The British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned investors of a fraudulent company posing as the Swiss Investment Corporation, an FCA-authorized firm offering crypto investments, and another company that is a clone of Goldman Sachs, the regulator announced on June 14. The financial regulator has blacklisted a firm operating under the domain swissinvest.biz. According to the announcement, the fraudulent clone firm offers services on its website swiss-investissement.com and is involved in scam activity. On the website, the alleged clone firm divides its proposed investments into the safest — assets such as precious metals, and the most successful — major cryptocurrencies …

The vice president of Brazil's biggest bank, Bradesco, revealed that major local banks will introduce a unique blockchain platform on June 12, Cointelegraph Brazil reports on June 11. Bradesco VP Mauricio Minas has delivered a speech devoted to the role of blockchain in the global financial system, speaking at major Latin American banking and fintech event CIAB Febraban on June 11. The Bradesco VP unveiled the plans of local banking institutions to soon adopt an unnamed blockchain-powered solution, adding that a number of Brazilian banks have been developing applications using distributed ledger technology (DLT). Speaking at the event, Minas expressed …

United States’ payment giant Visa has launched a cross-border payment network derived from some aspects of blockchain technology, Reuters reports June 11. The network, called “Visa B2B Connect,” is designed to facilitate international payments made by global financial institutions by enabling direct interbanking transactions between businesses and beneficiaries. According to the report, the network already covers 30 trade channels worldwide to enable faster and cheaper cross-border payments, and is expected to expand to 90 markets by the end of 2019. Visa B2B Connect is partially based on blockchain technology, containing elements of Hyperledger, the open source distributed ledger technology (DLT) …

Russia may build a large financial center on the island of Bolshoy Ussuriysky, according to a report by the state-run TASS news agency on June 8. Leonid Petukhov, who heads the Far Eastern Agency for Attracting Investments and Supporting Exports, said the island could become an offshore destination for cryptocurrencies, crypto exchanges and forex markets. Bolshoy Ussuriysky lies on the border between Russia and China, with western parts of the long-disputed territory transferred to Beijing following a 2004 agreement. Petukhov made his statements while speaking to TASS at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Russia has already built two offshore …

Ethereum devs constitute the vast majority of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) application (DApp) creators, according to a report by Binance Research on June 6. Number of DApps per blockchain, courtesy of Binance Research According to the report, DeFi can be thought of as the following: “An ecosystem comprised of applications built on decentralized networks, permissionless blockchains, and peer-to-peer protocols for the facilitation of lending/borrowing or trading with financial instruments.” This ecosystem purports to offer a permissionless, decentralized network for users, who reportedly retain full custody of their crypto assets. According to the report, the main underpinning of this ecosystem consists of …

Russia’s third-largest food retail firm, Dixy, has implemented blockchain technology in its corporate finance system, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on June 5. The Moscow-based retailer has deployed blockchain in cooperation between suppliers and factoring firms, which represent third parties that purchase businesses’ invoices at a discount in order to help those businesses to raise funds. Specifically, following a successful pilot test, Dixy is now moving the interactions between suppliers and factoring companies to an Ethereum (ETH) blockchain-powered open trade finance platform called Factorin. The Factorin platform provides suppliers with a factoring management tool that can be …

Switzerland’s national bank should work with large industry players to develop a Swiss franc token, according to a report by the Avenir Suisse think tank on June 4. Avenir Suisse is an independent privately funded think tank, with a yearly budget of reportedly 5 million Swiss francs ($5 million). Despite the opportunities that distributed ledger technology (DLT) is creating in the country’s finance industry — especially in trade finance, asset management and capital markets — researchers argue that the debate surrounding digitization is focused too much on the risks. Avenir Suisse’s report claims that if Switzerland became a dominant player …

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) on May 30, 2019 published an updated guideline for initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency trading. These new guidelines are aimed at helping cryptocurrency-related businesses understand their compliance requirements vis-à-vis existing laws contained in the Australian Corporations and ASIC Acts. The ASIC’s revampled ICO and cryptocurrency trading framework does not, however, cover guidelines for other regulators like the country’s tax agency and consumer protection group. The securities regulator say crypto businesses will have to refer to the published laws by those respective bodies. By updating its ICO regulatory provisions, the ASIC is setting …

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) published new initial coin offering (ICO) and cryptocurrency guidelines on its official website on May 30. The regulator detailed the prerequisites that a cryptocurrency business needs to follow in order to comply with both the Australian Corporations and ASIC Acts, but did not cover regulations enforced by other national institutions. Notably, the guideline specified that if a crypto asset is a financial product, then the issuer and firms dealing with it are required to hold an Australian financial services license. The report also notes that miners will be considered part of the clearing …

In the feverish quest to decentralize anything even remotely open to decentralization, one of the most promising areas is finance and the financial industry. This shouldn't be too surprising, given bitcoin and the origins of blockchain technology, but at a time when even babies are being put “on the blockchain,” the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi) provides welcome proof of crypto's real utility and applicability. And while DeFi is covering a wider range of areas — from remittances to derivatives and investments — its most promising sector involves credit and lending. That's because, thanks to the openness, security and transparency …

The Maltese government has awarded 19 students blockchain scholarships worth a total of 160,000 euro ($179,000), local publication the Malta Independent reports May 23. The scholarships were granted by Silvio Schembri, Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, using the $351,000 scholarship fund that was set up by Malta Digital Innovation Authority (MITA) and the University of Malta in August 2018. According to the Malta Independent, all the awardees will further apply for a Master's degree in blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT), with separate groups of students specializing in blockchain studies relating to law, finance, business, and …

New Japanese crypto exchange SBI Virtual Currencies (SBIVC) achieved profitability in the first year of its launch, Cointelegraph Japan reports on April 26. SBIVC exchange, launched by Tokyo-based financial services giant SBI Holdings, reportedly recorded a profit before tax of almost 360 million Japanese yen ($3.2 million) for the full fiscal year from April 2018 to March 31, 2019. SBI also made a number of major announcements in its new financial report. As such, SBI revealed that it is considering the launch of a security token offering (STO) later this year, adding that the firm is awaiting the revision of …