Bank of Thailand (BOT) has disclosed plans to allow virtual banks to operate in the country for the first time. Financial firms will be able to provide services by 2025, a Bloomberg report shows. The ‘Consultation Paper on Virtual Bank Licensing Framework’ has been published by the central bank, and applications shall be available later in 2023, allowing virtual banks to act as financial services providers. The move focuses on boosting competition and Thailand's economic growth. The BOT will issue three different licenses for interested companies by 2024. There are at least 10 parties interested in granting permissions, the report …

Financial authorities in Germany are raising the alarm amid the rapid spread of a new financial malware affecting banking and cryptocurrency applications. Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) released an official statement on Jan. 9, warning consumers of “Godfather,” a malware collecting user data in banking and crypto apps. BaFin emphasized that the new virus is targeting about 400 banking and crypto apps, including those operating in Germany. Godfather malware attacks users by displaying fake websites of regular banking and crypto apps, stealing their login data. According to the regulator, it is yet to be determined how the malware attacks …

Financial services institutions and banks have increasingly engaged with Web3 since 2020. This is also true within institutional decentralized finance (DeFi), as several potential use cases have emerged that could trigger a new wave of innovation within these organizations. Institutional DeFi does not refer to growing institutional investments in DeFi protocols and decentralized applications (DApps) but rather to large institutions using DeFi protocols to tokenize real-world assets with regulatory compliance and institutional-level controls for consumer protection. A common question that comes up is: What benefits does DeFi offer on top of digital banking? Not long ago, banking was a physical …

The FTX debacle has triggered a bank run on Silvergate, causing the company to sell off its assets at a loss and cut staff by 40% to cover $8.1 billion worth of customer withdrawals. According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal, the bank liquidated debt that it was holding on its balance sheet to keep up with withdrawals, losing $718 million in the process. The loss reportedly surpasses the firm’s profits since 2013. In addition, crypto-related deposits in the firm have dropped by 68% in the fourth quarter of last year. Because of this, Silvergate dismissed around …

United States federal bank regulatory agencies started off the new year with a statement on crypto assets that looked back at the troubles of the crypto sector in 2022. The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a joint statement Jan. 3 on past problems and their efforts to maintain sound banking practices in spite of those challenges. “It is important that risks related to the crypto-asset sector that cannot be mitigated or controlled do not migrate to the banking system,” the agencies stated. They identified eight specific risks …

Continuing with 2022’s trend, there is a lack of positive excitement in the crypto market. While Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins have remained stagnant to start 2023, there are a few reasons why volatility could spike in January. Winklevoss Letter to DCG stirs up bankruptcy FUD On Jan. 2, Cameron Winklevoss, the co-founder of Gemini, penned an open letter to Digital Currency Group (DCG) founder, Barry Silbert demanding answers on the $900 million in locked customer funds. Gemini launched the “Earn” program in coordination with Barry Silbert and the $900 million in customer funds have been locked since Nov. 16 due …

The United States economy could be in for an upset. Data from a Wall Street Journal survey revealed financial experts expect the country to face an economic downturn this year. Over two-thirds of economists at 23 major financial institutions that do business with the Federal Reserve believe the U.S. will have a “shallow” or “mild” recession in 2023. Two of the surveyed institutions predict a recession for the following year. The research included big names in the financial services sector, such as Barclays PLC, Bank of America Corp., TD Securities and UBS Group AG. Collectively the Federal Reserve was named …

Big institutional investors are still largely staying away from the crypto market, as the asset class' volatility poses a challenge to money managers, Jared Gross, head of institutional portfolio strategy at JPMorgan Asset Management, told Bloomberg. “As an asset class, crypto is effectively nonexistent for most large institutional investors,” Gross noted, explaining that “the volatility is too high, the lack of an intrinsic return that you can point to makes it very challenging.” Gross believes that most institutional investors are currently "breathing a sigh of relief that they didn’t jump into that market", which is unlikely to happen anytime soon. …

The governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shaktikanta Das, did not mince his words when discussing the crypto sector at a recent conference, asserting that “private” crypto will be behind the next financial crisis. Speaking at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit on Dec. 21, Das suggested that private crypto — those which are not issued by banks or governments — are backed by nothing and are purely tools for speculation. "They have no underlying value. They have huge inherent risks for our macro economic and financial stability. I am yet to hear any credible argument about what …

Over the last year, the crypto space has endured lasting market volatility and scandals, which have negatively affected consumer trust in the industry. However, an end-of-the-year report from Accenture revealed that consumers are still holding crypto - and for the long term. According to Accenture’s 2022 Global Consumer Payments report, while many consumers still prefer traditional payment methods such as cash or credit card, one in five surveyed consumers now own a cryptocurrency. For those that hold crypto 28% say the choice to enter the crypto space is due to a long-term investment. This is followed by 22% of consumers …

The New York state Department of Financial Services (DFS) released guidance on Dec. 15 for regulated banks seeking to engage in activities with virtual currency. The guidance, which took effect immediately, describes the application process and “summarizes the types of information the Department considers relevant” for obtaining the agency’s approval. The 11-page document consisted largely of bullet points as it described the informational requirements for several categories, such as “Business Plan” and “Consumer Protection,” in detail, followed by a series of formal checklists. Approval is required 90 days before engaging in activities, the document reminded. Approval for prior activities “does …

Only one of the following news items is real, but someday, all will sound equally comical. Headline, 1896: The owner of Wagoneer & Sons, a leading horse-drawn carriage maker, has announced the adoption of a new machine called the “internal combustion engine” to improve its manufacturing process. “Gas engines are powerful but dangerous,” the owner said. “We will use them to make better wagons. Headline, 1918: The American Association of Candle Makers has announced a new initiative to electrify its wax-making process. It believes that electricity is too dangerous to use for lighting but can be utilized to make cheaper …