ICAP, a UK-based financial services firm, is jumping on the bandwagon and getting ready to process foreign exchange (FX) trades on blockchain, according to the Financial Times. As Banking Technology reported earlier this year, ICAP’s post trade risk and information division completed a proof of technology test case for blockchain – so its interest is […]
Amsterdam-based ABN Amro Bank has launched a pilot to explore how its blockchain application Torch can be used in real estate transactions to record and exchange information. The bank says real estate transactions involve numerous parties, such as buyers, sellers, tenants, landlords, appraisers, notaries, banks, the Land Registry Office, the Chamber of Commerce and regulators. […]
Microsoft has teamed with AMIS and the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI) to form Asia’s “first” consortium blockchain network on Azure. They will use AMIS’s blockchain solutions with Azure as the cloud platform – “the only platform with BaaS” (Banking-as-a-Service). Azure will provide public, private and hybrid cloud models; and business and technical […]
Given the pace of change and innovation underway in traditional industries it would take a brave person to predict how the finance industry will look in five years’ time, however I don’t believe high street banks will disappear and be replaced by online blockchain alternatives, the regulatory hurdles are just too high.
With so much fintech funding activity going on, we’ve summarised the latest fundraising efforts of start-ups. Featuring Lunar Way, FXCH and Polychain Capital.
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Fintech funding stories can be fun if they are brief. Featuring MoneyLion, SETL and Finicity.
IBM has unveiled a blockchain ecosystem “to help accelerate the creation of blockchain networks”. The programme “is designed for innovators looking to build real networks – venture capitalists, start-ups, systems integrators, independent software vendors and enterprise developers”.
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
BNY Mellon’s treasury services business has created a global innovation group and appointed Christopher Mager to lead it.
Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), Osaka Exchange OSE) and Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC) will form a blockchain consortium of Japanese financial institutions. All three are part of Japan Exchange Group (JPX) and will continue to conduct proof-of-concept (PoC) testing based on past findings and discuss the possibility of applying blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) […]
Customers of Valartis Bank in Liechtenstein are being held to ransom by hackers, according to German tabloid Bild. The blackmailers are demanding 10% of their account balances in Bitcoin or the customers face their personal details being sent to the media and financial watchdogs. An unusual threat but the hackers might feel the bank’s customers, […]
The UK’s Royal Mint will issue Royal Mint Gold (RMG) in mid-2017, a blockchain based digital record of ownership for gold stored at its bullion vault storage facility. CME Group, a derivatives marketplace, will develop, implement and operate the product’s digital trading platform which will see gold traded on an exchange using blockchain. The Royal […]
Germany’s central bank Deutsche Bundesbank and Deutsche Börse have unveiled a functional prototype for the blockchain technology-based settlement of securities. It is, however, “purely a conceptual study” and “is far from being market-ready”.
Treasury and capital markets (TCM) vendor Calypso has implemented its collateral management system at Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMco). It has also joined forces with the R3 blockchain consortium to build TCM applications on R3’s Corda distributed ledger technology platform.
We’ve summed up the latest funding efforts and results in the fintech space – so you don’t have to! Featuring Billon Group, Stripe, figo and Finimize.
EY Switzerland says it will become the first consulting firm to accept Bitcoin for its services. The company says from January 2017 it will be possible to pay invoices from EY Switzerland in Bitcoin. Employees will receive a digital wallet; and a Bitcoin ATM will be put into operation in its main building in Zurich […]
US Bancorp, Macquarie and JP Morgan are understood to be in the “leave” camp as they have opted out of the upcoming fundraising effort of the R3 blockchain consortium.
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Let’s put the fun in funding by keeping it mercifully brief. Money seekers are PayKey, Euklid and Flender.
Morgan Stanley and National Australia Bank (NAB) are understood not to be renewing their membership with the R3 blockchain consortium.
Santander has decided to leave the R3 blockchain consortium, which it joined last December. Meanwhile, R3 has slashed its fundraising target to $150 million from the original $200 million.
Goldman Sachs has dropped out of the R3 blockchain consortium, according to the Wall Street Journal. The bank was one of nine original members of R3, but let its membership lapse. A spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs told the Wall Street Journal that it will continue to work with blockchain. No other details were forthcoming. As […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! FNZ to build new BPO centre EXCLUSIVE. For Société Générale’s private banking business Mizuho Bank gears up for new core banking system go-live Keen to modernise after large-scale system failures in 2011. Big three explore blockchain for consumer […]
Stellar Development Foundation is offering sponsorships for fintech start-ups, and those who educate developers or represent an NGO. Sponsorship is available in the forms of “lumens” – Stellar’s unit of digital currency, similar to a Bitcoin. The firm says its goal is to support new products and ideas, and for those enabling that goal via […]
It’s blockchain infographics time!
IBM has unveiled a blockchain-powered Know Your Customer (KYC) project with Singapore start-up KYCK! to help financial services providers onboard customers quicker and cheaper. Using the open source Hyperledger Project Fabric, IBM says immutability, traceability and privacy of the information is provided on a permissioned distributed ledger which is “critical” in a highly regulated environment. […]
SETL, Deloitte and Metro Bank say they have completed “a series of firsts”. SETL provided a contactless smartcard for digitised payments (based on blockchain), Deloitte applied its Smart Identity blockchain ID system, and Metro Bank hosted a connected client account.
OCBC says it is the first bank in Southeast Asia to use blockchain for local and cross-border interbank fund transfers. A successful pilot payment transaction was carried out between the bank and its subsidiaries, OCBC Malaysia and Bank of Singapore, using a payment blockchain solution designed by OCBC and local payments firm BCS Information Systems […]
V-Key, a Singapore-based digital security firm, and Ant Financial have teamed up for mobile payments. Under the partnership, V-Key will provide its virtual software solution, V-OS, for Ant Financial to help secure transactions on AliExpress, one of Alibaba Group’s retail ecommerce platforms. (Ant Financial is an affiliate company of Alibaba Group). V-Key will also provide […]
South Korea’s Shinhan Bank is launching a Bitcoin remittance service between Korea and China, with Hong Kong as an intermediary. The service will be available in December.
Here is a boringly good guide to cryptocurrencies, courtesy of MBNA. It is not boring at all really!
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
The R3 consortium and ten of its member banks have developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a know your customer (KYC) registry “that addresses the challenges associated with satisfying KYC requirements and allows identities to be managed by their owners”.
SEB has teamed up with blockchain specialist Ripple to enable SEB customers to make real-time transfers between SEB accounts in Stockholm and New York. This is “the first step” of a larger blockchain-based payments project.
Kasikornbank (Kbank), one of the largest banks in Thailand, is exploring blockchain with IBM, “to save costs and speed up transactions”, the two companies say. The services will be launched in H1 2017, to certify the letters of guarantee (LCs).
The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
There has been a tremendous amount of excitement and discussion about the potential of blockchain technology to transform the financial services industry and beyond. But the only thing that is clear at the moment is that there is still a lot of work to be done to implement wide scale use cases, clear up any regulatory uncertainly or barriers and educate institutions and employees about the technology and its potential.
Amidst tightening regulations, the latest hack of the Bitfinex Bitcoin exchange has highlighted ongoing difficulties for the sector. Bourn Collier, associate, and Oliver Yaros, senior associate at Mayer Brown International LLP, explore. A few years ago media reports in Britain drew attention to the unfortunate plight of James Howells, a Welsh IT worker who had […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Weatherbys Bank live with new core banking system EXCLUSIVE. Oracle FSS’s Flexcube flexes its muscles. Mobile payments and European millennials Vocalink reveals millennials’ habits and perceptions. Japan rises to blockchain challenge with new consortium Launches with 42 member […]
