The London-based online banking platform Cashaa is planning to launch a crypto-friendly neobank — or internet bank — in India. Kuman Gaurav, the founder of Cashaa, told Cointelegraph that Cashaa India will allow Indian businesses and individuals to open a savings account with them and buy, store and save cryptocurrencies just like any other financial instrument. “For lending, we will be adding crypto assets class together with gold and real estate as collateral,” he said. Gaurav explained the need for a crypto-friendly bank in India, saying that most Indian banks are reluctant to provide banking services to the crypto users. …

Major American cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is expanding the company’s business in the Asia-Pacific region with a new high-profile hire. Andy Meehan, a former executive at major American investment bank Morgan Stanley, has joined Gemini as chief compliance officer of the APAC region. Announcing the news on Oct. 7, Gemini executives noted that Meehan will work with regulators to promote smart regulations that drive adoption. Formerly head of legal for Morgan Stanley’s global financial crimes division in the APAC, Meehan will now shape strategy, product and operations of Gemini in the region. The new Gemini CCO will be based in Singapore …

The central bank of Kyrgyzstan has disabled cross-border transactions on the SWIFT financial network amid widespread unrest over the country’s disputed parliamentary elections. Aida Karabaeva, an official representative of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic, announced a temporary suspension of SWIFT in Kyrgyzstan in a statement on Oct. 7. According to Karabaeva, the bank decided to suspend SWIFT transactions in order to prevent capital outflows from the country and ensure the safety of assets. The executive claimed that the bank is planning to resume SWIFT transactions as soon as the situation in the country stabilizes: “The measures taken are …

Brian Brooks, Acting Comptroller of the Currency said the future of cryptocurrency regulations is in the hands of the people, and not the government. He told Cointelegraph's Alex Cohen at the LA Blockchain Summit that he believes that change tends to happen slowly. While the Internet 1.0 didn’t seem revolutionary, look where we’re at now. “In the end, it’s the market and consumers that will decide the fate of crypto regulation, not the government,” said Brooks, formerly the Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase. He explained that the role of the government is to set up a regulatory framework to prevent …

The Singapore-based multinational banking entity DBS and Standard Chartered have completed the proof-of-concept of their blockchain trade finance platform called the Trade Finance Registry. The two entities developed the PoC in collaboration with 12 other banks on top of the blockchain platform of Singapore-headquartered company Dltledgers. Dltledgers told Cointelegraph that the banks involved in the project now intend to launch the platform for commercial use by central banks around the globe. While the platform will first be used by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the entities involved in the project also plan to propose it to central banks from the …

Canada's central bank, the Bank of Canada, recently put out a report on the risks and benefits of a central bank digital currency. "An anonymous token-based central bank digital currency (CBDC) would pose particular security risks," the Bank of Canada wrote in its Oct. 5 report. "These risks arise from how balances are aggregated and stored, how CBDC is used for transactions, and how various solutions such as e-wallets, crypto exchanges and banks compete to attract users." Over the past year or so, discussions have picked up and various governments have begun digitizing their currencies in the form of a …

The European Central Bank (ECB) could begin seriously considering and studying the digital euro by mid-2021, the bank said in a report released Oct. 2. The report examined how a digital euro may impact retail payments and how it can protect payments in the future. It also looks at how virtual currencies could fit within the landscape of the entire Eurosystem. However, it does not specify what model the ECB should take when and if it designs its digital currency. Based on the report, the ECB may start a virtual currency program “to ensure meaningful answers are obtained to the …

The Australian Securities Exchange will delay its blockchain-based CHESS replacement after huge trading volumes due to the pandemic required a massive expansion of capacity. The DLT- based system had been scheduled for official trials in December, with a planned launch window of early 2022. At its annual meeting this year, ASX chief executive Dominic Stevens told shareholders they were looking to triple the capacity of its planned DLT system based on the surge in trade volumes seen earlier in March. He also said that the firm was looking into how much further the timeline needed to be extended to accommodate …

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) director Kenneth Blanco has warned banks to think seriously about their cryptocurrency risk exposure. During the virtual 2020 ACAMS anti-money laundering Conference in Las Vegas this week, Blanco discussed the obligations of banks in implementing effective anti-money laundering (AML) policies. Current FinCEN regulations (FIN-2019-A003) state that it is the responsibility of all financial institutions to identify and report suspicious activity concerning how criminals and other bad actors exploit card verification checks for money laundering, sanctions evasion, and other illicit financing purposes. For many banks, it is still unclear how virtual currencies affect their …

In a hearing on Tuesday, the Congressional Fintech Task Force heard arguments on new rules that would potentially expand banking regulations to accommodate more technology firms providing financial services. A subunit of the Financial Services Committee, the Fintech Task Force leads the committee’s examinations of emerging technologies. As Task Force Chair Stephen Lynch (D-MA) noted, “Banking is becoming less centralized. Consumers are facing more choices than they ever have.” Banking the unbanked? Much of the back-and-forth in today’s hearing was as to whether or not loosening the rules of banking — which would allow more firms to, for example, offer …

The adoption of digital assets in traditional legacy systems is moving fast. In the middle of the year, the digital asset custody industry saw welcome developments when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency officially announced that all nationally chartered banks in the United States can provide custody services for cryptocurrencies. The move, while positive for the ecosystem, is yet to be accompanied by a rigorous assessment of its technological infrastructure, like asking questions such as: Where are these newly acquired digital assets stored? One thing is clear: We have entered a new paradigm of finance that requires a …

Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev told Cointelegraph that he believes the information revealed during the recent FinCen leak vindicates the crypto industry. According to the leak, the world’s leading financial institutions cleared over $2 trillion “suspicious” transactions — and Deutsche Bank alone cleared over $1.3 trillion of that amount. Trenchev said: “The first thing I'm feeling is vindication because like everyone has been saying for years, all that Bitcoin and money laundering in the same breath. We've been hearing that from regulators, from politicians, from bankers, from just about anyone. And it turns out that the number one choice for money …