Politics, Legal & Regulation

July 11, 2020 @ 4:03 pm By JD Alois  |  

Texas State Securities Board has issued two emergency cease and desist orders against cryptocurrency investment offerings. One is for Loudmines and the other is for Swiftminex. Both entities are ostensibly based in Houston, thus the Board ironically stated there may be a problem. LoudMines is… Read More

July 10, 2020 @ 7:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

A US state appeals court on July 9, 2020 confirmed that it will be siding with the New York Office of the Attorney General (NYAG) as it aims to obtain documents, involving an investigation, from Bitfinex, a major digital asset exchange, and its sister company… Read More

July 9, 2020 @ 5:02 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced a series of Fintech focused virtual events to take place later this fall. Hosted by the CFTC’s innovation section, LabCFTC, “Empower Innovation 2020” will be a series of virtual events in place of a “Fintech Forward” conference… Read More

July 9, 2020 @ 9:53 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

UK-based challenger bank Tide announced this week it has paused its bounce back loan lending and closed its waiting list. In April 2020, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the lending scheme, which added to the existing support of small businesses that are affected by the COVID-19… Read More

July 9, 2020 @ 8:32 am By Omar Faridi  |  

An Ethereum address, for the very first time, with 100,000 USDC stablecoin was recently blacklisted. The transaction, which may be viewed via Etherscan, an Ethereum (ETH) blockchain explorer, confirms that a “blacklist(address investor)” function was initiated on June 16, 2020, by 0x5dB0115f3B72d19cEa34dD697cf412Ff86dc7E1b, which is an… Read More

July 8, 2020 @ 8:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas), the central bank of the Philippines, is working on a new set of guidelines for digital banks that plan on establishing operations in the country. The BSP confirmed that foreign individuals or business entities will be able to own… Read More

July 8, 2020 @ 3:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

At a minimum, Wirecard AG (WDI:DE) has generated a good amount of fascinating, yet disappointing news, as the once high-profile Fintech plunged into bankruptcy. Today, according to WSJ.com, the US Department of Justice is investigating allegations of bank fraud surrounding a cannabis-focused company. While details… Read More

July 8, 2020 @ 9:42 am By JD Alois  |  

In a speech today entitled “Plan for Jobs” by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, he announced the elimination of the Stamp Duty at a certain threshold in a move to improve the UK housing market. The Chancellor explained: “… to catalyse the housing… Read More

July 8, 2020 @ 7:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has published a 12 month review on digital assets, or virtual assets, addressing global standards regarding anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) requirements on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers (VASPs). VASPs are mainly digital asset exchanges (cryptoasset… Read More

July 8, 2020 @ 1:13 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based Proplend, a Fintech platform that matches demand for alternative property finance with investor demand for “inflation-beating returns,” has revealed that its loan queries doubled last month (month-on-month). The FCA approved peer to peer (P2P) lending platform claims that it’s expecting several new deals to… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 10:20 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

UK-based Alternative Business Funding (ABF), a free and easy-to-use website for finding funding sources for SMEs, has teamed up with LawBite, an online legal platform powering a fully SRA regulated UK law firm that provides various legal services to small businesses. Through the partnership, the… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 9:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Tomorrow (July 8), the Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, part of the House Financial Services Committee will hold a virtual hearing entitled, “Exposure Notification and Contact Tracing: How AI Helps Localities Reopen Safely and Researchers Find a Cure.”  Open to the public, the virtual… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 1:51 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Telegram, a major social network with hundreds of millions of users, had attempted to raise funds through a digital asset offering. However, it recently decided to settle an enforcement action initiated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As part of the settlement, Telegram… Read More

July 7, 2020 @ 10:03 am By JD Alois  |  

  HM Treasury has posted its weekly update on its COVID-19 business support schemes and as one would expect the numbers continue to push higher. HM Treasury reports that more than one million businesses have been approved to receive £45 billion in financing support. In… Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 10:45 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Currency.com, a regulated digital assets platform, has reportedly been awarded a new distributed ledger technology (DLT) license by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC). As mentioned in a release shared with Crowdfund Insider: “The license allows [Currency.com] to use DLT for storing or transmitting value… Read More

July 6, 2020 @ 8:58 pm By JD Alois  |  

Not too long ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded the comments phase of a proposal to update, and hopefully improve, rules pertaining to the exempt offering ecosystem. This includes Reg A+, Reg CF, and Reg D (506c), each a variant of online capital… Read More

July 5, 2020 @ 1:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ron DeSantis, the 46th Governor of the US state of Florida, noted on July 2, 2020, that with the signing of HB 1391, Florida now welcomes Fintech firms that aim to “disrupt the status quo and gives them an opportunity to provide new types of… Read More

July 5, 2020 @ 12:55 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

  The global Fintech industry is being transformed by the COVID-19 outbreak and resulting socio-economic problems and challenges, according to a recent report from CB Insights. As mentioned in the report, the first quarter of this year was quite difficult for the financial services sector… Read More

July 4, 2020 @ 4:45 pm By JD Alois  |  

Jan Marsalek, the former COO of Wirecard AG (WDI:DE) who was fired from his job when €1.9 billion went missing, may have never traveled to the Philippines in late June as records he entered the country were apparently faked, according to a report by Reuters. Marsalek pulled… Read More

July 3, 2020 @ 10:32 am By JD Alois  |  

Wirecard AG (WDI:DE), once a prominent payments Fintech and now a financial debacle due to allegations of massive fraud, continues to try and find a way to survive. Meanwhile, shares in the firm have tanked dropping from over €100/share to now around €3/share as the… Read More