Finextra Research: Latest fintech news, analysis, interviews, features and opinion by industry experts

Schroders explores digital asset fund in Singapore

Global asset manager Schroders has teamed up with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to develop a tokenised digital asset fund.

27 June 2023

News/crypto

Italian banks launch CBDC pilot project

The Bank of Italy has launched a pilot to assess the viability of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

23 June 2023

News/crypto

Crypto.com gets licence in Spain

Cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com has been granted virtual asset service provider (Vasp) registration by the Bank of Spain.

23 June 2023

News/sustainable

Blockchain platform issues first digital green bond

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has issued its first digital green bond on a blockchain-based platform developed by SEB and Credit Agricole.

23 June 2023

News/crypto

US asset managers apply to SEC for bitcoin ETFs

The ongoing effort to persuade the SEC to approve crypto investment products continues, following news that many of the country’s largest asset managers, BlackRock, WisdomTree and Invesco, have applied to the SEC for permission to launch a spot bitcoin ETF.

22 June 2023

News/sustainable

EBAday: Banks are seeking new approaches to level up sustainable strategies

In the panel ‘Sustainable finance: Assessing shades of green across payments and banking’, hosted by Finextra’s own Madhvi Mavadiya, speakers explored how the European banking landscape is adopting sustainable strategies.

22 June 2023

News/inclusion

Majority of consumers trust generative AI for financial planning

The majority (53%) of consumers trust generative AI technology to be used for its financial planning, suggests recently published research.

20 June 2023

News/crypto

BIS and Bank of England complete CBDC project

A pilot project involving central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) jointly run by the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).

16 June 2023

News/payments

Colombian central bank partners Ripple for blockchain pilot

Colombia's central bank is testing how Ripple's new end-to-end CBDC platform could help boost the country's high-value payment system.

16 June 2023

News/markets

R3 bids for DLT interoperability

Distributed ledger technology services firm R3 has rolled out a public beta of its flagship product Corda that is capable of interoperating with other blockchain networks.

14 June 2023

News/markets

Bank of China's BOCI issues first tokenised notes

The Bank of China’s investment banking arm, BOCI, has issued a tokenised security on the main Ethereum blockchain in Hong Kong.

13 June 2023

News/crypto

A16z crypto opens first overseas office in UK

A16z crypto, the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital fund dedicated to crypto and Web3 startups, has chosen the UK as its first overseas office outside the US.

12 June 2023

News/payments

Swift steps up blockchain experimentation

Swift is working with more than a dozen financial institutions and market infrastructures to test the use of its messaging network as a means to instruct the transfer of tokenised value over a range of public and private blockchain networks.

07 June 2023

News/crypto

NY Fed and MAS find promise in CBDC for cross border payments

Distributed ledger technology can be used for cross-border, cross-currency payments between different CBDC ledgers, reducing settlement risk and cutting settlement time, according to research from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

22 May 2023

News/crypto

Ripple buys crypto custody provider Metaco

Blockchain firm Ripple has acquired Swiss crypto custody player Metaco in a $250 million deal.

17 May 2023

News/crypto

Emirates NBD opens Digital Asset Lab

Emirates NBD has opened a Digital Asset Lab to develop fresh ideas for consumer-facing financial services using digital assets and their underlying technologies.

17 May 2023

News/markets

GFMA calls for regulators to take more innovative approach to DLT in capital markets

A new report from the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) claims that distributed ledger technology can have "transformative benefits" for capital markets but that regulators need to take a more innovative approach.

17 May 2023

News/crypto

Visa uses CBDC for programmable finance prototype for farmers

Taking up a challenge from Brazil's central bank, Visa has built a prototype of a programmable finance platform for farmers using a CBDC.

10 May 2023

News/markets

Finance heavy-hitters back interoperable financial blockchain network

BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Börse Group are among a clutch of financial market participants to have have thrown their weight behind an initiative to build an interoperable blockchain network designed for institutional asset trading.

09 May 2023

News/crypto

Mastercard aims to boost trust for blockchain transactions

Mastercard is teaming up with Web3 players on an on-chain identity and verification framework covering a variety of applications in payments, remittances, ticketing and NFTs.

01 May 2023