Natixis, IBM and physical commodities trading group Trafigura have launched the first blockchain solution in commodity trade finance for US crude oil transactions. The distributed ledger platform, built on the Linux Foundation open source Hyperledger Fabric, allows “major steps” in a crude oil transaction to be digitised on the blockchain, ensuring that famous trinity of […]
BBVA has become an official member of the Linux Foundation’s open-source collaborative blockchain project Hyperledger. The bank joins American Express, the Bank of England, SAP, Wells Fargo and Thomson Reuters. BBVA is already a member of R3, which is also participating in Hyperledger, and of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, which supports the creation of blockchain […]
UK Export Finance, the country’s export credit agency and a government department, is looking to recruit a new head of IT.
Ukrainian fintech start-up Attic Lab has signed its second deal to implement SmartMoney, a blockchain-based digital money system, at a local bank. This is with Bank Alliance.
The global blockchain market will experience massive growth during the next five years – powered by the activities of “key vendors” Accenture, IBM and Microsoft. According to Research and Markets’ report, “Global Blockchain Technology Market 2017-2021”, the market will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55.59%. One trend in the market is […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dashed the hopes of internet entrepreneurs and venture capitalists Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who were hoping to create an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for the virtual currency Bitcoin.
EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys, has launched Finacle FinTech Connect and the chance for firms to integrate their solutions into Finacle’s banking suite. Companies are invited to register for a partnership evaluation process and stand a chance to present at its event Infosys Confluence 2017 in May in San Francisco; along with joint […]
SAP Ariba has unveiled its plans to use blockchain across its cloud-based applications and business network for trading goods and services. Among the first applications that SAP Ariba sees potential in involves the tracking and tracing of goods. SAP Ariba will join forces with Everledger, a London-based fintech firm. The latter captures the defining characteristics […]
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) has become the first US regulatory agency to join the R3 Consortium, a global partnership of banks and other parties working to develop distributed ledger-based applications for financial services.
Professor Michael Mainelli, executive chairman of Z/Yen Group, and Vinay Gupta, founder of venture capital firm hexayurt.capital, discuss mutual distributed ledger economics.
IBM and SecureKey Technologies are working together to enable a new digital identity and attribute sharing network based on IBM Blockchain. When launched later this year, consumers can use the network to verify their identity for services such as new bank accounts, driver’s licences or utilities. IBM’s Blockchain service is built on top of the […]
A new initiative will hold an initial coin offering (ICO) for the production of an industrial material using green technologies – creating the “first” commodity-backed cryptographic token in the process. Called ZrCoin, this will be a derivative – and with the option to buy an equivalent amount of synthetic Zirconium Dioxide (ZrO2). The latter may […]
IBM has unveiled its new release of IBM Blockchain, the “first” enterprise-ready blockchain service based on the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric version 1.0. The service enables developers to build and host production blockchain networks on the IBM Cloud, and is underpinned by the IBM server LinuxONE. This development follows on from late last year when […]
London-based fintech start-up Babb App says it is creating a bank based on a “permissioned” blockchain implementation of a distributed ledger using Ethereum smart contracts. The Babb banking platform will operate a decentralised information model to “minimise costs while maximising data fidelity and security” – i.e. the usual suspects. It expects to do a soft […]
The Bank of England’s (BoE) fintech accelerator has teamed with Ripple for a cross-border payments proof of concept (PoC). As Banking Technology reported last year, the accelerator was set up to harness innovation for central banking. In this latest development, the PoC with Ripple is intended to demonstrate the synchronised movement of two different currencies […]
Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, Banking Technology deputy editor Antony Peyton doesn’t offer up one view, but the views of many. While Twitter in general may often […]
Wanda Internet Technology and IBM have signed an agreement for the former to enter the public cloud business in China. This will be done via a new firm – Wanda Cloud Company – built on the IBM Cloud Platform.
Yes Fintech, the accelerator programme of India’s Yes Bank, has unveiled its 12 finalists.
SIX Securities Services, Switzerland’s post-trade market infrastructure says it has developed – “and intends to deploy” – a new bond issuing solution based on the distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Vizag, the commercial capital of Andhra Pradesh, India, continues to build relationships and develop as a fintech centre.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is partnering with R3, and a consortium of financial institutions on a proof-of-concept project to conduct inter-bank payments using blockchain. This project, which is seen as a rival to Swift’s network, will potentially create a payment system for participants to transact in different global markets round-the-clock. Sopnendu Mohanty, chief […]
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) have signed an agreement to assist fintech entrepreneurs and support financial services innovation in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, according to Paybefore sister publication Banking Technology.
Chinese fintech firms Dianrong and FnConn have launched Chained Finance, the “first-ever” blockchain platform for supply chain finance. According to the pair, supply chain finance companies have been limited by existing technology and, to date, have only served about 15% of suppliers needing financial resources. They claim the vast majority of the 40 million SMEs […]
Maersk and IBM have unveiled the “first industry-wide” cross-border supply chain solution on blockchain. According to IBM, 90% of goods in global trade are carried by the ocean shipping industry each year. Their new blockchain solution will do the usual things – help manage and track the paper trail of shipping containers across the world […]
The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
Alphapoint, a San Francisco-based financial services infrastructure firm, has completed a blockchain proof-of-technology trial for Scotiabank, leveraging its Alphapoint Distributed Ledger Platform.
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
PwC has created a working blockchain prototype for the London Market Target Operating Model (TOM) Innovation Exchange, as it seeks to use the tech for payments in the specialist insurance market. Completed over a six-week period, the proof of concept (PoC) focuses on “enhancing” interactions between multiple different London Market parties involved in a claims […]
The man who claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, is now working on filing patents for the currency, according to Reuters. In a lengthy investigative report, Reuters says Craig Wright is “working with a fugitive online gambling entrepreneur to file scores of patents relating to the digital currency and its underlying technology, […]
SBI Ripple Asia and the Japan Bank Consortium have “successfully” completed a pilot implementation of RC Cloud, Ripple’s unified blockchain platform for domestic and cross-border payments. As Banking Technology reported last year, the consortium (full name “The Japan Bank Consortium to Centrally Provide Domestic and Cross-border Payments”) officially launched with 42 member banks. As of […]
San Francisco-based digital asset exchange Kraken has acquired the charting and trading platform Cryptowatch. According to Kraken, Cryptowatch is used by traders to chart over 150 markets in real-time and trade up to 22 digital assets. Over the past two years, Cryptowatch also increased its active user base by 700%. As part of the deal, […]
Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Intel, JP Morgan and Microsoft are some of the big names behind the launch of a new blockchain alliance. Called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), it plans to drive Ethereum blockchain technology best practices – “focusing on security, privacy, scalability and interoperability”. This development creates another rival for the R3 blockchain […]
Switzerland-based Crypto Valley Association has launched as the nation looks to boost its blockchain and cryptographic ecosystem. Headquartered in the Swiss canton of Zug, Crypto Valley is an independent, government-supported association which aims to foster the development of digital technologies in Switzerland and internationally. The association will support start-ups and established enterprises through policy recommendations, […]
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced that the proof-of-concept to improve the netting process for repo transactions using distributed ledger technology (DLT) has been successfully completed.
Bank of Baroda, a public sector bank in India, has launched a fellowship programme to support fintech, rural, agricultural and financial inclusion start-ups.
The committee on payments and market infrastructures at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), an international financial institution owned by central banks, has issued an analytical framework on distributed ledger technology (DLT) in payment, clearing and settlement.
Bitcoin underwent a lot of ups and downs in its brief history. This nifty infographics (courtesy of Investoo.com) offers a lowdown on major crashes during the early years of this digital currency experienced by Bitcoin traders.
Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), a blockchain architecture and development start-up, and the UK’s University of Edinburgh, have set up a blockchain technology laboratory within the university’s School of Informatics. The lab will bring together academics and students to collaborate on blockchain research and development with a focus on “industry inspired problems”. IOHK CEO and […]
Japanese financial services provider Mizuho has partnered with Cognizant to test cross-border document sharing and custom digital currency applications of blockchain – and the cost implications of using the technology. Mizuho says the project was a success and concluded that a tamper-proof distribution database built using blockchain could support a platform to share information and […]
