SAN JOSE, Calif. — Getting a mortgage is a terrible experience. It is expensive and time-consuming, and a lot of work to gather documents and data. It makes sense that #fintech startups are taking on mortgages, but the uptake has been slow &8212; until today. Yesterday, a few mortgage services took the #stage here at […]
Bank Innovation
Europe needs more #later #stage #funding if it is going to grow its #tech firms to billion euro unicorn scale, according to #Magister #Advisors‘ Victor Basta.
Tom Groenfeldt – Financial Technology
You may all know the now-famous experiment conducted in the late 1990s by Daniel J. Simons and Christopher Chabris where two groups of people – some dressed in white, some in black – are passing basketballs back and forth. The study subjects were asked to count the passes among those dressed in white while ignoring the passes of those in black.
They found that many of those who viewed the video failed to #notice when a person in a #gorilla suit suddenly walked into the game, faced the camera, pounded on its chest and then left the #stage. The gorilla was on screen for over eight seconds, yet half of those who watched the video didn’t see it.
Well, the so called Monkey Business Illusion #just happened again when SBB, the Swiss Federal Railway operator, decided to extend its “Service Publique” in Switzerland on 11 November 2016. Where the #banks seemingly &8220;omitted&8221; to serve the public on their ATMs, SBB ventures to close the gap. A new era of state-driven #FinTech revolution has begun: Our government owned SBB is entering the #Bitcoin brokerage business!
&8220;Make quick and easy purchases with Bitcoin&8221; is the bold statement on the SBB website. The business model of SBB CEO Andreas Meyer seems quite smart. A simple software update on the ticket machines and SBB is ready to earn its share on the 6% commission of each bitcoin sale. It would in fact be very interesting to know from SBB what type of goods are indeed so easy to buy with Bitcoin that someone is willing to pay a 6% commission for. Anyway, this is a different story.
Is it really the time to cheer for another FinTech innovation? Maybe we should pause for just a second. Let’s think of it again: A state-owned company is selling an alternative, virtual currency to the Swiss public that promises to replace our financial system with all its established control mechanisms to ensure price stability, prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion and completely undermines upcoming new measures like AEI etc. Of course, the current system is not perfect. But who can guarantee when and whether a financial system based on Bitcoin will ever be stable and secure enough?
What will happen when suddenly people of all age classes get access to Bitcoins on hundreds of SBB ticket machines? Nobody really knows yet. But one thing should be clear, this is not just the reinvention of the old Swiss WIR currency, a form of digital money backed by Swiss francs. Bitcoin is playing in a wholly different league.
In Switzerland, contracts with cryptocurrencies are enforceable and penalties can be imposed for criminal offences. The Zug based company Sweepay is acting in the background as financial intermediary and the setup fulfils the requirements emposed by FINMA and the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act. So, where is the problem?
It&8217;s not about the law, it&8217;s about the fact that this is the first time in the history of mankind where a #cryptocurrency might actually go mainstream in a country and test out its romantic promise of a better world on an unprepared population. There haven&8217;t really been public debates in Switzerland outside of FinTech expert circles. The Swiss economy and its people shouldn&8217;t be lightheadedly used as guinea pigs for a virtual currency rollout fuelled by a state-owned company.
Switzerland&8217;s reputation and its sound financial center with an ever more flourishing FinTech industry are carelessly put at risk. Maybe some Bitcoin firms will benefit but maybe many other FinTech players will soon loose their businesses or turn their back to a country that just lost control on its price stability. Who really knows about the side effects of Bitcoin in a complex real-life economic system?
The financial industry has undertaken huge efforts in recent years to better protect the customers against risks and provide them with appropriate information. However, it&8217;s not clear whether there will be any risk disclaimers at all on SBB ticket machines. But imagine if all potential consumer risks would have to be disclosed before buying any Bitcoins. How would you explain to a 14-year old teenager that he better shouldn&8217;t spend all his pocket money on these interesting darknet products like anabolics and narcotics while on the other hand not spending the Bitcoins might suddenly result in a total loss of value?
Cryptocurrencies have many advantages over fiat currencies. But I still prefer to entrust our economy to some type of a &8220;Utility Coin&8221; that ensures to actually deliver all of the advantages of a promising new technological concept without all of the obvious and potential side-effects of Bitcoin.
Let&8217;s properly prepare for such a transition process before we carelessly risk to &8220;Trump&8221; into an economic disaster. And please &8220;like&8221; this post if you even slightly doubt that SBB brokered Bitcoins are completely risk-free.
This article first appeared on LinkedIn Pulse
The post SBB and Bitcoin: Did You Just Notice The Gorilla On Stage? appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
You may all know the now-famous experiment conducted in the late 1990s by Daniel J. Simons and Christopher Chabris where two groups of people – some dressed in white, some in black – are passing basketballs back and forth. The study subjects were asked to count the passes among those dressed in white while ignoring the passes of those in black.
They found that many of those who viewed the video failed to #notice when a person in a #gorilla suit suddenly walked into the game, faced the camera, pounded on its chest and then left the #stage. The gorilla was on screen for over eight seconds, yet half of those who watched the video didn’t see it.
Well, the so called Monkey Business Illusion #just happened again when SBB, the Swiss Federal Railway operator, decided to extend its “Service Publique” in Switzerland on 11 November 2016. Where the #banks seemingly &8220;omitted&8221; to serve the public on their ATMs, SBB ventures to close the gap. A new era of state-driven #FinTech revolution has begun: Our government owned SBB is entering the #Bitcoin brokerage business!
&8220;Make quick and easy purchases with Bitcoin&8221; is the bold statement on the SBB website. The business model of SBB CEO Andreas Meyer seems quite smart. A simple software update on the ticket machines and SBB is ready to earn its share on the 6% commission of each bitcoin sale. It would in fact be very interesting to know from SBB what type of goods are indeed so easy to buy with Bitcoin that someone is willing to pay a 6% commission for. Anyway, this is a different story.
Is it really the time to cheer for another FinTech innovation? Maybe we should pause for just a second. Let’s think of it again: A state-owned company is selling an alternative, virtual currency to the Swiss public that promises to replace our financial system with all its established control mechanisms to ensure price stability, prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion and completely undermines upcoming new measures like AEI etc. Of course, the current system is not perfect. But who can guarantee when and whether a financial system based on Bitcoin will ever be stable and secure enough?
What will happen when suddenly people of all age classes get access to Bitcoins on hundreds of SBB ticket machines? Nobody really knows yet. But one thing should be clear, this is not just the reinvention of the old Swiss WIR currency, a form of digital money backed by Swiss francs. Bitcoin is playing in a wholly different league.
In Switzerland, contracts with cryptocurrencies are enforceable and penalties can be imposed for criminal offences. The Zug based company Sweepay is acting in the background as financial intermediary and the setup fulfils the requirements emposed by FINMA and the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act. So, where is the problem?
It&8217;s not about the law, it&8217;s about the fact that this is the first time in the history of mankind where a #cryptocurrency might actually go mainstream in a country and test out its romantic promise of a better world on an unprepared population. There haven&8217;t really been public debates in Switzerland outside of FinTech expert circles. The Swiss economy and its people shouldn&8217;t be lightheadedly used as guinea pigs for a virtual currency rollout fuelled by a state-owned company.
Switzerland&8217;s reputation and its sound financial center with an ever more flourishing FinTech industry are carelessly put at risk. Maybe some Bitcoin firms will benefit but maybe many other FinTech players will soon loose their businesses or turn their back to a country that just lost control on its price stability. Who really knows about the side effects of Bitcoin in a complex real-life economic system?
The financial industry has undertaken huge efforts in recent years to better protect the customers against risks and provide them with appropriate information. However, it&8217;s not clear whether there will be any risk disclaimers at all on SBB ticket machines. But imagine if all potential consumer risks would have to be disclosed before buying any Bitcoins. How would you explain to a 14-year old teenager that he better shouldn&8217;t spend all his pocket money on these interesting darknet products like anabolics and narcotics while on the other hand not spending the Bitcoins might suddenly result in a total loss of value?
Cryptocurrencies have many advantages over fiat currencies. But I still prefer to entrust our economy to some type of a &8220;Utility Coin&8221; that ensures to actually deliver all of the advantages of a promising new technological concept without all of the obvious and potential side-effects of Bitcoin.
Let&8217;s properly prepare for such a transition process before we carelessly risk to &8220;Trump&8221; into an economic disaster. And please &8220;like&8221; this post if you even slightly doubt that SBB brokered Bitcoins are completely risk-free.
This article first appeared on LinkedIn Pulse
The post SBB and Bitcoin: Did You Just Notice The Gorilla On Stage? appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
You may all know the now-famous experiment conducted in the late 1990s by Daniel J. Simons and Christopher Chabris where two groups of people – some dressed in white, some in black – are passing basketballs back and forth. The study subjects were asked to count the passes among those dressed in white while ignoring the passes of those in black.
They found that many of those who viewed the video failed to #notice when a person in a #gorilla suit suddenly walked into the game, faced the camera, pounded on its chest and then left the #stage. The gorilla was on screen for over eight seconds, yet half of those who watched the video didn’t see it.
Well, the so called Monkey Business Illusion #just happened again when SBB, the Swiss Federal Railway operator, decided to extend its “Service Publique” in Switzerland on 11 November 2016. Where the #banks seemingly &8220;omitted&8221; to serve the public on their ATMs, SBB ventures to close the gap. A new era of state-driven #FinTech revolution has begun: Our government owned SBB is entering the #Bitcoin brokerage business!
&8220;Make quick and easy purchases with Bitcoin&8221; is the bold statement on the SBB website. The business model of SBB CEO Andreas Meyer seems quite smart. A simple software update on the ticket machines and SBB is ready to earn its share on the 6% commission of each bitcoin sale. It would in fact be very interesting to know from SBB what type of goods are indeed so easy to buy with Bitcoin that someone is willing to pay a 6% commission for. Anyway, this is a different story.
Is it really the time to cheer for another FinTech innovation? Maybe we should pause for just a second. Let’s think of it again: A state-owned company is selling an alternative, virtual currency to the Swiss public that promises to replace our financial system with all its established control mechanisms to ensure price stability, prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion and completely undermines upcoming new measures like AEI etc. Of course, the current system is not perfect. But who can guarantee when and whether a financial system based on Bitcoin will ever be stable and secure enough?
What will happen when suddenly people of all age classes get access to Bitcoins on hundreds of SBB ticket machines? Nobody really knows yet. But one thing should be clear, this is not just the reinvention of the old Swiss WIR currency, a form of digital money backed by Swiss francs. Bitcoin is playing in a wholly different league.
In Switzerland, contracts with cryptocurrencies are enforceable and penalties can be imposed for criminal offences. The Zug based company Sweepay is acting in the background as financial intermediary and the setup fulfils the requirements emposed by FINMA and the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act. So, where is the problem?
It&8217;s not about the law, it&8217;s about the fact that this is the first time in the history of mankind where a #cryptocurrency might actually go mainstream in a country and test out its romantic promise of a better world on an unprepared population. There haven&8217;t really been public debates in Switzerland outside of FinTech expert circles. The Swiss economy and its people shouldn&8217;t be lightheadedly used as guinea pigs for a virtual currency rollout fuelled by a state-owned company.
Switzerland&8217;s reputation and its sound financial center with an ever more flourishing FinTech industry are carelessly put at risk. Maybe some Bitcoin firms will benefit but maybe many other FinTech players will soon loose their businesses or turn their back to a country that just lost control on its price stability. Who really knows about the side effects of Bitcoin in a complex real-life economic system?
The financial industry has undertaken huge efforts in recent years to better protect the customers against risks and provide them with appropriate information. However, it&8217;s not clear whether there will be any risk disclaimers at all on SBB ticket machines. But imagine if all potential consumer risks would have to be disclosed before buying any Bitcoins. How would you explain to a 14-year old teenager that he better shouldn&8217;t spend all his pocket money on these interesting darknet products like anabolics and narcotics while on the other hand not spending the Bitcoins might suddenly result in a total loss of value?
Cryptocurrencies have many advantages over fiat currencies. But I still prefer to entrust our economy to some type of a &8220;Utility Coin&8221; that ensures to actually deliver all of the advantages of a promising new technological concept without all of the obvious and potential side-effects of Bitcoin.
Let&8217;s properly prepare for such a transition process before we carelessly risk to &8220;Trump&8221; into an economic disaster. And please &8220;like&8221; this post if you even slightly doubt that SBB brokered Bitcoins are completely risk-free.
This article first appeared on LinkedIn Pulse
The post SBB and Bitcoin: Did You Just Notice The Gorilla On Stage? appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
#Fintech ventures have long been praised for providing products that suit consumers’ changing behavior and expectations, but also for providing financial services to demographics that have been so far excluded.
Whether it is for rural populations in developing countries or SMEs struggling to get a business loan, #fintechs are smart in the way they target specific niches and markets, focusing on one product range, optimizing processes and leveraging #technology and digital platforms to cut costs, and thus, prices.
One demographic that has become more and more appealing to entrepreneurs is #women. This is mainly because women clients are finding that financial institutions are not meeting their specific needs. A Boston Consulting Group survey found that of all the industries that affect their daily lives, women feel most dissatisfied with the financial services industry, and this, on both product and service levels.
Image credit: Juan Nel via Shutterstock.com
Investing in particular is an area where women substantially differ from men. Studies have found that women are more conservative when it comes to investing and more insecure regarding their ability to invest. Other researches have suggested that women are actually better investors than men, preferring a more long-term approach, trading less frequently and sticking with their asset allocations.
As automated investment services – so called #robo-advisors &8211;, continue to expand into niche offerings, #online financial advice and portfolio #management is becoming more accessible to a broader variety of investors, including women.
Miss Kaya will be Southeast Asia&8217;s very first woman-focused robo-advisor. Founder Gina Heng, who simultaneously serves as CEO and co-founder at Marvelstone Group, has worked as a venture partner at Yozma Ventures, and co-founded asset management firm One Asia Investment Partners and Leonie Hill Capital in Singapore.
In a recent interview with the Singapore Business Review, Heng explained what pushed her to launch this particular venture.
“The types of online based #wealth management services in Asia today are still limited to financial education and product comparisons,” Heng said.
&8220;We want to bring a new wave of innovation by providing a robust, automated, algorithm-powered, wealth management platform. Miss Kaya, by being the first women-driven robo-advisory platform in Asia that caters to their very needs, serves to empower them to achieve longer-term financial goals and allow them to pursue their dreams.&8221;
Gina Heng, Miss Kaya
The company plans to pre-launch its website some time this month, starting with offering financial education materials and a beta version of its personal portfolio management services. Later, it will offer full financial advisory services for women to manage their own finances, Heng said.
Miss Kaya follows the likes of Ellevest, Worth Financial Management (WorthFM), SheCapital and Women Investor Now (WIN), which are all offering woman-centric financial services.
Sallie Krawcheck, Founder of Ellevest, at TechCrunch&8217;s Disrupt NY 2016, via https://techcrunch.com/
Ellevest, which launched in May, was founded by former Citigroup CFO Sallie Krawcheck and works much like more-established players such as Betterment and Wealthfront. Ellevest creates financial portfolios made of exchange-traded funds based on a user&8217;s timeline and risk tolerance. It also offers investment products such as Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs and investment accounts, and makes money by charging users a fee as a percentage of assets managed.
Ellevest takes into account female professionals&8217; unique needs such as the fact that women live longer than men and the fact that they tend to earn less than men.
Ellevest raised US$ 10 million in a funding round led by Morningstar in September 2015.
WorthFM, a digital investing platform by DailyWorth, was designed to engage and educate women as their investments grow. Launched in private beta in March, the platform builds one&8217;s portfolio by taking into account the client&8217;s personality, strengths, fears and sabotage patterns.
SheCapital, which launched in 2015, targets female investors and aims at closing the gender gap in financial advice. The platform was designed to act as a one-stop shop for women who are looking to invest.
Similarly, WIN aims at acting as an all-in-one platform integrating financial planning, investing, real-time money management tools, Robo and custom investment portfolio management, and curated content.
For Switzerland we haven&8217;t yet spoted a similiar Fintech Startup.
Featured image by Andresr via Shutterstock.com.
The post Women Take Center Stage As Fintechs Eye Untapped Opportunity in Online Wealth Management appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
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