BNP Paribas Asset Management was able to complete a fund distribution test using blockchain technology; the test used BNP Paribas Securities Services’ blockchain programme, Fund Link and FundsDLT; as AltFi reports the test was able to show Fund Link connecting to other blockchains and the transaction completed each part of the fund trade process, from order delivery to trade processing; this continues a trend from BNP Paribas Asset Management as they have also launched a specialist fund for fintech investment and began updating their legacy technology. Source.
News Roundup
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MoneyGram is testing XRP for reducing both the cost of transferring money and the settlement times; Both MoneyGram and XRP traded higher on the news; Ripple has signed on about 100 banks as customers, but is also targeting remittance companies; Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also tweeted that three of the five largest money-transfer companies would begin to use XRP this year. Source
Google Wallet, Android Pay and Pay with Google will now all become Google Pay; this way the company can better brand their products and make it less confusing; Google has launched a number of products in the last 10 years aimed at different payments markets and found varying degrees of success; they hope ensuring the same brand for multiple layers of products will help to cut down on confusion and hopefully help them to build a better customer experience to compete with the likes of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. Source.
The Community Reinvestment Act is a law that was first enacted in 1977; The Trump Administration is going to unveil plans to change the law which has some community groups concerned since the act historically prevented banks from just serving wealthy customers; some banks say that the rules haven’t kept up with technological innovation. Source
According to Bloomberg, mining the cryptocurrency is profitable in China as long as the price remains above $6,925; however, China is planning to limit the power usage by miners; Bloomberg provides additional data on electric usage of mining bitcoin. Source
In this guest post Alexander Prokhorov from FinSight Ventures shares what trends his firm is focused on in 2018. Source
- Small-dollar lender Oportun to open 20 offices in Florida
- Ladder Secures $30M Series B Led by RRE Ventures
- NiYO Solutions Raises $13.2M in Series A Funding
- China's Renren Is Poised To Unlock Value From Its Investment Portfolio And Grow With Blockchain
- Chase Partners with AutoFi to Deliver Digital Car-Buying for Dealerships across the Country
- RealtyMogul Hires New Chief Investment Officer
- Online Marketplace Lender Nav Facilitated More Than 20,000 Small Business credit Approvals in 2017
- Dianrong Signs Strategic Agreement with Dalian Finance Development Bureau & Dalian Finance Industry Investment Group
- Spread Bettor IG Among Biggest Holders of Bitcoin Futures
- Fifth Third regains top CRA grade, an entree to M&A
- Roostify adds tech veteran Adnan Habib as vice president of engineering
WeChat recently started to offer users access to mutual funds, just another service they were able to add to the platform; the open platform based approach where you can plug in different services through an API is where financial services is headed; while those in Europe and the US might not be as advanced as China they know innovation like this is coming; “It really shows incumbents that they’ll need yet again to pivot to a new platform; that it’s not the bank that’s the platform anymore,” April Rudin, chief executive of wealth management marketing firm The Rudin Group, tells TearSheet; message based financial advice is the next natural step for clients who have transformed the way they interact in recent years from the phone call to the text message or chat service. Source.
ProShares and VanEck have both decided to withdraw their ETF filings with the SEC; VanEck filed for an actively managed Bitcoin Strategy ETF and ProShares said it was launching a suite of bitcoin ETFs; neither company responded to requests for comment; it is widely believed that bitcoin ETFs are the next step for the new currency. Source.
TD Bank is looking to boost their AI driven technologies by their recent acquisition of Toronto based Layer 6; Layer 6 provides AI powered prediction engine for data; Michael Rhodes, group head, innovation, technology and shared services, TD Bank, says to Banking Technology that AI has “potential to power a new generation of data-driven applications from personalized and real-time advice to predictive analytics that will shape the future of banking for millions of individuals”.; the deal represents the fourth AI focused move by the bank in the past couple of years. Source.