIM card, hit crypto lending platform BlockFi earlier this month. BlockFi quickly posted an “incident report” outlining the scam: “From approximately 07:17 UTC to 08:43 UTC on May 14,… Read More

May 25, 2020 @ 10:17 am By JD Alois  |  

Monzo is one of the top digital banks in the UK that is seeking to challenge old brick and mortar banks in Europe and elsewhere including the USA. The past few months of operations have not been without a few bumps as Monzo has seen… Read More

May 23, 2020 @ 2:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

We recently talked to Lex Sokolin, the Global Fintech Co-Head and CMO at ConsenSys, a leading Ethereum (ETH) development studio based in New York. Before joining ConsenSys, Sokolin was the Global Director of Fintech Strategy at Autonomous Research, a firm that was eventually acquired by… Read More

May 22, 2020 @ 6:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Last week it was reported that JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), one of the largest banks in the world and the doyenne of Wall Street big banks, is providing banking services to both Coinbase and Gemini. More specifically, JPMorgan is providing cash management services like wire transfers,… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 3:00 am By Barry James  |  

Some people in government here are talking as if the crisis is over, and that they’ve done all they can for businesses. There are worrying signs that the initial good intentions are fading and that the temptation to manage the numbers and the messages rather… Read More

May 16, 2020 @ 4:11 pm By Timothy Li  |  

Hello everyone, my last series on the Latin American Fintech revolution was inspired by LendIt Latam conference hosted in Miami back at the beginning of 2020. The Fintech world was abuzz with new ideas, innovation, and of course new territories to explore. Fast forward four… Read More

May 15, 2020 @ 12:47 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has added six new members to its Investor Advisory Committee. The Committee is required under law and it seeks to advise the Commission on regulatory priorities regarding securities, trading and investment, disclosure, and investor protection issues. The new members… Read More

May 15, 2020 @ 12:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this week, it was reported that Telegram has decided to abandon its initiative to launch a blockchain platform called TON (Telegram Open Network) and a cryptocurrency named Gram. The decision was the direct result of an ongoing enforcement action launched by the US Securities… Read More

May 14, 2020 @ 4:00 pm By Craig Dempsey  |  

The first case of Covid-19 in Latin America was diagnosed in Brazil at the end of February. Since then, the number of cases has soared into the thousands in at least 20 countries. In response, many countries have implemented strict social distancing policies, requiring businesses… 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