Banks news-Page 32
HSBC reportedly blacklists MicroStrategy's stock for investing in Bitcoin
Buying MicroStrategy stock is reportedly no longer possible for HSBC customers on the bank’s online trading platform — HSBC InvestDirect, or HIDC. According to a supposed message from the bank to its customers, HSBC has directed users that already own MicroStrategy stock not to buy additional shares. Twitter user Camiam claimed to have received such a message from the banking giant on March 29: Hey @michael_saylor , you may want to ask your legal team if what @HSBC_CA is doing here is legal. It sure does not sound like it is! They wont allow us to buy @MicroStrategy . They …
Bitcoin / April 9, 2021
State Street to provide tech for institutional Bitcoin trading platform
State Street, the second-oldest operating bank in the United States, is moving into the cryptocurrency industry by agreeing to provide its technology for a new crypto trading platform. Currenex, a foreign exchange technology provider owned by State Street, has entered into an agreement with crypto firm Puremarkets to provide its trading infrastructure and tech for the new crypto trading platform Pure Digital. Announcing the news Thursday, Pure Digital said that it will also collaborate with State Street to further explore the digital currency trading industry. According to the announcement, Pure Digital will be a fully automated over-the-counter market for digital …
Adoption / April 8, 2021
Citi and IADB complete cross-border payment pilot with blockchain tech
Banking giant Citigroup has successfully completed a proof-of-concept for blockchain-based cross-border payments in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank, or IADB. According to a Thursday announcement, Citigroup’s Citi Innovation Labs and the IADB enabled several disbursements from the United States to a recipient in the Dominican Republic, using the LACChain blockchain network — a proprietary effort by IADB’s regional program LACChain. As part of the project, the IADB deposited tokenized funds denominated in U.S. dollars in a Citi account and transferred the funds using digital wallets, IADB’s blockchain specialist and LACChain technical leader Marcos Allende explained. “After tokenized, these funds …
Technology / April 8, 2021
Digital yuan campaign planned for contested island in the South China Sea
South China’s Hainan Province, which administers the prefectural Sansha City on a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, will run a two-week campaign later this month to promote the use of the digital yuan among island residents. The city, established in 2012, is on the front line of disputes over territorial claims in the South China Sea and is unusual in being both the People Republic of China’s smallest city by population and its largest by geographic reach — formally encompassing over 280 islands and their surrounding waters, reaching almost 800,000 square miles of sea and land area. Between …
Technology / April 8, 2021
Sweden’s central bank completes first phase of digital currency pilot
After completing the first phase of its digital currency pilot project, Sveriges Riksbank has found some critical issues that must be addressed before Stockholmers can buy coffee and kanelbullar with e-krona. In a recent study, Sweden’s central bank presented the first results of its central bank digital currency pilot on a network based on R3’s Corda blockchain. The Riksbank simulated core aspects of a potential CBDC system, including liquidity supply via the Riksbank’s settlement system, RIX, and network members serving as e-kronor distributors. The central bank also simulated participants, end-users and payment instruments like mobile apps. The Riksbank said that …
Technology / April 7, 2021
How banks can identify money laundering involving crypto, explained
How does blockchain analytics software work for financial institutions exposed to crypto? They enable transactions to be monitored on all major blockchains — 24/7 and in real time. The risk associated with incoming and outgoing transactions can be determined — covering high value payments, transfers involving multiple digital assets and/or accounts, as well as transactions that appear to have no logical business explanation. A clearer picture can also be gathered over time by piecing together intelligence from entities making frequent transfers over a specific timeframe. Compliance software companies like Crystal Blockchain enable suspicious patterns to be detected, and for financial …
Blockchain / April 7, 2021
After breaking $100 billion TVL, DeFi is now the equivalent of a top 40 U.S. bank
According to decentralized finance ecosystem tracker DeFiLlama, early on Tuesday, the DeFi ecosystem breached $100 billion in total value locked for the first time — rising 7% from $94.7 billion on Monday to $101.33 billion at the time of publication. Aside from the psychologically significant ninth digit, the figure is notable both for the speed with which it was attained (the ecosystem sat at $20.74 billion total on Jan. 1) and the sheer quantity of assets the upstart financial vertical now represents. According to Wikipedia, at $100 billion TVL in DeFi is now the equivalent of the 40th-largest United States …
Adoption / April 6, 2021
Indian IT giant Tech Mahindra to launch stablecoin tool for banks
Indian multinational technology firm Tech Mahindra is developing a new stablecoin service targeting banks and financial institutions. The tech giant announced Monday that it has entered into an agreement with Dutch blockchain application incubator Quantoz to launch a “stablecoin-as-a-service” tool to reduce transaction costs and processing times. The new collaboration targets potential clients from the banking and financial sector as the United States’ Office of the Comptroller of the Currency officially allowed federally chartered U.S. banks to use public blockchains and stablecoins for settlements in January 2021. Rajesh Dhuddu, blockchain and cybersecurity leader at Tech Mahindra, said: “The recent OCC …
Technology / April 6, 2021
Bahamas' Sand Dollar nears commercial rollout as interoperability completed
The Central Bank of the Bahamas has announced that its central bank digital currency, the Sand Dollar, is expected to achieve full interoperability between its various wallet providers within the week. A recent statement released by the CBoB revealed that authorized financial institutions, or AFIs, such as payments service providers are expected to be finalized within the coming days. Essentially acting as wallet providers and prospective issuers of the Sand Dollar, the AFIs in question have been subject to rigorous cybersecurity assessments, the bank stated. The institutions that adopted the bank’s own app have already been cleared to participate, while …
Technology / March 29, 2021
Our Man in Shanghai: Digital yuan tests, ‘bear market’ and ‘NFT’ searches spike
Sentiment in China has slumped as WeChat searches for Bitcoin dropped 7% this week, while searches for “bear market” spiked 102%. One trend that remained strong was NFT-related, with NFTs receiving an 86% increase in WeChat searches over the seven-day period. Token sales were another hot item with interest in Casper Labs surging after signups on CoinList breached 100,000 on global platforms. One high-profile token sale to emerge from China was DAO-as-a-Service platform Dora Factory. The project, backed by DoraHacks, held a public token launch on March 21 with listings on OKEx, Gate and MXC. DoraHacks is well-known for hosting …
Blockchain / March 26, 2021
Avanti Financial raises $37 million to launch institutional crypto bank
The Avanti Financial Group has announced that it has raised $37 million in a Series A round, bringing the company closer to launch as a digital asset bank. In a March 25 announcement, Avanti stated that it will use the proceeds to fund the required regulatory capital needed for launch, in addition to funding development and other operating expenses. The round brings the total amount raised to $44 million. Participants in the round are a who’s who of institutional investors including Coinbase Ventures, Binance.US, Morgan Creek Digital, Madison Paige Ventures, AP Capital, and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, in addition to …
Regulation / March 26, 2021
European Central Bank tries to quell Germans' doubts about digital euro
The European Central Bank, or ECB, has been investigating the possibility of launching a digital euro project within five years to complement existing central bank money. But whereas high-profile leaders such as ECB president Christine Lagarde have been largely positive about the prospect, officials from Germany's Bundesbank have remained unconvinced. In a new op-ed for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, ECB board member Fabio Panetta and fellow official Ulrich Bindseil attempted to tackle some of the Germans' misgivings head on: “The ECB is by no means planning to use a digital euro to enforce interest rates that are significantly more negative. …
Technology / March 25, 2021