Canada doesn’t want any "surprises" regarding central bank digital currencies. In a recent interview with Reuters, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem doubled down on the country's contingency-plan approach to CBDCs, stressing that he sees no urgent need to issue one right now. For Macklem, inter-state competition and coordination remains the key question when it comes to CBDC issuance. He told reporters: “If another country has one and we don’t, that could certainly create some problems. So we want to make sure we’re ready. Currencies move across borders, and so we certainly wouldn’t want to be surprised by some other …

According to an Oct. 28 announcement from Avanti, The Wyoming State Banking Board voted 8-0 to grant the financial institution a bank charter. The approval will allow Avanti to operate the new crypto-friendly bank under the name Avanti Bank & Trust as well as its “tokenized U.S. dollar” Avit, designed to modernize USD payments. Avanti said it planned to open for customers in early 2021, but will be limited to high minimum balance accounts. Retail clients will have to wait. "Avanti's process from company formation to application to charter is lightning fast," founder and CEO Caitlin Long told Cointelegraph. "Typically …

In an announcement on Wednesday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted SoFi a conditional license to operate as a national bank in the United States. The OCC is the office of the U.S. Treasury that regulates federal banks throughout the country. SoFi, which stands for Social Finance, is a fintech startup that has historically provided loans and refinancing services. In 2019, the firm launched crypto trading, and last December, the New York Department of Financial Services granted SoFi a coveted BitLicense. This new license will enable the firm to offer a wider range of services. Just …

A now-deleted webpage announcing that Singapore’s largest bank is planning to launch a “digital exchange” supporting crypto asset trading is the latest sign of increasing institutional adoption of virtual currencies. The document, which appeared briefly on the DBS website, announced the new exchange will support Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic, (ETC), and Ripple (XRP), alongside the fiat currencies of Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and The United States. The announcement also noted plans to support asset-backed security tokens. Speaking to Cointelegraph, JST Capital co-founder Todd Morakis, described the move as a likely catalyst for other major banks …

Bitcoin () hit new highs of $13,480 on Oct. 27 as fresh news that a bank was entering the cryptocurrency space fuelled already bullish markets. Cryptocurrency market daily overview from Coin360 Bank news drives BTC price to $13,480 Data from , and showed BTC/USD climbing once again during Tuesday trading, adding 2% in just over an hour. The move followed an as yet that Singapore bank DBS had decided to build a cryptocurrency exchange and offer crypto custody services, fully regulated by the city state’s de facto central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The move originally came to …

A year and a half after it was first announced, JPM Coin — JPMorgan Chase's in-house stablecoin — is now live and in use by a major transnational tech firm for around-the-clock cross-border payments. According to a report on Tuesday, this real-world proof that the technology is increasing efficiency and reducing costs has bolstered the megabank's confidence in the technology's promise and profitability. With the expectation that further commercial clients will sign up to use the stablecoin, JPMorgan Chase has created a dedicated business devoted to digital currency and blockchain work. The new business unit, dubbed "Onyx," has over 100 …

DBS, Singapore’s largest retail and commercial bank, seems to be entering the cryptocurrency space with three new offerings. According to information seen by Cointelegraph, DBS is launching cryptocurrency trading and custody as well as a platform for conducting security token offerings. A description of the offering and its components appeared briefly on DBS' website before being removed minutes later. DBS’ upcoming crypto service — the DBS Digital Exchange — will support five major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC). Supported fiat currencies include the United States dollar, the Singapore dollar, the Hong …

The Central Bank of Kenya, or CBK, has reportedly started discussions with international central banks to explore the possibility of entering the central bank digital currency space. CBK governor Dr. Patrick Njoroge told reporters during Georgetown's DC Fintech week that: "“We [the CBK] are already having discussions with other global players, in various ways, around the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currencies. The push comes as a result of mushrooming of private cryptocurrencies and we are already feeling left out and need to create our own space.” From Dr. Njoroge's perspective, the central bank needs to keep a keen eye …

The ease of laundering money in the U.S. before 1970 boggles the mind. Prior to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) of that year, there were no federal standards for banks to keep records on activity that fell under the category of “suspicious.” There were also no consistent reporting requirements — it was the BSA that established the $10,000 threshold that stands to this day. But it’s not like the BSA banished money laundering from U.S. shores. It wouldn’t even be until 1986 that money laundering was classified as a federal crime — a landmark in global anti-money laundering. Despite that …

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Federal Reserve are looking to get more information on smaller transactions than ever before. According to a notice of proposed rulemaking published on Friday, the agencies want to lower the $3,000 threshold established in 1995 to $250 for international transactions, meaning that financial institutions would need to exchange client information alongside all transactions greater than $250 that begin or end outside of the United States. Which is to say, the Travel Rule, as it is known, would apply to quite small amounts of money changing hands. The proposed change specifically calls out "convertible …

Bitcoin (BTC) price has again punched through the $13,000 mark after yesterday’s PayPal’s announcement sparked a powerful rally which drove the price to a new 2020 high. Currently sitting near $13,100, Bitcoin price has rallied nearly 10% since the announcement and BTC is now close to overtaking PayPal as the 21st biggest asset by market capitalization. PayPal’s crypto announcement comes two weeks after Square, another payments giant, announced its own foray into Bitcoin by investing roughly 1% of its assets into Bitcoin. According to Lanre Jonathan Ige, a researcher at 21Shares, the continuing trend of large sized investments will be …

The U.S. acting comptroller of the currency, Brian Brooks, predicts that decentralized finance will render many of the financial services offered by banks obsolete, just as email disrupted the postal service. In an interview during DC Fintech Week on Oct. 19, Brooks predicted a not-too-distant future in which distributed ledger technologies mediate financial services, making the legacy banking sector’s historic role as “central ledger-keeper” redundant. “We [...] see a future where decentralization is very likely an unstoppable force out there. Decentralized networks, by definition, are cheaper, faster, and more resilient than any kind of centralized structure.” Formerly the chief legal …