Paul Schulte, Advisor, Banking and Financial Services
August 22nd, 2019
Paul Schulte is the Founder and Managing Editor of Shulte Research based in Singapore. Paul's roles[...]
Category Archives: Hack or Fraud Alert
Cyberattacks now cost small companies $200,000 on average, putting many out of business
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019
Key Points
- Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture.
- These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized.
- More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year.
- Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats.
In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture.
With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders.
See: The growing cost of cybersecurity
“Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From mobile to desktop interactions, cybercriminals can launch thousands of digital attacks designed to compromise your operations at every turn, only one of which ever needs to connect to cause serious disruption.”
As a result, he says, it’s guaranteed that virtually every modern organization’s high-tech perimeters will eventually be breached. This being the case, for small business owners, it’s no longer a matter of considering if security threats will arise, but rather thinking in terms of when.
Worse, the consequences of cyberattacks continue to grow, with digital incidents now costing small businesses $200,000 on average, according to insurance carrier Hiscox, and 60% going out of business within six months of being victimized. The frequency with which these attacks are happening is also increasing, with more than half of all small businesses having suffered a breach within the last year and 4 in 10 having experienced multiple incidents, reveals Hiscox.
At the same time, though, according to Keeper Security’s 2019 SMB Cyberthreat Study, 66% of senior decision-makers at small businesses still believe they’re unlikely to be targeted by online criminals. Similarly, 6 in 10 have no digital defense plan in place whatsoever, underscoring the need for heightened industry awareness and education across the board.
“Attackers are getting smarter, attacks are occurring faster, and incidents are becoming more complex,” cautions Justin Fier, director of cyberintelligence and analytics at cyberdefense firm Darktrace. “The latest cyberattacks speedily exploit vulnerabilities in computer networks — which [can be infected] like human immune systems, changing thousands of times per second — and can overtake even major networks in an hour and a half.”
—What’s more, given that digital threats tend to go an average of 101 days before being detected by business operators, the damage to an organization from such compromises can quickly add up.
Consider the case of humanitarian aid trip organizer Volunteer Voyages, a single-owner small business which suffered $14,000 in fraudulent charges after an online thief pilfered its debit card information, which the bank refused to reimburse. Or that of popular online food delivery startup DoorDash, which suffered a major data breach this past September, with hackers having accessed sensitive user data for over 4.9 million customers, resulting in tens of thousands in expenses. Likewise, government contractor Miracle Systems, which provides IT and engineering services to over 20 federal agencies, recently suffered losses of $500,000 to $1 million due to an internal server breach.
See: Cybercrime FinTech, Flare Systems, Raises $1M, Led by Luge Capital
However, considerable as they are, these charges do not factor in additional damage to intangible assets such as brand reputation and customer goodwill. Case in point: Miracle and its clients were later shocked to discover that their data was openly being advertised for sale by hackers on international cybercrime forums for a starting price of $60,000.
Ironically though, even with 480 new high-tech threats now introduced every minute, according to anti-virus provider McAfee, human error still remains one of the greatest threats to organizations’ well-being. With just 3 in 10 employees currently receiving annual cyber security training, it’s all too easy for enterprising con artists or e-mail scammers to circumvent even the most cutting-edge digital safeguards.
Noting this, the over 30.2 million small businesses in America now at risk of digital disruption are advised to adopt a comprehensive mix of both high- and low-tech strategies for combating cyber threats, including:
- Making daily backups and duplicates of data and files that can be retrieved in the event of system compromise or ransomware (malicious software that holds accounts/networks hostage until large sums of money are paid).
- Installing and regularly updating anti-virus, network firewall, and information encryption tools to scan for and counteract viruses and harmful programs; guard against incoming network or denial-of-service attacks; and keep sensitive information safe.
- Routinely monitoring and scanning any device that’s connected to a computer system or network, and prohibiting the use of removable media (e.g. USB drives) at work.
- Limiting employees’ access to only the files, folders, and applications that are required to perform routine on-the-job tasks.
- Providing regular, up-to-date training for staffers at least every 90 days on the latest online threats and trends in cybercrime.
- Engaging in teaching drills and exercises grounded in real-world everyday scenarios that test employees’ ability to detect scammers and respond appropriately to fraudulent requests.
See: 10 Key Issues For Fintech Startup Companies
- Instructing staff about the dangers of clicking on unsolicited email links and attachments, and the need to stay alert for warning signs of fraudulent emails (among the fastest-growing forms of “phishing,” a.k.a. online con artistry, today).
- Utilizing multifactor authentication (requiring multiple checks and approvals) before authorizing any major, uncommon, irregular, or allegedly time-sensitive requests.
- Conducting ongoing vulnerability testing and risk assessments on computer networks and applications to seek out and address possible points of failure before they arise.
- Implementing artificially-intelligent cyber analytics tools that can scan networks, user accounts, and applications to determine what passes for normal behavior, and auto-detect and immobilize suspicious activities before they spread.
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
 |  |  |
 |
Capital One data breach shows why it shouldn’t be a tech company that does banking
ComplianceX | The Compliance Exchange | Aug 8, 2019
Once upon a time, any financial institution entrusted with your money and sensitive information would be housed in an imposing building made of granite. Its vault, often visible from the lobby, was formidable. And its managers would always be prudent, conservative types. Think Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, the fictional institution in the Mary Poppins movies, whose chairman in the original film sang: “Invest your tuppence wisely in the bank, safe and sound, soon that tuppence, safely invested in the bank, will compound.”
The idea was to convey a sense of security so that people would feel good about depositing their hard-earned cash and storing their prized possessions in safe deposit boxes. It spilled over to investors who saw bank stocks as prudent, though hardly spectacular, investments.
Nowadays, though, banks can’t do enough to shed the dowdy images, perhaps none more so than Virginia-based Capital One Financial Corp. During an earnings report this year, CEO Richard Fairbank all but said that he did not view his bank as, well, a bank:
“What we’re doing at Capital One is building a technology company that does banking, instead of a bank that just uses technology.”
Which brings us to the company’s announcement that a lone hacker — allegedly a troubled 33-year-old woman in Seattle — had managed to penetrate its firewall to acquire sensitive data on more than 100 million card customers and applicants.
The sad truth is that many modern banks don’t much care about people’s private information. The same apparently goes for companies that work with banks. On the same day the Capital One breach was reported, credit rating agency Equifax agreed to pay $700 million to settle a 2017 data breach.
Institutions might say they do care, but what really matters is how fast they can digitize everything about their company and migrate it to the cloud. By doing this they increase their profit margins and rates of growth, and become Wall Street darlings.
It’s not hard to see the financial pressure on banks. Since the Great Recession, their stock performance has been so-so, while tech companies have done extremely well. Anything that they could do to function more like tech companies that do finance, rather than vise versa, could make them hot properties.
See:
-
Open banking data tapped to speed up laundering checks
-
Designing a data transformation that delivers value right from the start
-
While Canada debates, others are commercializing our most valuable asset: data
Tech companies, however, are bad examples to follow. They collect data on people’s habits that allow advertisers, political operatives, hostile foreign powers and others to glean valuable insights. And banks hold even more sensitive information than do most tech outfits.
It’s one thing to be lax and self-interested with people’s web surfing histories or social media contacts. It’s quite another to be cavalier with account information, Social Security numbers and credit scores. These can be sold to people interested in taking out fraudulent loans, making fraudulent purchases and engaging in other forms of identity theft.
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
| | |
|
Hackers Steal $40.7 Million in Bitcoin From Crypto Exchange Binance
Coindesk | Nikhilesh De | May 7, 2019
Hackers stole more than 7,000 bitcoin from crypto exchange Binance, the world’s largest by volume, the startup reported Tuesday.
Binance announced that a “large scale security breach” was discovered earlier on May 7, finding that malicious actors were able to access user API keys, two-factor authentication codes and “potentially other info,” the exchange’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, said in a letter. As a result, they were able to withdraw roughly $41 million in bitcoin from the exchange, according to a transaction published in the security notice.
The disclosure comes hours after Zhao tweeted that the exchange was undertaking “some unscheduled server maintenance,” writing that “funds are #safu.” After the disclosure announcement, Zhao tweeted that the exchange would “provide a more detailed update shortly.”
See: Binance Coin Burn Is Around The Corner – How The Coin Burn Works
The exchange may not yet have identified all impacted accounts, he said. And according to Binance’s statement, the breach only impacted Binance’s hot wallet, which contains roughly 2 percent of the exchange’s total bitcoin holdings.
“All of our other wallets are secure and unharmed,” he said, adding:
“The hackers had the patience to wait, and execute well-prepared actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time. The transaction is structured in a way that passed our existing security checks. It was unfortunate that we were not able to block this withdrawal before it was executed.”
The withdrawal triggered internal alarms after it was executed, and Zhao said the exchange froze withdrawals following the discovery. While deposits and withdrawals will remain suspended for the next week, trading will be re-enabled, though he cautioned that “the hackers may still control certain user accounts.”
Binance will conduct “a thorough security review” encompassing its systems and data during the next week.
The exchange will use its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU fund) to cover the loss, which won’t impact users, according to the notice.
See: FCA reveals findings from first cryptoassets consumer research
The fund consists of 10 percent of all trading fees absorbed by the exchange, and was initially launched to protect Binance’s users “in extreme cases,” according to a previous notice. It is stored in its own cold wallet.
“In this difficult time, we strive to maintain transparency and would be appreciative of your support,” Zhao said Tuesday.
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
| | |
|
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
Read More
Criminal Past Haunts Surviving Founder of Troubled Crypto Exchange
Bloomberg | By Doug Alexande and Matt Robinson | March 19, 2019
His crimes: identity theft related to a bank-and-credit card scam. His sentence: 18 months in U.S. federal prison and, later, deportation to Canada.
Once there, Omar Dhanani underwent a remarkable transformation -- into a new identity and the wild world of cryptocurrencies.
Dhanani, now known as Michael Patryn, has emerged as an enigmatic figure in the strange case of Quadriga Fintech Solutions Corp., the digital exchange owner that hasn’t been able to find C$260 million ($195 million) of clients’ cash and cryptocurrencies. Patryn co-founded Quadriga five years ago with the late Gerry Cotten, whose sudden death in December at age 30 left the Vancouver-based firm in shambles.
Patryn denied he was Dhanani in a Feb. 8 report in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper and disputed a subsequent report linking him to a criminal past. But Canadian records obtained by Bloomberg News confirm he legally changed his name -- twice: in 2003 and in 2008.
The revelation adds a new layer to the mystery surrounding Quadriga, whose closure in January left 115,000 clients wondering if they’ll ever get their money back. Cotten ran the operation mostly from his laptop, so his death while traveling in India threw the business into disarray. The firm has been under creditor protection since February, with Ernst & Young working to unravel the firm’s dealings. Digital storage accounts used by Quadriga to hold Bitcoin for clients had been empty for months before the CEO’s death, according to E&Y.
See: Another Canadian Crypto Exchange Under Fire
Patryn declined to comment about his criminal record or his name change.
Patryn changed his name from Omar Dhanani to Omar Patryn with the British Columbia government in March 2003. Five years later, he registered a name change to Michael Patryn in the same Canadian province.
In the U.S., Dhanani had been charged with numerous crimes. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit credit-and-bank card fraud at the age of 22 in 2005, according to a statement from the U.S. Justice Department. Dhanani helped operate shadowcrew.com, a now defunct marketplace for trafficking stolen credit and bank card numbers. Dhanani also admitted guilt in 2007 to separate criminal cases for burglary, grand larceny and computer fraud, according to California state court records.
After serving his time, the U.S. deported him to Canada, where he reinvented himself as a Bitcoin entrepreneur. Patryn calls himself a "fintech advisor and portfolio manager" in his LinkedIn profile, which also lists him as founder and chairman of Vancouver-based Fintech Ventures Group since 2015, described as “Canada’s first incubator for blockchain related startup companies".
Patryn has been trying to bury his past. Last July, he hired a firm to purge unflattering material about him from the internet. One of the posts was a complaint about Omar Dhanani and a defunct online business called Midas Gold Exchange Inc., which the Canadian government listed Omar Patryn as its sole director. Documents filed in a related lawsuit mention a Reddit post that linked Patryn to Quadriga.
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
| | |
|
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
Read More
Another Canadian Crypto Exchange Under Fire
Chainbits | | March 14, 2019
After the ongoing saga of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX’s downfall, another Canadian cryptocurrency company is now coming under scrutiny. Canada Bitcoin Exchange Inc. is now being investigated as a possible scam.
Warning Against Canada Bitcoin Exchange
The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC), a Canadian financial regulator, has issued a warning against Canada Bitcoin Exchange. The watchdog stated that the company was offering overly attractive BTC (Bitcoin) investment plans to its customers.
Canada Bitcoin Exchange was offering 4 different BTC investment plans on its website. Each of the programs asked users to invest a certain amount of capital for a period of 24 to 48 hours. In return, the company offered returns that started at 3.586% and went as high as 7.985%.
The website stated that Canada Bitcoin Exchange would reinvest customers’ BTC in other stocks as well as cryptocurrencies. The company claimed to have a team of professional market analysts in place who knew how to find hot stocks. The company also stated that this project was run by the Canada Bitcoin Exchange Group.
Signs of a Scam
Upon investigating the company, the BCSC found that Canada Bitcoin Exchange was an unregistered entity and therefore did not have the required licenses to offer any form of trading services, securities or exchange contracts or even conduct investment consultations.
See: BCSC Investment Caution List - Warning on Canada Bitcoin Exchange
Added to that, it was revealed that a search of the company’s BTC address on Blockchain.info came up with nothing. There was no transaction history for the company. On top of that, the company raised even more suspicious as the same BTC address was found on BCH’s (Bitcoin Cash’s) Blockchain.
Information about the company was also sketchy. The company’s domain was registered US domain registration portal based out of Arizona. Besides that, no other information was available about the company or even who the backers of the company were. There was a work address given on the company’s website that listed a Vancouver address.
The BCSC warned customers to exercise caution when dealing with companies such as Canada Bitcoin Exchange were not registered either to trade or to advise.
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
| | |
|
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
Read More
5th ANNUAL 2019 FINTECH & FINANCING CONFERENCE HOSTED BY NCFA AND PARTNERS
FEARLESS
Day(s)
:
Hour(s)
:
Minute(s)
:
Second(s)
APR 3-4 TORONTO
FINTECH 360. BLOCKCHAIN. AI CONFIDENTIAL. FUNDING INNOVATION. ALTERNATIVE FINANCE. GLOBAL EDUCATION. INDUSTRY WORKSHOPS. PITCHING. PRIME NETWORKING. AWARDS
Thanks to the CITY OF TORONTO for Sponsoring STARTUP DEALS to attend FFCON19! Get one before they're gone...>95% SOLD Now
Bitcoin Prices Hold Steady After Sudden Canadian Exchange Shutdown
Forbes | | Oct 29, 2018
Bitcoin prices, along with the wider cryptocurrency market, have held steady following the sudden shut down of a relatively minor cryptocurrency exchange in Canada yesterday.
MapleChange revealed via Twitter that a software "bug" had allowed all of the 913 bitcoin (worth some $6 million at current exchange rates) it was holding to be stolen.
MapleChange attempted to reassure users that it would be conducting a “thorough investigation” but warned it would be unable to make refunds before deleting its social media accounts and taking its website offline. Users now attempting to access maplechange.com are met with a timeout error.
The bitcoin price was little moved on news of the loss, with the market trading sideways over the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.
See: Cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare announced it is set to expand into Europe in Q4 2018
The price of bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have remarkably stable over recent months, as investors and traders await decisions by regulators, signs of growing user adoption, and interest from some of the world's biggest banks.
Bitcoin exchange hacks remain common around the world despite attempts to better regulate the industry and protect users and investors.
In the UK, where the cryptocurrency sector has been branded a "wild west", the government has promised to improve protections for users by moving bitcoin companies and exchanges under the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority, which looks after the country's extensive banking industry.
While bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange hacks are never good news, MapleChange's small size will mean the damage is somewhat contained. The MapleChange Twitter account had fewer than 2,000 followers, compared to Binance's 880,000.
Prominent bitcoin and cryptocurrency experts and industry leaders were quick to weigh in on the supposed hack, warning users to avoid smaller or unknown exchanges.
Changpeng Zhao, the chief executive of the world's largest crypto exchange by volume Binance, advised consumers to not use exchanges if they do offer cold wallets.
It was also suggested that MapleChange may have pulled off a so-called exit scam, building up reserves of bitcoin before claiming its funds have been lost or stolen.
See: FINTECH FRIDAY$ (EP.15-Oct 26): Gearing up Hyperion Exchange, Hybrid Models and Security Tokens with Michael Zavet, CEO and Founder, Hyperion Technologies
Many others repeated the mantra: "If you don't control the private keys, it's not your bitcoin," a phrase used to warn people that keeping their cryptocurrencies with businesses often means they have little proof of ownership.
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
| | |
|
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
Read More
Global Governance Insights on Emerging Risks
Bleu Azur Consulting | June 17, 2018
A HEIGHTENED FOCUS ON RESPONSE AND RECOVERY
Over a third of directors of US public companies now discuss cybersecurity at every board meeting. Cyber risks are being driven onto the agenda by
- high-profile data breaches,
- distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks,
- and rising ransomware and cyber extortion attacks.
The concern about cyber risks is justified. The annual economic cost of cyber-crime is estimated at US$1.5 trillion and only about 15% of that loss is currently covered by insurance.
MMC Global Risk Center conducted research and interviews with directors from WCD to understand the scope and depth of cyber risk management discussions in the boardroom. The risk of cyberattack is a constantly evolving threat and the interviews highlighted the rising focus on resilience and recovery in boardroom cyber discussions. Approaches to cyber risks are maturing as organizations recognize them as an enterprise business risk, not just an information technology (IT) problem.
However, board focus varies significantly across industries, geographies, organization size and regulatory context. For example, business executives ranked cyberattacks among the top five risks of doing business in the Asia Pacific region but Asian organizations take 1.7 times longer than the global median to discover a breach and spend on average 47% less on information security than North American firms.
REGULATION ON THE RISE
Tightening regulatory requirements for cybersecurity and breach notification across the globe such as
- the EU GDPR,
- China’s new Cyber Security Law,
- and Australia’s Privacy Amendment,
are also propelling cyber onto the board agenda. Most recently, in February 2018, the USA’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provided interpretive guidance to assist public companies in preparing disclosures about cybersecurity risks and incidents.
Regulations relating to transparency and notifications around cyber breaches drive greater discussion and awareness of cyber risks. Industries such as
- financial services,
- telecommunications
- and utilities,
are subject to a large number of cyberattacks on a daily basis and have stringent regulatory requirements for cybersecurity.
See: Bithumb $31 Million Crypto Exchange Hack: What We Know (And Don’t)
Kris Manos, Director, KeyCorp, Columbia Forest Products, and Dexter Apache Holdings, observed, “The manufacturing sector is less advanced in addressing cyber threats; the NotPetya and WannaCry attacks flagged that sector’s vulnerability and has led to a greater focus in the boardroom.” For example, the virus forced a transportation company to shut down all of its communications with customers and also within the company. It took several weeks before business was back to normal, and the loss of business was estimated to have been as high as US$300 million. Overall, it is estimated that as a result of supply chain disruptions, consumer goods manufacturers, transport and logistics companies, pharmaceutical firms and utilities reportedly suffered, in aggregate, over US$1 billion in economic losses from the NotPetya attacks. Also, as Cristina Finocchi Mahne, Director, Inwit, Italiaonline, Banco Desio, Natuzzi and Trevi Group, noted, “The focus on cyber can vary across industries depending also on their perception of their own clients’ concerns regarding privacy and data breaches.”
LESSONS LEARNED: UPDATE RESPONSE PLANS AND EVALUATE THIRD-PARTY RISK
The high-profile cyberattacks in 2017, along with new and evolving ransomware onslaughts, were learning events for many organizations. Lessons included the need to establish relationships with organizations that can assist in the event of a cyberattack, such as l
- aw enforcement,
- regulatory agencies and recovery service providers
- including forensic accountants and crisis management firms.
Many boards need to increase their focus on their organization’s cyber incident response plans. A recent global survey found that only 30% of companies have a cyber response plan and a survey by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) suggests that only 60% of boards have reviewed their breach response plan over the past 12 months. Kris Manos noted, “[If an attack occurs,] it’s important to be able to quickly access a response plan. This also helps demonstrate that the organization was prepared to respond effectively.”
Experienced directors emphasized the need for effective response plans alongside robust cyber risk mitigation programs to ensure resilience, as well as operational and reputation recovery. As Jan Babiak, Director, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Euromoney Institutional Investor, and Bank of Montreal, stressed, “The importance of the ’respond and recover’ phase cannot be overstated, and this focus needs to rapidly improve.”
Directors need to review how the organization will communicate and report breaches. Response plans should include preliminary drafts of communications to all stakeholders including customers, suppliers, regulators, employees, the board, shareholders, and even the general public. The plan should also consider legal requirements around timelines to report breaches so the organization is not hit with financial penalties that can add to an already expensive and reputationally damaging situation. Finally, the response plan also needs to consider that normal methods of communication (websites, email, etc.) may be casualties of the breach. A cyber response plan housed only on the corporate network may be of little use in a ransomware attack.
Other lessons included the need to focus on cyber risks posed by third-party suppliers, vendors and other impacts throughout the supply chain. Shirley Daniel, Director, American Savings Bank, and Pacific Asian Management Institute, noted, “Such events highlight vulnerability beyond your organization’s control and are raising the focus on IT security throughout the supply chain.” Survey data suggests that about a third of organizations do not assess the cyber risk of vendors and suppliers. This is a critical area of focus as third-party service providers (e.g., software providers, cloud services providers, etc.) are increasingly embedded in value chains.
More: The growing cost of cybersecurity
FRUSTRATIONS WITH OVERSIGHT
Most directors expressed frustrations and challenges with cyber risk oversight even though the topic is frequently on meeting agendas. Part of the challenge is that director-level cyber experts are thin on the ground; most boards have only one individual serving as the “tech” or “cyber” person. A Spencer Stuart survey found that 41% of respondents said their board had at least one director with cyber expertise, with an additional 7% who are in the process of recruiting one. Boards would benefit from the addition of experienced individuals who can identify the connections between cybersecurity and overall company strategy.
A crucial additional challenge is obtaining clarity on the organization’s overall cyber risk management framework. (See Exhibit 1: Boards Need More Information on Cyber Investments.) Olga Botero, Director, Evertec, Inc., and Founding Partner, C&S Customers and Strategy, observed, “There are still many questions unanswered for boards, including:
- How good is our security program?
- How do we compare to peers?
There is a big lack of benchmarking on practices.” Anastassia Lauterbach, Director, Dun & Bradstreet, and member of Evolution Partners Advisory Board, summarized it well, “Boards need a set of KPIs for cybersecurity highlighting their company’s
- unique business model,
- legacy IT,
- supplier and partner relationships,
- and geographical scope.”
Nearly a quarter of boards are dissatisfied with the quality of management-provided information related to cybersecurity because of insufficient transparency, inability to benchmark and difficulty of interpretation.
EFFECTIVE OVERSIGHT IS BUILT ON A COMPREHENSIVE CYBER RISK MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
Organizations are maturing from a “harden the shell” approach to a protocol based on understanding and protecting core assets and optimizing resources. This includes the application of risk disciplines to assess and manage risk, including quantification and analytics. (See Exhibit 2: Focus Areas of a Comprehensive Cyber Risk Management Framework.) Quantification shifts the conversation from a technical discussion about threat vectors and system vulnerabilities to one focused on maximizing the return on an organization’s cyber spending and lowering its total cost of risk.
See: FSB warns of third-party FinTech risk
Directors also emphasized the need to embed the process in an overall cyber risk management framework and culture. “The culture must emphasize openness and learning from mistakes. Culture and cyber risk oversight go hand in hand,” said Anastassia Lauterbach. Employees should be encouraged to flag and highlight potential cyber incidents, such as phishing attacks, as every employee plays a vital role in cyber risk management. Jan Babiak noted, “If every person in the organization doesn’t view themselves as a human firewall, you have a soft underbelly.” Mary Beth Vitale, Director, GEHA and CoBiz Financial, Inc., also noted, “Much of cyber risk mitigation is related to good housekeeping such as timely patching of servers and ongoing employee training and alertness.”
Boards also need to be alert. “Our board undertakes the same cybersecurity training as employees,” noted Wendy Webb, Director, ABM Industries. Other boards are putting cyber updates and visits to security centers on board “offsite” agendas.
Continue to the full article --> here
Click for News:
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
DealSquare | Peter-Paul Van Hoeken | Oct 22, 2019 Launch of Canada’s first B2B centralized digital platform for private placements Toronto, October 22, 2019 – NEO is pleased to introduce DealSquare, Canada’s first centralized platform to simplify private placements in Canada, by digitally connecting capital raisers to dealers and their investment advisor networks. DealSquare is a technology solution developed by NEO in partnership with Silver Maple Ventures Inc., the company behind Canada’s leading online B2C private markets investment platform, FrontFundr, DealSquare will support the entire private placement process from marketing investment opportunities and electronically managing the due diligence and subscription process, through to efficiently closing the deal. By utilizing NEO Connect technology, exempt securities will be seamlessly integrated into client accounts and back office systems. With broader and more efficient access to private placement offerings, the costs and operational risks of raising private money will go down, ultimately expanding investment opportunities. It’s a win-win for capital raisers, dealers, investment advisors and investors. Over the past ten years, investors have flocked to the private markets looking for superior returns and to add balance to their portfolios. However, despite the overall growth in private markets compared to public markets, asset managers and ...
Read More
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 21,2019 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), part of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge University, has partnered with the World Bank to publish a report on the global regulation of alternative finance and innovative Fintech firms. According to the new report, the regulation of alternative finance will increase significantly over the next two years, as indicated by a global survey of 111 regulatory jurisdictions. Equity Crowdfunding, Peer to Peer Lending & Initial Coin Offerings As various forms of alternative finance emerge, typically regulators are slow to update or create new rules as they research and dissect digital services. More specifically, access to capital platforms such as equity crowdfunding, peer to peer (marketplace) lending and initial coin offerings (or token offerings), have digitized investment opportunities and the capital-raising process. These three types of finance are the focus of this report. The CCAF study seeks to better comprehend alternative finance via empirical information gleaned from regulators and other public authorities. Alongside AML/KYC requirements, regulators’ main priorities are said to be: “… protections against misleading promotions or the misuse of client money. Depending on the activity in question, between 93% and 100% of ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Scott Steinberg | Oct 13, 2019 Key Points Forty-three percent of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves, according to Accenture. These incidents now cost small businesses $200,000 on average, reveals insurance carrier Hiscox, with 60% of them going out of business within six months of being victimized. More than half of all small businesses suffered a breach within the last year. Today it’s critical for small businesses to adopt strategies for fighting cyberthreats. In an age of ongoing digital transformation, cybercrime has quickly become today’s fastest-growing form of criminal activity. Equally worrying for modern executives, it’s also set to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide within five years, according to Accenture. With 43% of online attacks now aimed at small businesses, a favorite target of high-tech villains, yet only 14% prepared to defend themselves, owners increasingly need to start making high-tech security a top priority, according to network security leaders. See: The growing cost of cybersecurity “Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever, and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” explains Jesse Rothstein, CTO of online security provider ExtraHop. “From ...
Read More
Read More
Wharton Fintech via Medium | Peter Jankovsky | Sep 15, 2019 In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG’20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs’ US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business’ first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs’ US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees. See: Goldman Sachs is slashing employee pay as it ramps up new tech ventures like the Apple Card Inflection point:Seven transformative shifts in US retail banking What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts? In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: The story behind Goldman’s decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business ...
Read More
Read More
Financial Post | Business Wire | Oct 21, 2019 MONTREAL — Mako Fintech, a tech startup delivering next-generation software for securities transfer and administration, announced today that it has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as a securities transfer agent in the United States. The transfer agency space has long been overdue for modernization. Legacy systems, low availability, high service costs and transaction delays have created a significant opportunity to move the industry forward through innovation. Mako is entering the transfer agency market with a streamlined, cloud-based SaaS service, offering centralized online voting, engaging investor communications and superior availability through smart automation. “Speaking with customers, we realized that there was a huge disconnect between the service clients expected and the current standards in the transfer agency industry. We created Mako in order to close this gap and the reaction so far has been phenomenal,” said Raphael Bouskila, founder of Mako. Mako’s transfer agency platform—available today to US public and private issuers—is designed to provide shareholders with modern reporting and easy, interactive service, while helping issuers reduce their risks, costs and reliance on external proxy voting and reporting services. See: A Digitized Staff Compliance Platform is a ...
Read More
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Oct 17, 2019 Key Points The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits this year, the lowest that ratio has been in at least a decade, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. “As we grow more platform-driven businesses, we expect compensation to decline as a proportion of total operating expenses,” CFO Stephen Scherr says. Goldman Sachs is on track to pay its employees the lowest of any year in at least the past decade, and executives warned that the trend will continue as software consumes more of the firm’s businesses. The bank set aside 35% of its revenue for staff compensation and benefits so far this year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to an analysis of Goldman’s data. See: Silicon Valley VCs Are Planning to Get Bankers Out of the IPO Business Put another way, the average Goldman employee earned $246,216 for the first nine months of 2019, less than half the $527,192 at the same point in 2009. That ...
Read More
Read More
AltFi | Luke Lang | Oct 21, 2019 Something special is happening at the intersection of retail investors and financial technology, writes Crowdcube's Luke Lang. It became clear that fintech companies began to prize crowdfunding three years ago. Monzo crashed our servers in 2016 when it raised £1m in 96 seconds. Last December, the now-serial crowdfunding neobank raised £20m from retail investors. The staggering thing about Monzo’s raise – and it speaks volumes about where crowdfunding and fintech have reached – is that it did not need to raise the £20m from any of us on the street. In October – i.e. just two months shy of the raise – the bank had closed an £85m round led by VC firm Accel. Raising £20m is no walk in the park. You need to build a prospectus, which is a lengthy and expensive process. Monzo’s crowdfunding raise capped all investments at £2,000, meaning the team chose to have more investors to look after. See: Canada Update: Alberta Updates Crowdfunding Regulations but Where Does Canada Stand in the National Harmonization of Rules? What about Fintech Development? The world’s leading fintechs are using crowdfunding to cement and enhance their relationship with their customers ...
Read More
Read More
Investment Executive | Maddie Johnson | Oct 16, 2019 C.D. Howe calls for more regulatory barriers to be removed For years, Canada’s productivity growth has lagged many of its international peers, according to an upcoming report from the C.D. Howe Institute. And the financial services sector could play a vital role in reversing the trend. The report, to be released Thursday, examines the financial services sector and its overall contribution to productivity in Canada. Authors Farah Omran and Jeremy Kronick link long-term sustainable economic growth with an improvement in productivity, saying advanced economies need to do more than just increase their traditional inputs, such as labour and capital. The financial services sector has the ability to improve its productivity, which would in turn enhance Canada’s overall productivity growth, the report says. Despite its potential, the sector falls short, and its overall contribution to Canada’s productivity growth is “underwhelming.” The report discusses how three main channels — competition, attracting capital and the allocation of capital — are hindered by restrictive regulation, hurting Canada’s overall productivity growth. “Canada’s current regulatory framework has improved over the past decade; however, more could be done to remove regulatory barriers that hamper competition, the progress of innovative ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Andrea Tinianow | Oct 18, 2019 Fnality, a London-based company is banking on blockchain technology to usher in an era of digital financial markets. They are betting that the financial markets are going to tokenize. Fnality intends to be there when that happens. In fact, they intend to spur the transformation. According to Fnality’s chief executive officer, Rhomaios Ram, “if the markets are moving to a new model, they will need a secure infrastructure for digitizing payment and settlement on a global basis. We are creating a new financial market infrastructure, a new payments system [for wholesale banking].” Wholesale banking refers to lending and borrowing between banks, or with large customers such as the government, pension funds, and big corporations. Ram continues, “our two areas of focus right now are establishing a digital currency capability in each currency, and coordinating and orchestrating with business applications, such as tokenized exchanges, issuance platforms, collateral and trade finance, that want to use this new payment functionality.” Backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks: Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., ...
Read More
Read More
NCFA Guest Post | Oct 18, 2019 During the history of the stock market its value has typically climbed. This has seen the most successful investors profit by buying shares in stocks at a low price and seeing their value increase steadily over time. Playing the markets can be risky however, as entire investments can be lost. But with the right set of circumstances stock prices can increase in value greatly over the years. This reward and risk trade off is appealing to lots of investors. However, it is sometimes the case that investors believe that the value of a certain stock will decrease rather than increase. In such instances, buying these shares will result in the investor losing money. Short selling provides investors with the opportunity to profit from the price of a stock decreasing in value. This practice is also sometimes referred to as going short on a stock and provides the investor with a profit should the price of a stock decrease. However, if the price of the stock goes up then the investor will face losses. How is shorting a stock done? This process involves lending shares of a stock that you wish to sell from ...
Read More
Read More
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada non-profit actively engaged with cryptocurrency, blockchain, crowdfunding, alternative finance, fintech, P2P, ICO, STO, and online investing stakeholders globally. NCFA Canada provides education, research, industry stewardship, services, and networking opportunities to thousands of members and subscribers and works closely with industry, government, academia, community and eco-system partners and affiliates to create a strong and vibrant crowdfunding and fintech industry. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: ncfacanada.org
