Bitcoin market exchange CoinBase has received licensing from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) to expand its business to New York; the bitcoin licensing process involved analysis of the company's anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection and cyber security policies; along with CoinBase, the New York DFS approved four additional firms for virtual currency business operations including licenses for XRP II and Circle Internet Financial, and charters for Gemini Trust Company and itBit Trust Company. Source
Scalable Capital has announced a partnership with Siemens Private Finance; Scalable Capital will offer wealth management options with daily rebalancing to individual risk profiles for Siemens employees in Germany; this adds to the services already offered by Siemens Private Finance which currently include insurance, pensions and mortgage lending. Source
Mobile wallet technology firm YoYo has launched a new marketing platform for traditional merchants that is powered by artificial intelligence; YoYo Engage will provide marketing campaign recommendations to merchants through artificial intelligence suggestions derived from mobile wallet payment activity; the firm launched the new marketing platform at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Source
LendIt has announced its Lang Di Fintech 2017 conference which will be held on July 15 to 16 at the Kerry Hotel, Pudong, Shanghai; LendIt also announced a partnership with JadeValue Fintech who will co-host the second annual LendIt China PitchIt@LendIt startup competition and offer the winning company six months of co-working space as one of the many competition prizes; LendIt China will also be translating the daily LendIt News on its new Lang Di WeChat channel. Source
French bank BNP Paribas, along with Daon, has developed a new biometric login for their wealth management clients using their mobile device; the new service is called myBioPass and it allows users to login using a selfie; transactions are then authorized by fingerprint or voice recognition; the service is currently active for Luxembourg clients using iOS mobile devices; myBioPass will be added to desktops and Android devices later this year. Source
The market structure for bitcoin is providing traders with compelling global profit opportunities and as a result, automated trading is now accounting for a significant portion of trade activity; the market is ideal for automated trading algorithms because it includes multiple exchanges for arbitrage analysis, no transaction costs on Chinese platforms and 24 hour trading; price and volumes keep going up and without new trading barriers it seems bitcoin exchanges will become even more popular among automated traders. Source
European banking profits are at risk from digitization according to a McKinsey report; the report, "A Brave New World for Global Banking", says European banks have $35 billion, or 31%, of profit at risk from digitization; fee-based products for traditional banks versus online banks is the main factor for profit; McKinsey says banks must enhance their business models, provide competitive digital tools and data analytic platforms; also suggests that banks partner with financial companies across the industry to reduce and share innovation costs; the McKinsey report also says banks will need to streamline their information technology structures and be more proactive in their regulatory strategies. Source
Dow Jones has released its European Venture Capital Report for the fourth quarter; shows venture capital investment in Europe increasing from the third quarter of 2016 and also from the comparable quarter in 2015; European companies raised approximately 2.93 billion euros ($3.11 billion) from 539 deals in the 4th quarter, a 35% increase from the previous quarter; the number of deals also increased by 9% from the third quarter; the UK was a market leader for investment with 122 deals totaling 754 million euros ($799.35 million). Source
The UK's Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF) is actively involved in industry research and is currently doing three alternative finance surveys; much of the research is in conjunction with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), providing insight for its crowdfunding consultation period; CCAF is surveying crowdfunding investors and crowdfunding borrowers; CCAF has also announced it will now be doing a survey on blockchain and cryptocurrencies; as part of the FCA's regulatory study, CCAF is working with 25 crowdfunding and P2P lending platforms in the UK to gain greater insight into the crowdfunding ecosystem. Source
Qonto is a french startup building a modern business banking solution, aiming to become "The banking alternative for entrepreneurs and startups" according to its website; the company raised $1.7 million from Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures and Alven Capital; Valar Ventures has also invested in digital bank N26 and TransferWise; Qonto wants to provide a wide variety of services including allowing receipt uploads to make filing taxes easier; they plan to integrate with other fintech products to transfer money and manage payments; launch is currently slated for April. Source