David Durand, Advisor, Innovation and Advocacy
September 9th, 2020
David Durand, LL.L., B.Sc. chem., – Founder and Managing Partner of Durand Lawyers – Lawyer (Québec)[...]
SEC wants big data tools for monitoring and enforcing cryptocurrency market compliance
Modern Consensus | ,
Move is latest series of steps by regulator to bring clarity and less confrontational approach to regulations enforcement
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants to know if the technology to help it monitor major cryptocurrency blockchains for risk and regulatory compliance issues exists.
The SEC is not looking to buy big data analytics tools at this time, but characterizes its interest as “conducting market research to determine the availability and technical capability,” of the tools presently available on the market, it announced in a notice on Jan. 31
What the SEC wants to know about is the “ability to provide the requested data but also an overview of the processes used to extract the data, convert the data into a reviewable format, and the verification steps to ensure there is no loss in data completeness and accuracy due to the data transformation tools and processes applied.”
The software it wants would also make the data easy for SEC staff to read and understand on an ongoing basis, and would provide insights about that data—notably identifying who the data belongs to—as well as a way of ensuring the data is accurate and complete.
See: Designing a data transformation that delivers value right from the start
The request is the latest in a series of recent moves that underline the agency’s commitment to bringing order, clarity, and oversight to the regulation of the cryptocurrency and digital asset market, as well as moving away from the confrontational approach that have characterized its actions in recent years. The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) identified digital assets as one of its priorities for 2019, including firms’ portfolio management, internal controls, and asset security among its focuses.
The SEC recently promised “plain English” guidance for developers and investors that will make clear if their cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICO) qualify as securities under the law, according to “The Distributed Ledger: Blockchain, Digital Assets and Smart Contracts,”
a report issued in November 2018 by the white shoe law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom.
That recent promise by William Hinman, director of corporation finance at the SEC, highlights what Skadden calls the agency’s “recent efforts to encourage engagement and collaboration with developers regarding their blockchain-related projects rather than emphasizing enforcement actions.”
Continue to the full article --> here
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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2020 FINTECH DRAFT PITCHING AND DEMO COMPANY WINNERS!   |
Nuvei | Press Release | Sep 23, 2020 Philip Fayer took little time to celebrate after his Montreal payments company Nuvei Corp. closed its $833-million initial public offering, the largest the Toronto Stock Exchange has ever seen in the technology sector. "People will find this crazy, but I was online the next morning at 6 a.m. like I am every day," he said. "I always like to live forward, not backward … I am more excited about what's coming than what happened." The company he founded 17 years ago when looking for payment options for another business he was involved in raised aggregate gross proceeds of US$805 million — US$730 million for Nuvei and US$75 million for shareholder Novacap Management Inc. — from offering up more than 30 million subordinate voting shares at US$26 per share last week. Along with the IPO, Nuvei closed a direct private placement of more than 1 million subordinate voting shares, generating an additional US$28.4 million in gross proceeds. See: Ant Plans $17.5 Billion Hong Kong IPO, No Cornerstones Nuvei first hoped to raise US$600 million, but the IPO was oversubscribed by 20 per cent and then its 14 underwriters bought more than four million ...
Read More
Bitcoin.com | Kevin Helms | Sep 26, 2020 The Federal Reserve Board of Governors and several Federal Reserve Banks are actively working on the digital dollar. Legislation has proposed that each American could have an account at the Fed for transacting in the central bank digital currency. Several Digital Dollar Initiatives The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Loretta J. Mester, outlined the Fed’s work on the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) during a speech at the 20th Anniversary Chicago Payments Symposium on Wednesday. Noting that the experience with emergency payments led by the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the work in this area, Mester detailed: Legislation has proposed that each American has an account at the Fed in which digital dollars could be deposited, as liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks, which could be used for emergency payments. She added that “Other proposals would create a new payments instrument, digital cash, which would be just like the physical currency issued by central banks today, but in a digital form and, potentially, without the anonymity of physical currency.” Mester explained that some designs of the digital dollar allow the central bank to directly issue the CBDC into end ...
Read More
Bloomberg | Lulu Yilun Chen | Sep 23, 2020 Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co. is seeking to raise $17.5 billion in its Hong Kong share sale and won’t seek to lock in cornerstone investors, confident there will be plenty of demand for one of the largest equity deals in the financial hub, according to people familiar with the matter. The fintech giant has assessed investor interest, betting it can pull off the Hong Kong portion of the initial public offering without cornerstone investors that are often needed for large deals, according to the people. Ant is leaning toward inviting these big investors for the Shanghai sale to mitigate price fluctuations, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The Hangzhou-based firm is planning to issue new stock equal to about 11% to 15% of the shares outstanding and split the float evenly between Hong Kong and Shanghai, the people added. Ant is mulling what could be the world’s largest IPO, seeking to raise about $35 billion in the dual listing at a valuation of about $250 billion, people familiar have said. See: Exclusive: Ant Financial shifts focus from finance to tech services: sources Plans are ...
Read More
OSFI | Release | Sep 15, 2020 OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 15, 2020 /CNW/ - Today the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) launched a three-month consultation with the publication of a discussion paper, Developing financial sector resilience in a digital world. The paper focuses on risks arising from rapid technological advancement and digitalization, as these trends impact the stability of the Canadian financial sector. This consultation supports OSFI's strategic objective to ensure that federally-regulated financial institutions and pension plans are better prepared to identify and develop resilience to non-financial risks before they negatively affect their financial condition. While technology is a key enabler for financial institutions and financial consumers, its widespread use and rapid adoption can pose risks in many different areas of the business if not properly understood and managed. See: Fintech & Cybersecurity: Key Risks and Solutions Cyberattacks now cost small companies $200,000 on average, putting many out of business Cybersecurity Body of Knowledge Understanding the financial sector's use of technology and how technology risks are managed is central to this consultation. OSFI's discussion paper focuses on the risk areas of cyber security, advanced analytics (artificial intelligence and machine learning), and the use of third party services ...
Read More
Wealth Professional | James Burton |Sep 23, 2020 Robo-advisor trumpets easy-to-use, transparent and safe product, which is now open to investors Weathsimple Crypto went live yesterday, with more than 130,000 Canadians having signed on to the waitlist since the product was announced last month. The digital platform is offering commission-free trading of the two largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, through a mobile trading app. The robo-advisor believes it will make a largely complex and inaccessible asset class more inclusive and easy to use. There is no minimum account size, no charges for deposits or withdrawals, and no extra hidden costs. Wealthsimple CEO Mike Katchen told WP that its primary arim is to be simple and accessible. He said: “You don’t need to be an expert in cryptocurrency or blockchain to use this platform. It’s geared toward people who are interested in learning more or dipping their toes into crypto trading. The other big one is that the pricing is transparent. The price you see when you tap buy is what you pay — no extra hidden costs. There’s no minimum account size, and we don’t charge for deposits or withdrawals. Watch FFCON20 Video: Wealthsimple's Road to Regulatory Crypto Approval and What it Means ...
Read More
Global Risk Institute | Markos Zachariadis, University of Manchester | Sep 24, 2020 Executive Summary: Data-sharing frameworks in financial services: Discussing open banking regulation for Canada Data-sharing frameworks in financial services are becoming increasingly prevalent with the potential to shape drastically the future of banking and finance. As data assets are of strategic importance to financial institutions and central to their ‘datafication’ and digital transformation processes, sharing and accessing new data can alter the dynamics of competition and lead to the emergence of new players as well as nascent markets. Innovative technologies such as application programming interfaces (APIs) can help simplify data communication between systems and thus standardize the exchange of information between organizations allowing them to experiment with new, more open, business models. APIs also give the ability to effectively control openness and orchestrate ecosystems of third-parties that can add value to organizations’ supply chain and end users. Having said that, the deployment of open APIs in financial services raises numerous questions regarding the appropriate regulatory (or not) framework and infrastructure for opening up data in the banking sector. See: Open Banking – North American Style Explore Fintechs in Canada Sign-up for NCFA's Weekly & Insights Newsletter The current ...
Read More
Betakit | Meagan Simpson | Sep 23, 2020 Neo Financial, the new Canadian FinTech startup focused on challenging the status quo in banking, has begun rolling out its services in Western Canada. Neo Financial is a Prairies-based startup created by SkipTheDishes founders Andrew Chau and Jeff Adamson, alongside Kris Read. It is the newest challenger bank entrant into the Canadian financial market and is on a mission to re-imagine everyday banking. After spending the first year and a half of its existence building out its tech and banking infrastructure, Neo has officially brought its financial services offering to market. Over the last couple of weeks, Neo began offering its savings account, Mastercard, and merchant rewards program to a select number of individuals on its 30,000-plus waitlist. With a current focus on Western Canada, Neo hopes to have its products available across Canada later this year. See: Open banking would help the recovery Refusal to embrace open banking puts Canada behind yet another curve C.D. Howe Institute Report: Open Banking Holds Promise, Risks for Consumers Rebank Podcast: How to Build a Profitable Digital Bank with Tinkoff Chau, Neo’s CEO, recently spoke to BetaKit about the startup’s go-to-market strategy and its goal ...
Read More
MarketWatch | Jonathan Burton | Sep 18, 2020 Veteran hedge-fund manager says capitalists don’t divide the economic pie well, so the system isn’t working effectively for all Ray Dalio certainly is no radical idealist, but in his frequent writings and media appearances the veteran investor consistently calls for Americans to rewrite their longstanding contract with capitalism so that it is fairer and more generous to more people. Otherwise, he predicts, life in the U.S. could become more difficult: mountainous debt that stunts economic growth; fewer opportunities for ordinary citizens to get ahead financially; and a worldwide lack of trust in the U.S. dollar that diminishes Americans’ purchasing power and could lower their standard of living. Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, which has made him a billionaire. So it’s not surprising that he champions capitalism as a proven way to expand economic growth and living standards. “Capitalism and capitalists are good at increasing and producing productivity to increase the size of the economic pie,” he says. Then Dalio stands this tenet on its head. Capitalists don’t divide the economic pie very well, he says, and so today the capitalist system, the foundation of the ...
Read More
Investment Executive | James Langton | Sep 21, 2020 Sweeping recommendations to reform Ontario’s securities laws are facing a barrage of criticism from certain corners of Bay Street. The Ontario Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce, which began its review of the province’s securities laws in February, published its draft recommendations in July. The task force aims to deliver its final recommendations to the government by the end of the year, despite conducting most of its consultations amid a global pandemic. The task force’s work has been remarkable for both its speed and its ambition, but critics say the group’s recommendations are ill-conceived, threaten investor protection and could undermine the province’s efforts for more vibrant capital markets. The task force’s July report proposes a series of reforms largely designed to stoke growth in the capital markets. In addition to the Ontario Securities Commission’s (OSC) traditional priorities of investor protection and ensuring fair and efficient markets, the task force proposes expanding the regulator’s mandate to include an obligation to foster capital formation and competition. The task force also recommends overhauling Ontario’s existing regulatory structure, easing a variety of constraints on raising capital, remodelling proxy voting and corporate governance, and revisiting enforcement and investor ...
Read More
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Press Release | Sep 21, 2020 WASHINGTON—The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today published a letter clarifying national banks' and federal savings associations' authority to hold "reserves" on behalf of customers who issue certain stablecoins. Stablecoins refer to cryptocurrency backed by an asset such as a fiat currency, including U.S. dollars or other foreign currency. "National banks and federal savings associations currently engage in stablecoin-related activities involving billions of dollars each day," Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian P. Brooks said. "This opinion provides greater regulatory certainty for banks within the federal banking system to provide those client services in a safe and sound manner." See: Stablecoins: Experience the Stability Visa’s digital dollar concept opens a door to central bank currencies FFCON20 Video: Future of CBDCs, Digital Assets and Trading Virtual Panel via Toronto Centre (Apr 17): Using Stable Coins to Facilitate Financial Stability and Inclusion Under Unprecedented Times The letter responds to questions regarding the application of stablecoin-related bank activities. It concludes national banks and federal savings associations may hold "reserves" on behalf of customers who issue stablecoins, in situations where the coins are held in hosted wallets. The ...
Read More
Nuvei | Press Release | Sep 23, 2020 Philip Fayer took little time to celebrate after his Montreal payments company Nuvei Corp. closed its $833-million initial public offering, the largest the Toronto Stock Exchange has ever seen in the technology sector. "People will find this crazy, but I was online the next morning at 6 a.m. like I am every day," he said. "I always like to live forward, not backward … I am more excited about what's coming than what happened." The company he founded 17 years ago when looking for payment options for another business he was involved in raised aggregate gross proceeds of US$805 million — US$730 million for Nuvei and US$75 million for shareholder Novacap Management Inc. — from offering up more than 30 million subordinate voting shares at US$26 per share last week. Along with the IPO, Nuvei closed a direct private placement of more than 1 million subordinate voting shares, generating an additional US$28.4 million in gross proceeds. See: Ant Plans $17.5 Billion Hong Kong IPO, No Cornerstones Nuvei first hoped to raise US$600 million, but the IPO was oversubscribed by 20 per cent and then its 14 underwriters bought more than four million ...
Read More
Read More
Bitcoin.com | Kevin Helms | Sep 26, 2020 The Federal Reserve Board of Governors and several Federal Reserve Banks are actively working on the digital dollar. Legislation has proposed that each American could have an account at the Fed for transacting in the central bank digital currency. Several Digital Dollar Initiatives The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Loretta J. Mester, outlined the Fed’s work on the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) during a speech at the 20th Anniversary Chicago Payments Symposium on Wednesday. Noting that the experience with emergency payments led by the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the work in this area, Mester detailed: Legislation has proposed that each American has an account at the Fed in which digital dollars could be deposited, as liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks, which could be used for emergency payments. She added that “Other proposals would create a new payments instrument, digital cash, which would be just like the physical currency issued by central banks today, but in a digital form and, potentially, without the anonymity of physical currency.” Mester explained that some designs of the digital dollar allow the central bank to directly issue the CBDC into end ...
Read More
Read More
Bloomberg | Lulu Yilun Chen | Sep 23, 2020 Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co. is seeking to raise $17.5 billion in its Hong Kong share sale and won’t seek to lock in cornerstone investors, confident there will be plenty of demand for one of the largest equity deals in the financial hub, according to people familiar with the matter. The fintech giant has assessed investor interest, betting it can pull off the Hong Kong portion of the initial public offering without cornerstone investors that are often needed for large deals, according to the people. Ant is leaning toward inviting these big investors for the Shanghai sale to mitigate price fluctuations, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The Hangzhou-based firm is planning to issue new stock equal to about 11% to 15% of the shares outstanding and split the float evenly between Hong Kong and Shanghai, the people added. Ant is mulling what could be the world’s largest IPO, seeking to raise about $35 billion in the dual listing at a valuation of about $250 billion, people familiar have said. See: Exclusive: Ant Financial shifts focus from finance to tech services: sources Plans are ...
Read More
Read More
OSFI | Release | Sep 15, 2020 OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 15, 2020 /CNW/ - Today the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) launched a three-month consultation with the publication of a discussion paper, Developing financial sector resilience in a digital world. The paper focuses on risks arising from rapid technological advancement and digitalization, as these trends impact the stability of the Canadian financial sector. This consultation supports OSFI's strategic objective to ensure that federally-regulated financial institutions and pension plans are better prepared to identify and develop resilience to non-financial risks before they negatively affect their financial condition. While technology is a key enabler for financial institutions and financial consumers, its widespread use and rapid adoption can pose risks in many different areas of the business if not properly understood and managed. See: Fintech & Cybersecurity: Key Risks and Solutions Cyberattacks now cost small companies $200,000 on average, putting many out of business Cybersecurity Body of Knowledge Understanding the financial sector's use of technology and how technology risks are managed is central to this consultation. OSFI's discussion paper focuses on the risk areas of cyber security, advanced analytics (artificial intelligence and machine learning), and the use of third party services ...
Read More
Read More
Wealth Professional | James Burton |Sep 23, 2020 Robo-advisor trumpets easy-to-use, transparent and safe product, which is now open to investors Weathsimple Crypto went live yesterday, with more than 130,000 Canadians having signed on to the waitlist since the product was announced last month. The digital platform is offering commission-free trading of the two largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, through a mobile trading app. The robo-advisor believes it will make a largely complex and inaccessible asset class more inclusive and easy to use. There is no minimum account size, no charges for deposits or withdrawals, and no extra hidden costs. Wealthsimple CEO Mike Katchen told WP that its primary arim is to be simple and accessible. He said: “You don’t need to be an expert in cryptocurrency or blockchain to use this platform. It’s geared toward people who are interested in learning more or dipping their toes into crypto trading. The other big one is that the pricing is transparent. The price you see when you tap buy is what you pay — no extra hidden costs. There’s no minimum account size, and we don’t charge for deposits or withdrawals. Watch FFCON20 Video: Wealthsimple's Road to Regulatory Crypto Approval and What it Means ...
Read More
Read More
Global Risk Institute | Markos Zachariadis, University of Manchester | Sep 24, 2020 Executive Summary: Data-sharing frameworks in financial services: Discussing open banking regulation for Canada Data-sharing frameworks in financial services are becoming increasingly prevalent with the potential to shape drastically the future of banking and finance. As data assets are of strategic importance to financial institutions and central to their ‘datafication’ and digital transformation processes, sharing and accessing new data can alter the dynamics of competition and lead to the emergence of new players as well as nascent markets. Innovative technologies such as application programming interfaces (APIs) can help simplify data communication between systems and thus standardize the exchange of information between organizations allowing them to experiment with new, more open, business models. APIs also give the ability to effectively control openness and orchestrate ecosystems of third-parties that can add value to organizations’ supply chain and end users. Having said that, the deployment of open APIs in financial services raises numerous questions regarding the appropriate regulatory (or not) framework and infrastructure for opening up data in the banking sector. See: Open Banking – North American Style Explore Fintechs in Canada Sign-up for NCFA's Weekly & Insights Newsletter The current ...
Read More
Read More
Betakit | Meagan Simpson | Sep 23, 2020 Neo Financial, the new Canadian FinTech startup focused on challenging the status quo in banking, has begun rolling out its services in Western Canada. Neo Financial is a Prairies-based startup created by SkipTheDishes founders Andrew Chau and Jeff Adamson, alongside Kris Read. It is the newest challenger bank entrant into the Canadian financial market and is on a mission to re-imagine everyday banking. After spending the first year and a half of its existence building out its tech and banking infrastructure, Neo has officially brought its financial services offering to market. Over the last couple of weeks, Neo began offering its savings account, Mastercard, and merchant rewards program to a select number of individuals on its 30,000-plus waitlist. With a current focus on Western Canada, Neo hopes to have its products available across Canada later this year. See: Open banking would help the recovery Refusal to embrace open banking puts Canada behind yet another curve C.D. Howe Institute Report: Open Banking Holds Promise, Risks for Consumers Rebank Podcast: How to Build a Profitable Digital Bank with Tinkoff Chau, Neo’s CEO, recently spoke to BetaKit about the startup’s go-to-market strategy and its goal ...
Read More
Read More
MarketWatch | Jonathan Burton | Sep 18, 2020 Veteran hedge-fund manager says capitalists don’t divide the economic pie well, so the system isn’t working effectively for all Ray Dalio certainly is no radical idealist, but in his frequent writings and media appearances the veteran investor consistently calls for Americans to rewrite their longstanding contract with capitalism so that it is fairer and more generous to more people. Otherwise, he predicts, life in the U.S. could become more difficult: mountainous debt that stunts economic growth; fewer opportunities for ordinary citizens to get ahead financially; and a worldwide lack of trust in the U.S. dollar that diminishes Americans’ purchasing power and could lower their standard of living. Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, which has made him a billionaire. So it’s not surprising that he champions capitalism as a proven way to expand economic growth and living standards. “Capitalism and capitalists are good at increasing and producing productivity to increase the size of the economic pie,” he says. Then Dalio stands this tenet on its head. Capitalists don’t divide the economic pie very well, he says, and so today the capitalist system, the foundation of the ...
Read More
Read More
Investment Executive | James Langton | Sep 21, 2020 Sweeping recommendations to reform Ontario’s securities laws are facing a barrage of criticism from certain corners of Bay Street. The Ontario Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce, which began its review of the province’s securities laws in February, published its draft recommendations in July. The task force aims to deliver its final recommendations to the government by the end of the year, despite conducting most of its consultations amid a global pandemic. The task force’s work has been remarkable for both its speed and its ambition, but critics say the group’s recommendations are ill-conceived, threaten investor protection and could undermine the province’s efforts for more vibrant capital markets. The task force’s July report proposes a series of reforms largely designed to stoke growth in the capital markets. In addition to the Ontario Securities Commission’s (OSC) traditional priorities of investor protection and ensuring fair and efficient markets, the task force proposes expanding the regulator’s mandate to include an obligation to foster capital formation and competition. The task force also recommends overhauling Ontario’s existing regulatory structure, easing a variety of constraints on raising capital, remodelling proxy voting and corporate governance, and revisiting enforcement and investor ...
Read More
Read More
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Press Release | Sep 21, 2020 WASHINGTON—The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today published a letter clarifying national banks' and federal savings associations' authority to hold "reserves" on behalf of customers who issue certain stablecoins. Stablecoins refer to cryptocurrency backed by an asset such as a fiat currency, including U.S. dollars or other foreign currency. "National banks and federal savings associations currently engage in stablecoin-related activities involving billions of dollars each day," Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian P. Brooks said. "This opinion provides greater regulatory certainty for banks within the federal banking system to provide those client services in a safe and sound manner." See: Stablecoins: Experience the Stability Visa’s digital dollar concept opens a door to central bank currencies FFCON20 Video: Future of CBDCs, Digital Assets and Trading Virtual Panel via Toronto Centre (Apr 17): Using Stable Coins to Facilitate Financial Stability and Inclusion Under Unprecedented Times The letter responds to questions regarding the application of stablecoin-related bank activities. It concludes national banks and federal savings associations may hold "reserves" on behalf of customers who issue stablecoins, in situations where the coins are held in hosted wallets. The ...
Read More
Read More
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