The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, may levy record fines against Tencent’s WeChat Pay for failing to comply with KYC and AML regulations. The PBOC discovered these violations during an inspection of the company in 2021.
Read MoreSilent Eight, a Singapore-based financial crime prevention firm, announced yesterday that it had raised $40M in Series B funding. HSBC and Standard Charter’s venture wings were listed as investors.
Read MoreLBRY, a blockchain-based file sharing and payment network, has been the subject of a yearslong case by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The government body claims that LBRY’s token, LBC, is a security.
Read MoreReal-time payments provider ACI Worldwide announced these new digital payments options for U.S. federal taxpayers, not for state filings. ACI is the first platform to offer tax payments through Venmo.
Read MoreToday, President Biden issued an “Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.” The order calls for a holistic approach to crypto across government branches, while also protecting consumers, minimizing volatility, safeguarding national security, and expanding financial inclusion efforts.
Read MoreAgrotoken, an Argentinian startup tokenizing grain by the ton through cryptocurrency, announced that its soy-, corn- and wheat-backed coins will be accepted as collateral by Santander. Agrotoken has also launched a 1,000-farmer test with Santander.
Read MoreMore than 17 million Americans were the victims of fraud on digital wallets or peer-to-peer payment apps in 2020. A large proportion of these crimes took place on Zelle, according to the New York Times.
Read MoreOn Saturday, Visa and Mastercard announced that they had suspended network operations in Russia, which prevents cards issued in Russia from working abroad, and disables cards within Russia that were issued outside the country. Amex and PayPal have enacted similar measures.
Read MoreThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into fractional NFTs, in which assets are broken down into tradable pieces. Such NFTs may qualify as securities under the Howey test; investors fund these NFTs with the intention of making a profit.
Read MoreOn Monday, machine-learning solutions provider Stratyfy released UnBias, which helps financial institutions discover and undo bias in their systems. UnBias will be available as a standalone offering.
Read MoreOn Monday, Equifax started adding “pay-in-four” installment loans to its credit reports. Experian and TransUnion said they would roll out similar developments this year as well.
Read MoreVisa and Mastercard have blocked several Russian financial institutions from its payments systems. A run on Russian banks has begun.
Read MoreIn a joint statement on Saturday, the U.S., U.K., E.U., and others announced that they would move to exclude “selected Russian banks” from SWIFT, the international payments system. The group of countries has also frozen assets belonging to Russia’s central bank in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Read MoreMykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, called on crypto exchanges to block Russian and Belarusian accounts following the invasion of Ukraine. Exchanges like Kraken and Binance pushed back at the demand.
Read MoreThe National Bank of Ukraine imposed several temporary restrictions to avoid economic panic and collapse. The PFTS Stock Exchange also suspended trading on Thursday.
Read MoreThe Financial Revolutionist is weekly newsletter and blog focused on the torrid pace of financial innovation. Today, thanks to the exponential rate of technological change, explosion in global trade and new regulations ushered in by the Great Financial Crisis, a new financial revolution is under way. In this battle, virtually every aspect of the greater financial services sector is subject to rigorous challenge. With the Financial Revolutionist, we are aspiring to create a boots-on-the-ground and highly opinionated assessment of important financial innovation developments in the past week.
