Politics, Legal & Regulation

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 @ 10:09 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The reserve bank of Bahrain has shared its commentary on the work being done by retail banks to implement the infrastructure for compliance with the Bahrain Open Banking Framework (Bahrain OBF). This work was carried out after a grace period that allowed for implementation which… 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 @ 7:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

This coming Monday, May 24th, the House Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets will hold a hearing entitled Going Public: SPACs, Direct Listings, Public Offerings, and the Need for Investor Protections. The Subcommittee is part of the powerful House Committee on Financial Services… 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 @ 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 @ 8:25 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Norges Bank has released its Financial Infrastructure Report 2021 and Norges Bank Papers 2/2021, titled “Retail payment services 2020.” Norges Bank notes that there have been significantly fewer disruptions in the Norwegian financial infrastructure during the past few years, and the infrastructure has been working… Read More

May 20, 2021 @ 2:18 pm By JD Alois  |  

Earlier today, US Senator Sherrod Brown, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee,  issued a statement challenging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to review federal bank charters approved for digital asset firms. In the last year of the Trump Administration, the OCC… Read More

May 19, 2021 @ 11:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in the UK has long intermediated disagreements within the financial services sector including investment crowdfunding. A recent decision by the FOS has caused some concern amongst industry insiders as it may challenge the entire crowdfunding model based on the liability… Read More

May 18, 2021 @ 9:29 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a recent speech delivered by the Deputy Governor, Financial Stability, of the Bank of England, Sir Jon Cunliffe, the public official appeared to commit to the UK creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Bank of England, like many other central banks, is… Read More

May 18, 2021 @ 8:09 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services are becoming increasingly popular across the globe. The BNPL market is valued at around £2.7 billion in the United Kingdom. Although postponing payments might appear to be useful for security and in many instances provides other benefits depending on… Read More

May 18, 2021 @ 9:35 am By JD Alois  |  

Judith Hartley, CEO of British Patient Capital – a subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has commented on the lack of UK institutional capital going into venture capital. British Patient Capital manages a £2.5 billion investment program that seeks to facilitate £5 billion of institutional… Read More

May 17, 2021 @ 5:49 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which is one of two agencies that offers deposit insurance to depositors in US depository institutions (the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures credit unions based in the US), will reportedly be asking for details… Read More

May 17, 2021 @ 2:21 pm By JD Alois  |  

As was reported last March, five federal regulatory agencies joined in a consultation pertaining to the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) within financial institutions. The Federal Reserve Board, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and… Read More

May 17, 2021 @ 11:11 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Zack Voell, a cryptocurrency mining specialist, writes in a blog post published by Compass that block 682,170 was the first “clean” block that was mined by public mining firm Marathon’s new pool. Voell writes in a detailed post from Compass, a “Bitcoin-first” company that aims… Read More

May 16, 2021 @ 11:30 am By Omar Faridi  |  

A newly filed lawsuit alleges that the sale of NBA Top Shot “Moments” is in violation of the federal Securities Act of 1933, which is a law that aims to ensure investor protection when acquiring publicly-traded securities. Michael McCann and Jacob Feldman from Sportico note… Read More

May 15, 2021 @ 12:05 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), which is Hong Kong’s central banking institution that reports directly to the Financial Secretary, has announced the implementation plans for the third and fourth stages of its Open API framework. The next steps in the Open API Framework include… Read More

May 14, 2021 @ 1:57 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UK Finance, a trade association for the UK banking and financial services sector (representing around 300 local companies offering credit, banking, markets and payment-related services), has shared an analysis of almost 7,000 authorized push payment (APP) scam incidents. The analysis reveals that around 70% of… Read More

May 14, 2021 @ 10:41 am By JD Alois  |  

N26, a leading digital bank based in Germany, has garnered additional scrutiny by federal regulators for apparent shortcomings went it comes to anti-money laundering (AML) compliance. Earlier this week it was announced that N26 has been assigned a “special monitor” by the German financial services… Read More