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

Fintech innovation in Asia

Balazs Fejes, CTO APAC, EPAM, speaks at Sibos 2018 in Sydney about FinTech in China, in what areas China financial services are leading the way, and whether the rest of the APAC region is following in terms of cashless payments, digitisation of financial services.

01 November 2018

Company update/Blockchain

Cobalt appoints Anoushka Rayner as global head of sales and business development

Cobalt, the foreign exchange (FX) post-trade processing network based on shared infrastructure and high performance technology, has appointed FX specialist Anoushka Rayner as global head of sales and business development.

01 November 2018

News/Blockchain

NZ bank ASB sets blockchain trades in motion with VerifyUnion; DBS debuts commodity pricing platform

ASB has partnered with VerifyUnion, a decentralised identification platform, to launch New Zealand’s first bank blockchain single trade window.

01 November 2018

News/Blockchain

UK FS industry should create shared digital platforms - report

UK financial firms, regulators and governments would benefit from increased efficiencies and cost savings if the developed shared digital platforms to more effectively tackle things such as customer background checks, regulatory reporting and fraud prevention, says a new report from Deloitte and TheCityUK.

01 November 2018

Company update/Blockchain

Swiss Blockchain Federation founded

The Swiss Blockchain Federation has been founded in Zurich. The objective of the association is to promote the attractiveness of Switzerland as a location for blockchain-based activities and encourage the development of a secure and competitive legal framework.

31 October 2018

News/Blockchain

Hong Kong Exchange preps DLT-based post-trade allocation and processing platform

Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is teaming up with Digital Asset to build a blockchain platform for post-trade allocation and processing of northbound trades under the Stock Connect programme with China.

31 October 2018

News/Blockchain

Coinbase raises $300m at $8bn valuation

Coinbase has raised $300 million in a Series E funding round led by Tiger Global Management, giving the cryptocurrency exchange a valuation of more than $8 billion.

30 October 2018

Company update/Blockchain

Blockchain bank Babb appoints Gaurav Rana as CTO

BABB has appointed Gaurav Rana as its new CTO. With its first mobile app due to be launched to beta testers in the autumn, Rana will be taking over development of the BABB app and blockchain platform.

30 October 2018

Company update/Blockchain

CULedger welcomes Visa founder Dee Hock to advisory team

CULedger, a credit union-owned CUSO that focuses on delivering innovative applications to credit unions through its cross-border global distributed ledger platform, appointed Dee Hock, former Founder and CEO Emeritus of Visa, as a member of its advisory team, known as “Team Aspire”.

30 October 2018

Finextra TV/Blockchain

Enabling Banks to Accelerate Digital

Madhivanan Balakrishnan, Chief Technology & Digital Officer, ICICI Bank, speaks at the Infosys Finacle Conclave in Antwerp, about the key technologies impacting the industry today, and what banks need to do to accelerate digital.

30 October 2018

Finextra TV/Blockchain

Significant steps forward in Blockchain

David Collins, Head of Financial Services, GFT Technologies, explains the reasons behind slow adoption of blockchain within in the financial market in particular, where progress is being seen most, and how the market is likely to react to these findings.

30 October 2018

News/Blockchain

UK watchdogs propose regulatory framework for cryptoassets

UK financial watchdogs have outlined proposals to adopt a range of measures to bring cryptoassets into the regulatory fold.

30 October 2018

News/Blockchain

Japanese banks trial blockchain-based interbank settlement system

A group of nine Japanese banks are set to trial a blockchain-powered interbank settlement system developed by Fujitsu.

30 October 2018

Company update/Blockchain

Cryptocurrency custodian BitGo adds gold-backed digital asset by Digix

From today, pioneers of the world's first gold-backed digital asset class Digix, is pleased to announced that their gold backed cryptocurrency DGX has been integrated into BitGo’s Digital Currency Support with Enterprise Access.

29 October 2018

News/Blockchain

Embracing the Blockchain Moment

Jens Hachmeister, managing director, DLT, crypto assets and new market structures at Deutsche Bourse, believes the embrace of distributed ledger technology by the global banking community will help the industry avert a long-heralded Kodak Moment.

29 October 2018

Company update/Blockchain

Reports suggests DLT can enable equity settlement

Payments Canada, the Bank of Canada, TMX Group, Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and R3 have published a report demonstrating the feasibility of clearing and settlement of securities using distributed ledger technology (DLT).

26 October 2018

News/Blockchain

Sweden's central bank prepares for cashless future with e-krona

Sweden's central bank is pushing ahead with plans to build a technical framework for the issuance of a new electronic currency, the e-krona.

26 October 2018

News/Blockchain

German central bank sees positive results from blockchain settlement trials

Deutsche Bundesbank and Deutche Bourse are backing the application of blockchain technology in the settlement arena, following a successful trial run using Hyperledger Fabric and the Digital Asset platform.

25 October 2018

Company update/Blockchain

Tuple and GXChain bid to build P2P data exchange marketplace

Tuple, a new GDPR-compliant decentralised marketplace for trading data assets and value-added data, has formed a strategic partnership with GXChain, a data-centric public blockchain that supports over 140,000 data transactions per day.

25 October 2018

News/inclusion

Money 20/20 Day Four: The unconscious bias inhibiting diversity and inclusion

Taking a step back from innovation for the day, this year’s Money 20/20 Las Vegas event concluded with banking executives and fintech players sharing their personal experiences of the financial services industry.

24 October 2018