Bank of Tokyo is Planning to Use Blockchain for Contract Management
#Bank of #Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) intends to begin managing its contracts on a #blockchain-based platform.
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D+H Joins Bank Innovation Israel as Sponsor
Toronto-based D+H, which provides financial #technology to many of the world’s largest #banks, has joined #Bank #Innovation #Israel as a #sponsor. D+H’s history in the financial services industry spans nearly 150 years, and the company generates more than $ 1.5 billion in annual revenue.
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Making Sense of Blockchain’s Summer of Stupid (On Perfect Illusions)
What do we make of the #blockchain‘s confounding #summer of 2016? CoinDesk’s Pete Rizzo attempts to explain.
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Liechtenstein und Fintech: Finanzplatz der Zukunft?
Das Fürstentum #Liechtenstein ist eines der kleinsten Länder der Welt und trotzdem ein wichtiger und interessanter #Finanzplatz, der vor allem durch Spezialisierung, internationale Vernetzung und Stabilität heraussticht.
Das Wealth Management stellt dabei eine der zentralen Geschäftsfelder dar und allein die Banken, inklusive ihrer ausländischen Gruppengesellschaften, verwalten ein Kundenvermögen von CHF 209,5 Milliarden. Neben den Banken sind es Vermögensverwaltungen, Fondsverwaltungsgesellschaften, Versicherungsunternehmen, Versicherungsvermittler, Vorsorgeeinrichtungen, Pensionsfonds, Treuhänder und andere Finanzintermediäre, die am Finanzplatz tätig sind. Daneben verfügt Liechtenstein über eine starke und international anerkannte Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA).
Besonders attraktiv ist das Land durch seine kurzen Verwaltungswege und die hohe Verlässlichkeit des Finanzmarktes.
2te Fintech Liechtenstein Konferenz
Die Frage ist aber trotz allem: Ist Liechtenstein auch bereit, sich den neuen Technologien und der Digitalisierung zu öffnen und somit nicht nur einer der großen traditionellen Finanzplätze zu sein, sondern eben auch einer der #Zukunft, der den FinTechs die Tore öffnet?!
Die Weichen sind zumindest gestellt. Vergangenes Jahr fand zum ersten Mal die FinTech Konferenz im Fürstentum statt, dieses Jahr folgt nun die zweite Auflage. Diesmal sogar unter der Schirmherrschaft der Regierung und in Kooperation mit der FMA.
Das Branchenportal #FinTech.li hat es sich zum Ziel gemacht, dass Bewusstsein für moderne Finanztechnologien in der Region zu stärken und den etablierten Akteuren vor allem die Scheu vor ihnen zu nehmen. Aus diesem Grund findet einmal jährlich die FinTech Konferenz Liechtenstein statt, auf die neusten Trends und Technologien der Finanzindustrie diskutiert werden. Denn man ist sich mittlerweile im Klaren, dass etwas getan werden muss, damit Liechtenstein nicht den Anschluss verliert.
Liechtenstein. From Pixabay
Neben dem „Impuls Liechtenstein“, einer Massnahme der Regierung um Innovation im Rheintal zu lancieren, ist ein Regulierungslabor entstanden, mit dem die FMA vor allem in den Dialog mit Gründern und FinTech-Unternehmen treten möchte. Die Regulierung soll so gestaltet werden, dass die neuen Technologien und Geschäftsfelder optimal unterstützt werden können.
Dies soll im natürlich im Einklang mit dem Verbraucherschutz sowie den europäischen Vorgaben geschehen, um die Stabilität zu erhalten. Dabei wird vor allem der Dialog sowohl mit bestehenden Finanzdienstleistern als auch mit den neu gegründeten FinTechs gesucht. Für mehr Innovation wurde darüber hinaus eine spezielle Rechtsform entwickelt, die Liechtenstein Venture Cooperative (LVC), die Gründer beim Schutz ihrer Ideen unterstützt.
Fintech Startup Erfolgs-Stories in Liechtenstein
Und es scheint, als würde die Arbeit Früchte tragen. Letztes Jahr noch als Pitch-Teilnehmer auf der FinTech Konferenz Liechtenstein, konnte Tradico, die mit Finetrading eine bankenunabhängige Finanzierung-Alternative für den Mittelstand anbieten, kürzlich europäische Top-Investoren wie Earlybird aus Deutschland oder Speedinvest aus Österreich für sich gewinnen. Also aus Liechtenstein heraus gegründet und jetzt auf dem Weg zum europäischen Erfolg.
Ebenfalls in Liechtenstein gestartet und mittlerweile europaweit aktiv, agiert die Loviit AG. Das lizensierte E-Geld Institut setzt sich mit primär mit neuen Technologien auseinander und wickelt Zahlungsverkehr und E-Geldgeschäfte ab. Dabei gehören Schlagwörter wie Mobile Payment oder Wallet Lösungen zu ihrem täglichen Brot.
Auch wenn die FinTech-Szene in Liechtenstein noch nicht da ist, wo sie sein könnte, so sieht man trotzdem, dass es im Rheintal vorangeht!
Und somit muss man die Frage, ob Liechtenstein bereit für neue Finanztechnologien ist, sicher zweigeteilt beantworten. Es ist deutlich zu sehen, dass sich etwas bewegt im Land! Sei es durch erfolgreiche FinTech Unternehmen oder aber durch die Arbeit der FMA, der Regierung und des Portals FinTech.li, die die Transformation durch mehr Aufmerksamkeit vorantreiben und somit die Finanzplatzakteure für den Wandel sensibilisieren wollen.Trotz allem liegt noch ein anspruchsvoller Weg vor ihnen, da sie oftmals mit traditionellen Sichtweisen und Vorurteilen sowie der Scheu vor Neuem konfrontiert sind. Wenn alle Akteure des Finanzplatzes verstehen, dass der Wandel viele Chancen bringt und sie die Neuerungen aktiv in ihr Geschäftsfeld integrieren, hat Liechtenstein beste Voraussetzungen, auch in Zukunft zu den wichtigen Finanzplätzen der Welt zu gehören.
Featured Image: Pixabay
The post Liechtenstein und Fintech: Finanzplatz der Zukunft? appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
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Overstock: Broker-Dealer Deal Will Open Blockchain Securities Floodgates
#Overstock subsidiary tØ signs its first broker-dealer, Keystone Capital, in its ongoing effort to build a #blockchain post-trade solution.
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Ripple Raises $55M as Client List Grows to 15 Top Global Banks
Investors still want a piece of the #blockchain. #Ripple, the enterprise blockchain startup, today announced that it raised $ 55 million in Series B funding to accelerate customer adoption of its #technology. That brings Ripple’s total funding to $ 93.6 million since its launch in 2012, according to Crunchbase. “I think there’sRead More
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Naivety is Alive and Well in FinTech
I’m at the excellent Banking Disrupted conference in Palo Alto. After a day of presentations and meetings, I’m left with several positives and one negative. The positives include:
- Several initiatives focused on providing banking services for the underserved (not just loans)
- Some realism about the likely timely for significant #blockchain implementations
- An excellent panel on #FinTech for Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs)
The negative? There is still naivety about FinTech’s need to be subject to financial regulation. Several speakers clearly get it. But there are a few, who are attracting significant funding, who still seem to feel they can step around regulation, or leave it to the #banks. It isn’t going to work like that!
For example, one speaker talked about doing cross-border payments through #Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. His belief was that since he isn’t actually doing the payment (he is facilitating conversion to and from Bitcoin which the banks would do) his company wouldn’t be subject to AML rules.
Whether or not FinTech companies sell to banks, integrate with banks, sell to banks or go it alone, they are part of the overall regulatory infrastructure. Why? Because regulation is designed to protect society. This protection relates to our money – ensuring it isn’t lost, that we aren’t misinformed about risks, that we’re treated fairly, etc. It also relates to protection from the funding of illicit and terrorist activities. Everyone who is involved in financial flows, everyone who manages money on behalf of others in any way, has a responsibility to provide reasonable protections.
FinTech, this includes you!
Graham Seel, a 30 year banking veteran, runs BankTech Consulting. He is an expert in commercial banking, and provides strategic innovation consulting to banks. He also works as a fractional Customer Success Executive to Fintech firms, facilitating their partnership with banks.
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The Digital Wallet as Component
Last week, I wrote that “PayPal is refocusing on the digital #wallet space, broadly defined” as part of a discussion of the company’s recent agreement with MasterCard that it would no longer try to steer consumers toward ACH-funded transactions. That “broadly defined” caveat requires further explanation, however.
Digital wallets are evolving from stand-alone applications into components that can be plugged into many different kinds of platforms. You can see this in the recentannouncement by Facebook that it is integrating payments into FaceBook Messenger chatbots. Also, with the release of iOS10, Apple is now allowing #payment app developers like Venmo and Berlin-based N26 to integrate with Siri, its voice-activated digital assistant. Apple has also opened iMessage up to similar integration, allowing money to be sent as part of a text message.
We are also seeing wallets integrated as click-to-pay buttons on websites, as shown on this Office Depot checkout page.
This sort of integration is enabled by the fact that digital wallets are moving to the cloud. Instead of having a dedicated app on a device, the consumer has a cookie, which can be read by a cloud-based service, which provides the tokenized payment information to the merchant. For example, the way PayPal’s One Touch feature works is that it allows the user to store a secure browser cookie on their device; whenever the user clicks on the PayPal button, they don’t need to login again. You do still have the popup window that takes the user out of the merchant site, but work is being done to make the window appear “in context,” as a part of the checkout page itself.
Since this was a problem with adoption of 3D Secure, it is important to get the process to become more transparent and seamless.
Once done, the user is allowed to choose from a variety of sources of funds, although most will just go with the default. This, by the way, is one of the reasons by the PayPal agreements with MasterCard and Visa are so important; card issuers want to be sure that their cards have a good chance of being the default.
This is where loyalty programs come in, and become the means by which card issuers can pull transactions onto their cards. If I get a discount for using a particular card, I will choose that card, just as I would in a physical wallet. Digital wallets, however, need some way to communicate which offers are available on which cards. This is a major part that is missing right now. Streamlined sign-in is an improvement, but serving up offers would make the digital wallet a much more valuable component of the checkout experience.
Nevertheless, the switch from stand-alone app to component is making digital wallets a lot more useful and versatile, and should accelerate adoption.
[linkedinbadge URL=”https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/digital-wallet-component-aaron-mcpherson” connections=”off” mode=”icon” liname=”Aaron McPherson”] is consultant in Senior Payments Executive | Real-Time Payments, Tokenization, Digital Wallets, Payment Hubs, and Loyalty Programs
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Blockchain Marketplace Lykke Begins Crowd Sale; Looks to Raise 1.5M CHF
#Lykke, a Swiss startup seeking to build a global marketplace powered by #blockchain #technology, has begun its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) campaign as the company #looks to #raise CHF 1.5 million.
Lykke seeks to sell 30 million Lykke coins at the price of 0.05 CHF each. Lykke coins represent ownership of Lykke, an exchange for trading financial instruments built on top of blockchain technology.“Lykke is looking for investors who want to change the face of the global market,” Richard Olsen, co-founder and CEO of Lykke, said.
&8220;Our goal is to upset the inefficiency and unfairness of the existing financial system, giving people a better way to manage their money and their assets.&8221;
The #crowd #sale is available to anyone over 18 years old (except for US citizens) and will run until October 10, 2016. Individuals can purchase these tokens using the Lykke Wallet application for iOS or Android devices using Swiss francs, US dollars, bitcoins and ether, the native #cryptocurrency of Ethereum. (more information here)
The Lykke Wallet lets users purchase &8220;any kind of financial instrument,&8221; trade them in a peer-to-peer manner, with &8220;second-by-second interest payments.&8221;
&8220;We want to give our customers and those who believe in our vision a chance to participate in owning part of the company,&8221; Olsen said.
Lykke&8217;s technology
Launched in 2015 and headquartered in Zurich, Lykke is building a single #marketplace where any sort of financial instrument can be traded and settled. Unlike the structure of traditional markets, Lykke aims at being a &8220;level playing field to which anyone with an Internet connection can have access.&8221;
By using blockchain technology, Lykke offers immediate settlement and direct ownership for zero commission. According to the company, revenues will come from providing liquidity, offering issuance services, and supporting institutional clients.
Lykke uses the Colored Coin protocol to list financial instrument on the blockchain in the form of a digital tokens. Colored coins follow the idea of &8220;coloring&8221; a specific #bitcoin – the issuer guarantees to hand out the underlying assets to the person, who returns the colored coin.
According to its whitepaper, all of the software underpinning the Lykke Exchange are being developed in open source.
The Lykke ecosystem will be composed of several elements: the Lykke Wallet for core currency trading with 0% commission; the Lykke Exchange, a semi-centralized online exchange for trading financial instruments issued in the form of colored coins and a marketplace for retail and institutional clients; as well as the yet-to-be launched Competition Platform, which will allow users to crowdsource the most innovative ideas.Lykke also plans to partner with #banks, corporations, and municipal entities to speed up adoption of its software wallet though white-labeling.
Lykke Exchange was developed since December 2015 and went live in beta on March 2016 with wider industry testing starting in May 2016. The exchange was initially launched with the Lykke coin, shares of Lykke, and started two innovative projects: colored coins for music rights and colored coins for CO2 certificates.
The company is looking to include several asset classes such as future and options on digital assets, crowdfunded loans for retail and private equity financing for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME), contracts for difference, zero coupon bonds and other fixed income, and natural capital bonds, among others.
Lykke received initial seed funding in 2015. Philipp Netzer, an investor in the country says that &8220;Lykke is the begging of a giant movement that will trigger a lot of very important changes in the financial industry.&8221;
Prior to founding Lykke, Olsen was the chairman and co-founder of OANDA, a Canadian-based foreign exchange company.
You can be part of Lykkes Initioan Coin Offering here,.
The post Blockchain Marketplace Lykke Begins Crowd Sale; Looks to Raise 1.5M CHF appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
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Big Banks Invest $55 Million in Blockchain Startup Ripple’s Series B
Ripple raised $ 55 #million from #banks, including its own customers, and in a change for previous growth strategies, is considering making acquisitions.
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