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

The Solution To The Fintech IPO Shortage

August 16, 2019

Forbes | Ron Shevlin | July 1, 2019 OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK A Seeking Alpha article titled Why Fintech May Not Be Fit For Public Consumption states: The year 2019 seems set to be a record-setting one for venture capitalist exit value capture by means of tech IPOs. But fintech doesn't seem to be a part of this picture. VCs are certainly putting money into fintech startups. There were 170 financings in the US in the first quarter of 2019. But, as Pitchbook says, 'not one of the most valuable fintech companies in the world seems particularly close to an offering.' " The article chalks this up to three primary causes: 1. Poor IPO performance in 2018. According to the article, "One reason nobody is in a hurry to go public is that the results of the last crop of fintech concerns that did go public have been unimpressive. Adyen and IntegraFin are prospering, but neither GreenSky nor EverQuote is "lighting up the heavens" according to Seeking Alpha. See:  OurCrowd Double IPO Success Provides Crowdfunding Validation 2. Mega-round financing. Seeking Alpha postulates that investor interest in mega-rounds--e.g., Qatar Investment Authority's investment of $500 million in SoFi and Tiger Capital leading a round that raised $300 ...
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Investors, ‘starved for returns,’ flood private markets in search of high-growth opportunities

August 16, 2019

CNBC | Kate Rooney | Aug 12, 2019 Money spent in venture capital and other alternative investments is surging as investors look for riskier, but higher-yielding investments. The trend coincides with relatively low returns from more conventional Wall Street investments such as stocks and bonds, and a drop in the number of publicly traded companies. “In a world where big institutional investors find themselves starved for returns, it’s not surprising that they have steadily increased allocations to private markets and you’ve seen capital continuing to flow into the asset class,” says McKinsey Partner Bryce Klempner. Many global investors are turning toward Silicon Valley instead of Wall Street in search of returns. The total invested in private markets hit all-time highs last year and continues to break multi-decade records this year. In the first half of the year, total investments in venture capital hit a 19-year high of $53.3 billion, according to data from Refinitiv published last week. That marked a 21% increase by total dollar amount compared to the first half of 2018. See:  $5 million Equity crowdfunding extended to private companies The steady stream of funding comes alongside a drop in the number of publicly listed companies, rock-bottom global ...
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How AI may help solve banks’ customer relationship issues

August 16, 2019

TechRepublic | Mary Shacklett | July 23, 2019 Learn how artificial intelligence and analytics can be used to improve customer service in banking. When I was a CIO for a financial institution, I worked with executives on the operations side to see how we could improve relationships with customers at our branches. Our front-line tellers at these branches were more like order takers—they did what customers asked, but no more. These employees were in low-wage positions, and they often had limited skills. One of the skills we wanted was interpersonal engagement with customers that you would typically find in a salesperson. We decided to hire people with retail and/or people-facing experience, figuring that we could train them to be tellers. We implemented systems that would prompt a teller to ask a customer about new products the customer might be interested in, and we offered financial incentives for enrolling customers in new products. The experiment yielded mixed results and likely would have gone better if we'd had some of the analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) automation tools that are available today. See:  How Jack Ma’s $290b SME credit engine is changing Chinese banking "Most customers tend to keep their accounts with ...
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Crowdfunding for a Startup: How it Builds a Business’ Credibility

August 14, 2019

Guest Post | Aug 14, 2019 You see a need. You know that your new business can fill that need. The problem is that it takes an incredible amount of capital to start a business. Besides purchasing equipment, raw materials, and computer systems, you also have the expenses that no one ever thinks about when opening a shop. Did you figure in the cost of hiring an accountant, a lawyer, and paying for workers compensation insurance? Instead of heading to the bank with your business plan in hand, you may consider whether working with a crowdfunding site might be another feasible way to raise cash for your business expenses. Here’s how crowdfunding sites work. Cash in Exchange for Equity Have you seen Shark Tank? On this TV show, investors decide whether or not they would like to provide capital for startups in exchange for a piece of the company. Sometimes the hosts compete against each other for the opportunity to invest. Sometimes they pool resources and form investment partnerships for a portion of ownership in the company. Occasionally budding entrepreneurs are sent away empty-handed. See:  Regulation Crowdfunding Surpasses $250,000,000 in Commitments The Model is Working but its Potential is Much ...
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Large Enterprises Are Betting On Blockchain In 2019

August 14, 2019

Forbes | Biser Dimitrov | Aug 13, 2019 2019 is the year when the blockchain ecosystem and the crypto industry as a whole had to get sober. After a wild 2017 and a bear 2018, the blockchain space is back on an upwards trajectory with new developments. There are no more Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) to distract the crypto ecosystem and the building mentality is back on. This post-ICO and post-useless-PR-partnerships age urges the blockchain community to be less focused on the current price of bitcoin and more focused on producing meaningful services and advancements. Big projects from established enterprises like Facebook Libra are taking all the media space now and this is net positive for the enterprise blockchain space as well. The first half of this year was full of blockchain developments led by large enterprises in almost all important sectors, including insurance, financial services, supply chain, healthcare and trade finance. There is a huge benefit in joining a specialized industry-focused blockchain consortium because you sit at the same table with your main competitors but at the same time you work toward the same goal. You are not alone in figuring out the benefits, implementations and roll-out of distributed ...
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Fully automated decision making AI systems: the right to human intervention and other safeguards

August 13, 2019

Wired UK Gov | Information Commissioner's Office | Aug 12, 2019 Reuben Binns, our Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Valeria Gallo, Technology Policy Adviser, discuss some of the key safeguards organisations should implement when using solely automated AI systems to make decisions with significant impacts on data subjects. This post is part of our ongoing Call for Input on developing the ICO framework for auditing AI. We encourage you to share your views by leaving a comment below or by emailing us at AIAuditingFramework@ico.org.uk. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires organisations to implement suitable safeguards when processing personal data to make solely automated decisions that have a legal or similarly significant impact on individuals. These safeguards include the right for data subjects: to obtain human intervention; to express their point of view; and to contest the decision made about them. See:  How Data-driven Strategies Can Improve Impact Investing Outcomes These safeguards cannot be token gestures. Guidance published by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) states that human intervention involve a review of the decision, which “must be carried out by someone who has the appropriate authority and capability to change the decision”.  The review should include a “thorough assessment of all the relevant ...
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China’s digital fiat currency is ‘nearly ready’ for launch: PBOC official

August 12, 2019

TechNode | Nicole Jao | Aug 12, 2019 China’s planned digital fiat currency is nearly ready for release after five years of research and development, a senior official at the central bank said (in Chinese) at a forum on Saturday in Beijing without confirming a timeframe. Why it matters: The People‘s Bank of China (PBOC) aims to steal a march on global counterparts by accelerating the development of its national digital currency. The central bank has been researching and developing a digital currency since 2014, though specific details remain scant. The government’s fast-tracking of the national digital currency was reportedly prompted by fears that the emergence of cryptocurrency projects like Facebook’s Libra will bring disruption to its economy. “As one can imagine, to issue digital fiat currency in a country as big as China, the employment of pure blockchain architecture cannot fulfill the throughput required for retail usage. Eventually, we decided that, at the level of the central bank, we should remain technology-neutral and not preset a technology roadmap, meaning not relying on a specific technology.” —Mu Changchun, the deputy chief of central bank’s payment and settlement See:  Central banks should consider using digital currencies: China think tank Details: Mu ...
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New Regulatory Framework for Canadian Retail Payments Coming in 2019

August 12, 2019

Gowling WLG | Jeffrey Roode, Partner | Aug 12, 2019 In its budget released in March, the Canadian federal government confirmed that it plans to introduce legislation in 2019 to implement a new retail payments oversight framework.  It is proposed that the Bank of Canada will would oversee this regulatory framework. This is a significant development as it will mean that a number of payments industry participants that are currently unregulated, including many fintech companies, will now be regulated. Background While the recent federal budget provided few details about the proposed regulatory framework, we expect that it will be based on a 2017 discussion paper released by the Department of Finance.  The discussion paper noted a number of problems in the way retail payments are regulated, most notably that regulated financial institutions, such as banks, are subject to detailed regulation with respect to their retail payments businesses, while other payment service providers (referred to as PSPs) are not subject to a comprehensive regulatory oversight framework. See:  JP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency to transform payments business The Department of Finance is concerned that this will create risks and confusion for consumers who might expect similar levels ...
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How Many Colleges Teach Blockchain Technology in the World

August 12, 2019

Guest Post | Aug 12, 2019 Blockchain is the hype today. The talent is in high demand and the technology takes over many of the headlines in publications and news. Investors keep piling their money into it. Blockchain is known to be the best thing that happens to public services. As a result, we are witnessing an increase in blockchain education. In the past few years, universities slowly began introducing blockchain technology courses and designing special programs that teach you the skill. However, as we mentioned, this usually goes really slow. By the time the education designs great programs and lists new courses, the technology will have switched and advanced. This is why your choices in terms of blockchain courses and education are still rather limited. However, the number of universities that offer them is growing by the minute. Blockchain Today In our list, you’ll find about the most prepared universities that offer a blockchain degree. Finding a university that has this course can be truly beneficial for your career and future, which makes this a serious decision to make. If you enroll onto a program that excludes blockchain from its curriculum, you’ll be left out in the modern job ...
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Fintech Fridays EP35: Autonomous Alternative Lending with Vit Arnautov of Turnkey Lender

August 9, 2019

NCFA Canada | Aug 9, 2019 JOIN US ON A STORYTELLING JOURNEY EVERY FRIDAY. Aug 9: Autonomous Alternative Lending with Vit Arnautov of Turnkey Lender EP35 HOST: Manseeb Khan, Fintech Friday's show host GUEST: VIT ARNAUTOV, Chief Product Officer of Turnkey Lender, (Linkedin) BIO: Vit is a skilled business executive with more than 10 years of experience in managing and delivering innovative fintech solutions. Since its foundation, Vit has been a part of the TurnKey Lender, a company creating intelligent AI-driven solutions for alternative lenders. Over the years he’s become its Chief Product Officer which gives him an incredibly deep insight into fintech in general and lending industry in particular. His areas of expertise include FinTech, digital lending, AI, and big data. Vit is happy to share his expertise with striving entrepreneurs and anyone else it can be helpful for. About this episode: On this episode of NCFA's Fintech Fridays Podcast, our host Manseeb Khan sits down with Vit Arnautov from Turnkey Lender. They chat about how AI will help the lending space, underbanked countries and why cloud lending is a trillion dollar industry. Enjoy! Subscribe and tune in each Friday to check out the latest movers and shakers in ...
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