Opinion

January 13, 2020 @ 7:31 am By JD Alois  |  

The UK Peer to Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) is no more. Once a leading industry voice the Association that once represented the biggest names in the P2P lending industry has made the decision to disband. The news was revealed in a series of reports with… Read More

January 11, 2020 @ 12:49 pm By Timothy Li  |  

Whenever there’s opportunity, the money flows. There’s no exception here to a 400 million people market. Latin America is the next fertile ground for homegrown venture capitalists and international money when it comes to Fintech. U.S. and international VCs are on the hunt for the… Read More

January 10, 2020 @ 9:07 am By JD Alois  |  

Luxembourg is a relatively small EU country that has long been home to a good number of financial services firms. In fact, with a population of just 615,000, it is one of the smallest countries in Europe but it also claims one of the highest… Read More

January 8, 2020 @ 10:04 pm By JD Alois  |  

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) has announced the launch of a new podcast series covering the escapades of securities regulators around North America. Entitled, Real Life Regulators, the podcast’s goal is to review and discuss fraud cases regarding the financial services industry. Christopher… Read More

January 8, 2020 @ 9:29 pm By Cali Haan  |  

On Monday, Telegram, makers of the popular private messaging app Telegram, issued a public notice to, “clarify certain aspects of the TON Blockchain and Grams,” as the company, “continue(s) to prepare for a successful launch of the project.” TON is intended to function as a… Read More

January 8, 2020 @ 8:55 am By JD Alois  |  

There has been a good amount of discussion regarding Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) – digital iterations of the Euro, Dollar etc. Many central banks are experimenting with the concept. Another thought-provoking idea is the creation of a “synthetic hegemonic currency” as proposed by the… Read More

January 7, 2020 @ 8:51 pm By Cali Haan  |  

As the “public blockchain” space is being tempered now by market forces, regulation and reality, companies running or looking to set up an investing platform or manage token issuance may want to take a look at the Provenance Blockchain, a privately-developed DLT (distributed ledger technology… Read More

January 6, 2020 @ 6:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is on the cusp of a significant update to the definition of an accredited investor (AI). Depending on the final rules, the Commission could broadly expand access to private securities offerings – a sector of the capital markets that… Read More

January 6, 2020 @ 2:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

CBDCs Could Disintermediate in a Structural Way the Banking System. The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a paper on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).  CBDCs are the state form of stablecoins – cryptocurrency based off a single asset like the Dollar, Euro or Pound… Read More

January 4, 2020 @ 8:26 am By Max Lyadvinsky  |  

Startups are a new concept, business is not. Disruptive ideas still need structural backing to become as revolutionary as many startups promise. This means maximizing traditional management models to realize the radical. Startup boards, however, are often overlooked and underappreciated. Most boards are made as… Read More

January 3, 2020 @ 7:52 am By Cali Haan  |  

LendingTree Chief Economist Tendayi Kapfidze told reporters at Yahoo Finance January 1st that Bitcoin is “a pyramid scheme” and a scam with no particular utility. Kapfidze made the comments just after co-panelist Oliver Pursche, Chief Market Strategist at Bruderman Asset Management, described his own cryptocurrency investments and… Read More

January 2, 2020 @ 5:47 pm By Timothy Li  |  

To my Fintech friends, this is my 4th annual “Top Ten” Fintech prediction. I started this tradition at Crowdfund Insider back in January 2017. As we are saying goodbye to an incredible Fintech year of 2019, I see another seismic change in 2020 for our… Read More

December 29, 2019 @ 8:00 pm By Rowland Park and Simon Gregory  |  

Throughout the past year, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other forms of technology within the financial services industry has continued apace. This will increase further as it dovetails with enriched natural language processing (NLP) through 2020 and into the coming decade and lead… Read More

December 28, 2019 @ 9:00 am By Cali Haan  |  

Switzerland’s finance minister and outgoing president, Ueli Maurer, says he doesn’t think Facebook’s proposed Libra cryptocurrency project can proceed in its current form, Reuters reports. This is mainly, “because central banks will not accept the basket of currencies underpinning it,” Maurer claimed. “The project, in… Read More

December 26, 2019 @ 1:01 pm By Jeff Holzmann  |  

The concept of crowdfunding has been around since the dawn of civilization. Think about the priest passing around the bucket in church, communities coming together to help a member in need, or the example that is probably most familiar to us all – taxes! The… Read More

December 24, 2019 @ 11:40 am By JD Alois  |  

The number of FINRA regulated “funding portals,” investment crowdfunding platforms that have been approved to issue securities under Reg CF, has continued to move upward since the new entity was created under the JOBS Act of 2012. Today, there are well over forty funding portals…. Read More

December 23, 2019 @ 8:21 am By Therese Torris  |  

The French community of Fintech startups gathered at the annual dinner of the France Fintech Association to review the achievements of the past year and celebrate the holiday season. Crowdfund Insider took the opportunity to ask leading executives in Fintech and alternative finance to take… Read More

December 22, 2019 @ 7:13 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee published several letters regarding recommendations to the Commission pertaining to the concept release on regulatory harmonization. A specific letter was posted regarding updates necessary for Reg CF as well as a… Read More

December 22, 2019 @ 12:56 pm By Cali Haan  |  

For many reasons, China is regarded as one of the world’s make-or-break regions when it comes to the fate of “blockchain” technology and cryptocurrencies. Before Bitcoin trading was officially banned in China in late 2016, yuan-to-Bitcoin conversions (and vice versa) seemed to account for more… Read More

December 22, 2019 @ 11:59 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Peer-to-peer lenders reportedly raised over £7 million (appr. $9.1 million) to fund the ongoing development of their platforms via crowdfunding in 2018. Overall, Fintech has been a hot sector of crowdfunding with many big names in the emerging financial services sector recognizing the benefits of… Read More