It is being reported that Barclays, the London-based global bank, recently stopped banking for Coinbase, the United States-based crypto exchange. Coinbase reportedly found a quick replacement in the form of another United Kingdom-based establishment, ClearBank. While Barclays connected San Francisco-based Coinbase to the U.K. Faster Payments Scheme (FPS), enabling instant withdrawals and deposits of British pounds at the exchange, ClearBank won’t offer the exchange the same service until at least the end of Q3 2019. Deposits and withdrawals in pounds for Coinbase’s U.K. customers, which once took seconds, will for now take days to process. In the wake of Barclay’s …

Update [10.42 a.m. UTC]: This article has been updated to include comments from Santander denying the allegations that U.K. users are deliberately being blocked from making deposits into their Coinbase accounts. Santander: “We do not block payments to any legitimate company” Some online users have accused major Spanish bank Santander of blocking United Kingdom customers from depositing their fiat funds to major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. An unverified source posting to Reddit on Aug. 14 claims to have been informed of the development over the phone by a Santander representative. However, a Santander U.K. spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the bank has …

Northern Trust has handed over its blockchain platform to fintech firm Broadridge Financial Solutions, according to a press release on June 26. The Chicago-based asset management firm Northern Trust has handed over its blockchain-based private equity (PE) management solution to Broadridge for further improvement. The platform purports to streamline and automate certain tasks, such as middle office functions. The PE blockchain solution will initially roll out “to all PE funds domiciled in Guernsey and Delaware, including those administered by Northern Trust.” Pete Cherecwich, President of Corporate & Institutional Services at Northern Trust commented on the hand-off, saying: “For the benefit …

Euroclear, one of the world’s largest securities depositories, says it will push forward with building a pilot blockchain-based platform for the issuance and settlement of European commercial paper (ECP). The news was reported by EuroClear on June 19. Euroclear settled €791 trillion ($885.48 trillion) in securities transactions and held an average of €28.8 trillion ($32.24 trillion) in client assets in 2018, according to results published this March. The financial services titan has today revealed that it successfully completed a proof-of-value study for an ECP-focused blockchain platform together with the European Investment Bank, Spain’s Santander and “Big Four” auditor EY. The …

Member-driven blockchain standards organization the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) has released two new specifications aiming to accelerate and enhance blockchain implementation for enterprises. The news was shared with Cointelegraph in two press releases on May 13. The EEA, which counts over 500 members, describes itself as a “standards organization whose charter is to develop open, blockchain specifications that drive harmonization and interoperability.” EEA members include global consulting firm Accenture, banks Santander and JPMorgan Chase, blockchain incubator ConsenSys, Big Four auditor EY, tech giants Intel, Microsoft and IBM and blockchain consortium R3. One of today’s newly-released specifications is a set of …

The Court of Justice in the Brazilian state of São Paulo has dismissed the appeal made by Banco Santander against cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin, and ruled that the bank should return funds to the company, local crypto media CriptomoedasFacil reports on March 8. Previously, the bank reportedly closed the exchange’s account, claiming that its activity was incompatible with its policy and froze the funds. According to the article, the Brazilian exchange took action through the courts against the closing of its account, claiming that the freeze of its funds was unjustified. Per the report, the funds to be returned amount …

Spain’s second-largest bank, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), has announced the launch of the first blockchain-backed platform for structured green bonds. The news was announced in a press release published on Feb. 19. BBVA has closed the deal with Spanish insurance house Mapfre, which has invested 35 million euros (approximately $40 million) to finance sustainable products. To close this deal, BBVA has “issued the first structured green bond using blockchain technology to negotiate the terms and conditions,” the press release states. The press release underlines that the funds have been specified for the financing of green projects, under the umbrella …

One of Europe’s largest banks, Banco Santander, and tech giant IBM have announced an agreement to accelerate the bank’s development of technologies such as blockchain. The news was announced in a press release published on Feb. 13. The five-year global technology agreement is reportedly aimed at enhancing the financial institution’s services using emerging technologies — such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data — provided by IBM. The deal between IBM and the largest financial and credit group in Spain is reportedly valued at approximately $700 million. The move aims to reduce the bank’s annual costs on IT spending and …

Spain-based Banco Santander has announced the creation of a blockchain research team to look into the technology’s potential to change securities trading, according to a July 11 press release. The “Digital Investment Banking” team, headed by current leader of Santander’s blockchain lab John Whelan, will “explor[e] the use of tokenized securities in debt capital markets, derivatives and other products.” The global bank has followed its own route to blockchain integration since dropping out of distributed ledger tech (DLT) consortiums R3’s beleaguered DLT project in 2016. José M. Linares, Santander’s senior executive vice-president and global head of Santander Corporate & Investment …

European blockchain trading platform we.trade confirmed it had completed its first live operations today, July 3, involving twenty companies and five major banks. The blockchain platform, which claims to provide a “more efficient and cost effective way” for banks and businesses to trade worldwide, uses IBM’s Blockchain Platform, powered by Hyperledger Fabric. Part of various blockchain solutions currently under appraisal by the banking sector, the platform counts Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale and UniCredit as its founding members. Together, according to Dutch institution Rabobank, the collaboration highlights the banks’ ability to “innovate.” “These trade(s) represents …

Eight major European financial entities have announced they will work together on a blockchain tech project for recording the issuance of financial warrants, Spanish news outlet el Economista reports today, June 25. Spanish securities regulator the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), along with major stock market operator BME, and banks Santander, BBVA, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, Commerzbank and Société Générale have “successfully” completed a Proof-of-Concept, which they call Fast Track Listing. The system was created to register the issuance of warrants in under 48 hours, a process that usually takes more than a week, according to their statement also released today. …

Update: this article has been updated to include statements made by Charley Cooper, managing director at R3. While last year R3 had implied that the company had a larger goal of raising $200 mln in funding, R3 told Fortune that the figure came from a now-cancelled plan to sell a stake in a research subsidiary. The unnamed former R3 employees told Fortune that the consortium’s internal financial targets are “10X short” of their revenue, with the figure described as “laughably off.” Charley Cooper, an R3 managing director, told Fortune that the company is not in danger of running out of …