New certificate focuses on incorporating ESG into investment analysis
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Research
Digital Payments in America – Scaling the Peak
The Economist | Mar 20, 2021
PayPal, Stripe and others are only just getting started
A LITTLE OVER a decade ago Patrick and John Collison founded Stripe, a company in Silicon Valley that helped other tech startups accept online payments. It has since outgrown them all. On March 14th the firm said it had closed a fundraising round valuing it at $95bn—three times its valuation a mere 11 months ago, and enough to make it America’s biggest-ever unlisted firm. Stripe is not the only company cashing in on the check-out business, as the digital payments revolution finally takes off in America.
Investors’ enthusiasm for Western digital-payments companies has been whetted by the pandemic (see chart). PayPal’s share price has jumped by 180% in the past 12 months. That of Square, an American rival, has more than quintupled; and that of Adyen, based in Amsterdam, has nearly tripled. The digital boom is luring credit-card colossuses and tech titans, such as Visa and Google, to online payments. Smaller startups, meanwhile, are carving out niches. Yet markets still love the four specialists: PayPal’s shares trade at 68 times earnings; Square’s, near 510. Why are investors so bullish?
See: Has COVID-19 made cryptocurrency more attractive for digital payment and investment?
The digital-payments industry is rather like a transport system. “Acquirers” connect the shop’s app or website to the payments infrastructure and check key details, including a buyer’s identity, probity or available funds, to authorise travel. The money then moves along the customer’s chosen type of “rail”: credit-card, bank-to-bank or mobile-wallet systems, run by distinct firms. Then come the refreshment trolleys—service providers, like buy-now-pay-later firms, that purport to make the payments journey more pleasant. Everyone takes a cut of the transaction along the way.
Three trends are helping propel the digital firms further. One is the rapid growth of e-commerce, which has been turbo-charged by the pandemic. Online-transactions volumes surged by 19% globally last year as locked-down consumers turned to the internet. And there is further to go: online payments accounted for just 45% of all retail payments tracked by Mastercard, a credit-card giant, in 2020. The second trend is the dash away from cash at bricks-and-mortar shops in favour of digital payments, which covid-19 has probably accelerated by about three to five years.
A final factor comes from increasing market share within online payments. For all of the specialists’ might, over half of digital-transaction volumes worldwide are still acquired by the captive, sluggish arms of banks, says Lisa Ellis of MoffettNathanson, a research firm. Since most lack global aspirations and e-commerce expertise, market share is bound to migrate to the online giants.
See:
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Accelerating winds of change in global payments
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Cryptocurrencies Aren’t An Alternative. They’re Here to Stay.
Such trends boost Visa and Mastercard, the dominant credit-and-debit card networks, too. Yet they run only one type of rail, whereas the four payment champions are mostly agnostic about which channel the money travels on. And the established card firms are also under attack from anti-trust watchdogs who worry that they make it difficult for merchants on their networks to process transactions through other, cheaper, alternatives. On March 19th shares in Visa fell after reports that the Department of Justice was investigating it.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Analysis: Proposed FATF Guidance for Virtual Assets and VASPs
CipherTrace | JJ | March 19, 2021
On March 19, 2021, global anti-money laundering watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released a public consultation for its updated Draft Guidance on a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers. Key changes in the draft guidance include:
- DEXs and crypto escrow services are considered Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs)
- Stablecoins are virtual asset (VAs) and FATF Standards apply to them
- Only NFTs that can facilitate money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF) are VAs
- VASPs should assess and mitigate proliferation financing (PF) risks
- Best practices for counterparty VASP due diligence
- Options for mitigating peer-to-peer transaction risks
- New Travel Rule clarifications and guidance
Proliferation Financing (PF) Risks
- In addition to money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks, VASPs should begin to assess and mitigate proliferation financing (PF) risks.
- The FATF is currently developing separate guidance to clarify these requirements.
FATF standards apply to “so-called stablecoins”
- The FATF recommends countries analyze and mitigate the ML/TF risks of before they are launched—especially if the stablecoin is to be used for P2P transactions.
- Risk mitigation could include “limiting the scope of customers’ ability to transact anonymously and/or by ensuring that AML/CFT obligations of obliged entities within the arrangement are fulfilled, e.g. by using software to monitor transactions and detect suspicious activity.”
See:
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With Cyberattacks on the Rise, Revolut Explains why Cyber Insurance is Necessary
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PwC Report: Canadian Digital Trust Insights 2021: Cybersecurity comes of age
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FATF Travel Rule interview with iComply: Cryptocurrency is Meant to be Trustless, Not Anonymous
Risk mitigation options for peer-to-peer transactions
- Transactions to/from non-obliged entities (e.g. unhosted wallets) and transactions where at an earlier stage P2P transactions have occurred should be considered higher-risk.
- The FATF recommends some of the following as possible P2P risk mitigation tactics in high-risk jurisdictions:
- implementation of the VA equivalent of CTRs
- denying licensing of VASPs if they allow transactions to/from non-obliged entities (i.e., private/unhosted wallets)
- enhanced recordkeeping requirements and enhanced due diligence (EDD) requirements
- ongoing enhanced supervision of VASPs
- issuing public guidance and advisories to raise awareness of risks posed by P2P transactions
Specific guidance on the implementation of the “travel rule”
- VASPs that have not implemented the “Travel Rule” should be considered higher-risk.
- A VASP needs to undertake counterparty VASP due diligence before they transmit the required information.
- Regardless of the lack of regulation in the beneficiary jurisdiction (sunrise issue), originating VASPs can require travel rule compliance from beneficiaries by contract or business practice. In general, those business decisions are made by each individual VASP based on their risk-based analysis.
- Originators and beneficiary VASPs should screen transactions to confirm that the counterparty is not a sanctioned name.
- The submission of originator and beneficiary information in batches is acceptable, as long as submission occurs immediately and securely as per the FATF Standards. Post facto submission of the required information should not be permitted (i.e., submission must occur before or when the VA transfer is conducted)
- Where there is not an originator or beneficiary institution (transactions to and from unhosted wallets), the VASP must still collect the required information with respect to their customer. Countries should also consider requiring VASPs to treat such VA transfers as higher risk transactions that require enhanced scrutiny and limitations.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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CFA Institute launches a first of its kind globally, a new ESG investing qualification
Investment Executive | James Langton | March 15, 2021
New certificate focuses on incorporating ESG into investment analysis
Amid growing demand for sustainable investing, the CFA Institute is launching a new ESG investing qualification.
The professional association announced it will offer a Certificate in ESG Investing, which was developed by CFA Society of the United Kingdom in 2019, in financial hubs around the world.
The group said that the new global qualification for ESG in investment management aims to teach certificants how to integrate material ESG factors into investment analysis.
The course is “also suitable for anyone looking to improve their understanding of ESG issues in functions such as sales and distribution, wealth management, product development, financial advice, consulting and risk,” the CFA Institute said.
See: New SEC task force will scrutinize ESG and climate disclosures and marketing
The course requires approximately 130 hours of study and a 100-question, computer-based exam. It costs US$665 and candidates can claim 20 CE credits upon passing the exam.
“We are seeing a real acceleration of interest in ESG investing — a major development that will shape the future of finance — while increased demand from clients and investment management firms has fueled the need for education,” said Margaret Franklin, president and CEO of CFA Institute, in a release.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Big techs in finance: regulatory approaches and policy options
BIS | March 2021
Highlights
- At present, financial services represent a relatively small part of big techs' overall activities, though this can change rapidly due to the unique features of their business models and they could quickly become systemically important – or "too big to fail".
- Big techs' financial operations are subject to the same requirements as those of other market participants. As such, big techs need to hold appropriate licences to perform regulated financial activities or provide their services in partnership with financial institutions that meet the regulatory requirements.
- Risks connected with big tech activities in finance may not be fully captured by the regulatory approach up to now, which is geared towards individual entities or specific activities and not the risks that are created by substantive interlinkages within big tech groups and their role as critical service providers for financial institutions.
- An effective oversight of big tech activities in finance calls for going beyond a piecemeal policy framework and considering recalibrating the mix of entity-based and activity-based rules, in favour of the former in certain policy areas. A step further would be to assess the possibility of introducing a bespoke approach for big techs encompassing a comprehensive public policy framework. In any case, there is a need for enhancing cross-sectoral and cross-border cooperative arrangements.
See:
House Lawmakers Condemn Big Tech’s ‘Monopoly Power’ and Urge Their Breakups
How Banks, Fintechs, and Customers Win Together
Download the 15 page PDF report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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How HR Leaders are Building the Organization of the Future
McKinsey & Company | Asmus Komm, Florian Pollner, Bill Schaninger, and Surbhi Sikka | March 12, 2021
The pandemic underscores the urgency for a more dynamic talent and work model. Human-resources leaders can help by focusing on identity, agility, and scalability.
Organizations have by and large met the challenges of this crisis moment. But as we move toward imagining a postpandemic era, a management system based on old rules—a hierarchy that solves for uniformity, bureaucracy, and control—will no longer be effective. Taking its place should be a model that is more flexible and responsive, built around four interrelated trends: more connection, unprecedented automation, lower transaction costs, and demographic shifts.
See: 58 Must-Read Remote Work Resources | 50 Great Remote Working Resources
To usher in the organization of the future, chief human-resources officers (CHROs) and other leaders should do nothing less than reimagine the basic tenets of organization. Emerging models are creative, adaptable, and antifragile. 1 Corporate purpose fuels bold business moves. “Labor” becomes “talent.” Hierarchies become networks of teams. Competitors become ecosystem collaborators. And companies become more human: inspiring, collaborative, and bent on creating an employee experience that is meaningful and enjoyable.
Identity: HR can clarify the meaning of purpose, value, and culture
Companies that execute with purpose have greater odds of creating significant long-term value generation, which can lead to stronger financial performance, increased employee engagement, and higher customer trust.
Hone in on the organization’s purpose
What is your company’s core reason for being, and where can you have a unique, positive impact on society? Now more than ever, you need good answers to those questions—purpose is not a choice but a necessity. HR can also ensure that clear changes are made to recruitment and capability-building processes by determining the characteristics of a “purpose driven” employee and embedding these attributes within recruitment, development, and succession planning.
See: 5 Challenges Facing all Start-Ups
HR can also incorporate purpose-driven metrics into compensation and performance decisions. Companies across industries have embarked on these metrics lately.
Think deeply about talent
Organizations that can reallocate talent in step with their strategic plans are more than twice as likely to outperform their peers. To link talent to value, the best talent should be shifted into critical value-driving roles. To enable this shift, HR should manage talent rigorously by building an analytics capability to mine data to hire, develop, and retain the best employees. HR business partners, who articulate these staffing needs to the executive management team, should consider themselves internal service providers that ensure high returns on human-capital investments. For example, to engage business leaders in a regular review of talent, they can develop semiautomated data dashboards that track the most important metrics for critical roles.
Create the best employee experience possible
Companies know that a better employee experience means a better bottom line. Successful organizations work together with their people to create personalized, authentic, and motivating experiences that tap into purpose to strengthen individual, team, and company performance.
See: In the Battle Against Coronavirus, Humanity Lacks Leadership | The World After Coronavirus
Strengthen leadership and build capacity for change
To strengthen an organization’s identity, HR should ask the following questions:
- How can we develop an energizing sense of purpose that has a tangible impact on our strategic choices and ways of working?
- How can we identify key talent roles and focus them on creating value?
- How can we build a data-driven, systemic understanding of our organizational health?
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Mastering the Pitch Deck
Start it Up | Shawn Miller | Feb 13, 2021
Attract angel investors, convince stakeholders, and stand out among the competition with a professional pitch deck
Thanks to a good pitch deck and presentation, my company exists in The League Of Innovators program, which accelerated 176 startups and helped them collectively raise $32M.
It helped me gain access to a suite of accessible programs and tools to provide educational experiences that shorten the path to success, empower the ability to be your boss and amplify the impact as future entrepreneurs and innovators.
A pitch deck is a valuable presentation that requires forethought and care. A poorly designed slide reflects poorly on your startup. But, even worse, it can give off negative signals to potential investors and cost you your funding.
See: Raising Capital in a Pandemic World
The perfect pitch deck is not created overnight. Summarizing dozens of pages and financial prognostics, presenting traction, and convincing investors or board members of the business’s viability and likelihood for future success is a big undertaking. However, it is worth the effort.
Here are a few goals you should set out to achieve;
- Display your business in a way that is designed to tell your story effectively so that investors can easily understand your strengths and the direction you're headed.
- Tell every aspect of your story visually and evocatively so that investors have a clear idea of what your startup does.
- Create beautiful animations and crisp graphics that are likely to be more memorable.
Review Other Pitch Deck Examples
Before diving in, it’s beneficial to view other sample pitch decks.
- Google’s Template Pitch Deck for Startups
- LinkedIn’s Pitch Deck
- Facebook’s Original Pitch Deck
- Airbnb’s Pitch Deck
What are the Key Slides You Want in Your Investor Pitch Deck?
According to Guy Kawasaki, “It’s quite simple: a pitch should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. This rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.”
See: Apply to Pitch or Demo at the 2021 Fintech Draft (#FFCON21)
According to Forbes, “Don’t make the pitch deck more than 15–20 slides long (investors have limited attention spans). If you feel you need to add more information, include it as an appendix.”
Here are the topics you need to cover in your pitch deck, arranged in the order listed below:
- Title/Overview
- Mission/Vision of the Company
- Management Team
- The Problem
- The opportunity
- The Market
- The Product
- The Customers
- The Competition
- Business Model
- The Go-To-Market Plan
- Financials
- The Ask
Depending on your company’s size and progress, you may condense the topics into fewer slides or expand into more detail; Regardless, companies should avoid straying from this format, as investors expect it.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Rising BigCorp Market Power and Emerging Policy Issues — A Threat to the Recovery?
IMF Blog | By Kristalina Georgieva, Federico J. Díez, Romain Duval, and Daniel Schwarz | Mar 15, 2021
The crisis has hit small and medium enterprises especially hard, causing massive job losses and other economic scars. Among these—less noticeable, but also serious—is rising market power among dominant firms as they emerge even stronger while smaller rivals fall away.
We know from experience and IMF research that excessive market power in the hands of a few firms can be a drag on medium-term growth, stifling innovation and holding back investment. Such an outcome could undermine the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, and it would block the rise of many emerging firms at a time when their dynamism is desperately needed.
Creating a more level playing field is now more important than ever. And governments will need to achieve it across a wide range of sectors—from brewing through hospitals to digital.
New IMF research shows that key indicators of market power are on the rise—such as the markup of prices over marginal cost, or the concentration of revenues among the four biggest players in a sector. Due to the pandemic, we estimate that this concentration could now increase in advanced economies by at least as much as it did in the fifteen years to end of 2015. Even in those industries that benefited from the crisis, such as the digital sector, dominant players are among the biggest winners.
A decades-long trend set to worsen?
A pandemic-driven rise in market power across multiple industries would exacerbate a trend that goes back over four decades. For example, global price markups have risen by more than 30 percent, on average, across listed firms in advanced economies since 1980. And in the past 20 years, markup increases in the digital sector have been twice as steep as economy-wide increases.
See: To Support Disruptive Technologies, Take Bigness Seriously
Of course, strong profits have historically been the natural reward for successful firms that displaced incumbents through innovation, efficiency, and improved service. Think of how Ikea transformed the way we buy furniture, or how Apple changed the market for mobile phones.
Recently, however, we see growing signs in many industries that market power is becoming entrenched amid an absence of strong competitors for dominant firms. Across different sectors, we estimate that companies with the highest markups in a given year (top decile) have an almost 85 percent chance of remaining a high-markup firm the following year—some 10 percentage points higher than during the “New Economy” era of the 1990s.
The big tech firms are a case in point: the market disruptors that displaced incumbents two decades ago have become increasingly dominant players that do not face the same competitive pressures from today’s would-be disruptors. Here the pandemic-related effects are adding to powerful underlying forces such as network effects and economies of scale and scope.
Implications for policymakers
So, what can governments do? We would like to highlight five priorities—whose importance will vary across jurisdictions.
First, competition authorities should be increasingly vigilant when enforcing merger control. The criteria for competition authorities to review a deal should cover all relevant cases—including acquisitions of small players that may grow to compete with dominant firms. For example, Germany and Austria recently introduced thresholds based on the deal price, in addition to those based on the target’s turnover. Evaluations of past merger decisions could also contribute to more effective enforcement of competition rules.
See:
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U.S. and States Say Facebook Illegally Crushed Competition
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Monopoly-Friendly Canada ‘Does Not Treat Competition Policy Seriously’
Second, competition authorities should more actively enforce prohibitions on the abuse of dominant positions and make greater use of market investigations to uncover harmful behavior without any reported breach of the law. In 2018, an Australian inquiry into the dairy industry illustrated the benefits: it led to mandated improvements to contracting practices between farmers and processors.
Third, greater efforts are needed to ensure competition in input markets, including labor markets. Here, vigorous enforcement of rules to prevent ‘no poaching’ pacts between firms would be welcome. Non-compete clauses in some retail and fast-food job contracts also make it harder for employees to move to better-paid jobs—which is especially relevant for low-skilled workers.
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Download the 34 page PDF Rising Corporate Market Power Report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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