There’s no doubt in the minds of financial organizations and anti-laundering regulators that Know Your Customer (KYC) verified accounts prevent fraudulent activity– and that’s exactly the problem.
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Fintech Opinions
Canada’s Open Banking Journey: Taking inspiration from Australia’s Consumer Data Right with Kate O’Rourke, Treasury’s First Assistant Secretary for the CDR
NCFA Canada | Mahi Sall | Dec 12, 2022
Thought Leadership Series of Expert interviews and insights related to a made-in-Canada open banking regime
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.
NCFA is proudly contributing this thought leadership series to help shape a system that will bring profound changes in how financial services will be created, distributed, and consumed in Canada over decades to come. Our hope is that Canada’s Open Banking system will improve economic outcomes, improve market efficiencies and competitiveness, and enable consumers to access new and innovative financial services in a way that is secure, efficient, and consumer-centric.
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
NCFA Canada's Open Banking Journey Series:
Thought Leadership Perspective
“As our CDR expands, there are untold opportunities for innovation by combining datasets from different sectors”
- Kate O’Rourke, Treasury’s First Assistant Secretary for the Consumer Data Right."
Overview of Australia's Consumer Data Right
Launched in July 2020 in the banking sector to serve as a testbed, Australia's ambitious economy-wide reform known as the Consumer Data Right (CDR) has expanded since early Q4 2022 to the Energy sector. According to plan a new sector will be assessed and designated every year with Telecommunications being the next sector in line.
The expansion from banking to energy speaks volumes not only about the success of open banking in spite of a low take up according to some sources familiar with the matter but perhaps more importantly it shows the confidence and determination that the authorities have developed in their capability to roll out the multi-year reform. The work around all aspects of open banking might not be finished yet but that is not a roadblock to moving forward, which is a lesson worth keeping in mind, as Canadian committees continue to discuss and agree/challenge their own set of implementation and oversight rules for a made in Canada open banking solution.
Last week, The Australian Financial Review reported that the government has introduced a piece of legislation (“action initiation to CDR”) which is expected to bring significant changes to open banking that should give customers the power to switch banking, energy and telecom providers with only a few clicks of a mouse. Quoting an independent statutory review of the CDR the newspaper added that “screen scraping (common practice globally in countries without open banking regulations including in Canada) should be banned in the near future in sectors where the CDR is a viable alternative”.
For our final 2022 open banking thought leadership series article on Canada’s Open Banking Journey, we have reached out to Australia’s CDR Division at the Treasury department to learn more about the vision behind CDR. The team led by Ms Kate O’Rourke works to deliver the Consumer Data Right through strategic policy and rules development, legislation and program management.
We are pleased to share their insightful contributions below, which offers a glimpse into the experience consumers and businesses will enjoy once open banking is fully implemented.
Kate O’Rourke, First Assistant Secretary, Consumer Data Right Division, Australian Treasury
A key foundation of Australia’s growing digital economy, its Consumer Data Right is a game-changing economic reform that will drive competition and innovation across the economy.
Australian consumers can now access the benefits of Open Banking. So far, so good. But in Australia, energy and telecommunications are the next sectors and datasets to be added to its data-sharing program.
The opportunities for innovation in Open Banking are clearly unlimited – faster credit checks, streamlined application processes and even AI-enabled personal finance assistants.
When it expands to the energy sector, Australia’s CDR will help consumers find better deals, encourage new retail products for households and businesses to better manage their energy use and ultimately drive down the cost of energy.
See: Interview with Brenton Charnley, CEO and Founder of Open Finance Advisors, Australia (Ex-TrueLayer ANZ CEO)
Expanding to telecommunications as the third sector, the CDR will help Australian consumers choose products and services that best suit them, while also increasing competition in the sector and driving improved affordability and service offerings. Importantly, when telecommunications data can be combined with a consumer’s banking and energy data, it will provide opportunities for a range of different applications, such as budgeting, cashflow and financial management apps.
Because the CDR is designed to be an economy-wide digital reform, Australia’s Treasury is continuing to identify priority datasets and sectors to ensure the CDR continues to be implemented in a way that maximizes benefits for consumers.
As our CDR expands, there are untold opportunities for innovation by combining datasets from different sectors. When more data is available through the CDR, we’re likely to see rapid growth in time-saving digital solutions for consumers offered by innovative businesses, including our homegrown fintech sector. It will revolutionize the consumer experience across a range of important milestones and decisions in life – like buying your first car, renting an apartment and setting up new energy and internet deals, starting a small business or planning your retirement.
With its whole-of-economy, consumer-led approach, Australia is leading the world in transforming how we all understand and benefit from data.
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Links you may be interested in:
- Ms. Kate O'Rourke
- CDR Rollout
- CDR in Energy sector
- AFR article: Consumers will be able to switch banks with a few mouse clicks
Mahi Sall is an Ambassador of the National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada “NCFA”, and an Expert on Fintech-Bank Partnerships. He is based in Berlin, Germany.
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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Crypto 2022 Year in Review
Tristram Waye for Bitvo | Dec 15, 2022
Image: Unsplash/Zero Take
Oh, what a year this one has been. It’s like the longest yet fastest year in history. And we had it all, didn’t we? Lockdowns. Protests. Frozen assets. And some major tech crashes.
- Sunny days turned to dark skies: Looking back at 2021, you’d say, you know, that was wild. Some big moves in bitcoin and ether. Some huge new projects on the radar. And some developing projects got their stride. Coming into 2022, the Metaverse was hot.
- Digital land was the thing, and celebrities were staking their claim.
- The NFT craze started to ebb a bit, and auctions started to wane.
- After 50-100% growth in staff at almost every digital company on the planet in 2021, tech ran into the brick wall of reality going into Q2 2022.
- Inflation, driven by a combination of excess reserves, supply chain disruptions, and insane energy policies, finally put pressure on prices. So the central banks took flight torching economies around the world with the fastest, most aggressive upside move in rates perhaps ever.
- But what they can’t control are supply chain problems, counterproductive energy policies, and a labour market tightened by unexplained excess deaths and disabilities among working-age people.
See: Alberta, The untold history of innovation from Canada’s badlands – Part 1
- Lockdowns and mandates over the winter gave rise to a convoy to Ottawa and a protest (broadcast widely to the world). If you’ve ever been to Ottawa or Montreal in February, you know no sane person would go there and stand outside all day unless it was important.
- The convoy raised more money in two weeks than any national political party. Which led to a panic and the invoking of the updated War Measures Act.
- Then in an unprecedented step, the government targeted people and froze their assets. But the government didn’t know about self-custody in crypto. So there was some confusion.
- NATO backed Ukraine in a conflict with Russia, which proved to be an important catalyst for numerous events.
- One aspect was cutting Russia off from financial infrastructure, followed by sanctions.
- Crypto stepped into the breach providing financial infrastructure for innocent citizens on both sides of the conflict. And western governments flooded the laundromat of the region with copious amounts of financial and military “aid.”
- Terra Luna. On Twitter, someone figured out how it could be thrown into a death spiral. The CEO denied it, which is the signal to any Wall or Bay Streeter that there is more than likely some truth to it. From denial to mushroom cloud took a matter of a week or two.
- The shockwave from Terra set off a cascade of losses across the industry. And as the liquidity tide went out, numerous other problems were revealed. Celsius, 3AC, Blockfi, Voyager, and many more...
See: Goldman Sachs Report: Future of Digital Assets and Crypto Winter’s Discontent
- Meta and NFTs: The Metaverse started the year with fanfare. Digital land was going for insane prices. Gaming, NFTs, and development followed.
- And by the third quarter, Meta had to admit that their signature investment was about as busy as Chernobyl.
- NFTs also went through a transformation. From the fanfare of early 2021, Topshots, Bored Apes, Punks, and many more became ETH storage devices.
- Trading across OpenSea went quiet. And the bustling NFT space dried up like an apple on a hot summer sidewalk.
- Diehards continue to build and 2022 was great for interoperability bridges including Vancouver’s LayerZero Labs.
- DeFi outperformed its naysayers
- From Binance without love: FTX imploded
- Crypto is still standing. After all of the excitement, one can be pretty confident that lots of the excesses have been removed from crypto.
- Infrastructure exists.
- Many of the bad actors have been exposed.
- And regulators know exactly where to focus their attention.
- All of which leaves more room for the good guys in crypto to develop, build and create a better future.
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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AI/ML is Essential to Driving Future Revenue and Remaining Competitive
AIThority | | Dec 13, 2022
Image: Pixabay/Riekus
Three-quarters of technical leaders see AI/ML as essential to driving revenue at their organization. But while AI/ML is powering market and vertical trends, many organizations still face pain points that prevent them from scaling effectively.
- The survey results are in: AI/ML is here to stay—but scaling is hard.
- SambaNova surveyed 600 AI/ML, data, research, customer experience and cloud infrastructure leaders at the director level and above. The survey captured 100 responses from each of six industries, including financial services, healthcare and life sciences, retail and e-commerce.
- High hopes for their AI/ML initiatives:
- Over two-thirds of organizations (70%) plan to allocate more than $100 million of IT budget toward strategic technology goals. It’s clear that organizations are looking to push their AI/ML investments further than simply automating tasks — and you should, too.
- It’s no secret that competition will be fierce in 2023
- The financial industry is investing particularly heavily in AI/ML, with a staggering 81% of financial services respondents planning to increase their investments in AI/ML — the highest percentage in any industry.
See: The Impact Artificial Intelligence Has On Web 3.0
- Deep learning: a subfield of AI/ML that uses artificial neural networks to ingest and process unstructured data like text and images, is increasingly essential in almost every industry. Three-quarters of respondents (75%) say improving access to deep learning is very important for fostering competition and innovation in their industry.
- Despite the clear benefits of deep learning, organizations remain limited by insufficient infrastructure and a lack of clear understanding of specific use cases.
- Barriers to scale:
- Current GPUs and CPUs aren’t able to keep up with the runtime requirements for probabilistic computing applications.
- Across industries, we will see an increased focus on software and hardware systems that are specifically designed for AI and can handle massive amounts of data.
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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Canada’s Open Banking Journey: Interview with Michelle Beyo, CEO of Finavator & Interim President of Open Finance Network of Canada (OFNC)
NCFA Canada | Mahi Sall | Dec 12, 2022
Thought Leadership Series of Expert interviews and insights related to a made-in-Canada open banking regime
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.
NCFA is proudly contributing this thought leadership series to help shape a system that will bring profound changes in how financial services will be created, distributed, and consumed in Canada over decades to come. Our hope is that Canada’s Open Banking system will improve economic outcomes, improve market efficiencies and competitiveness, and enable consumers to access new and innovative financial services in a way that is secure, efficient, and consumer-centric.
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
NCFA Canada's Open Banking Journey Series:
Interview Begins
”The successful implementation of Open Banking will be significant for the eventual implementation of Open Finance, which is the next step beyond Open Banking, enabling access and sharing of consumer data to even more financial products and services — not just banking.”
-- Interview with Michelle Beyo, CEO of Finavator & Interim President of Open Finance Network of Canada (OFNC)
Mahi Sall: Tell us about yourself and OFNC (formerly OBIC)
Michelle Beyo: Michelle Beyo CEO of Finavator, Interim President of Open Finance Network of Canada, and Advisor of NCFA Canada amongst others
Open Finance Network of Canada (OFNC) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to bring together all stakeholders from financial services to advocate for consumer data rights and educate Canadians and SMEs on the benefits of Open Finance. We are a diverse group of Board Members and a neutral partner for the financial services industry Canada, helping to educate on the benefits of Open Banking and Open Finance. As we believe they can be a force for good for Canadian consumers and SMEs.
“The balance of power in the financial industry must shift. Progressive and inclusive innovation requires banking providers to welcome competition by partnering with fintechs and other third-party providers.”
Mahi Sall: What does Open Banking mean to banks and fintechs, and how does it affect the relationship between the two?
Michelle Beyo: A healthy and competitive financial services sector is vital to Canada's economic well-being. Our current banking culture predominantly favours Canada’s largest FIs. In a recent report by the World Bank Group, Canada is ranked only 23rd in the world for ease of doing business. The report considered different aspects of the participating countries' business environment including their regulatory environment. Within this culture, the concentration of asset size held by a handful of large retail banks has increased more than almost any other developed country in the world. This has resulted in: A dominant market share that allows a small group to determine the pace and direction of financial innovation in the country. An uneven playing field that flourishes to the exclusion of smaller credit unions and FIs, challenger banks and fintech firms.
To truly meet the changing needs of Canadian consumers and small businesses in a digital age, this balance of power in the financial industry must shift. Progressive and inclusive innovation requires banking providers to welcome competition by partnering with fintechs and other third-party providers who can help them excel in today’s digitally-driven world. Not only could this positively shift the equilibrium in the financial services industry, but it could also redefine the very nature of relationships between FIs and emerging partners in consumer-centric innovation.
Partnerships between Canadian FIs and FinTechs have already begun across the ecosystem, with large financial institutions and notable FinTechs partnering to offer Canadians new products and services. As other market players such as Tech Giants (Ex. Apple, Google, etc.) and Challenger Banks (Ex. PC Financial) begin to offer Canadians financial services and products, partnerships will play a critical role for FIs and FinTechs to maintain their market share and relationships with Canadian consumers. FinTechs will leverage large FI’s consumer base and trust while FI’s will benefit from FinTech’s agility as well as digital-first solutions.
Mahi Sall: What do you think are some of the quick wins in terms of Open Banking use cases that banks and fintechs in Canada should prioritize rolling out?
Michelle Beyo: Open Banking will create a number of opportunities for exciting and innovative products and services for all Canadians. Specifically, hyper personalized products and services, increased access to consumer spending insights, the acceleration of credit applications, and account aggregation are just a few of the use cases that Open Banking in Canada will unlock. Some of the best opportunities include the creation of personalized financial products and services that will target the 5 million underbanked and 1 million unbanked Canadians in which today’s financial products and services do not address their current needs.
Open Banking will help those who are underbanked or unbanked have greater access and usage to financial products and services that they need as well as improve the quality and introduce innovative solutions to all consumers. Open Banking could deliver tools that would support Canadians in improving their financial outcomes by enabling them to use their information to secure better rates or products, manage their small businesses more easily, and access new tools that would help improve their financial health. It has the potential to be particularly beneficial to small business owners, consumers facing challenges in managing their finances, and those with limited or non-traditional credit histories.
Mahi Sall: Chief among the factors affecting the take-off of Open Banking is low adoption by consumers. What could Canada do differently in order to pre-empt this risk?
Michelle Beyo: In order for Open Banking to be successful in Canada, consumer awareness and education will need to be at the forefront. For most stakeholders across the Canadian ecosystem, the benefits and potential use cases for Open Banking are quite familiar. Therefore it will be the responsibility of all players, including the Canadian government, Banks, FinTechs and others, to help consumers and small businesses to navigate the new world that Open Banking will usher in. With the opportunity and ability to learn from other first to market players such as the UK and Australia, the Canadian government, FIs, and FinTechs need to create tools and other resources to help Canadians become financially literate and feel empowered about their money.
Mahi Sall: Any final thoughts?
Michelle Beyo: With the release of the Open Banking recommendations report by the Government of Canada’s Expert Advisory Panel on Consumer Directed Finance and the selection of the Open Banking Lead in March 2022, the Canadian ecosystem has taken steps towards implementing its Open Banking regime. As the implementation phases advance, OFNC looks forward to collaborating with the Open Banking Lead and their team, along with the rest of the Canadian ecosystem, to help create an Open Banking framework that is inclusive and that will allow Canadian Consumers as well as SMEs to control their data while accessing competitive financial services. The successful implementation of Open Banking will be significant for the eventual implementation of Open Finance, which is the next step beyond Open Banking, enabling access and sharing of consumer data to even more financial products and services — not just banking. Building on Open Banking, Open Finance is about simplifying sharing of more layers of data to enable new financial applications. Allowing people to connect information from various services provides opportunities for more holistic and personalized offerings. The time is now for Canada to leverage this momentum to drive innovation and expand financial inclusion.
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Links you may be interested in:
Mahi Sall is an Ambassador of the National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada “NCFA”, and an Expert on Fintech-Bank Partnerships. He is based in Berlin, Germany.
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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Investing Your Money: An Easy Guide For Beginners
Dec 12, 2022
Did you know that there are approximately 33 million small businesses in the United States?
Whether you are looking to start a small business or you are struggling with the idea of working for someone else, you may be struggling with a much different issue- saving money. Saving money can seem like an impossible task when you have month after month of bills to pay, but with some helpful tips, saving money can be something that you do each and every month with ease.
Are you interested in learning more about saving money when it comes to your personal finances? If so, look no further. In this helpful guide, we provide some of our best tips and tricks on investing your money. Read on to learn more!
The Real Estate Investments
This involves buying a property and then renting it out, fixing and flipping the property to get a better return on investment, or as a long-term investment. Real Estate Investments provide a steady stream of cash flow, with the potential for large capital gains.
Property appreciation is also a great way to build wealth over time. The major benefit of real estate investment is that it typically does not require large sums of money upfront.
Borrowing and leveraging money for your investments can give you a higher return on investment. Before investing in real estate, you should research the location and find out the market trends.
Knowing when to buy and sell is important in order to maximize the return on your investment. It’s also important to understand the tax implications of any type of real estate investment and to make sure that you hire the right professionals to help you manage the investment.
Use a Simple Savings Account
A simple savings account is an effective way to start investing your money for beginners. With a basic, low-risk option, you are reducing the chances of suffering large losses from risky investments and allowing your money to grow gradually over time.
Even with a basic savings account, you can benefit from compounding interest, which can add up over the years. Additionally, there is still the potential for a greater return on your savings account than with a basic savings plan.
By making regular deposits into a savings account and utilizing the power of compounding interest, it is easy to build up your investment portfolio, even with a low-risk option. Utilizing a simple savings account is one of the smartest ways to begin investing your money.
Try Coin Collecting
Coin collecting is a great way for beginners to start investing their money. With enough research and knowledge, collectors can identify foreign coins and find coins that may be rare or valuable.
It can be relatively inexpensive and an easy way to learn how to identify foreign coins. Not only can coin collecting be fun, but it can also be a great way to make money.
Coins are usually small and easy to carry and store, so they don't take up much room. As long as they are securely stored and taken care of, their value should not decrease.
Furthermore, coins of all kinds can add variety and beauty to a collection, making them a great investment for new and experienced collectors alike. With patience and dedication, coin collecting can lead to a lucrative return on your investment.
Money Markets
Money markets are a great place for beginners to start when it comes to investing their money. Money markets are low-risk investments that aim to maintain a certain level of stability or regular interest payout.
Money market instruments generally offer slightly higher yields than, for example, savings accounts, with a very low capital risk. Money markets are considered safe, liquid investments and can help beginners start to develop a well-rounded portfolio.
Money markets also provide access to more money if needed, as they often have higher liquidity than other investments. They are also low maintenance, so they are a great option for beginner investors who may not have the time or resources to devote to actively managing their investments.
Money markets can help beginner investors become comfortable with different investment options and gradually grow their portfolios.
Stocking up on Blue-Chip Stocks
These stocks make up the foundation of a diversified stock portfolio, and they come with some reassurance that the companies are accepted, stable, and established in the market.
Purchasing BlueChip stocks can be a safe bet as they have withstood the test of time and have exhibited a history of growing their dividend over time.
BlueChip stocks typically carry less risk than other stocks, and they may be the perfect choice for an investor who is new to the stock market and desires a long-term investment.
Investing in BlueChip stocks also provides access to the equity market and has the potential to earn long-term capital gains, without taking high risks.
Additionally, since BlueChip stocks are more established companies, investors can rely on the strength of their balance sheets to help maintain a stable portfolio.
Investing in Mutual Funds
They are a type of investment that pools money from many different investors to purchase securities like stocks, bonds, or short-term debt.
This type of investment has the beneficial feature of diversification, as it contains a variety of investments within the same fund. Mutual funds provide investors with easy access to a professionally managed portfolio that is generally lower in cost than if purchased directly.
It is important to note that while mutual funds may offer some protection, no investment is risk-free. Before investing in mutual funds, investors should consider their financial goals and the associated risks to help determine what type of mutual funds best suit those goals.
Additionally, investors should be aware of the different fees associated with the fund. There are many online resources available to help educate beginners about mutual funds and assist them in selecting the right options for their circumstances.
Index Funds
It consists of a fixed selection of stocks that are chosen to track a particular financial index, such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. There are generally lower costs associated with these index funds, namely due to the lack of active trading.
Further, the fund does not have to pay out management fees as the investors themselves make the decisions regarding what stocks will be held in the fund.
When investing in index funds, investors should take some time to research their fund selection to ensure the fund is actually tracking the index and providing good returns.
See: How to Invest in Cryptocurrency Index Funds
Doing research prior to investing in index funds can help individuals greatly benefit from the low costs, tax advantages, and long-term returns associated with the funds.
In summary, investing your money is a great way to save for the future and can open up numerous possibilities. Start out slow and research your options, so you can make the right decisions.
This guide should make it simpler and allow you to explore opportunities that better suit your needs. Get started today and create a brighter tomorrow in the world of investments!
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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Gmail Creator Says AI Could Replace Google’s Search Engine Results Page Within 2 Years
IFLScience | James Felton | Dec 6, 2022
Image: Pexels/Kindel Media
The creator of Gmail has made a prediction: the new chatbot ChatGPT will completely disrupt Google's business within a year or two, eliminating the search engine result page in the process.
- ChatGPT: By now, you have probably come across a number of creations from ChatGPT: an artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot that can do everything from rewrite "Baby Got Back" in the style of Canterbury Tales to simulating its own chatbot within a chatbot.
- The chatbot, made open to the public last week, is surprisingly good. Even if it hasn't yet convinced anyone that it's sentient – unlike Google's AI .
- The bot has a number of uses, including writing useable code and looking for errors in code created by amateur humans.
- The chatbot uses something called "reinforcement learning from human feedback" to achieve the impressive natural language processing it does. "As the model receives more and more feedback, it uses this information to adjust its internal parameters and improve its performance. This iterative process continues until the model reaches a satisfactory level of performance on the task," the bot continued.
- Disrupt Google? As well as providing more detailed results than Google, and explaining answers in a more natural way (as seen above), the problem for Google is ChatGPT could eliminate the need for its moneymaker: the search results page.
See: Newfoundland’s AI Unicorn Helps Predict AIs Near-term Business Opportunity
Buchheit wrote on Twitter:
The way I imagine this happening is that the URL/Search bar of the browser gets replaced with AI that autocompletes my thought/question as I type it while also providing the best answer (which may be a link to a website or product).
Google may be only a year or two away from total disruption. AI will eliminate the Search Engine Result Page, which is where they make most of their money.
Even if they catch up on AI, they can't fully deploy it without destroying the most valuable part of their business! https://t.co/jtq25LXdkj
— Paul Buchheit (@paultoo) December 1, 2022
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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Trust Fallacy: 75% of Payment Fraud in Crypto is Carried Out by KYC-verified Accounts
Crowdfund Insider | | Nov 28, 2022
There’s no doubt in the minds of financial organizations and anti-laundering regulators that Know Your Customer (KYC) verified accounts prevent fraudulent activity– and that’s exactly the problem.
- Then: In the early 1990s, governments around the globe had a growing concern about preventing the increasingly connected banking system from harboring international transfers of illicit funds. To combat this, they introduced KYC verification– a straightforward method of ensuring that the person a banker was speaking with was who they claimed to be. In practice, new banking customers had to present various documents, set forth by their local regulatory body, to open an account in their own name. In addition, it made it difficult for fraudsters using forged documentation to physically go from bank to bank.
See: Equifax Partners with Oasis Labs to Issue Anonymous KYC Credentials to DeFi and NFT Users
- Now - KYC verification in the digital era: In line with anti-money laundering (AML) frameworks, cryptocurrency-related organizations, such as marketplaces and trading platforms, are considered a money service business (MSB) by the US government. As such, MSBs are legally required to KYC any account that reaches a daily trading threshold. In the United States, this limit is currently $10,000 per month and above.
- BUT...Payment fraud and money laundering are not the same, and preventing crime by treating them as such is a fool’s errand. the data points to something that many in anti-fraud departments already know– KYC verification no longer serves as an anti-fraud measure.
- How fraud works: A legal resident of a foreign country can open a KYC-verified account by presenting legitimate government-issued documents, then selling their login information on the Dark Web. One person can open multiple accounts per day without ever needing to leave the comfort of their own home. These fraudsters play off two key factors:
- The first is the ease of opening accounts online instead of physically traveling to bank branches makes this illegal act scaleable. Not only do they never need to ever meet a banking representative face to face, but they also don’t even need to be in the same country.
- It is cost-effective, and they can spoof an IP address as an alibi. If they are ever questioned, they can say it wasn’t them and their information was stolen. While their account may be automatically closed, their name remains clean.
- 75% of payment fraud in crypto is carried out by KYC-verified accounts.
See: Know Your Customer – and your Obligations – in the age of Real-Time Rails and Open Banking
- Solution: machine learning technology allows organizations of all sizes to implement AI-driven systems that can identify fraudsters immediately, saving businesses money and making it annoying for them to return. By creating a space that is unwelcome for fraudsters, companies can avoid chargebacks and boost approval rates to 98%, all while reducing costs, operating expenses, and ensuring a more welcoming customer experience for those who mean no harm.
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