Charlene Cieslik, Advisor, AML and Compliance
July 9th, 2018
Charlene Cieslik is the Chief Anti Money Laundering Officer of Coinsquare, Canada's most secure digi[...]
Swiss watchdog to propose looser anti-money laundering rules for fintechs
Reuters | Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi | Aug 28, 2018
ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss financial regulator FINMA is planning to loosen anti-money laundering rules for smaller financial technology firms, part of a drive to boost innovation and shore up the country’s position as a leading money management hub.The revisions, prompted by a new ‘fintech’ licensing category carved out by the Swiss parliament in June, will clarify how non-banks applying for the new license must ensure due diligence.
“As a rule, all financial institutions are subject to similar due-diligence requirements relating to combating money laundering. However, as most fintech license applicants are likely to be smaller institutions, FINMA proposes to introduce some organizational relaxations for such institutions,” the financial supervisor said in a statement on Tuesday.
Its proposal defines small institutions as those with gross revenues under 1.5 million Swiss francs ($1.5 million).
Under its terms small institutions, unlike banks, will not for instance have to establish an independent anti-money laundering unit with monitoring duties, it said.
The move comes after Switzerland’s parliament voted in June to amend the Swiss Banking Act, creating a new fintech license category to ease rules imposed on financial endeavors that take in funds and provide certain bank-like functions, but do not make money by investing or receiving interest on the funds.
See: Comprehensive Overview of Fintech in Switzerland H1 2018
Switzerland, the world’s largest center for offshore wealth, has gained prominence in recent years as a hub for financial technology providers, such as banking software groups Temenos (TEMN.S) and Avaloq AVLN.S, as well as cryptocurrency projects.
But advocates have warned that as banks face increasing margin pressure and tougher competition from technological rivals, more must be done to promote innovation if Switzerland is to remain a leading financial hub.
The new license, intended to promote financial innovation, will apply to groups which accept public deposits of up to 100 million francs but don’t invest the funds or pay interest.
It will likely have the biggest immediate impact on activities such as crowdfunding, which under current rules could often require a banking license.
Cryptocurrency projects — which often fall under anti-money laundering or securities regulations under FINMA’s current guidelines but generally don’t require a banking license — are unlikely to be affected by the changes.
Continue to the full article --> here
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Read More
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Read More
Read More
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Read More
Read More
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Read More
Read More
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Read More
Read More
Forbes | Michael del Castillo | Sep 17, 2018 People keep asking me, what’s the deal with stablecoins? With two prominent regulatory approvals to issue the blockchain-based tokens, many have heralded them as the next evolution of cryptocurrency, while others say they’re perfect evidence of why no one ever needed cryptocurrency in the first place. On a basic level, a stablecoin is a token that has a mechanism in place to minimize its price fluctuations. Unlike traditional cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether, which are directly tied to their wildly fluctuating demand, a stablecoin can rely on four methods to constrain its fluctuations. See: One SEC commissioner is establishing herself as the voice of innovation for the crypto market The first and by far most popular way to achieve this stability is to peg the price of the token to a more stable asset like the U.S. dollar. This is what both the Gemini and Paxos cryptocurrency exchanges received permission to do from the New York Department of Financial Services last week. Unlike bitcoin and ethereum, which are created through a mining process that also ensures the blockchain’s accuracy, these stablecoins are only created when someone buys them with U.S. dollars. Gemini and Paxos ...
Read More
Read More
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Read More
Read More
Bloomberg | By Natalie Wong and Gerrit De Vynck | June 20, 2018 A cryptocurrency baron has bought the largest and one of the most expensive condos in Canada, paying for it partly with digital money. Anthony Di Iorio purchased the three-story penthouse for C$28 million ($21 million) at the St. Regis Residences Toronto, the former Trump International Hotel & Tower in the downtown business district. The unit totals 16,178 square feet (1,502 square meters) and includes a wrap-around patio overlooking the city’s skyline at the corner of Bay and Adelaide Streets. Di Iorio didn’t take out a mortgage for the property because he doesn’t “like being in debt.” Instead, he cashed out some of his cryptocurrency and made a wire transfer to pay the price. “I don’t remember exactly which ones I cashed in but this is my safety net, real estate right?” he said in an interview with Bloomberg at his new condo. He now owns two condos units in Toronto for a total investment of about C$34 million, he said. “I decided to take a bunch out and put it in real estate.” The hotel is owned by InnVest Hotels LP and operated by Marriott International Inc. as ...
Read More
Read More
Computer Weekly | Karl Flinders | Sep 13, 2018 A Tech Nation programme to support the UK's financial technology startups demonstrates the increasingly diverse range of business-to-business products and services available through the country's fintech community Financial technology (fintech) is providing a market where IT professionals in the finance sector and beyond can find answers to their business challenges through specialist tech startups. UK-based CIOs have the benefit of having these fintech startups on their doorstep. UK government-backed startup network Tech Nation has selected 20 such fintech startups to take part in a five-month programme that aims to scale up early-stage companies. The programme’s business-to-business (B2B) focus demonstrates that beyond the high-profile digital challenger banks and payments companies targeting consumers with funky apps, there is a deep source of niche financial services IT innovation in the UK. Fintech solutions begin life as an idea about how to use technology to solve a particular financial services problem. The speed of software development today means products can quickly follow. See: UK Government Ups Crowdfunding without Prospectus to €8 Million – Matching Germany But the challenges really begin when it comes to turning a great idea into a commercial success. This is where the likes ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Enrique Dans | Sep 5, 2018 The growing popularity of fintech and the emergence of competitors in different phases of the cycle, from new banks such as Germany’s N26 to partial service providers such as Revolut and others, or niche competitors such as Shine, highlights not just the inability of traditional banking to compete with them, but even to understand the most basic implications of the phenomenon. The banks’ problem is not competing with these types of companies, or at least, not for now. We talking here about vastly different magnitudes, of scale: a service with strong growth like Revolut, for example, expects to reach three million customers by next month, which is nothing to Santander’s more than 113 million customers in more than ten countries worldwide. The idea that fintech companies represent some kind of threat seems absurd, seen in the context of size. Obviously, this does not mean that the traditional banks should ignore the phenomenon — and they aren’t. Ignoring change and hoping that size will continue to matter is risky. The big banks are aware that the growth of the fintech phenomenon is mainly due to their own shortcomings, to the strong tendency towards industry isomorphism, ...
Read More
Read More
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