Regulators issue warning to cryptocurrency investors after Bitcoin reaches new all-time high

Regulators have issued fresh warnings on investing in cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin skyrocketed to a new all-time high last week.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has cautioned consumers about the high risks involved in investing in cryptocurrencies.

“Investing in cryptoassets, or investments and lending linked to them, generally involves taking very high risks with investors’ money,” the City watchdog said in a statement. “If consumers invest in these types of product, they should be prepared to lose all their money.”

The warning closely follows the regulator’s ban on selling crypto-derivates to consumers which came into effect January 6.

You can read the full article on Bobsguide HERE

Banking & Payment Trends that Will Get Hotter in 2021

There are 5 banking and payments trends that are going to be really hot in 2021; that is according to a piece by Safwan Zaheer writing in a blog post in The Financial Brand.

And what are these 5 trends?

1. Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) will take off.
2. Venmo will emerge as a new type of payment tender.
3. “Embedded Banking” is going to grow faster as more institutions offer banking capabilities to non-banks.
4. Digital currencies and Stablecoins are going to gain major traction.
5. There are going to be more financial institution mergers in 2021.

Read all the details at The Financial Brand HERE  

How many dead people are there on Facebook?

There are as many as 30 million dead people with Facebook accounts, but the social media giant is simply so massive that these numbers are dwarfed by the total user count. With more than 3 billion active users, 'dead people accounts' are likely only around 1% of the total user base.

Want to find out more? Click HERE

 

Beijing has put online giants on notice - Chinese trustbusters’ pursuit of Alibaba is only the start

“Acting on information, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation [SAMR] has started investigation [into] Alibaba Group for alleged monopoly conduct including implementing an ‘exclusive dealing agreement’.” This brief note, posted by Xinhua, the state news agency, on December 24th, was all it took to cut China’s mightiest online titan down to size. Not even the announcement three days later of an additional $6bn in share buy-backs arrested the slide in its share price. By December 28th it had fallen by 13%, wiping $91bn off the firm’s market capitalisation. American regulators, whose detailed charge-sheets against tech giants such as Facebook and Google in recent weeks elicited a yawn from investors, must have looked on with envy.

Read more at The Economist

As the COVID-19 pandemic rolls on, banks must prepare for a long winter

Ten months into the COVID-19 crisis, hopes are growing for vaccines and new treatments. But victory over the novel coronavirus still lies some nine to 12 months in the future. In the meantime, second and third waves of infection have arrived in many countries, and as people begin to crowd indoors in the months ahead, the infection rate may get worse. As a result, the potential for near-term economic recovery is uncertain. The question of the day is, “When will the economy return to its 2019 level and trajectory of growth?”

McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review, provides a range of possible answers to that question for the global banking industry—some of which are perhaps surprisingly hopeful. Unlike many past shocks, the COVID-19 crisis is not a banking crisis; it is a crisis of the real economy. Banks will surely be affected, as credit losses cascade through the economy and as demand for banking services drops. But the problems are not self-made. Global banking entered the crisis well capitalized and is far more resilient than it was 12 years ago.

Read McKinsey’s review HERE

Will Bankers ever go back to the office again?

COVID-19 forced banks and credit unions to improvise for remote work and then they settled into technology and tools to see their operations through the pandemic. But having had a taste of working from home, many employees like the idea and could defect to rivals who will at least partially accommodate this new expectation.
 

Find out more HERE   

US advises against storing data within reach of China's government

The federal Department of Homeland Security is urging U.S. businesses and individuals to avoid storing data with Chinese companies due to the risk the country's government will demand and receive access to commercially valuable information.

Read more from PYMNTS