Watch out R3, another US-based consortium is waking up to the potential uses of blockchain. CULedger, a collaborative effort among Credit Union National Association (CUNA), Best Innovation Group, the Mountain West Credit Union Association, PSCU and other industry partners are examining blockchain with a view to piloting applications. The organisations and Glenbrook Partners, a consulting […]
Luxembourg-based start-up SnapSwap, which offers blockchain-based payments, has received authorisation to operate as an electronic money institution (EMI). The firm says the EMI licence, provided by the Ministry of Finance of Luxembourg, allows it to issue debit cards and other payment instruments linked to Gloneta accounts. The latter combines a mobile messenger (chat) with cross-currency […]
BTL Group is partnering with Visa Europe Collab to investigate potential applications for blockchain settlement in financial services. The project will use BTL’s cross-border settlement platform Interbit to explore the ways in which blockchain-based settlements can “reduce the friction” of domestic and cross border transfers between banks. A small number of European banks have been […]
Samsung Group could be turning its eyes toward blockchain, according to the Korean Times. The CEOs of Samsung Group subsidiaries attended a lecture on blockchain at Seoul National University, which could be a sign that the group is looking to jump on the crowded blockchain bandwagon. Local media in South Korea also reported Samsung Group […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Temenos and BACB go public on core banking software project We knew back in February. Al Hilal Bank’s new CIO looks to collaborate with fintechs Let’s talk. Famous five unsettle Bitcoin with utility settlement coin Arrival of a […]
BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, ICAP and Santander have joined UBS and Clearmatics to advance their utility settlement coin (USC) concept, and plan tests in a real-market environment. USC is a digital cash model for payments and settlement. It will run on blockchain and be another rival to Bitcoin. The group plan to build on the […]
Hitachi and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) have started proof of concept (PoC) testing for using blockchain in the digitalisation of cheques in Singapore. In this PoC testing, Hitachi and BTMU developed a system in which a blockchain infrastructure is used for issuing, transferring and collecting electronic cheques. BTMU issues and settles them, while […]
Rakuten will open its Rakuten Blockchain Lab (RBL) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 22 August to develop applications in the fintech and e-commerce sectors. The establishment of RBL follows the acquisition by Rakuten of the IP assets of Bitnet Technologies, operators of a blockchain-powered digital payments platform. Yasufumi Hirai, group executive vice-president, CIO, CISO and […]
Mexico’s third-largest Bitcoin exchange, MeXBT, has gone offline without any prior warning – leaving its users confused. The firm’s website has gone and now just says “the page you are looking for cannot be found”. Its Twitter account is slightly more helpful and says (in Spanish) the platform has been suspended temporarily and it needs […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Apple bites back over Australian banks’ “cartel” Don’t team up on them. Thieves steal $72m from Hong Kong Bitcoin exchange Now looking for new funding to compensate its customers. UK challenger Mondo gets banking licence It also needs […]
R3 and over 15 of its blockchain consortium member banks have “successfully” completed two prototypes using distributed ledger technology for smart contracts. The banks designed and used self-executing transaction agreements – aka smart contracts – on R3’s Corda distributed ledger platform to process accounts receivable (AR) purchase transactions, aka invoice financing or factoring, and letter […]
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) have teamed up to develop a blockchain prototype for trade finance innovation. The consortium uses the distributed ledger framework provided by Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Project; and the proof of concept has reduced manual processing in letter of credit transactions. […]
Services firm Vanbex Group and payments provider NetCents Technology have teamed up to speed up the adoption of blockchain to Canadian banks. NetCents will be integrating Vanbex’s Genisys product, a blockchain-integrated payment platform that offers a turn-key transaction messaging system for cross-border payments, to work in conjunction with the Swift and Clearing House Interbank Payments […]
It’s all gone wrong in Hong Kong as about $72 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen from the Bitfinex exchange platform. Nearly 120,000 units have been pilfered making it the second-biggest security breach ever of such an exchange. Bitfinex is one of the largest exchanges for Bitcoin, and according to Reuters is known in the […]
Danish blockchain payment service provider Coinify has raised $4 million in series A investment round from SEB Venture Capital, an entity within the SEB Group and SEED Capital Denmark. Mark Højgaard, co-founder and CEO of Coinify, says it plans to use the investment to sustain its position in Europe and “expand” its blockchain payment and […]
Blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic and LexisNexis Risk Solutions have partnered for the “first” use of “bank-grade” risk management for Bitcoin. Elliptic has integrated LexisNexis’s anti-money laundering (AML) risk management data into its Bitcoin transaction monitoring and compliance products. The two firms have built a proof-of-concept that uses financial intelligence data from LexisNexis and presents it […]
The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is looking for a developer to work on humanitarian projects, including the use of blockchain for innovation. The role will be based in New York and the UNICEF Innovation Unit wants the developer to create products that solve problems in the developing world. The individual will also work […]
Thomson Reuters has joined R3’s partnership to design and apply distributed and shared ledger-inspired tech to global financial markets. Thomson Reuters will contribute insights from its work with customers to “drive product innovation and transformation in the financial sector using distributed ledger technologies”. David Rutter, CEO of R3, says the deal is “another significant milestone”. […]
Blockchain and biometrics could be the way forward for the future of the UK’s regtech industry, according to the findings of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA issued a call for input in November 2015 about the development and adoption of regtech; and more than 350 responses were received. Of that number, 43% were […]
Deloitte Luxembourg has developed a proof of concept for regulatory transaction reporting in a distributed ledger technology (DLT) environment. In its DLT proof of concept, counterparties of the transaction will seal and report their deal using a smart contract, whose terms include all the aspects needed for the transaction reporting. The regulators will be able […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Swift seeks stronger network security Strikes back after hacks. IBM to open blockchain innovation centre in Singapore Big Blue stays true to blockchain. Starling Bank gets UK banking licence Aims to launch to customers by January 2017. Unibank […]
With news on blockchain and Bitcoin appearing thick and fast, here’s a round-up of key events to save you time. Bitcoin has got some love in Russia when the centre-right Party of Growth says it is open to accepting donations in the digital currency. Boris Titov, head of the party, who also acts as an […]
Decentralised financial platform provider Nxt has developed Ardor, the “first ever” scalable platform using blockchain. The Netherlands-based firm says Ardor, which is available from tomorrow (14 July), is designed to function beyond financial exchanges and will be “open to everyone”, including individual users, start-ups, banks and governments. Dave Pearce, director at Nxt Foundation, says: “Ardor […]
South African heavyweight Absa is the first bank in Africa to join New York-based R3’s blockchain consortium. Absa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barclays Africa Group Limited, will be working with over 50 banks to design and deliver distributed ledger technologies to global financial markets. On the back of its membership, Absa will also be […]
IBM plans to establish the “first” IBM Center for Blockchain Innovation in Singapore. The firm says this is the first collaboration of its kind with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). IBM researchers will work with government, industries and academia to develop applications and solutions which are based […]
Payment provider Worldline and Luxembourg-based start-up SnapSwap have signed a partnership agreement for the latter’s mobile payment application Gloneta. Gloneta combines a mobile messenger (chat) with cross-currency transactions using blockchain. Worldline says it will “provide” secure card payments services to the new app Gloneta. Denis Kiselev, founder and CEO of SnapSwap, says: “Worldline’s expertise in […]
Brazil’s Banco Bradesco is planning to start trials for a blockchain-based digital wallet service, as it looks to streamline operations and reduce costs. The service is being developed by Brazilian start-up eWally, discovered via Bradesco’s own innovation programme InovaBRA. Marcelo Frontini, MD at Scopus IT and part of Bradesco’s innovation department, says trials should start […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Brexit: keep calm and carry on We assemble a panel of fintech and law specialists to discuss – with cool heads – the challenges and opportunities. Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up A round-up of key developments to save you […]
With news on blockchain and Bitcoin appearing thick and fast, here’s a round-up of key events to save you time. In Switzerland, the city of Zug, is piloting the acceptance of Bitcoin for payments. From 1 July, residents could start to pay their taxes, fees and fines with the digital currency. The project is part […]
Japan-based software development firm Infoteria says it has “successfully” used blockchain for microfinance transactions in Myanmar – the “first time in the world”. The test was carried out on the computer system of Yangon-based BC Finance, Myanmar’s largest microfinance company. Infoteria says the data in question comprises spreadsheet software rather than specialty systems; and transactions […]
The Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank, has set up a blockchain research consortium with several privately-owned Russian banks. The development follows Banking Technology reporting recently that Russian payment platform Qiwi was planning to create such an entity. The central bank’s deputy governor Olga Skorobogatova says: “We developed a technical prototype for message transmission […]
Bitso, Quotanda and Destacame have won the first Innotribe Start-up Challenge for Latin America – and a handy prize of $10,000 each. The event was held in Mexico City in partnership with Swift’s Latin America Regional Conference (LARC). Based in Mexico, Bitso connects the nation’s “traditional” banking infrastructure to bitcoin and blockchain for international cross-border […]
The Dutch government is to open a new campus for the development of blockchain to attract banks and financial institutions. At a media briefing by Holland Fintech and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the first official “Fintech Ambassador of the Netherlands”, Willem Vermeend (also a professor in economics and former minister of social affairs and employment), […]
Blockchain is disrupting the financial services (FS) industry. Deloitte recently called it one of the year’s most controversial and debated topics. Yet, despite the hundreds of millions being invested in blockchain technology by companies from all industries across the globe, there is still much confusion around how the technology works and the effects it will […]
IBM and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa have completed their first blockchain project to “improve” the French bank’s ability to verify customer identity. The result of the pilot is an operational permissioned blockchain network that provides a view of customer identity to enable compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. “Blockchain is a transformative agent in our […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Brexit threat to UK jobs at Visa Should I stay or should I go? Swift hackers steal $10m from Ukraine bank Massive attack. New challenger bank readies for launch in UK Atten-shun! UK military personnel, veterans and their […]
IBM has opened a new Bluemix Garage in New York, to offer the city’s developers, entrepreneurs, and fintech firms the use of blockchain on the cloud. The garage will be located at Galvanize’s (a network of campuses) newly launched New York campus. IBM says this location in “this tech learning community for students, start-ups and […]
This great infographics, created by BTC Media, maps out the bitcoin and blockchain ecosystem of 2016 – it is a crowded metropolis! Click on the image to enlarge. Source: BTC Media, LLC
Canada’s ATB Financial sent €666.67 to ReiseBank in Germany using Ripple technology, with the transaction completing in eight seconds. The participants say this is the world’s first bank transfer using blockchain. SAP, which provides ATB with its core banking software, and Accenture (SAP’s partner and system integrator at ATB) were also involved in the project. […]
A host of major banks have adopted Ripple to improve their cross-border payments, the vendor says, and many have completed trial blockchain projects. The latest banks to join Ripple’s network are Santander, UniCredit, UBS, ReiseBank, CIBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and ATB Financial. Ripple says its network now includes 12 of the top […]
