Tagged: blockchain

September 19, 2016 @ 1:14 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Monday, BNP Paribas Securities Service announced it is expanding its blockchain platform for private stocks as a way to help private companies issue mini-bonds through crowdfunding portals. The bank revealed it is teaming up with renewable energy crowdfunding specialists Lendosphere, Enerfip, and Lumo on this… Read More

August 30, 2016 @ 10:18 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last week, Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501, Hitachi) announced it has teamed up with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU) for a blockchain technology project to check digitalization in Singapore. Both companies reported that they had started Proof of Concept (PoC) testing. During the PoC testing,… Read More

August 25, 2016 @ 12:44 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

UBS and Clearmatics have  joined with BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Icap and Santander to advance the Utility Settlement Coin, an asset-backed digital cash instrument implemented on distributed ledger technology, according to a statement. “Digital cash is a core component of a future financial market fabric… Read More

August 22, 2016 @ 12:49 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Equity crowdfunding platform Invesdor announced this week that the first annual Helsinki Blockchain Conference is set to be held on August 26th at Microsoft Flux. The funding portal shared the event’s description, which reads: “We are delighted to invite you to Helsinki Blockchain Conference 2016,… Read More

August 19, 2016 @ 11:15 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Rakuten, Inc. announced the opening of the Rakuten Blockchain Lab (R.B.L.) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK, planned for August 22, 2016 on its website and blog. R.B.L. will be a dedicated research and development organization within Rakuten, focused on blockchain technology and its potential applications in… Read More

August 18, 2016 @ 10:13 am By Erin Hobey  |  

After more than 10 years at UBS, CIO Alex Batlin will depart in October to “pursue an opportunity outside of UBS”, according to an internal memo from the bank’s Head of Innovation Veronica Lange on 17 August, reported Financial News.  “There is no change to… Read More

July 24, 2016 @ 6:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

ICYMI London-based start-up Plutus Tap & Pay raised money in a “Crowdsale”.  Plutus is creating a contactless payment system for cryptocurrencies. According to a statement by Plutus; “Over a thousand people rushed to participate to what was probably the shortest 9 day crowdfunding round to… Read More

June 7, 2016 @ 8:56 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

KPMG and NASSCOM 10,000 Startups just released the new report Fintech in India, targeting key elements that are “creating transformational waves across the financial ecosystem in India” and have seen extensive usage across financial service institutions. Topics include essential themes to the fintech ecosystem such as next-generation payments, financial inclusion, P2P lending, robo… Read More

June 1, 2016 @ 10:04 am By JD Alois  |  

Last week the largest bank in the Eurozone by market capitalization, Santander, announced it had launched a new app to facilitate live international payments. While payments may not be super exciting (it is a big business though) the method as to how Santander is facilitating… Read More

May 24, 2016 @ 1:28 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Frost & Sullivan views Australia’s development as a leader in Fintech innovation will require concerted effort from government agencies and established financial institutions and will involve partnerships and research collaboration between banks and startups, presenting many diverse and lucrative growth and development opportunities for ICT… Read More

April 28, 2016 @ 9:28 am By JD Alois  |  

The UK government is pitching in to help finance international transfer platform Tramonex.  The London-based Fintech startup has been given a £250,000 grant by Innovate UK to fund the development of a cross currency payments system that leverages blockchain technology. The prototype is expected to… Read More

April 27, 2016 @ 1:46 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

The European Union has put the brakes on regulating blockchain (the technology that underpins bitcoin); an EU parliamentary committee agreed on Tuesday in the latest example of a “softly-softly” approach by authorities towards financial services, according to the release. “We don’t want pre-emptive regulation, but we do… Read More

April 26, 2016 @ 12:23 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Nexuslab, the Swiss blockchain startup programme powered by Startupbootcamp, has announced a partnership with Rabobank. The Dutch bank joins Nexuslab to support the first round of its programme geared towards early-stage European blockchain ventures. The collaboration adds leading financial industry expertise to the programme and… Read More

April 21, 2016 @ 12:07 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Distributed ledger outfit Digital Asset Holdings has acquired Zurich-based Elevence Digital Finance, a startup that has developed a modelling language for determining rights and obligations in blockchain collaboration agreements. Digital Asset noted in a release that Elevence’s technology complements its existing software by providing a new, verifiable… Read More

March 31, 2016 @ 10:38 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Stratumn announced that it has raised €600,000 in funding to build and promote its blockchain development platform. The round was led by the French VC firm Otium Venture, and includes Business Angels such as Ledger CEO and Maison du Bitcoin founder Eric Larchevêque, according to the… Read More

March 31, 2016 @ 10:09 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Smart Token Chain, a company that uses patent-pending Smart Token technology combining smart contracts, tokenization, and blockchain to combine financial services and establish a common global standard for value exchange, announced on Wednesday the launch of its new Smart Contract Settlement Exchange. According to the company, the… Read More

March 30, 2016 @ 3:26 pm By Therese Torris  |  

The French Minister of Economy, Emmanuel Macron was the guest star of the 3rd annual meeting of the French crowdfunding association. He expressed his commitment to the crowdfunding economy, shared his views on the regulation of innovation, and, to prove his point, announced several significant… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 6:53 am By Erin Hobey  |  

In late December, retail giant Overstock, a publicly traded company managed by maverick CEO Patrick Byrne, received SEC approval to regarding a plan to issues shares using Bitcoin Blockchain.  According to a filing with the SEC, the use of the “technology and distributed ledger technology by the Pro… Read More

March 17, 2016 @ 5:48 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Top banking executives fear that up to a quarter of their business could be at risk from emerging fintech firms, according to research conducted by PwC.  The report notes that information on FinTech is somewhat “dispersed and obscure,” which can make data synthesizing challenging. PwC’s… Read More

March 10, 2016 @ 4:30 am By Erin Hobey  |  

2015 was the year that financial technology entered the mainstream, claims the new report “Pulse of Fintech” from KPMG and CB Insights (see also the University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance  seminal benchmarking surveys last year), which estimates that VC-backed fintech firms around the world secured $13.8 billion in… Read More