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)[...]
The TD Ready Challenge – Application Deadline July 27
The TD Ready Challenge
The TD Ready Challenge is an annual North American initiative that has up to ten $1 million (CAD) grants available to catalyze innovative solutions for a changing world. Recipients will be organizations that have scalable solutions that will help open doors for a more inclusive and sustainable tomorrow.
This new signature initiative, created and funded by TD, is a key component to delivering on the bank’s new corporate citizenship platform, The Ready Commitment.
Each year, the TD Ready Challenge will invite eligible organizations to submit applications that offer solutions for a problem statement that is connected to one of the four drivers of change of the Ready Commitment: Financial Security, Vibrant Planet, Connected Communities and Better Health. The 2018 TD Ready Challenge Problem Statement focuses on Financial Security.
See: Most small business owners can’t pass a basic financial test
The 2018 Problem Statement: Financial Security
Technological acceleration is both an opportunity and a threat to financial security. The digital age has transformed the nature of work as employers continue to invest in technology and automation. In addition, part-time contracts and the gig economy have increasingly made income volatility a reality for many. These shifts create an urgent need to rethink skills development that will increase income stability and nurture a more inclusive economy.
How can your organization address the problem statement?
We know that the changing nature of work is a growing issue, but we’re confident that there are scalable solutions. That is why the 2018 TD Ready Challenge seeks to provide financial support to up to 10 eligible organizations with innovative solutions focused on helping create greater income stability in a changing world. TD welcomes solutions that will help prepare people for the economy of the future so that everyone can thrive.
The Grants:
Up to 10 one-time (CAD) $1 million grants are available.
Application Deadline: July 27,2018
View application requirements and details --> here
Click for News:
Alberta Securities Commission | Denise Weeres | Oct 29, 2020 ASC has just rolled out some new, plain language, Small Business web-content intended to help entrepreneurs and their advisors navigate the securities law requirements when raising capital through the sale of shares or other securities. It provides some key terms, frequently asked questions, overview of common capital raising exemptions, some tips and traps. Many factors are impacting and changing Alberta’s capital market and economy. Efforts are being taken to strengthen and to help expand and diversify the Alberta economy. There are a multitude of parties engaged in these strengthening and diversification efforts. The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) is Alberta’s securities regulator. We are responsible for protecting investors and fostering a fair and efficient capital market. The ASC supports these economic efforts by ensuring appropriate securities regulation that protects investors, and fosters a vibrant capital market that facilitates access to capital by Alberta businesses and investment opportunities for Alberta investors. Our goal is to find the right balance of appropriately protecting investors without unduly burdening the businesses trying to raise capital to build and grow. See: ASC adopts Start-up Crowdfunding Blanket Order By engaging with market participants, ASC staff can better understand ...
Read More
Biometric Update | Chris Burt | Oct 24, 2020 Biometric cards for payments, access control and digital identity in several regional markets featured prominently among the top news stories in the biometrics industry this week. A new partnership on biometric payment cards by Mastercard and Idemia is being launched with a pilot expected in Q4. The card will be offered under the name F.CODE Easy, and will be issued by Singapore-based MatchMove in the Asian region. A fingerprint access control card with proximity detection capabilities has been developed by Sentry Enterprises with an Ambiq microprocessor and Fingerprint Cards sensor modules. The card is intended to provide converged biometric access control for enhanced security in a wide range of verticals. See: KABN North America and Loop Insights Partner to Launch AI Driven Merchant and Consumer Rewards Programs, Secured by Biometrics and Blockchain Huduma Namba is moving toward the issuance of identification cards, which will be embedded with biometric data to enable authenticated access to government services. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to drive digital identity efforts in several different sectors, and apps utilizing facial recognition for the aviation and tourism industries involving Yoti, the Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum, and Onfido have been rolled out recently, ...
Read More
coindesk | Changpeng Zhao | Oct 29, 2020 DeFi, or decentralized finance, finally found its footing this year, with numerous DeFi tokens and protocols gaining widespread traction amongst crypto users. Powered by smart contract technology, innovations like yield farming have allowed everyday users to earn unprecedented interest on their crypto assets. DeFi is booming, and today the market is filled with all kinds of borrowing and lending protocols, many of which compete with one another on the basis of providing users with meteoric yields. See: Intro to yield farming and the latest developments in DeFi Today’s most promising DeFi apps all share a similar vision for the future: The creation of a divergent financial system where capital and data flows more equitably, shifting control away from institutions and towards the individual. However, the most popular DeFi apps are still dwarfed by most centralized exchanges, which wield outsized impact and influence within the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. The best centralized exchanges offer a compelling mix of user-friendly services that are more easily understood by end-users. Centralized products are easy to use and comprehend, and can be accessed using a web browser, desktop or mobile app. At earlier stages of development, it’s also easier to ...
Read More
TechRepublic | Scott Matteson | Oct 6, 2020 In my capacity as a system administrator, I've definitely seen the benefits of cloud services which my organization implemented before the pandemic. Not only do we rely on Microsoft 365 apps, we are safely and securely able to use local applications such as Microsoft Teams, which connect to cloud-based servers even while off the VPN. Two-factor authentication using tokens and certificates is a key enabler to this functionality. Efficient cloud operations wouldn't necessarily have saved all of the businesses that went broke, but they can indeed assist surviving companies where it counts. See: Hey bank, get onto my cloud! I talked with Josh Quint, senior director of cloud solutions provider ServerCentral Turing Group, a cloud and disaster recovery company, to learn more. Scott Matteson: How long do you recommend backups of data be retained? Josh Quint: We recommend maintaining a synthetic full backup plus six days forward incremental backups in a performance storage tier and maintaining a full backup for a rolling 28 days on a capacity storage tier. This provides two critical benefits: Companies will have the most-needed data readily available in case of an immediate need for a restore request. This will lower the total costs of the ...
Read More
crunchbase news | Christine Hall | Oct 21, 2020 As fintech companies mature, many no longer aspire to be the best at one thing. That could mean not only new revenue sources for fintech companies, but also additional venture capital to startups and even a surge in M&A activity. One example of a hot startup that has drawn attention from a big financial services company is San Francisco-based Plaid, an early fintech startup that manages the connections between apps and banks. Earlier this year, Visa agreed to acquire Plaid for $5.3 billion. See: How to Value a Fintech Startup Five years ago, that deal might not have happened. Early leading fintech brands like Lending Club, SoFi or Robinhood started out as “best-of-breeds,” essentially unbundling one aspect of financial services. Today, venture investors and leaders in the fintech space can visualize a future where such startups will move toward again rebundling services. In the 1990s and early 2000s, banks were emerging as one-stop shops, essentially building a “supermarket of financial services”. The early wave of fintech startups settled on taking one of those bank functions and executing better. “You can really only do one thing at a time as a startup, but if you do that really well and find product market ...
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 28, 2020 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), the leading research institute covering the global Fintech sector, has partnered with the World Bank on a study reviewing the impact of COVID-19 on Fintech and regulation. As finance is one of the most regulated sectors of industry in the world, the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis has affected the pace of regulatory innovation. The CCAF/World Bank research tallied responses from 118 central banks and other financial regulatory authorities in 114 jurisdictions worldwide, revealing that the majority of these institutions have accelerated change recognizing the benefits of Fintech during a time of economic duress. See: 5 Trends to Watch in Fintech Regulation According to CCAF, 72% of respondents have either accelerated or introduced initiatives on digital transformation with 58% having either accelerated or introduced initiatives regarding Regtech/Suptech. Additionally, 56% of respondents did so in regard to Fintech innovation offices. The Global COVID-19 FinTech Regulatory Rapid Assessment Study indicated that regulators in jurisdictions with higher Covid-19 requirements are more likely to have accelerated their regulatory sandbox initiatives (42%) compared to those in lower stringency jurisdictions (33%). The report notes that Fintech innovation can play a “vital role in extending the reach and ...
Read More
World Resources Institute | Rashid Sumaila, Mansi Konar, Ben Hart, and Melissa Walsh | Oct 21, 2020 The ocean is a cornerstone of the global economy and a critical source of resources for the world’s growing population. It provides food, jobs and livelihoods to over three billion people, facilitates global trade and creates a home for the nearly 2.4 billion people who live in coastal areas. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, forecasts suggested that the ocean economy could provide economic growth opportunities over the coming decade, creating $3 trillion annually in gross value added by 2030. However, investment into the ocean economy is drastically low. Just 1% of the ocean economy’s total value was invested in sustainable project through philanthropy and official development assistance over the last ten years. The impacts of climate change, pollution and overfishing put mounting pressure on the ocean, its natural capital and the services it provides. To change this trajectory, it is imperative that capital of all types go toward building ocean resilience and minimizing ocean risks by restoring, protecting and effectively managing how humans use ocean ecosystems. See: ‘Bring the problem forward’: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on climate risk Fundamentally rethinking how humans interact with the ocean ...
Read More
NCFA Canada | Oct 28, 2020 Welcome to FintechCanada.io! FintechCanada.io is a FREE listing directory (database) and networking platform powered by NCFA (National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada) and supported by the Trade Commissioner Service's (Global Affairs Canada) to help Canadian fintechs to: List or verify your company profile so others find you! Search the database and research listings and global ecosystems Share company content, news and events on your free company page Stay plugged into export opportunities and news such as trade missions Connect and network with peers and investors with social and text Opportunity: Verify your company profile now and get included in the next issue of NCFA's digital magazine, Fintech Confidential (Issue 3, November 2020) Free advertising opportunity for Canadian Fintechs. No strings attached. Simply claim your profile on FintechCanada.io and we'll include your company in the next issue of Fintech Confidential magazine (10,000 + views; NCFA's website receives over 60k visitors per month) Profile not there? No problem. Create a new listing and we'll also include your startup in the magazine Fintech Confidential is distributed through NCFA channels by partners and affiliate networks and is read by 10k+ fintech and funding founders, investors, and key ...
Read More
Torys | Adam S. Armstrong | Oct 21, 2020 Alternative digital payment solution platforms have entered and expanded the market and niche offerings, ranging from independent online trading platforms to digital loans and new financing providers. Add to this mix the COVID-19 crisis, which has proven a major change agent accelerating the already fast pace at which digital transformation has been taking place in the financial services industry. To address the significant momentum for change taking place in the financial services sector, Payments Canada is undertaking a multi-year initiative to modernize the nation’s payments ecosystem. See: Mastercard and Visa seek to get the most out of the digital-payments boom Payments Canada is responsible for the operation of the national clearing and settlement infrastructure and is currently in the process of implementing a new real-time payments system. The new system (referred to as Real-Time-Rail, or RTR) will be comprised of two main components: 1) the RTR Exchange; and 2) the RTR Clearing and Settlement. The greater availability of secure payments data is arriving just in time to spur growth of fintechs in Canada by enabling new financial services, including through open banking APIs. The RTR Exchange will facilitate the real-time exchange ...
Read More
Top1000Funds | Amanda White | Oct 27, 2020 Now is the time to embrace the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to head of sustainable investment at Newton Investment Management, Andrew Parry, with the COVID crisis exposing a lot of the frailties in our society and economic system. “This is very much a social crisis, a human crisis,” he said in a Fiduciary Investors Series podcast. “It has helped galvanised attention on this issue, and brought together a broad range of partners across private and public sector and [the SDGs] present a way of recovering from the crisis if executed well.” The very low levels of interest rates around the world provide a unique opportunity for the finance industry to be innovative to meet the needs outlined by the SDGs. “I think the finance sector has gone beyond a re-mapping of the goals, and is beginning to understand that the SDGs represent an enormous opportunity,” he says. See: Task Force Analyzes Role of Fintech in Accelerating SDGs In particular he says there is an opportunity in the fixed income market to accelerate its participation in achieving the goals. “In the fixed income market one of the measures of impact is additionality. They can ...
Read More
Alberta Securities Commission | Denise Weeres | Oct 29, 2020 ASC has just rolled out some new, plain language, Small Business web-content intended to help entrepreneurs and their advisors navigate the securities law requirements when raising capital through the sale of shares or other securities. It provides some key terms, frequently asked questions, overview of common capital raising exemptions, some tips and traps. Many factors are impacting and changing Alberta’s capital market and economy. Efforts are being taken to strengthen and to help expand and diversify the Alberta economy. There are a multitude of parties engaged in these strengthening and diversification efforts. The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) is Alberta’s securities regulator. We are responsible for protecting investors and fostering a fair and efficient capital market. The ASC supports these economic efforts by ensuring appropriate securities regulation that protects investors, and fosters a vibrant capital market that facilitates access to capital by Alberta businesses and investment opportunities for Alberta investors. Our goal is to find the right balance of appropriately protecting investors without unduly burdening the businesses trying to raise capital to build and grow. See: ASC adopts Start-up Crowdfunding Blanket Order By engaging with market participants, ASC staff can better understand ...
Read More
Read More
Biometric Update | Chris Burt | Oct 24, 2020 Biometric cards for payments, access control and digital identity in several regional markets featured prominently among the top news stories in the biometrics industry this week. A new partnership on biometric payment cards by Mastercard and Idemia is being launched with a pilot expected in Q4. The card will be offered under the name F.CODE Easy, and will be issued by Singapore-based MatchMove in the Asian region. A fingerprint access control card with proximity detection capabilities has been developed by Sentry Enterprises with an Ambiq microprocessor and Fingerprint Cards sensor modules. The card is intended to provide converged biometric access control for enhanced security in a wide range of verticals. See: KABN North America and Loop Insights Partner to Launch AI Driven Merchant and Consumer Rewards Programs, Secured by Biometrics and Blockchain Huduma Namba is moving toward the issuance of identification cards, which will be embedded with biometric data to enable authenticated access to government services. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to drive digital identity efforts in several different sectors, and apps utilizing facial recognition for the aviation and tourism industries involving Yoti, the Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum, and Onfido have been rolled out recently, ...
Read More
Read More
coindesk | Changpeng Zhao | Oct 29, 2020 DeFi, or decentralized finance, finally found its footing this year, with numerous DeFi tokens and protocols gaining widespread traction amongst crypto users. Powered by smart contract technology, innovations like yield farming have allowed everyday users to earn unprecedented interest on their crypto assets. DeFi is booming, and today the market is filled with all kinds of borrowing and lending protocols, many of which compete with one another on the basis of providing users with meteoric yields. See: Intro to yield farming and the latest developments in DeFi Today’s most promising DeFi apps all share a similar vision for the future: The creation of a divergent financial system where capital and data flows more equitably, shifting control away from institutions and towards the individual. However, the most popular DeFi apps are still dwarfed by most centralized exchanges, which wield outsized impact and influence within the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. The best centralized exchanges offer a compelling mix of user-friendly services that are more easily understood by end-users. Centralized products are easy to use and comprehend, and can be accessed using a web browser, desktop or mobile app. At earlier stages of development, it’s also easier to ...
Read More
Read More
TechRepublic | Scott Matteson | Oct 6, 2020 In my capacity as a system administrator, I've definitely seen the benefits of cloud services which my organization implemented before the pandemic. Not only do we rely on Microsoft 365 apps, we are safely and securely able to use local applications such as Microsoft Teams, which connect to cloud-based servers even while off the VPN. Two-factor authentication using tokens and certificates is a key enabler to this functionality. Efficient cloud operations wouldn't necessarily have saved all of the businesses that went broke, but they can indeed assist surviving companies where it counts. See: Hey bank, get onto my cloud! I talked with Josh Quint, senior director of cloud solutions provider ServerCentral Turing Group, a cloud and disaster recovery company, to learn more. Scott Matteson: How long do you recommend backups of data be retained? Josh Quint: We recommend maintaining a synthetic full backup plus six days forward incremental backups in a performance storage tier and maintaining a full backup for a rolling 28 days on a capacity storage tier. This provides two critical benefits: Companies will have the most-needed data readily available in case of an immediate need for a restore request. This will lower the total costs of the ...
Read More
Read More
crunchbase news | Christine Hall | Oct 21, 2020 As fintech companies mature, many no longer aspire to be the best at one thing. That could mean not only new revenue sources for fintech companies, but also additional venture capital to startups and even a surge in M&A activity. One example of a hot startup that has drawn attention from a big financial services company is San Francisco-based Plaid, an early fintech startup that manages the connections between apps and banks. Earlier this year, Visa agreed to acquire Plaid for $5.3 billion. See: How to Value a Fintech Startup Five years ago, that deal might not have happened. Early leading fintech brands like Lending Club, SoFi or Robinhood started out as “best-of-breeds,” essentially unbundling one aspect of financial services. Today, venture investors and leaders in the fintech space can visualize a future where such startups will move toward again rebundling services. In the 1990s and early 2000s, banks were emerging as one-stop shops, essentially building a “supermarket of financial services”. The early wave of fintech startups settled on taking one of those bank functions and executing better. “You can really only do one thing at a time as a startup, but if you do that really well and find product market ...
Read More
Read More
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Oct 28, 2020 The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), the leading research institute covering the global Fintech sector, has partnered with the World Bank on a study reviewing the impact of COVID-19 on Fintech and regulation. As finance is one of the most regulated sectors of industry in the world, the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis has affected the pace of regulatory innovation. The CCAF/World Bank research tallied responses from 118 central banks and other financial regulatory authorities in 114 jurisdictions worldwide, revealing that the majority of these institutions have accelerated change recognizing the benefits of Fintech during a time of economic duress. See: 5 Trends to Watch in Fintech Regulation According to CCAF, 72% of respondents have either accelerated or introduced initiatives on digital transformation with 58% having either accelerated or introduced initiatives regarding Regtech/Suptech. Additionally, 56% of respondents did so in regard to Fintech innovation offices. The Global COVID-19 FinTech Regulatory Rapid Assessment Study indicated that regulators in jurisdictions with higher Covid-19 requirements are more likely to have accelerated their regulatory sandbox initiatives (42%) compared to those in lower stringency jurisdictions (33%). The report notes that Fintech innovation can play a “vital role in extending the reach and ...
Read More
Read More
World Resources Institute | Rashid Sumaila, Mansi Konar, Ben Hart, and Melissa Walsh | Oct 21, 2020 The ocean is a cornerstone of the global economy and a critical source of resources for the world’s growing population. It provides food, jobs and livelihoods to over three billion people, facilitates global trade and creates a home for the nearly 2.4 billion people who live in coastal areas. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, forecasts suggested that the ocean economy could provide economic growth opportunities over the coming decade, creating $3 trillion annually in gross value added by 2030. However, investment into the ocean economy is drastically low. Just 1% of the ocean economy’s total value was invested in sustainable project through philanthropy and official development assistance over the last ten years. The impacts of climate change, pollution and overfishing put mounting pressure on the ocean, its natural capital and the services it provides. To change this trajectory, it is imperative that capital of all types go toward building ocean resilience and minimizing ocean risks by restoring, protecting and effectively managing how humans use ocean ecosystems. See: ‘Bring the problem forward’: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on climate risk Fundamentally rethinking how humans interact with the ocean ...
Read More
Read More
NCFA Canada | Oct 28, 2020 Welcome to FintechCanada.io! FintechCanada.io is a FREE listing directory (database) and networking platform powered by NCFA (National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada) and supported by the Trade Commissioner Service's (Global Affairs Canada) to help Canadian fintechs to: List or verify your company profile so others find you! Search the database and research listings and global ecosystems Share company content, news and events on your free company page Stay plugged into export opportunities and news such as trade missions Connect and network with peers and investors with social and text Opportunity: Verify your company profile now and get included in the next issue of NCFA's digital magazine, Fintech Confidential (Issue 3, November 2020) Free advertising opportunity for Canadian Fintechs. No strings attached. Simply claim your profile on FintechCanada.io and we'll include your company in the next issue of Fintech Confidential magazine (10,000 + views; NCFA's website receives over 60k visitors per month) Profile not there? No problem. Create a new listing and we'll also include your startup in the magazine Fintech Confidential is distributed through NCFA channels by partners and affiliate networks and is read by 10k+ fintech and funding founders, investors, and key ...
Read More
Read More
Torys | Adam S. Armstrong | Oct 21, 2020 Alternative digital payment solution platforms have entered and expanded the market and niche offerings, ranging from independent online trading platforms to digital loans and new financing providers. Add to this mix the COVID-19 crisis, which has proven a major change agent accelerating the already fast pace at which digital transformation has been taking place in the financial services industry. To address the significant momentum for change taking place in the financial services sector, Payments Canada is undertaking a multi-year initiative to modernize the nation’s payments ecosystem. See: Mastercard and Visa seek to get the most out of the digital-payments boom Payments Canada is responsible for the operation of the national clearing and settlement infrastructure and is currently in the process of implementing a new real-time payments system. The new system (referred to as Real-Time-Rail, or RTR) will be comprised of two main components: 1) the RTR Exchange; and 2) the RTR Clearing and Settlement. The greater availability of secure payments data is arriving just in time to spur growth of fintechs in Canada by enabling new financial services, including through open banking APIs. The RTR Exchange will facilitate the real-time exchange ...
Read More
Read More
Top1000Funds | Amanda White | Oct 27, 2020 Now is the time to embrace the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to head of sustainable investment at Newton Investment Management, Andrew Parry, with the COVID crisis exposing a lot of the frailties in our society and economic system. “This is very much a social crisis, a human crisis,” he said in a Fiduciary Investors Series podcast. “It has helped galvanised attention on this issue, and brought together a broad range of partners across private and public sector and [the SDGs] present a way of recovering from the crisis if executed well.” The very low levels of interest rates around the world provide a unique opportunity for the finance industry to be innovative to meet the needs outlined by the SDGs. “I think the finance sector has gone beyond a re-mapping of the goals, and is beginning to understand that the SDGs represent an enormous opportunity,” he says. See: Task Force Analyzes Role of Fintech in Accelerating SDGs In particular he says there is an opportunity in the fixed income market to accelerate its participation in achieving the goals. “In the fixed income market one of the measures of impact is additionality. They can ...
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
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