Politics, Legal & Regulation

June 2, 2020 @ 12:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

The cryptocurrency sector of finance has long been a hotbed for fraud, scams, hacks, and crimes. The relative anonymity (or perceived anonymity) along with the ability to seamlessly transfer value in seconds has been catnip for crooks. Industry participants have struggled in the ongoing cat… Read More

June 2, 2020 @ 11:55 am By JD Alois  |  

HM Treasury has published an update on the various COVID-19 support schemes for UK businesses. Published today, UK lenders have now approved over £31.3 billion in loans for more than 745,000 businesses. The three programs include; The Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), the Coronavirus Business… Read More

June 2, 2020 @ 10:31 am By JD Alois  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has recently created a section of its website outlining the support programs for domestic Fintechs. Singapore has long advocated on behalf of innovation in financial services and MAS has a long history of public-private partnerships in support of the… Read More

June 1, 2020 @ 11:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has been focused on developing the Australian digital identity system, so that locals can access essential government services in a simple and secure manner. The new digital identity platform will allow individuals and Australian companies to verify their identities through… Read More

June 1, 2020 @ 6:21 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last Friday, the Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian P. Brooks quickly moved to clarify a longstanding point of contention within the online lending industry. Brooks issued a statement regarding the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) final rule on when a national… Read More

June 1, 2020 @ 11:20 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

U.S. banking group Wallis Bank recently announced it has provided $347.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to more than 3,500 small businesses throughout the country that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As previously reported, The PPP was established by Congress under… Read More

May 30, 2020 @ 10:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  Hayden Adams, the inventor of Uniswap, a widely-used non-custodial digital asset exchange, claims that decentralized trading platforms are “already beating centralized ones for a ton of ETH/ERC-20 pairs.” Adams acknowledges that trades involving fiat and cross-chain cryptocurrency pairs are still mostly being done on… Read More

May 30, 2020 @ 5:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The developers of the Digital Dollar project have published a detailed whitepaper that outlines the steps required for the US to issue its own virtual currency. As confirmed in the paper, the Digital Dollar Project is being developed with the assistance of the Digital Dollar… Read More

May 29, 2020 @ 5:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

  The House Financial Services Committee has posted its list of hearings for the month of June. The Committee like other Congressional committees has migrated to a virtual meeting due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. One of the meetings is for the Fintech Task Force…. 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 28, 2020 @ 9:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

More than $30 billion worth of transactions a year are carried out via the US-Mexico remittance corridor, which is notably one of the world’s largest cross-border payments channels. The rise in the adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies has allowed some users to perform… Read More

May 28, 2020 @ 3:32 pm By JD Alois  |  

BitClave, a blockchain-based firm that completed an initial coin offering (ICO) for “Consumer Activity Tokens” (CAT) in 2017, has agreed to return investor money, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is just the latest ICO that has had to backtrack on a… Read More

May 28, 2020 @ 12:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The French competition authority (ADC) has launched a public consultation on the Fintech industry in the country. The ADC is looking for feedback on the potential role of large digital platforms in the payments sector. It’s also seeking input regarding  new payment service providers and… Read More

May 27, 2020 @ 8:53 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) recently noted that it has not yet provided a definite timetable on a formal or official virtual yuan launch. During a recent interview, PBoC Governor Yi Gang clarified that the institution was only performing “routine work for the research and… Read More

May 26, 2020 @ 3:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

Rangewell, a business finance firm that assists SMEs in accessing capital, has launched a dashboards tracking the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the Bounce Back Loans – two UK government programs providing support to smaller firms that have struggled in the wake of… Read More

May 25, 2020 @ 11:44 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference recently began conducting their annual sessions. Both government bodies are considered the most powerful or influential political groups in the country. These meetings are commonly referred to as the “Two Sessions”… Read More

May 24, 2020 @ 3:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Peer to peer (P2P) lender, Lendy, which shut down last year and went into administration, will be requiring previous investors to pass certain anti-money laundering (AML) checks again, before they qualify to get refunds. As confirmed on the firm’s website (which is not offering any… Read More

May 23, 2020 @ 4:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The global economy has slowed down considerably during the past few months due to COVID-19. Many businesses and industries have been negatively affected, including financial services providers. The pandemic has destabilized private capital markets. Investments in new initiatives and early-stage companies have decreased significantly. During… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 11:52 am By JD Alois  |  

Comptroller of the Currency Joseph M. Otting will step down from the office on May 29, 2020, according to a release posted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).  Current OCC First Deputy and Chief Operating Officer Brian P. Brooks will take… Read More

May 21, 2020 @ 10:33 am By JD Alois  |  

The Alternative Financial Services Association of Latvia has published Latvia’s Crowdfunding Industry Guidelines. The association seeks to provide industry rules to foster a transparent and sustainable sector of finance. Twino, a well-established peer to peer investment platform, is the first crowdfunding operator to adhere to the… Read More