Public Policy Forum | Robert Asselin and Sean Speer | April 4, 2019

Rise of the intangibles

We need a new competitiveness consensus

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

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2020 FINTECH DRAFT PITCHING AND DEMO COMPANY WINNERS!

NCFA OpEd: Canada’s Open Banking Consultations: Let’s Get it Done!

December 3, 2020

NCFA Canada | Dec 3, 2020 Open banking is about giving Canadians control over their banking data to allow them to take advantage of data-driven financial services offered by third parties. But what exactly does that mean? Imagine giving Canada Post the key to your house to deliver a parcel, rather than leaving it securely in a mailbox. The same situation may happen when sharing your banking data with a third-party. While some provide a secure mailbox accessed using an application programming interface, other require consumers to divulge their user name and password to a stranger. Open banking regulation would provide consumers with a secure and standardized way to share data and access valuable financial advice, products or services. This week Finance Canada’s Open Banking Advisory Committee (OBAC) is holding the second phase of consultations. OBAC is meeting with banks and financial institutions, financial technology (fintech) companies, industry associations, and other stakeholders coast-to-coast. Five three-hour sessions take place from November 30 to December 17 to review the proposed framework, covering data standards, privacy, cybersecurity, accreditation, and more. See:  MOF: Consumer-directed finance: the future of financial services This is welcome news after the almost two-year delay since the first consultations were ...
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Liquid Avatar and The KABN Network Launch Cloud-based Biometric Identity Verification for Self Sovereign Identity, Digital Wallets and Verified Credentials

December 2, 2020

KABN | Cara Buckspan | Dec 2, 2020 Biometric Solutions match user identity independently of mobile phones, tablets and computers, allowing transportability and safety of digital wallets and credentials across Internet enabled devices TORONTO, ON and GIBRALTAR / ACCESSWIRE / December 2, 2020 / The KABN Network together with KABN Systems NA Holdings Corp. (CSE:KABN) (the "Company" or "KABN North America"), a Canadian fintech company that specializes in continuous online identity verification, management and monetization in Canada and the US, today announces that its cloud-based biometric solutions will now be available on its digital identity management platform, Liquid Avatar (www.liquidavatar.com) enabling a further layer of identity verification that is independent of a user's device. "With more traditional services, like healthcare, education, verified purchasing and government services expanding online, we developed Liquid Avatar to allow users to use their verified identity to share what they want, when they want and with whom they want in an easy to use visually-enabled platform," said David Lucatch, CEO KABN North America. "Our goal is to reduce and, in some cases, eliminate the need to remember passwords or to present physical credentials in an ever expanding digital landscape. We hope to empower users to seamlessly ...
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[CB Insights Report]: How Robinhood Makes Money

December 2, 2020

CB Insights | Dec 2, 2020 Robinhood has made investing accessible for even the most inexperienced first-time investors. But while it has attracted millions of users with its no-fee, gamified approach, critics argue that the company's business model is not without risk.  Almost overnight, Robinhood gave millions of first-time investors easy access to the stock markets by making trading simple and, perhaps more importantly, free. Since it launched in 2013, Robinhood has become one of the most popular and influential fintech apps in the world, growing to more than 13M users. With a valuation of over $11B, the company makes much of its revenue from razor-thin margins on vast volumes of individual trades — a business model that is as lucrative as it is potentially precarious. How Robinhood Works Robinhood’s primary means of driving revenue is making very small amounts of money on individual trades at scale.  It does this by attracting large numbers of users using incentives such as “free” stocks and commission-free trading, retaining those users and encouraging trading activity via behavioral triggers in the app, and earning razor-thin margins on those trades through a process known as payment for order flow (PFOF). See:  Robinhood Reportedly Hit By ...
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Canada “AIMS” to raise the bar for AI development and use through standardization

December 2, 2020

SCC | Nov 10, 2020 Artificial Intelligence is a moving target when it comes to standardization. AI is progressing at a breakneck speed and expanding its reach worldwide as it becomes broadly incorporated into products and services. Virtually any emerging technology requires standards to provide the foundation for safety, performance, and interoperability, but AI has additional opportunities and threats associated with its use calling immediately for standards to be set. See:  FFCON20 Week 7 Wrap-up: Artificial Intelligence in Fintech AI is a particularly complex technology since it can be used for information gathering, analysis, decision-making, and automation, and users are often unaware AI is driving it. For example, algorithms execute AI-based advertising on platforms like Facebook, targeting users according to their past and predicted-future behaviour. These systems do not automatically consider issues such as bias, discrimination, ethics, privacy, and human health and safety when they direct users to information or offer solutions. The Canadian Mirror Committee to JTC 1/SC 42 Artificial Intelligence “AIMS” to help. The committee has successfully advanced a project proposal for the first conformity assessment standard for AI at ISO/IEC, having garnered unanimous international support in the ballot. The Artificial Intelligence Management System (AIMS) standard will enable ...
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Tax alert: Fiscal update includes tax changes for Netflix, stock options and working from home

December 1, 2020

The Globe and Mail | Matt Lundy and Mark Rendell | Nov 30, 2020 The federal government’s fall economic update included a series of tax proposals that carry implications for businesses and households. If enacted, the measures will cost you more to watch The Crown, but allow simpler deductions for the many Canadians currently working from home. Ottawa is looking to raise revenue in the coming years via the digital economy. Through a series of proposed taxes on digital goods and services, the federal government aims to raise $6.5-billion over the next five fiscal years (ending in 2025-26). Some of that would come from adding sales taxes to digital services such as Netflix, which currently doesn’t charge such taxes at the federal level. The bulk would come from a corporate tax on Big Tech companies, although details are coming next year. Canada, like many other countries, is working with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on a multilateral plan. However, Ottawa is “concerned about the delay in arriving at consensus” – hence the reason it’s prepared to go alone. Digital taxes Ottawa is looking to raise around $2.8-billion over the next five years by forcing foreign digital companies and e-commerce ...
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ServiceNow is acquiring Element AI, the Canadian startup building AI services for enterprises

December 1, 2020

TechCrunch | Ingrid Lunden | Nov 30, 2020 ServiceNow, the cloud-based IT services company, is making a significant acquisition today to fill out its longer-term strategy to be a big player in the worlds of automation and artificial intelligence for enterprises. It is acquiring Element AI, a startup out of Canada. Founded by AI pioneers and backed by some of the world’s biggest AI companies — it raised hundreds of millions of dollars from the likes of Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia and Tencent, among others — Element AI’s aim was to build and provision AI-based IT services for enterprises, in many cases organizations that are not technology companies by nature. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed, a spokesperson told TechCrunch, but we now have multiple sources telling us the price was around $500 million. For some context, Element AI was valued at between $600 million and $700 million when it last raised money, $151 million (or C$200 million at the time) in September 2019. See:  Element AI: The market is still figuring out how to share data with enterprise AI startups Even at $500 million, this deal would be ServiceNow’s biggest acquisition, although it would be a sizeable devaluation ...
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The future of European payments: Strategic choices for banks

December 1, 2020

McKinsey & Company and Euro Banking Association | Nov 24, 2020 Payments and accounts services are at the core of banks’ offering to customers. They contributed about a third of European banks’ total revenues in 2019 (Exhibit 1), and represent banks’ leading source of customer interactions. Banks’ payments revenues have grown steadily at about 3 percent per year over the past six years. However, some specialist payments providers—processors, acquirers, schemes, and others—have achieved double-digit growth rates over the same period (Exhibit 2). This suggests that banks’ traditional role at the centre of the payments ecosystem may be coming under challenge. High ambitions, significant challenges Almost two-thirds of the executives and experts who were surveyed as part of a joint effort undertaken by McKinsey & Company and the Euro Banking Association between November 2019 and November 2020, believe that banks will continue to be the leading players in European payments over the next five years. See:  Fintech Fridays EP46: Making Business Borderless: International Payments and Partnerships However, survey respondents and interviewees identified a number of challenges faced by banks. These included increasing competition (especially from tech companies and fintechs), the rise of technologies that could allow other payments providers to come ...
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The EU is hoping to create one of the most innovation-friendly regulatory regimes for blockchain technology globally

November 30, 2020

Lakestar | Insights | Nov 30, 2020 In September 2020, the European Commission proposed a comprehensive legislative package for crypto assets and blockchain technology as part of its broader European Digital Finance Strategy. Pēteris Zilgalvis, one of the key contributors to the proposal, provides insightful context to the current draft and makes a bold invitation for industry participants to contribute and provide feedback. Lakestar Partner Nicolas Brand in conversation with Pēteris Zilgalvis, Head of the Digital Innovation and Blockchain Unit at DG Connect within the European Commission. Pēteris has been working for over 25 years at the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the World Bank. Originally with a background in environmental law, he started covering financial markets, cryptocurrencies and blockchain innovation in 2013, when he was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. He is also co-chair of the European Commission’s Fintech task force. Today we want to talk about two legislative packages recently proposed by the European Commission. First, regulation on Markets in Crypto Assets – or MiCA – and second, a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology. Both proposals together are 206 PDF pages full of content and thought leadership. Can ...
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We’re the first neo-bank to break-even, says Starling Bank

November 26, 2020

AltFi | Daniel Lanyon | Nov 20, 2020 A boom in business banking has helped boost Starling Bank’s coffers. Strong momentum in new customer accounts and increasing revenues have prompted digital bank Starling to break even, according to a trading update for the three months to 31 October. Starling Bank, which was launched by Anne Boden five years ago, is the first ‘neo-bank’ to reach this milestone, the company said. In October Starling hit 1.42 million retail accounts compared to 827k, an increase of 71.7 per cent. Over the same period business accounts were the standout growth area with an increase of 245 per cent, from 74,000 to 256,000. Business accounts saw a 500 per cent increase in total deposits with the average amount held by SMEs also going up. Starling now has total customer deposits of c.£4bn. This has all helped Starling generate a positive operating profit of £0.8m for the month of October 2020, which represents £10.1m on an annualised basis. See:  Neobanks Can’t Fight the COVID-19 “Flight to Quality” Investment Crowdfunding Advocates Join to Launch New Fintech Startup GUARDD in Move to Boost Secondary Markets for Exempt Securities In total Starling generated total operating income of £9m for the month of October 2020. This, it adds, translates to an annualised revenue ...
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Investment Crowdfunding Advocates Join to Launch New Fintech Startup GUARDD in Move to Boost Secondary Markets for Exempt Securities

November 25, 2020

Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Nov 24, 2020 The exempt securities marketplace can be arcane and challenging to manage for entrepreneurs seeking to raise capital. The advent of online capital formation has helped to democratize access to capital as well as streamline securities offerings but hurdles do remain. A new startup co-founded by several prominent names in the investment crowdfunding industry seeks to facilitate secondary transactions for private securities. Sherwood “Woodie” Neiss, co-founder of Crowdfund Capital Advisors, Doug Ellenoff, Managing Partner of Manhattan law firm of Ellenoff, Grossman, and Schole, and Jim Dowd, founder and CEO of North Capital Private Securities, have joined to launch GUARDD:  A Fintech designed to support secondary market trading for private company securities, including digital assets/tokens to facilitate compliance with both federal transparency requirements and state blue sky laws. According to a note from the company, GUARDD enables the necessary disclosure and dissemination of private company information for investors, regulators, and market participants.  This allows issuers to comply with federal and state financial disclosure requirements related to the trading of private company securities in secondary markets, thus addressing a challenge regarding exempt securities that tend to be illiquid. Overall, more liquidity can help price discovery ...
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