The United States regulator, Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, announced the CFTC’s first science contest, Project Streetlamp, earlier this week. Cointelegraph had a chance to speak with Melissa Netram, who is the Chief Innovation Officer and Director of the commission’s fintech office, LabCFTC. Netram took over the role from Daniel Gorfine in September. Cointelegraph was pleased to hear her thoughts on progress at LabCFTC since then, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her plans for future development. Financial regulation under COVID-19 The current pandemic has taken center stage for legislators and regulators in the U.S., with some calling to …

Blockchain’s varied applications are becoming more useful for global banking institutions with each passing day. Yesterday, Polish retail banks rolled out a blockchain-based customer data platform developed by the Polish Credit Bureau, also known as Biuro Informacji Kredytowej, or BIK. BIK, the biggest credit bureau in Central and Eastern Europe, has enabled banks in Poland to send notifications of commissions and fees changes on blockchain via its new document management product. Polish Credit Bureau and Billon were developing the platform since 2018 Developed in collaboration with Polish-British fintech firm, Billon, the BIK Blockchain Platform has been in development since the …

As part of a recent lengthy position paper on crypto, a South African regulatory body called the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group, or IFWG, mentioned crypto as a possible but unlikely risk to the country's monetary system at present. In its April 16 paper, under a section titled "the risks of crypto assets," the IFWG said: "The risk of a parallel, fragmented, non-sovereign monetary system: The risk with potentially the widest-ranging implications is the threat to the existing financial system, in which central banks ensure an efficient monetary system through the execution of monetary policy and influence the supply of money …

After decentralized finance, or DeFi, markets collapsed in late March 2020, a number of industry players joined forces to support emerging fintech. Today, the Ren Alliance, a new DeFi consortium backed by veteran crypto investor, Polychain Capital, has added another batch of new members. The group’s membership has now surpassed 50 companies in total. Launched in early March 2020 by DeFi project Ren, the Ren Alliance has added 14 new members, expanding the network up to 51 firms, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on April 16. The new entrants include major decentralized exchange, IDEX, Switcheo, Dex.Blue, 1inch, Jarvis Network, Charged …

Financial institutions all over the world are increasingly experimenting with emerging technologies like blockchain to streamline payment systems and achieve financial inclusion. In a new study, the World Bank has once again emphasized blockchain’s potential for financial inclusion. Issued by the Bank for International Settlements on April 14,the new report from the World Bank Group on “Payment aspects of financial inclusion in the fintech era” outlines a wide number of crypto and blockchain-related concepts like stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDC). In the 70-page report, the bank provided a detailed overview of selected advances in technology that are considered …

Square Capital, a crypto-friendly payment firm founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, is purportedly among the first Bitcoin (BTC)-related companies joining the United States federal emergency lending program. The firm has received U.S. Treasury and Small Business Administration (SBA) approval to become a lender under the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Square to start rolling out PPP applications this week By obtaining approval, Square is officially authorized to support small businesses by providing them with low-interest loans that can be 100% forgiven if used to cover approved costs. Jackie Reses, head of Square Capital, tweeted April 13 that the firm …

Main Street businesses hit by the COVID-19 crisis now have access to a lifeline from fintech lenders. On April 9, the United States Small Business Administration released its application form for nonbanks to sign on as lenders under the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Speaking to Cointelegraph on April 10, John Pitts, head of policy at San Francisco-based fintech Plaid, said the development was “a critical step” that would broaden the reach of the relief program and ensure that as many firms as possible get access to the help they urgently need. Fintech in the spotlight The PPP — first announced …

Nonbank fintechs may be left unable to contribute to the United States government’s relief plan for small businesses hit by the COVID-19 crisis. On April 3, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) launched a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as part of the federal government’s $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. The PPP aims to support small businesses during the pandemic by providing them with access to low-interest, forgivable loans. The $349 billion loan program — specifically targeted at Main Street firms that need urgent liquidity to cover their payrolls and other expenses — is actively seeking to enlist private-sector lenders such …

As a number of global jurisdictions like the Bahamas and Sweden are already testing their central bank digital currencies (CBDC), French central bank is getting more straightforward regarding its own CBDC plans. The Bank of France is now officially launching a program of experiments to test the integration of a CBDC for interbank settlements, inviting potential participants to submit their applications. Bank of France doesn’t insist on blockchain implementation for CBDC According to a March 30 document, France’s central bank is calling for applications to experiment with the use of a digital euro, aiming to explore the potential CBDC opportunities …

As the world’s supervisory agencies start to heed the crypto guidelines of the Financial Action Task Force, a new regulatory landscape is taking shape within the crypto industry. The latest country to annex the FATF directives is Canada, but how will the new rules impact crypto business in the country? In a report released March 10, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada, or FINTRAC, unveiled plans for an “enhanced AML regime.” Come June 1, 2020, FINTRAC will treat all crypto firms as money service business, or MSB. This will place added scrutiny on cryptocurrency transfers, customer identification …

Tech Mahindra, the IT subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group, has become the first Indian business to use R3’s blockchain-based Marco Polo Network for conducting cross-border transactions. It said the platform had resulted in faster reconciliation and ambiguity resolution, as well as the significant reduction of paperwork and time required for the entire transaction cycle. Tech Mahindra partnered with Singapore’s DBS Bank, which facilitated the transactions and acted as the company’s leading trade bank. The parties used the Marco Polo Receivables Discounting product which is designed to help companies optimise their working capital, improve liquidity and mitigate credit risk. Marco …

United Kingdom-born digital banking app Revolut is launching today, March 24, in the United States — but investors will have to wait for its crypto trading functionality to be up and running. Revolut’s rollout in the U.S. follows a major partnership with Visa back in October, which paved the way for the fintech’s global expansion to 24 new markets, including North America. That same month, it expanded its partnership with Mastercard to further support its U.S. offering. The neobank and smartphone app is already firmly established in Europe — with over 10 million users, according to an email shared with …