The new Twitter owner suggested that, in the future, users would be able to send money to others on the platform, extract their funds to authenticated bank accounts and, later, perhaps, be offered a high-yield money market account to encourage them to move their cash to Twitter.
Industry leaders have 
Nikolai Storonsky, the billionaire head of the London-based financial technology firm Revolut, has renounced his Russian citizenship in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, the country where his father was born.
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Voices
ISED Launches Competition Act Review: Consultation on the Future of Competition Policy in Canada
Effective and up-to-date competition law and enforcement are necessary to promote a competitive marketplace that favours prosperity and affordability for Canadians. The Competition Act plays a critical role in protecting consumers and promoting dynamic and fair markets that benefit consumers, businesses and workers alike.
- Modernizing Competition Law: In February 2022, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced his intention to undertake a review of the Act, beginning with immediate, targeted improvements, followed by further consultations to consider broader changes.
- Several amendments to the Act, introduced in the Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No 1, came into force with royal assent in June 2022, as a first step to modernizing the Competition Act.
See:
Canada’s Competition Consultation Continues (thanks Senator Colin Deacon)
Canada’s Competition Problem: 7 Reasons
Is productivity, wealth creation and competition at the forefront of Canada’s growth agenda?
Ipsos Survey: Most Canadians Say (88%) We Need More Competition
Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition, Pushes to Modernize the Competition Act
C.D.Howe Report: Canada’s Weak Business Investment Threatens Prosperity
Nov 20, 2017: NCFA Canada Welcomes Competition Bureau’s recommendations to encourage competition and innovation in Canada’s financial services sector
- Public Consultation: Now, the Government of Canada is undertaking further consultation to canvass Canadians for their views on the future of the Act and its enforcement, potentially leading to further measures to update Canada's competition law and policy framework for the modern economy.
- The Government of Canada welcomes your perspective and comments on a wide range of issues, including how to ensure the law and its provisions remain effective in serving our national interest, and how to improve or protect competition in emerging data and digital markets.
- These ideas are outlined in:
- the consultation scene setter, entitled Making Competition Work for Canadians
- the discussion paper, entitled The Future of Competition Policy in Canada.
- How to participate:
- To participate, submit your feedback in our online consultation form no later than February 27, 2023.
- If you have any questions, please contact us at competition-consultation-concurrence@ised-isde.gc.ca.
- The Marketplace Framework Policy Branch will review the comments received and publish information about findings and next steps on this web page.
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, made the following statement:
"Maintaining an effective and up-to-date competition law is key to building a growing and innovative economy, which will result in not only more competitive prices and product choices for Canadians but also fair markets for workers and businesses."
Continue to the original release --> here
Submit your comments to the 'Future of competition policy in Canada' --> 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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NCFA Open Banking Future Outlook with Senator Colin Deacon and Mahi Sall
About NCFA Canada | Nov 15, 2022
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA), true to its mission of providing education, industry stewardship, networking, growth, and funding opportunities for innovative financial technologies and related sectors, is pleased to launch a brand new thought leadership series on Open Banking led by Berlin-based NCFA ambassador and independent expert in Fintech-Bank Partnerships Mahi Sall.
The series is called ‘Canada’s Open Banking Journey’ and aims to aggregate international and domestic perspectives of Open Banking/Finance expert practitioners from around the globe to advance dialogues, key considerations, and explore potential solutions for the development of a made in Canada open banking regime with the following timeline:
- Sep 2018: Canada’s Open Banking journey officially began when the government established a multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee tasked to conduct a review into the merits of Open Banking
- Apr 2021: Advisory committee publishes final recommendations
- Mar 2022: Government appoints Abraham Tachjian – PwC Canada as Canada’s Open Banking lead responsible for convening industry, government and consumers in designing the foundation of the system of Open Banking for a launch in 2023.
- Oct 2023: Phase 1 implementation expected
Speakers:
Senator Colin Deacon, Senate of Canada
Mahi Sall, NCFA Ambassador, Open Banking
Themes:
0. Introduction
1. Championing Open Banking
2. Current State in Canada
3. Governance
4. Success
5. Implementation Risks
6. Future Outlook *THIS VIDEO*
NCFA Open Finance, Open Banking and Beyond Banking interviews:
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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Elon’s Vision for a Twitter Payment System (and then Super App)
TechCrunch | Sarah Perez | Nov 9, 2022
The new Twitter owner suggested that, in the future, users would be able to send money to others on the platform, extract their funds to authenticated bank accounts and, later, perhaps, be offered a high-yield money market account to encourage them to move their cash to Twitter.
- Elon Musk detailed his vision for Twitter’s plan to enter the payments market during a livestreamed meeting with Twitter advertisers, hosted on Twitter Spaces on Wednesday.
- The new remarks followed a report this morning by The New York Times which confirmed Twitter last week had filed registration paperwork that would allow it to process payments. The report cited Twitter’s filing with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), noting that a business would need to register before it could conduct money transfers, exchange currency or cash checks.
See: Will Elon’s Twitter Innovation Bolster Universal Crypto Adoption
- Musk explained how paid verification, which Twitter is rolling out now with its revamped Twitter Blue subscription, as well as support for a creator ecosystem, could pave the way for a payments system on its platform.
- Paywall Video: The company was recently reported to be working on a “Paywalled Video” feature that would allow creators to charge for access to their content. This suggests Twitter could be moving into a space where it may try to compete more directly with various social media video providers, like TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and others.
- Creator opportunities: The Washington Post saw mockups of this concept where a tweet with a video could be unlocked for as little as $1.00. It said creators may be able to choose from preset prices, like $1, $2, $5 or $10 when paywalled videos were launched.
- Musk then explained how this payments system could scale, saying that, once users gained a cash balance, Twitter could prompt them to move that money on its platform. It could even make a small donation to users’ accounts to get them started. The move to enter the payments business ties to Musk’s larger plan to turn the social media platform into an “everything app” or “super app” called “X.”
See: Rise of the super app
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- And you can send it anywhere within Twitter.
- Later, the user could move their money out of Twitter by transferring it to an authenticated bank account.
- The next step would be this offer for an extremely compelling money market account where you get an extremely high yield on your balance.
- And then add debit cards, checks and whatnot and…just basically make the system as useful as possible. And the more useful and entertaining it is, the more people will use it
Continue to the full article --> 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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Hester Peirce Reaffirms That the SEC’s Current Approach to Crypto Is ‘Not a Good Way of Regulating’
Decrypt | Sander Lutz | Oct 31, 2022
Industry leaders have long accused the SEC of taking a uniquely unfair and unreasonable approach to crypto regulation; now, one of the SEC’s own is singing the same tune.
- Revolving door: There’s not much that’s healthy about how the SEC interacted with crypto companies thus far, according to the Commissioner: bringing them in one at a time—not to collaborate on policy, but to dictate the terms of a particular enforcement.
- My way or the high way: The SEC’s current chair, Gary Gensler, has repeatedly insisted that he treats crypto no differently than any other market under his purview. He’s also made a point of responding to criticism of his crypto policies by putting the onus on crypto companies, encouraging them to “come in and talk” if they are unhappy about regulations being generated.
Hester Peirce, SEC Commissioner:
Typically, when we write a rule, we go out with a proposal. People are talking to the regulator, we're talking to the public. It's a very healthy conversation.
If you're going to tell people to come in, people need to see people walking in the front door and coming out again, holding an exemptive order or something that allows them to move forward with their business and allows us to achieve our regulatory objectives. But if you just see people walking in and then you see them walking out either with an enforcement action, or with nothing, people aren't going to want to come in the door.
Nobody else is in the room. The customers aren't in the room. The competitors aren't in the room. And the regulator has the leverage because the regulator's about to bring an enforcement action. It’s just not a good way of regulating.
Continue to the full article --> 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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Robby Yung, CEO Animoca Brands: ‘VR is a big distraction. There is no Metaverse without Web 3’
Decrypt | Stephen Graves | Nov 5, 2022
Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands. Image: Web Summit
Robby Yung took aim at Meta's focus on virtual reality for the metaverse, calling VR "a big distraction" and "a mistake."
Robby Yung, CEO Metaverse investment firm, Animoca Brands at a panel discussion at Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal:
There is no metaverse without Web3, because you need to have that transaction layer so that you have interoperability between content and you can bring it from place to place. We as an industry are working on setting standards for that. We've set up some various consortiums to try to address those issues.
See: Digital Identity Protection is Critical for Metaverse Innovation
My personal view is I think VR is a big distraction. VR is "just one platform" by which the metaverse can be accessed.
Continue to the full article --> 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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NCFA Open Banking Implementation Risks with Senator Colin Deacon and Mahi Sall
About NCFA Canada | Nov 1, 2022
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA), true to its mission of providing education, industry stewardship, networking, growth, and funding opportunities for innovative financial technologies and related sectors, is pleased to launch a brand new thought leadership series on Open Banking led by Berlin-based NCFA ambassador and independent expert in Fintech-Bank Partnerships Mahi Sall.
The series is called ‘Canada’s Open Banking Journey’ and aims to aggregate international and domestic perspectives of Open Banking/Finance expert practitioners from around the globe to advance dialogues, key considerations, and explore potential solutions for the development of a made in Canada open banking regime with the following timeline:
- Sep 2018: Canada’s Open Banking journey officially began when the government established a multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee tasked to conduct a review into the merits of Open Banking
- Apr 2021: Advisory committee publishes final recommendations
- Mar 2022: Government appoints Abraham Tachjian – PwC Canada as Canada’s Open Banking lead responsible for convening industry, government and consumers in designing the foundation of the system of Open Banking for a launch in 2023.
- Oct 2023: Phase 1 implementation expected
Speakers:
Senator Colin Deacon, Senate of Canada
Mahi Sall, NCFA Ambassador, Open Banking
Themes:
0. Introduction
1. Championing Open Banking
2. Current State in Canada
3. Governance
4. Success
5. Implementation Risks *THIS VIDEO *
6. Future Outlook
NCFA Open Finance, Open Banking and Beyond Banking interviews:
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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Revolut Chief Nikolai Storonsky Renounces Russian Citizenship, Condeming Ukraine Invasion
AltFi | John Reynolds | Oct 31, 2022
Nikolai Storonsky, the billionaire head of the London-based financial technology firm Revolut, has renounced his Russian citizenship in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, the country where his father was born.
- Nik Storonsky, the CEO and co-founder of Revolut, has renounced his Russian citizenship after his father was included in a sanctions list handed out by the Ukrainian government following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Storonsky, who was born in Ukraine but spent time in Russia growing up, previously held both British and Russian passports but renounced his Russian citizenship following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in news first reported by The Telegraph.
See: Revolut executive resigns amid growing tensions with the FCA over banking license
- Storonsky’s father Nikolay Storonsky senior was sanctioned by the Ukrainian government for working as director-general of Gazprom Promgaz, the engineering and research arm of the Russian state energy firm.
- The move by the Revolut co-founder also comes as Revolut, which now has more than 20m customers, awaits a decision on its application for a UK banking licence, a licence it is keen to attain to help attain further funding and enhance its reputation in the market.
- Storonsky has previously voiced his disapproval of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine calling it “abhorrent” while offering Revolut employees in Ukraine and Russia relocation support as well as support for the people of Ukraine.
Nikolai Storonsky, CEO Revolut:
I would like to make clear, publicly, what I've felt privately from day one: War is never the answer. This war is wrong and totally abhorrent. I am horrified and appalled at its impact, and I add my voice to those around the world calling for an immediate end to the fighting, and a commitment to diplomatic solutions. Not one more person should die in this needless conflict.
Continue to the full article --> 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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