Fintechs are becoming part of the establishment

Fintechs are inexorably gaining critical mass: their value has risen to $1.1trn, equivalent to 10% of the value of the global banking and payments industry, and up from 4% in 2018. Prices may be stretched today and some firms may flop, but in the long run it seems likely that this share will only rise further.
Firms’ expansion plans and investors’ search for returns bring a blizzard of deals and listings.

What are the main trends? Who are the big players? Where is fintech heading?

Answers to this and more in The Economist's "Investment in fintech booms as upstarts go mainstream"

Using CBDCs for enhanced cross-border payments

Cross-border payments are usually criticized for high cost, low speed, limited availability to households and businesses and insufficient transparency, but recent technological advances could help mitigate those issues, according to a Bank for International Settlement report.

The report, entitled "Central bank digital currencies for cross-border payments," was published in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank’s committee on payments and market infrastructures.  It was prepared for the G20 group of nations' forum.

Get more information and access the full report HERE. 

The end of Chinese Bitcoin mining

The Chinese government's clampdown has forced most Bitcoin miners offline.

In May, a government committee tasked with promoting financial stability vowed to put a stop to bitcoin mining. Within weeks the authorities in four main mining regions—Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Xinjiang and Yunnan—ordered the closure of local projects.

China had accounted for about 65% of bitcoins earned through mining, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. But analysts think about 90% of its mining has now ceased.  

Read the full story "Deep in rural China, bitcoin miners are packing up" from The Economist. HERE

Apple Working On 'Apple Pay Later' Monthly Installment Offering

Apple is developing a perk for Apple Pay users that will allow them to buy products and pay for them in monthly installments, according to a Bloomberg report.

Non Fungible Tokens - a comprehensive overview

NFTs are the current buzzword. The word NFT stands for non-fungible token, which means a unique, irreplaceable cryptographic object.

The purpose of NFTs is to manage ownership of digital content (digital collectible items) by storing the ownership in the form of a digital certificate on a blockchain (usually on the Ethereum blockchain, but other blockchains can also be used). In this manner the buyer can prove that he is the owner of a certain digital item.

Find out more by reading Joris Lochy's "NFTs - A hype or a lasting new investment asset class?"

“TOP READS OF THE WEEK” (for week ending 9 July)

This week’s top reads in banking, fintech, payments, cybersecurity, AI, IoT, risk management and much more

In this weeks selection;

Top Reads

• Banks prepare for 2021's second act with office-return, banker-pay pledges
• Cloud targeted in widespread brute force campaign
• Cybersecurity Ignorance Is Dangerous
• Risk management rises to No. 1 accounting priority during pandemic: ACCA
• Wells Fargo shuts down personal lines of credit
• Bank of America becomes last US SIFI to make crypto push
• Kaseya: What's known (and unknown) about the ransomware attack
• Tech savviness soars following pandemic but personal touch still key to customer experience
• If open banking were a colour - it would be green
• DeFi Is Ready to Disrupt Fintech
• World’s First Mobile Banking Service for Migrants MAJORITY Expands to the US
• Chime, Current lead U.S. banking app downloads in first half of 2021: report
• Paysafe builds up online betting, gaming payments systems
• Crypto exchange Binance responds to Barclays move to halt payments
• The pandemic pushed us toward a cashless economy. It could be the new normal
• Clash over debit card routing persists in comments to Fed

From our Blog

• Regulating digital payment services and e-money
• Could digital currencies make money more fragile?
• Could digital currencies put banks out of business? - The Economist
• Robinhood Warns of Meme Frenzy & Britain Wins Key Tax Exemption
• Facebook Rolls Out Live Audio Rooms, Its Competitor To Clubhouse

Regulating digital payment services and e-money

Improvements in technology, coupled with growing demand for digital payment methods, are increasingly reshaping the way payments are made. Non-bank institutions now offer a wide range of retail payment services. This raises the question of where the regulatory perimeter should be drawn. Financial authorities now face the task of deciding whether the risk profile of different payment services are appropriately reflected in their regulatory frameworks. A sound understanding of the regulatory approaches in other jurisdictions contributes to this assessment.

Johannes Ehrentraud, Jermy Prenio, Codruta Boar, Mathilde Janfils and Aidan Lawson have had a paper published by the BIS' Financial Stability Unit entitled "Fintech and payments: regulating digital payment services and e-money".

Download an read it HERE.