New York-based commercial bank Signature Bank will begin offering financial services to fintech firms in the island nation of Bermuda, local news daily the Royal Gazette reports on Feb. 28. According to the Royal Gazette, banks in Bermuda have mostly avoided dealing with the fintech industry, which is in need of financial services. Bermudian Premier David Burt said: “Signature Bank’s willingness to consider Bermuda-licensed businesses for banking services is a significant vote of confidence in and endorsement of Bermuda’s efforts to create a leading high standard regulatory regime for fintech business.” A reported government announcement stated that Signature Bank “has …

The Swiss fintech market grew by 62 percent in 2018, according to a recent study by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences published on Feb. 27. The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences undertook an in-depth review of Switzerland's fintech market for the fourth time. The report dubbed "IFZ FinTech Study 2019" reveals that on a global scale the cities of Zurich and Geneva remain in second and third place for the best cities for fintech, respectively. The fintech sector inside the country grew 62 percent over the previous year. Per the analysis, Switzerland had 356 fintech companies in 2018, compared …

The chief executive body of the German government, the Cabinet of Germany, has revealed that the country’s blockchain strategy will be introduced by mid-2019. The Cabinet commented on the development of fintech in the country on Feb. 26, following a request for information from parliamentarians in the Bundestag. The document notes that fintech sandboxes are currently present in five member states of the European Union: Denmark, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom. The Cabinet states that they will undergo an online consultation process prior to introducing the blockchain strategy. Per the Cabinet, the Ministry of Finance and the …

Fintech startup SoFi — known for its online lending services — is partnering with major United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase to roll out crypto trading support, according to a CNBC report Feb. 26. Sofi, which is headquartered in San Francisco, will reportedly launch its crypto services by the second quarter of 2019. Sofi CEO Anthony Noto — who was formerly Twitter’s chief operating officer and also a managing director at Goldman Sachs — told CNBC: “Our target audience wants to see what the price of cryptocurrency is, and to buy it. They have a desire to do that and in …

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta and training platform TalentSpirit are jointly offering an advanced programme in fintech and blockchain technology, local news outlet The Asian reported on Feb. 26. The new program scheduled for this May is reportedly targeted at management and finance professionals aiming to educate participants on financial technologies growth and its potential impact on the banking and financial ecosystem. The program director, professor Indranil Bose, stated that “a vast majority of firms in the banking and financial sector believe that the lack of adequate fintech talent is an existential threat to their future.” Bose added …

Software development company MonetaGo has switched over from Hyperledger Fabric to R3’s Corda as an enterprise blockchain platform, economics magazine Global Trade Review (GTR) reported on Feb. 26. MonetaGo, which previously had ties with both platforms, will now use Corda as it continues its expansion into Mexico and other international markets ahead of a current trial in India. The company offers blockchain-based fraud mitigation solutions for banks and previously operated as a cryptocurrency exchange before changing direction. “With the new deployments that we have coming up in Mexico, as well in other Latin American countries, the regulators themselves have been …

Solidus Labs has raised $3 million to combat crypto market manipulation, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Feb. 20. Solidus Labs is a trade surveillance firm whose team includes former Goldman Sachs fintech engineers. The company reports to help both traditional and crypto-focused service providers foster compliance while trading digital assets. Through the recent funding round, led by Israeli venture capital firm Hanaco Ventures, the team plans to further develop its crypto-oriented market surveillance tools designed for financial institutions and exchanges interacting with crypto assets. By implementing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies, Solidus analyzes trading …

New York-based fintech company TrueDigital Holdings (TDH) announced the appointment of former Bridgewater Associates chief operating officer Thomas Kim as its new CEO through a post on its website on Feb. 19. Before his time at Bridgewater Associates, which had almost $125 billion assets under management in 2018, Kim worked at now-defunct global financial services firm Lehman Brothers in charge of the Townsend Analytics Electronic Trading franchise. According to today’s post, Kim will manage TrueDigital’s existing initiatives, such as the launch of Bitcoin (BTC) swaps planned for this year. In January of this year, blockchain platform Qtum also announced that …

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has announced plans to invest more than $1 billion in blockchain and fintech startups by 2022, according to the official announcement published on Feb. 18. According to the release, the South Korean capital’s government plans to use the “Seoul Innovation Growth Fund” for startups that have various investments problems with Series A funding rounds. The fund, launched last year, will primarily focus on startups related to blockchain and fintech industries. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announcement underlines that the average investment per company in London and Silicon Valley is approximately $6-7 million, while in Korea, it is …

South Korea’s leading telecommunications company, KT Corporation, has been selected to develop a local cryptocurrency in the South Korean city of Gimpo, local media outlet ZDNet Korea reports on Feb. 14. The crypto — dubbed “K token” — will reportedly be introduced in April, after a pilot project is carried out next month, the report states. The city plans to issue 11 billion won (over $9.7 million) worth of the currency per year, which includes budgets for various social services and development projects. The blockchain-based currency will reportedly only be available for use at merchants in the Gimpo area. As …

Finance platform SDK.finance has partnered with Oracle to use the Oracle Blockchain Platform to improve payments processes and remove intermediaries. The partnership was announced in a press release published on Feb. 12. SDK.finance is a European-based fintech startup that offers a payment platform for banks and financial institutions. In 2015, the company was reportedly recognized as the best fintech startup by the Central European Startups Awards, while in 2018 it overcame other major industry players in terms of application programming interface (API) endpoints. By integrating the Oracle platform, SDK.finance reportedly aims to boost payment processes, also making them more cost …

Recently, Forbes published the fresh edition of its “Fintech 50” list, counting the world’s top financial technology firms. Notably, there are just six crypto and blockchain companies featured this year, while the 2018 list contained 11 players from the field. Given that the notorious crypto boom of 2017 has been followed by the relentless bear market, it is hardly surprising. Nevertheless, while there is considerably fewer crypto companies featured this year, less than half of them — Ripple, BitFury, Coinbase — have made the list before, which means that new blood arrived regardless of the market condition. Veterans Ripple What …