While some Australian authorities recognize cryptocurrencies as a form of investment, digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) are apparently not very popular as means of payment in the country. Australia’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), says that less than 1% of Australians used cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to make a consumer payment in 2019. Australian consumers increasingly prefer to use electronic payment methods The data is based on RBA’s own study, conducted in October and November 2019. Released on March 19, the RBA’s latest report is the fifth comprehensive survey of consumer payments in Australia. The purpose of the …
Growing crypto adoption and the COVID-19 outbreak has encouraged Italy’s Banco Sella to launch a Bitcoin trading service. The trading is conducted via the bank’s Hype platform, with the bank acting as an intermediary to mitigate against potential security risks with cryptocurrency exchanges. With the country in lockdown and everyone stuck at home, the bank is capitalizing on a growing interest in Bitcoin as a safe way to transfer money internationally in the midst of the crisis. 1.2 million Italians already use Hype About 1.2 million Italians already use Banca Stella’s Hype to carry out transactions and not only will …
In its recent blockchain in banking report, Business Insider Intelligence indicated that financial institutions have mostly deployed the tech to improve payments, securities settlement, fraud detection security and trade finance. Published on March 19, the report analyzed a number of financial and tech organizations worldwide, including Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Bank of America, Citi Bank, HSBC, Ripple, Visa, Fidelity Investments and CME Group. Major benefits from blockchain The findings showed that 66% of the surveyed financial institutions saw the major benefit of blockchain and distributed ledger technology in payments, while 56% of respondents named securities settlement as a …
China Everbright Bank (CEB), a major commercial bank in China and one of the world’s largest public companies, is debuting a blockchain-based supply chain finance solution by Ant Financial. Ant Financial, the financial arm of Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, has partnered with CEB to collaboratively implement Duo Chain — a network services platform designed to handle supply chain-related financial transactions. Ant Financial started working on the Duo Chain in 2019 CEB and Ant Financial initially formed their partnership during the second half of 2019. CEB is the first Chinese bank to deploy Ant Financial’s Duo Chain, as reported by local …
Major European financial institutions are jointly launching a blockchain-based platform for the investment fund industry. The system was initially incubated by the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and its affiliate Fundsquare, which, alongside Clearstream, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Natixis Investment Managers, have announced a Series A investment round for “FundsDLT.” FundsDLT for cost reduction According to a March 17 announcement, the FundsDLT platform is based on Ethereum’s (ETH) blockchain and allows asset managers, distributors, asset servicers, and the supply chain to reduce costs. The cost reduction is achieved by removing redundant activities while providing transparency and allowing digital fund distribution. A …
The Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank that started testing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) in February, wants to host the digital currency innovation hub by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Officially announcing the news on March 6, the Riksbank noted that in order for the hub to be located in Sweden, the bank would need to undertake a number of measures to co-finance the activity. As such, the Riksbank proposed an amendment to the Sveriges Riksbank Act, asking the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, for approval to finance the activities of international organizations. The Riksbank requested the parliament for …
Standard Chartered has become the first bank to join TradeLens, the global blockchain shipping platform created by IBM and Danish logistics giant Maersk. The London-headquartered bank announced its decision on March 10, with global head of trade, Michael Spiegel, stating that digital ecosystems like TradeLens have the potential to promote the sustainability agenda of many stakeholders in international trade. Millions of supply chain events each week TradeLens is a global supply chain solution with a focus on containerized freight and logistics, which was first launched by IBM and Maersk back in April 2018. It operates by providing standards-based open APIs …
Earlier this month, India’s Supreme Court delivered its verdict in a landmark case that promised to usher in a bullish era for cryptocurrency in the country. The Court ruled to overturn a circular from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — issued back in April 2018 — which had banned banks’ services to all crypto-related firms. Not all banks, however, appear to be complying with the ruling. On March 12, fintech lawyer Mohammed Danish filed a representation with the central bank against the “arbitrary denial” of certain domestic banks to provide services in support of the sale or purchase of …
The sixth-largest bank worldwide, JPMorgan Chase Bank, has settled a lawsuit over unannounced changes made to the fee structure applied to cryptocurrency purchases made using its credit cards in 2018. The details of the settlement have not been disclosed. Plaintiffs Brady Tucker, Ryan Hilton, and Stanton Smith accused Chase Bank of violating its cardholder terms of service during January 2018. The trio asserts that Chase applied the fee structure for cash advances to cryptocurrency purchases made with Chase’s credit cards for 10 days without providing any warning as to the change. Chase changes fee structure for crypto purchases without warning …
Over 20 banks in Chongqing China have used a trade finance platform powered by blockchain to process over $56 million in foreign trade transactions. It has completed a total $460 million in export trade financing after a year-long pilot program, according to Chongqing Daily’s March 11 report. The blockchain platform reportedly allows stakeholders to verify export receivables, tax documents and credit information automatically, which reduces labor-intensive processes and red tape. Chinese regulators hope to leverage distributed technology to digitize financial data and information and share it instantly and securely. The trade finance blockchain platform has played a key role during …
Initial findings show French international banking group BNP Paribas is blocking customers from sending funds to major crypto exchange platform Coinbase. The block seems to have been initiated this week, although transfers functioned normally during the week of March 2, an anonymous source and BNP Paribas customer told Cointelegraph, referring to his interactions with the bank’s customer service department. But the bank has reportedly not closed off transactions to other crypto exchanges, the source added. The bank still seems to allow transfers to Binance’s European branch, Binance Jersey. BNP Paribas cited several reasons for blocking transfers Cointelegraph’s source shared recordings …
On March 5, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a revised bill on the reporting and use of special financial transaction information, focusing on the introduction of a permit system for cryptocurrency exchanges. Accordingly, virtual asset operators such as cryptocurrency exchanges would have to report their operations to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission after obtaining "real name-confirmed accounts" from commercial banks. Failure to report operations could result in up to five years in prison or 50 million won ($42,000) in fines. The bill, to be implemented in March next year, calls for existing crypto exchanges to …