A subsidiary of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has joined a blockchain-based platform for commodity trade finance. Sberbank Switzerland AG has signed an agreement with Swiss trade finance platform Komgo to apply its blockchain-powered trade finance service. Representatives from Sberbank Switzerland told Cointelegraph that the collaboration with Komgo addresses the growing digitization of trade finance. Evgeny Kravchenko, head of trade finance at Sberbank, outlined that commodity trade finance is a strategic business of Sberbank Switzerland. According to the executive, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States countries are the company’s key markets, while Sberbank Switzerland also supports trade flows globally. “In …
Following two years of pilot testing, a blockchain trade and financing platform for global agricultural trading has seen its commercial rollout from Swiss developer Cerealia SA. The launch follows extensive prelaunch trial implementation with firms from Algeria, Brazil, Dubai, Japan and Ukraine. In November 2018, Cointelegraph reported on the platform’s early use to conduct a pilot transaction of Black Sea wheat from the Russian port city of Novorossiysk. Cerealia told reporters that it has sought to address the need for a fast trading platform in the global Russian wheat market and to combine this with a more reliable, transparent and …
Major Swiss private banking and wealth management group Julius Baer has launched a digital assets trading and custodial service via a partnership with regulated crypto-specialist Seba. Julius Baer announced its new digital assets offering on Jan. 21, the result of its 2018 minority equity stake acquisition and later partnership with crypto startup Seba Bank AG in February 2019. Seba, which was founded in April 2018 by former UBS bankers, was granted a securities dealer and banking license by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, known as FINMA, in August 2019. According to Julius Baer’s announcement, the firm’s entry into the …
Switzerland-based blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) and cybersecurity firm WISeKey has acquired a 22 percent interest in American data infrastructure firm Tarmin through a multi-million USD transaction, exact amount unspecified. The news was revealed in an official announcement from WISeKey on April 3. WISeKey focuses on creating digital identity ecosystems that implement blockchain, AI and IoT technology for people and smart device, while Tarmin develops scalable data and software defined infrastructure for high-volume data management and secure storage. WISeKey’s agreement to acquire a 22 percent interest in the latter had been signed in the fall of last year. The investment …
Thomas Moser, a board director at the Swiss National Bank (SNB), believes that central banks’ interest in developing central bank-issued digital currencies (CBDCs) has now waned, Business Insider reports today, June 23. Moser told Business Insider at this week’s Zug Crypto Valley Conference that although there was initial interest among central banks in issuing CBDC or a national cryptocurrency, “enthusiasm has slowed again because of the implications it would have for financial stability:” "The whole technical issue, which excited everyone, really takes second place to this conceptual policy issue. The mood now is: everyone is monitoring it, some are experimenting …