Fintech

It is no secret that inclusion in the international financial system is tightly connected to people’s wellbeing. While the population of developing countries worldwide suffers poverty, fintech innovations including blockchain technology can help these people improve their life.

A new report by Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau has revealed that Blockchain has grown more and faster than any other technologies in Hong Kong’s fintech ecosystem in the financial year 2019, with most of its applications directed towards enterprise solutions and cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Many institutions of higher education globally are considering offering classes related to Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, blockchain and other emerging innovative technologies because of their much-acclaimed benefits.

In today’s world banks are a mandatory link in the chain of our financial interactions. Banks are unavoidable hubs that are involved in any operation, be it a personal money transfer to a friend or a large scale enterprise deal. But as any hub – banks are centralized. Does it mean that banks have unrestricted access to your hard earn funds? The short answer is – yes, it does.

The Republic of Cyprus is going to draft blockchain and cryptocurrency regulations this year, according to the Ministry of Finance. Minister Harris Georgiades is optimistic the regulation draft will be completed very soon and will play a big part to revolutionize the finance industry in the country, Financial Mirror reports.

The update of the agreement for the maintenance of joint accounts between banking institutions regarding the interbank check was finally approved. This allows in perspective the running of the check process in a new way, i.e. using the technology based on distributed registers, the so-called blockchain, starting from March 2020. The financial technology brings new step for banks and other institutions in Italy.

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), together with the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU), recently published a Guidance document for financial institutions creating accounts for financial technologies (fintechs). The aim is to encourage innovations including cryptocurrency and blockchain within the fintech sector, and protecting the integrity of the financial market.

Visa and Western Union have concluded a new agreement that will bring the fintech, digital currency and blockchain industry to the mainstream. However, one of Top-3 coins, Ripple, could potentially suffer from this.

Blockchain regulation in Russia is still in turmoil, as the technology was proposed to be banned by politicians. However, if implemented properly, it could have prevented a massive leak of personal data from 900K clients of three major Russian banks that happened recently.