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by Vijaya Bharti  Russian Finance Ministry Shows Hope for Crypto Trading in the Country Russian Finance Ministry considers the allowing of crypto trading, a representative of the ministry reveals. As per the report, Alexei Moiseyev, the Deputy Minister of Finance, tells the status of crypto trading in Russia. He said that the ministry has not yet reached the final decision. As a result, crypto trading might be possible in Russia. Previously, a bill surfaced in the ministry on circulation of digital currencies in the Russian Federation. The bill prohibited the utilization of crypto assets as a payment method. The bill surfaced in May this year. Similarly, Anatoly Aksakov is the Duma Financial Committee’s head. He calls the decision which is yet pending as a compromise. Additionally, he points out that the country Russia will adopt a bill in favour of cryptocurrencies. Precisely, FATF is the Financial Action Task Force recommending Russia to adopt the bill. The b...

By Ledger Insights Yesterday the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) announced that they’ve enabled the secondary trades of the World Bank’s bond-i bond to be recorded on a blockchain. Nine months ago CBA arranged the Blockchain Offered New Debt Instrument (bond-i) issuance of A$110 million (US $76m). It’s part of the World Bank’s annual $50-$60 billion bond issuance. “Enabling secondary trading [to be] recorded on the blockchain is a tremendous step forward towards enabling capital markets to leverage distributed ledger technologies for faster, more efficient, and more secure transactions,” said World Bank VP and Treasurer Jingdong Hua. “It speaks to the innovation and commitment of all our partners, including investors, that we were able to achieve this together.” The bond-i platform is a permissioned network with nodes in Sydney and Washington. It features automated bond auct...

By Nikhilesh De Microsoft will promote JPMorgan Chase’s Quorum blockchain to the global tech giant’s business customers, the companies announced Thursday. The Redmond, Washington-based software firm will support Quorum, JPM’s private enterprise version of ethereum, through Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, the firms said. They will look to support adoption of the network through their new partnership, after signing a memorandum of understanding. As a result, Quorum “will become the first distributed ledger platform available through [the] Azure Blockchain Service, enabling J.P. Morgan and Microsoft customers to build and scale blockchain networks in the cloud,” the companies said in a press release. A spokesperson for New York-based JPM said via email that “Microsoft will drive preference to the Quorum stack for Blockchain applications built on Azure.” JPM will also build its own first-party applications for the service. Umar Farooq, JPM’s global ...

By  Krystle M In Australia, there has recently been substantial debate over the regulations that need to govern cryptocurrency locally. This confusion ultimately led the authorities to issue clear regulations that would motivate growth of cryptocurrency, which much of the community was pleased with. However, the major banks in the country have maintained a cautious policy regarding bitcoin and cryptocurrency, considering the potential risk that these businesses bring to banks. Even so, there are multiple institutions allowing their customers to use their credit cards for cryptocurrency purchases, according to reports from Bitcoin.com. The second-largest back in Australia by capitalization, Westpac, commented that they do not prevent customers from making crypto asset purchases with their credit cards, with the stipulation that it has to coincide with “our legal obligations and terms and conditions.” These policies line up with the same requirements at Westpac-o...

By Yogita Khatri Seventy-three percent of U.K. consumers don’t know what a cryptocurrency is or are unable to define it, according to a new survey from the country’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Announced  Thursday, the research indicates that those who are most aware of cryptocurrencies are likely to be men aged between 20 and 44. The  survey , which polled 2,132 British consumers in association with London-based market research firm Kantar TNS, further found that only 3 percent of those surveyed had ever bought cryptocurrencies. Of those who had purchased, half of them spent under £200 ($263) from their “disposable income.” Bitcoin appears to be the most popular cryptocurrency, with over 50 percent purchasing the cryptocurrency, while 34 percent bought ether (ETH). The FCA has also carried out “qualitative” research and interviews of UK consumers in association with London-based research agency Revealing ...

By Ana Berman An official from Spain’s central bank , the Bank of Spain (BDE) believes that Bitcoin ( BTC ) is unable to resolve the problems faced by major payment systems. BDE’s Deputy General Director for financial innovations and market infrastructure, Carlos Colesa, gave his opinion on the leading cryptocurrency in a report published on Sunday, Feb. 17. The study dubbed "Bitcoin: a solution for payment systems or a solution in search of a problem?," is marked as an “occasional paper,” according to Cointelegraph en Español . This  means that the Bank of Spain does not necessarily share the stance of the author. Colesa compared Bitcoin to traditional payment systems and financial intermediaries. First, he says that the Bitcoin blockchain processes only 250,000 transactions daily, which is a relatively small volume for a global system. For instance, major Spanish retail system, the Sistema Nacional de Compensación Electrónica (SNCE), reportedly...

By Helen Partz   Global investment bank Credit Suisse and Portuguese Banco Best have completed end-to-end fund transactions on blockchain , according to a press release published Feb. 7. The financial institutions have reportedly processed every part of the fund trade process by implementing a blockchain-based decentralized platform, FundsDLT. Designed to improve the efficiency of fund transaction processing with the use of blockchain and smart contracts , FundsDLT would purportedly reduce the time between request and the settlement from delivery of the order to trade processing. Within the initiative, Lisbon-based Banco Best — specializing in banking , asset management and trading — was responsible for the Application Programming Interface (API) integration, and also developed a dedicated application to collect client experiences. An end-to-end or mutual fund transaction represents a pool of money from a group of investors that is put into...

By Max Yakubowski     A South Korean financial authority has warned two major domestic banks about their lack of management of cryptocurrency transactions and Anti-Money Laundering ( AML ) regulation, local online media outlet The Daily reports Dec. 4. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has reviewed Kookmin Bank and Nonghyup Bank and found “unreasonable elements related to virtual [currency] handling business.” However, the article notes that the regulation standards are not clear, and the FSS’s order applies only to some accounts that have been contracted with a real-name verification service, not crypto counterparty (exchange) accounts. The banks have also received orders for improvement and must submit the measures to the FSS within three months. The article notes: “If the FSS considers that the content is insufficient, the FSS will be able to impose more direct sanctions in the future.” In addition, the article states that there is a prob...

By Michael del Castillo  /Forbes Marwan Forzely has come a long way since his days at Western Union. The serial entrepreneur, who sold his previous company to Western Union to help the money-transfer giant directly connect to customer bank accounts, has raised $25 million to cut intermediary banks out of the payment process altogether. Instead of relying on a series of correspondents to move money between different jurisdictions around the world, Marwan’s latest venture, Veem, uses bitcoin to directly connect its clients’ bank accounts with suppliers and customers. While neither counterparty is required to directly hold bitcoin, and an algorithm automatically routes transactions along the most efficient payment rails, more than half the transactions processed by Veem rely on the cryptocurrency as a replacement for correspondents. Led by banking giant Goldman Sachs, with GV (formally Google Ventures), Kleiner Perkins, Silicon Valley Bank, Trend ...

By Ana Berman The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) has issued basic guidelines for banks working with blockchain startups on Friday, September 21. As Reuters reports, the measure was taken to prevent a mass crypto exodus out of Switzerland. The document states that banks see blockchain as an opportunity for Switzerland to house financial and technology startups despite "risks," especially money laundering. Due to a significant increase of crypto-related companies based in the country, the SBA has decided to provide a road map for banks to open their corporate accounts. The guidelines divides blockchain companies into two large groups: those with and those without Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). Blockchain companies without ICOs should be treated like other small- and medium-sized companies, and will be obliged to accept relevant Swiss regulations and apply them to their business models. The second group includes blockchain startups with ICOs who issu...

Billy Bambrough Bitcoin has seen quite a heavy sell-off over the last 30 days but that was preceded by a bull run, leaving the bitcoin price more-or-less flat — and reminding investors to take a wider view of market movements. Despite hitting highs of almost $7,500 earlier this month, the bitcoin price has dropped back to just over $6,300 today — pretty much exactly where it was some 30 days ago. There were fears in early September bitcoin, as well as other major cryptocurrencies including ethereum, ripple, and litecoin, were going into freefall as investors panicked over whether the much anticipated institutional money that many have been expecting to be injected into the market will actually appear. That sudden sell-off now seems to have stabilized — with many still feeling positive a major bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) could be approved this month by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Elsewhere, the New York ...

courtesy of Shutterstock By Lubomir Tassev Draft laws employing alternative approaches to regulating digital currencies have been introduced in Ukraine and Russia. In Kiev, a bill that classifies cryptocurrency as an asset, unit of exchange and store of value has been filed in the Rada and it’s supported by both deputies and representatives of the industry. In Moscow, the managers of leading Russian enterprises have prepared their own version of the law on digital financial assets which contains the legal term “cryptocurrency” and differentiates it from tokens. New Crypto Bill Filed in the Ukrainian Rada Alternative Crypto Bills Presented in Ukraine and RussiaA bill that leaves crypto-to-crypto trade outside of the scope of government regulation has been filed in the Ukrainian parliament. The draft has been signed by 23 members of the Verkhovna Rada and is prepared in cooperation with representatives of the industry. News about the filling was announced during a crypto...

By  Nikhilesh De The Republic of India may be taking a deeper look at how it can use blockchain technology. India's Union Cabinet – an executive decision-making body composed of senior government officials and led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – said it would allow the nation's Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) to conduct research on distributed ledger and blockchain technology in partnership with banks in the BRICS economic bloc, of which India is a member, alongside Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. The approval is ex-post facto, meaning that Exim Bank has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, the Business Standard reported. As such, the research has already begun, and is being conducted with the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social from Brazil, the China Development Bank, Vnesheconombank from Russia and the Development Bank of South Africa, according to a statem...

By Helen Partz A former Deutsche Bank trader has joined Japanese crypto exchange-startup FXcoin Ltd., Bloomberg reports September 3. According to the announcement, Yasuo Matsuda, an institutional trader from Deutsche Bank, will join FXcoin as a senior crypto strategist starting in September 2018. The strategist position includes providing analysis of crypto markets and daily reports on the market’s activity. The newly appointed 49-year old Matsuda worked as foreign-exchange dealer at the German bank from 2012 until this June. FXcoin Ltd., founded in September 2017, is currently seeking regulatory approval from Japan’s financial regulator the Financial Services Agency (FSA) in order to operate “virtual currency-related business.” The startup has reportedly applied with the regulator to exchange cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) under a licensing system that was adopted last year. FXcoin’s founder and CEO Tomoo Onishi is a veteran employee at Deutsche ...

By Kate Rooney    The world's largest cryptocurrency moved back into the $7,000 range as a key exchange in South Korea, one of bitcoin's biggest markets, came back online. The digital currency hit a high of $7,100 Tuesday, up 6 percent this week after starting Monday around $6,600, according to data from CoinDesk. The cryptocurrency is still down about 50 percent since the beginning of 2018, and 64 percent from its high in December. After losing the equivalent of $30 million in a June hack, Seoul-based Bithumb was forced by its banking partner Nonghyup Bank to temporarily stop taking new customers. The world's fifth largest exchange reopened account registrations again this week, according to local media outlet Yonhap News and multiple crypto industry news sites. "All of this buying is coming from Asia," said Brian Kelly, founder and CEO of BKCM. "The biggest news in the market right now is that South Korea exchanges are coming back online." Bithumb...

Por Julio Gil-Pulgar According to some financial experts, Bitcoin transaction fees are lower. In addition, Bitcoin bypasses the unnecessary and expensive financial institutions within which credit cards depend. Therefore, experts believe that Bitcoin’s advantages will encourage merchants to replace credit cards with Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto: Bitcoin Payments Are Similar to Cash Transactions High credit card fees continue to be borne by merchants and ultimately by consumers. Indeed, merchants pay billions of dollars to have issuers process card transactions. The idea of replacing credit cards with Bitcoin is gaining steam among financial experts. For example, Panos Mourdoukoutas, professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at Long Island University Post in New York, forecasts that increasing competition in the retail sector and Bitcoin’s offer of lower transaction fees could induce merchants to replace credit cards with the cryptocurrency. Indeed, mo...

 By William Suberg Liechtenstein bank Union Bank AG announced it was issuing its own security tokens and in-house cryptocurrency backed by fiat in a press release Friday, August 17. Union Bank, which has concentrated increasingly on blockchain this year, said issuing its so-called “Union Bank Payment Coin (UBPC)” was a further step towards becoming a “full-service blockchain investment bank.” UBPC will act as a stable coin, the institution explained, and will have fiat currencies “such as the Swiss franc” as its backing. “Our goal is to become the world's first blockchain investment bank and to provide tangible solutions which help drive efficiencies, reduce cost base and open up new revenue opportunities for our customers and intermediaries alike,” chairman of the board of directors Mohammad Hans Dastmaltchi commented in the release. “...As such, our fiat-backed Union Bank Payment Coin has the potential to disrupt the approach to international trad...