Coindesk | Frederick Munawa | Aug 10, 2022
Ethereum’s upcoming Merge (Expected to be complete by October) could make the second-largest blockchain greener, faster and cheaper. But a law professor says it could also create regulatory headaches by transforming ether (ETH), the network’s native asset, into a security under U.S. law.
https://twitter.com/AdamLevitin/status/1550990967670554624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1550990967670554624%7Ctwgr%5Ecb110666d1480c93d4f9d0786e8ce158aecb91cb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.coindesk.com%2Ftech%2F2022%2F08%2F10%2Fwhats-at-stake-will-the-merge-turn-ether-into-a-security%2F
Levitin’s argument is anchored in the Howey Test – detailed in a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court ruling often used to determine whether an asset is a security. To fully appreciate Levitin’s perspective, it’s important to understand Howey and the concept of staking in a proof-of-stake system.
If Levitin is right, and, more importantly, if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shares his view, exchanges that list ether (and that would be nearly all of them) would be subject to more onerous regulatory requirements. Like the bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency, ether has until now been treated as a commodity, outside the SEC’s jurisdiction.
Essentially, smaller decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, especially those outside the United States, may continue to operate. Even if these projects run afoul of U.S. securities laws, Levitin said the SEC would be less likely to deploy its limited enforcement resources to convict them when big centralized organizations make easier targets.
The biggest change may be in the regulation of centralized exchanges. Currently, exchanges need only to register as money services businesses at the federal level and obtain money transmitter licenses in the states where they operate to facilitate spot ETH trading. A securities designation would bring them under the additional authority of the SEC.
At a minimum, that would mean new business models for exchanges and more complex transactions for customers. Many other downstream effects would likely manifest.
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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Guernsey | Jul 28, 2022
Avoiding hard things will make you less competitiveRecently, the chief economist of a global wealth management firm stated emphatically on record that he does not care about technology, and he is only interested in its economic impact. Many responded with resounding critical comments.
I am not critical because I understand the reason why he feels this way — technology was never before a required skill set. Such opinions can only come from professionals who remain committed to their trade, which they have been refining over decades, and this trade has not been technology-centered. Historically, lawyers, bankers, and accountants have been the decision makers in our industry. Naturally, technology has never been a necessary skill set for management.
From an operations perspective, the IT department has always been merely a back-office issue. The rapid technological expansion and associated impact is changing this. The IT department is fast becoming front and centre for boards and management teams, and yet IT as a whole still fails to feature as an ongoing board agenda item.
It is not “just an IT problem”.
From a business strategy standpoint, the incorrect and incomplete use of technology will likely leave you trailing your competition. If your organisation seeks to stay ahead. You cannot ignore it. You don’t have that option. You must use it, but use it within a well-understood set of governance parameters. So, I understand why this chief economist would hold that view. Technology is complex and not easy to understand.
When this chief economist says that he does not care about technology, he is merely using an avoidance strategy.
Dissociate AI capability and your data strategy from your existing IT mainframes and systems. Data teams and leadership teams need space and support to build patience and the high tolerance level needed for repeated testing and associated failure until success is achieved. Establish a culture where staff are not penalised for failing and where they have time to deliver — be patient. This strategy requires a business-wide approach to be successful.
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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Washington Post OpEd | Aaron Brown | Aug 11, 2022
Retail investors should have access to exchanges free from those problems. But Gensler’s stated extension is that alternative exchanges should be outlawed. Most people want regulation to give people the ability to trade safely, but only “nanny staters” want regulations to prevent people willing to take chances from trying new things.
The SEC should look at actual problems from crypto exchanges and offer technology-specific solutions. That may mean importing from traditional financial markets, but it may require new approaches.
One of the most exciting crypto innovations goes by the scary name of “homomorphic encrypted orders” (HEOs). Instead of sending an order anyone can read to your broker or an exchange, you first encrypt it so no one — not even the recipient — can know what it says. A computer algorithm can match up transactions without knowing what those transactions are, nor who made them. From your point of view, a smart contract changes what you sold into what you bought and no one—not the exchange, not anyone who intercepted any messages, not the person on the other side of the trade—can know what you did. Only aggregated transactions are made public, giving price information to the market.
While this obviously raises money-laundering and insider-trading concerns — which can be addressed — it has enormous potential advantages. People are incented to reveal their entire interests since that information will never be known to anyone else. There’s no value to games like spoofing, manipulating or high-frequency trading. No one can front-run, because no one sees the trade even after it executes.
Some of these innovations have been tried on small scales with traditional assets. But only in crypto are we getting full-scale tests of these and other innovations. After a period of evolution, I have no doubt that some of them will prove so useful that all financial markets will move to them.
This is a much more promising solution to ancient problems of exchanges than a few more SEC regulations on top of what we already have. Gensler’s determination to force crypto exchanges to look like the NYSE is in no one’s interest.
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 Today | | Jul 25, 2022
Informal Survey and ResultsIn a recent informal poll of 1,124 people via the Carrick on Money newsletter. Boomers and seniors dominated the survey’s demographic at 73 percent, Gen Xers made up 15 percent, Millennials (aka Gen Y) and Gen Z made up 10 percent, with the small remainder made up of those who didn’t indicate their age.
A total of 327 votes went to a variety of smaller companies, including online bank (and subsidiary of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) Simplii Financial, independent mutual fund companies Steadyhand and Mawer, investment firm Vanguard, investment dealer Edward Jones, online broker Questrade, insurance giant Manulife Financial and American Express.
Investment firm Wealthsimple performed particularly well among young adults, while online player EQ Bank beat all major banks on percentage of Millennial and Gen Z support.
Big banks have trusted franchises with all generations that have long helped them fend off and — let’s face it — kill competitors in the banking and investment businesses. But the trust that younger generations are placing in companies like Wealthsimple and EQ Bank suggests we’re at an inflection point.
Even with the comparatively small sample of younger people, it is clear that they are more open to trusting non-bank brands.
Bank competitors, there is hope. Bank customers, you have alternatives.
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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The Paypers | Raluca Ochiana | Aug 3, 2022
Rapidly growing technologies also cast their shadows from a compliance perspectiveAccording to the 2022 Crypto Crime Report by Chainalysis, two main forms of illicit activity were observed in the past year: Wash trading to artificially increase the value of NFTs and money laundering through the purchase of NFTs. In principle, these scams are not new, however, the fast pace of technological applications poses a serious threat due to the still inadequate regulations.
Wash trading is the practice of purchasing and selling assets in a manner that is intent on manipulating or misleading the market supply and demand. In this case, the seller is on both sides of the executed transaction with the goal to make one’s NFT appear more valuable than it really is. Many NFT trading platforms allow their users to trade by simply connecting their wallets to the platform without any identification process. Therefore, there is no special effort needed to operate wash trading with NFTs.
In particular, from a compliance perspective there is enormous potential for improvement in the identification and verification of market participants in order to eliminate initial fraud risks. Customized KYC processes can help to detect and reduce transaction risks between multiple addresses and identify the actors behind them.
This need is also underscored by the report from blockchain platform Chainalysis, which states that 262 users were identified as having sold an NFT more than 25 times to a self-financed address, making a collective profit of nearly USD 8.9 million from wash trading activities.
The latest Financial Action Task Force (FATF) guidelines have outlined that NFTs are not directly affected by AML restrictions as they are not seen as ‘Virtual Assets’. However, the FATF stresses that already existing AML regulations should apply to NFTs if the usage falls into particular categories, such as usage for payment, storing of value, or other investment purposes. Beyond that, NFTs are interlinked with the crypto ecosystem that is facing an increase in regulations. Based on this dependency, regulations are about to spill over to the NFT space.
Since the industry expects future regulations to be implemented, it is advisable that players in the crypto and NFT space pre-emptively adopt internal fraud and AML programmes. Especially now is the chance to proactively address underlying risks of NFTs and to establish a sustainable business by pre-emptively adopting risk mitigation measures.
This opens up the potential for RegTech use cases and solutions to shine. Agile RegTech solutions enable companies to tackle the challenges of a rapidly changing regulatory landscape and stay ahead with technological advances.
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 Canada | Mahi Sall | Aug 9, 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.
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:
The UK created the blueprint for Open Banking and Open Finance, the pace of market adoption is accelerating, an incredibly exciting time for this sector.
-- Helen Child, Founder, Open Banking Excellence (OBE)
Mahi Sall: Please tell us about yourself and OBE, and how you relate to Open Banking.
Helen Child: Helen Child is the Founder of Open Banking Excellence (OBE). We’re a global community of Fintechs, Big techs Banks, Regulators and Service providers. Pioneers in Open Banking and Finance that are dedicated to driving a global conversation and enabling collaboration to support the growth trajectory of the industry. OBE gathers key industry leaders from across the world at our monthly Campfires to discuss and debate the latest red-hot relevant topics in Open Banking and Finance. Always authoritative, always engaging and a little provocative!
Mahi Sall: Common Rules represent a key component of Open Banking System Design, with the premise that they create a level playing field which eliminates the need for bilateral arrangements between Open Banking participants.
Can you speak about situations that would call for bilateral arrangements in an Open Banking environment that thrives on common rules.
Helen Child: Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) will launch in the UK at the end of July 2022 and are likely to require bilateral or multilateral arrangements.
In a summary of feedback from a Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) consultation, the UK’s Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) reported that a number of TPPs “stated concerns that having to agree multiple bilateral contracts could stop the market from developing or result in fragmentation, with adverse consequences to consumer adoption and outcomes”.
However, in its own response OBIE acknowledged that “a wide range of different VRP-based propositions would naturally create a degree of fragmentation” but predicted that the market will “evolve” to create a “relatively small number” of multilateral frameworks.
A survey from Token found that 65% of the Open Banking and payment professionals (including ASPSPs, payment providers, TPPs, regulators and merchants) believe a bilateral or multilateral agreement is required between PISPs and ASPSPs to address liability.
VRP implementation requires common rules that define consumer protection mechanisms and set out commercial models with banks. It may also lead to bilateral arrangements that must also prioritise protection and focus on encouraging adoption.
Mahi Sall: Another key component of Open Banking System Design is the Accreditation Process. Canada’s Advisory Committee on Open Banking recommended to exempt federally regulated banks from the accreditation process, and similar consideration for provincially regulated financial institutions to be discussed.
Based upon what you have seen unfold in the UK and in other jurisdictions, what major frustration points relative to the accreditation process can be anticipated and how to address them?
Helen Child: In the EU, PSD2 rules that every organisation operating in the Open Banking ecosystem must have certificates issued under electronic identification and trust services (eIDAS) regulation.
There are a number of issues around these certificates, which are only issued for a short time and must be updated regularly. Authorisation status can change overnight and Open Banking players in the ecosystem must work with external providers to monitor the identity and authorisation status of TPPs in real time. Brendan Jones, CCO of Konstentus, has warned that this creates “genuinely frightening possibilities” because regulations and the law state that ASPSPs have liability for fraudulent transactions.
Accreditation in a territory like Canada is likely to be more straightforward in the EU. But issues around liability must be worked out and consumers need to know exactly which institutions are accredited. Adoption requires transparency and confidence, so accreditation should be designed in a way that focuses on building trust among consumers.
Mahi Sall: The third key component of Open Banking System Design are Technical Specifications & Standards with two approaches currently dominating the landscape: single standard approach (e.g. UK, Australia) and multiple standards (e.g. US, EU). Canada’s Advisory Committee left both approaches open for exploration.
Can you speak to the advantages and shortcomings of these approaches?
Helen Child: The PSD2 laid the groundwork for Open Banking. However, implementation has been hampered by diverging Application Programming Interface (API) standards and market fragmentation. This has made it difficult to launch Open Banking in all markets that make up the EU and led to issues with some APIs, which are not always as good as they could be.
In the UK, Open Banking has benefited from a single standard for APIs and the work of OBIE. This single standard has allowed Open Banking players to deliver reliable, high-quality APIs, reduce friction such as excessive authentication and drive adoption.
Mahi Sall: Please share some of the lessons learned in the UK and in other geographies in terms of Open Banking test designs and implementation.
Helen Child: Brazil’s ambitious and fast-paced Open Banking implementation is truly inspiring. At an OBE Campfire in April 2020 which discussed Payments Initiation, Janaína Pimenta Attie, Head of Division in the Financial System Regulation Department, Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), said the Open Banking implementation process in Brazil has “already presented very concrete and expressive results” in a short space of time.
After setting a regulatory strategy, Brazilian regulators set out to transform the country’s banking landscape, encourage innovation, promote competition, increase the efficiency of the national financial system, and promote financial citizenship.
Brazil was inspired by Open Banking models in the UK, EU and Australia. In the future, other countries will look to Brazil. It has made tremendous progress in a short space of time. Open Banking in Brazil is already poised to implement Open Finance because it includes the obligation to share investment, insurance and exchange transactions data. That is remarkable progress in a short space of time.
Mahi Sall: As in other jurisdictions, financial inclusion is high on Canada’s Open Banking agenda.
Please share examples where Open Banking failed to deliver on this metric. What are some of the key lessons learned that Canada could benefit from?
Helen Child: OBE is passionate about financial inclusion. It is a topic we discuss on a regular basis, with a Campfire last year and another planned for October 2022. In a blog written for OBE, Lord Holmes said that access to financial products and services is a “human right” and set out a five-step plan to build a “new paradigm for financial inclusion”.
The stages of this strategy are:
Mahi Sall: Chief among the factors affecting the take-off of Open Banking is low adoption by consumers. What could Canada do differently than other jurisdictions in order to pre-empt this risk?
Helen Child: In the UK, one of the use cases which has done the most to drive adoption is the tax authority HMRC’s decision to allow tax bills to be settled using Open Banking payments. Open Banking was used in more than £1 billion of tax payments within the first six months of rollout, contributing to the UK passing a milestone of five million Open Banking users.
If Canada wants to drive adoption at pace, it should focus on similarly big and bold use cases. If consumers and businesses become used to paying tax with Open Banking payments, they have made an important first step. When millions of people do the same, then you’re getting very close to mainstream adoption.
Mahi Sall: Drawing upon your observations in the UK and in other jurisdictions, what are some of the quick wins in terms of Open Banking use cases that banks and fintechs should prioritize rolling out?
Helen Child: We expect to see explosive growth in the use of Open Banking payments in the coming years in both the UK and EU. Part of the privilege that comes with building a global community is engaging with key stakeholders at various stages of creation and implementation. Our community has indicated that we will soon see major players in the payments value chain roll out account-to-account payments for tens or even hundreds of thousands of merchants. These merchants will then expose “Pay by Bank” to tens of millions of consumers. Pay By Bank is certainly a quick win. Others include VRP and sweeping, which involves automatically moving money from one account to another.
In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has set a deadline of July 2022 for the implementation of VRP for sweeping by Britain’s nine largest banks.
Moneyhub, a market-leading Open Data and payments platform, is preparing to roll out VRPs and believes they will “open up a new financial world order where consumers are in control”. NatWest Group has already made the UK’s first-ever Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) for “non-sweeping” use cases. It has also signed agreements with three payment providers - TrueLayer, GoCardless and Crezco - which will enable it to become the first UK bank to offer sweeping, which it described as “the automatic transfer of money between two accounts belonging to the same person”. We expect to see a huge wave of innovation in the UK after the CMA’s VRP implementation deadline.
Mahi Sall: What role does talent play in developing a thriving Open Banking system?
Helen Child: Talent is crucial in creating a vibrant Open Banking ecosystem, but, let’s not forget that talent can only go so far without partnership. It is through collaboration - and perhaps a little bit of competition - that Open Banking can thrive. Great things happen when you bring the right people together. Collectively, we have a stronger voice. The community that OBE continues to grow on a global scale, helps create connections, sparking innovation in a sector that’s forever evolving. The talent within each team is what drives that progress and we all have an important role to play.
We have an exciting few years ahead for sure.
Mahi Sall: What are some of Open Banking’s major incidents and how to risk manage them?
Helen Child: Fraud is a day-to-day reality in financial services. We are seeing some inspiring work among Open Banking pioneers focused on tackling fraud and improving the financial safety of consumers and businesses.
GoCardless recently expanded its fraud prevention offering, launching a service called Verified Mandates in the UK. This offering is powered by Open Banking and builds payer verification directly into the payment set-up flow. It enables merchants to verify the bank account of a new customer and prove their information is valid by authenticating details in the bank’s online or mobile banking app. Open Banking and Finance payments that use encryption or tokens and require customers to authorise payments via their bank using 2FA are more secure than cards. We expect to see the ecosystem continue to devise new ways to manage fraud and heard some of the latest ideas on how to reduce crime at our June Campfire.
Mahi Sall: What are Open Banking limitations and the most common misconceptions people have about it?
Helen Child: We still have some work to do when it comes to building consumer confidence. The name Open Banking can be offputting to people who are unfamiliar with the concept. They may fear that opening up their accounts to third parties is unsafe or will infringe upon their security and privacy. This is a challenge but also an opportunity to educate about Open Banking and Finance.
The financial industry has recently introduced innovations such as Confirmation of Payee (CoP) which offers improved security and reassurance when making payments or transfers. Pioneers in Open Banking and Finance are now working to develop solutions which offer a similar security boost to Open Banking transactions.
The partnership between Ozone API and Okay is one example of how industry leaders are collaborating to solve challenges around security. These two companies argue that Open Banking and Strong Customer Authentication represent a “tremendous opportunity for innovation” that will “protect end-users at an unprecedented level”. We expect to see more innovations in security which will improve confidence and drive adoption. The wider industry must continue to address consumer fears and show that Open Banking can actually offer improved security.
Mahi Sall: What does Open Banking mean to banks and fintechs, and how does it affect the relationship between the two?
Helen Child: Both banks and fintechs have a role to play in Open Banking. Traditionally, fintechs have been seen as disruptors dedicated to creating new services and banks as incumbents that must be forced to begrudgingly expose their account data to APIs. This distinction is breaking down (if it ever existed in the first place). We expect to see deeper collaboration and integration between fintechs and banks.
Mahi Sall: How could banks and TPPs best prepare for Open Banking and extract the most value out of it?
Helen Child: Digital identity is one of the challenges that banks and TPPs must overcome when implementing Open Banking. Brendan Jones, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Konsentus, has warned of “genuinely frightening possibilities” around identity.
In the EU, Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISP) and Account Information Service Providers (AISPs) must have certificates issued by a qualified trust service provider in order to operate in the Open Banking ecosystem. These certificates are not as comprehensive as one would hope. They can quickly become out of date and inaccurate, meaning that financial institutions are at risk of giving unauthorised third parties access to end-user account data or funds. This could result in fines or regulatory action in the short term. A mistake could also damage trust in the Open Banking ecosystem at a time in which we must focus on adoption.
Banks need to find a way of assessing the identity and regulatory status of TPPs in real time to ensure they are not incorrectly granting access to consumer data.
Mahi Sall: What must be thought of and accounted for at this early stage of Open Banking in Canada in order to ensure compatibility and interoperability at regional/international level?
Helen Child: Canada should focus on building robust standards which allow Open Banking players in its ecosystem to prove their identity and regulatory status. That is a basic requirement. This has proved a challenge in Europe. Now that Open Banking is going global, there is a serious need for global standards which allow interoperability across borders on a regional and international level. Canada could lead on this by driving interoperability with the US and South American ecosystems. If this is achieved, it could lay the groundwork for genuinely international standards.
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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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National Post | Ken Coates | Aug 6, 2022
The rules of national competitiveness keep changing. If the last few years were tough, the future looks even more confusing. Is Canada up to the challenges? The apparent answer is disquieting.Canadians should be razor-focused on ensuring the country remains at the top, but worrying signs abound:
Don’t expect help from our southern neighbour. The United States is on its own uncertain trajectory, with deep internal frictions and poisonous politics competing with its still remarkable entrepreneurial spirit. America’s divisions, driven by growing economic inequality and racial/regional tensions, are destabilizing an already fragile society. As this turmoil continues, so does protectionism and declining interest in continental solutions.
Canada copes with these realities largely by ignoring them. Our political culture is focused on internal matters, targeting national inequities rather than standard of living. Right now, Canada is standing on reputation, but the ladder is wobbly. Canada is a wonderful country, but the cracks are severe and only getting worse. We can’t pretend the problems are not real.
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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