Bitcoin still “currency of choice” for cybercriminals… for now September 28, 2016 Bitcoin remains the "currency of choice" for cyber criminals, but they may soon turn to newer digital currencies, Europe's top police agency has said, and even start targeting blockchain, the technology beneath it. The most well-known cryptocurrency is being used across a range of cybercrimes, including as payment on the darknet, and in DDos, phising and ransomware attacks, extorting money [...]
London’s the best place in the world for fostering fintech as industry eyes new success measures September 27, 2016 London is the best city in the world for fostering fintech, ahead of New York, Silicon Valley and Hong Kong – but it faces a run for its money from Singapore – as the industry pushes for better measures for assessing its contribution to the economy and the government's new industrial strategy. The two cities were ranked highest based [...]
The US is looking to formalise policy around blockchain technology September 26, 2016 The UK faces competition from across the pond in positioning itself as a world leader in blockchain technology. The fledgling technology that underpins bitcoin, but has far wider implications beyond digital currencies, is hitting the agenda of the US government with the creation of a cross-party working group to look at policies surrounding the technology as well as digital currencies such [...]
Forget Brexit, this startup is eyeing “Brentry” with London expansion plans September 26, 2016 An innovative crowdfunding startup which helps people invest in up-and-coming tech startups alongside venture capitalists has unveiled plans to break into the UK, dismissing any concerns around the uncertainty of Brexit. OurCrowd, a three-year-old Israeli startup which last week landed $£72m (£56m) in funding, plans to open an office in London early next year where it will look to [...]
Banks warned over fintech payment firms September 26, 2016 The world's biggest banks risk losing control of digital payments to small fintech startups and global tech giants, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has warned. Banks have been told they have to “maximize security, minimise complexity, and add value beyond pure payments” if they want to survive in transactional banking. The BCG has slammed banks’ poor [...]
Funding Circle: Global expansion almost doubles losses at fintech unicorn and peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle September 25, 2016 Losses have almost doubled at fintech unicorn and lending platform Funding Circle, City A.M. understands. The peer-to-peer lending group is set to post a full-year loss of £36m when it publishes its accounts on Tuesday, after expanding into Europe and the US ate into profits. However, revenues at the firm, which was founded in 2010 [...]
Return on equity for the top global investment banks is falling. Here’s how they’re dealing with it September 23, 2016 Delegates from firms making their way to Geneva next week for the 2016 financial services Sibos conference will undoubtedly have a lot on their minds. Over the past few years the industry has been facing challenges on many fronts: continued and increasing structural costs, fast-changing regulatory reform, conduct issues and capital requirements, to name but [...]
More staff than ever are working on fintech at the City regulator September 22, 2016 The City regulator's team of staff working with fintech startups has grown tenfold in the last two years, it's been revealed, as it increasingly looks at the implications of technology on finance. The Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Project Innovate scheme, which kicked off in 2014, now has more than 20 staff focused on the crossover [...]
This consulting firm has created an “editable” blockchain and people are puzzled September 20, 2016 Blockchain, heralded in part for keeping an immutable record of transactions, could soon become editable. Accenture has patented a prototype for making changes to it in "exceptional circumstances" to take into account errors recorded such as so-called fat finger moments, or, human error. “As we focus on new uses for blockchain technology beyond the realm of cryptocurrency, absolute immutability will become both [...]
Bank of England’s Andrew Hauser: Don’t expect blockchain to revolutionise finance any time soon September 20, 2016 Much heralded blockchain technology will not create a revolutionary shake up in the financial sector anytime soon, a top Bank of England official has declared. The distributed ledger technology has a way to go to become to be as revolutionary as some are predicting, according to Andrew Hauser, the executive director of banking, payments and financial resilience [...]