On July 9, LabCFTC, the fintech office of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, announced that it will replace its annual one-day Fintech Forward conference with three separate online sessions under the series title Empower Innovation 2020. The new conferences will take place on Sept. 24, Oct. 21 and Nov. 19, with LabCFTC subdividing the days by subject matter. Director and Chief Innovation Officer Melissa Netram told Cointelegraph this was an effort to deal with reduced attention span for virtual rather than physical events: “To do a full day we knew that we’d probably end up with people getting distracted.” Fintech …

Some of the most impactful frauds in modern history, from the Enron scandal to the Bernie Madoff investment scheme, were carried out by malignant actors inside or at the helm of corporate entities who manipulated the tangled, esoteric financial records. This is precisely the kind of behavior blockchain technology is designed to obliterate. The rapid demise of the German financial technology company Wirecard, which established itself in the blockchain community as a major crypto debit card issuer, seemingly belongs to the same category of events. In the long term, it might contribute to the growing public demand for increased transparency …

Shareholders in German fintech Wirecard are taking legal action against Big Four auditor EY in the fallout from the scandal now engulfing the company. Earlier this month, the auditor had refused to sign off the fintech’s 2019 financial report after discovering a shortfall of €1.9 billion (roughly $2.1 billion) on its books. Following EY’s discovery, German authorities arrested Wirecard’s (now-former) CEO, Markus Braun, who had been at the helm of the fintech for almost two decades. Braun has been accused of conspiring to inflate the company’s assets and misrepresent what amounted to over 32% of Wirecard’s assets — $2.1 billion …

Recently, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority released a detailed statement urging all local crypto business operators to register with the government watchdog by June 30. As part of the document, the regulator has made it absolutely clear that applications will need to have been processed, at the latest, by the end of the official grace period, which ends on Jan. 10, 2021, and failing to meet the requirement will result in a default. From a more technical standpoint, the FCA’s latest registration guidelines come laden with a number of specific compliance quotas, primarily in relation to crypto-related activities like …

Troubled fintech company Wirecard, which powers many of the crypto debit cards on the market, has reportedly filed to open insolvency proceedings. As reported by Wall Street Journal and others, Wirecard filed an application with the Munich district court to begin preparing for insolvency resolution procedures. The company cited its “impending insolvency and over-indebtedness” as motivation for the filing, alluding to the $2.1 billion of its balance sheet that went missing. Events unfolded quickly for Wirecard since discovering that 32% of its balance sheet never existed. The company quickly became leaderless as the founding CEO and other top executives resigned, …

The former chief executive officer of Wirecard, a German fintech company, has been detained by Munich police after being charged with misrepresenting the company’s balances. As reported by Reuters and many others, Markus Braun, who led the company for the better part of two decades, has been arrested by police in Munich, Germany. According to a statement issued by the prosecutor’s office, he is accused of having conspired to inflate assets and total revenue through false transactions with “third-party acquirers.” This was done to make the company appear more attractive to investors, the prosecutors say. The misrepresented funds in question, …

In 1996, there were over 8,000 public companies listed on exchanges in the United States. Fast forward to 2020 and there are only approximately 4,400 — a drop of 46% despite the fact that the S&P 500 quadrupled in value. Conventional wisdom would lead readers to think they are looking at a misprint. This paradox has led to efforts from both the public and private sectors to help jump-start initial public offerings. Unfortunately, legislation like the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS, has not had the desired impact, and companies have instead elected to stay private longer than they …

We are currently living in an unprecedented time, with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world and taking far too many precious lives. Markets are being decimated and economies are on the brink of a global depression. Doctors, nurses, shopkeepers, pharmacy workers and everyone else working on the front lines will go down in history as the heroes of 2020. COVID-19, although devastating and disruptive, has revealed what can be achieved by humanity when individuals, governments, non-governmental organizations and corporations genuinely work in tandem to find adequate solutions to the most pressing issues. Although trivial in comparison to the devastation that …

The crypto community was rightly aghast at the “Bitcoin Will Save Us” poster donned by a protester against racial injustice in Dallas last week. Christ pic.twitter.com/BmRmlZnMWa — Jessica Huseman (@JessicaHuseman) June 1, 2020 It was a tasteless and inappropriate — albeit well-meaning — attempt to impose a crypto narrative onto a decidedly non-crypto, and much larger, story. The crypto community’s heart is in the right place The United States protests against racial discrimination that erupted after George Floyd’s tragic killing at the hands of police have also garnered broad support from the crypto community, both on Twitter and likely also …

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), the country’s central bank, announced that it used blockchain technology to deposit funds to local banks. An official statement published by SAMA said that the funds were a part of the bank’s initiative to enhance its “capabilities to continue its role in providing credit facilities.” The bank did not specify the exact amount of the fund transfer. SAMA’s involvement with blockchain technology The Middle East is seeing widespread adoption of blockchain technology in the finance sector. SAMA has performed enormously in terms of using blockchain for remittances for banks located in Saudi and the …

Revolut fired a number of employees since the coronavirus outbreak began, according to a story from Wired. The European fintech company responded with a statement on the numbers and rationale. “As in many companies, COVID-19 necessitated cost cutting across our business and, in the last resort, we made 62 redundancies globally, representing less than 3% of our staff," a Revolut spokesperson told Cointelegraph on June 5. Revolut allegedly asked staff to quit Job redundancy refers to a certain title or position that companies determine as obsolete or no longer necessary, Market Business News explained. Claiming COVID-19 had taken a toll …

Mexico’s blockchain and financial technology, or fintech, industries have nearly doubled in size over just two years, according to data provided to Cointelegraph Espanol by blockchain-focused law firm, Legal Paradox. The firm estimates that Mexico’s fintech and blockchain sector has grown by 90% since 2018, describing the country as establishing a “benchmark” for the industry worldwide. Despite the global economic slowdown amid the coronavirus pandemic, Legal Paradox notes an increase in local adoption of distributed ledger technology, or DLT, as large traditional firms turn to blockchain solutions in a bid to reduce inefficiencies and best position themselves to survive the …