Bank KYC/AML compliance is broken, and blockchain can fix it
Not only is decentralisation the best solution. It might be the only solution. One of the least-sustainable trends in existing financial services is hidden away in the background. Compliance costs, which refers to the cost of handling legal obligations such as KYC/AML, are a growing stone in the shoes of financial services. And it’s growing extremely quickly. According to Thomson Reuters, the number of compliance professionals increased 3.5 times from 2016 to 2017, while financial institutions are pouring billions into transaction-monitoring systems designed to target suspicious behaviour, like frequent large cash deposits. No one’s entirely sure where these investments will end. At a time when new technology is cutting costs […]
ASX details timeline, features for new blockchain-inspired system
ASX Limited, the operator of the Australian Securities Exchange, has released new details of the system inspired by Bitcoin’s blockchain technology that will replace CHESS: The ASX’s Clearing House Electronic Subregister System. CHESS provides clearing, settlement and other post-trade services for the exchange. ASX in early 2016 revealed that it had acquired a stake in New York-headquartered Digital Asset Holdings, which develops blockchain-inspired distributed ledger technology (DLT). The intention was to explore whether a DLT-based system could potentially replace CHESS, which was originally rolled out in 1994. Although the exchange operator has emphasised that CHESS is stable and continues to function effectively, ASX says that replacing it with a blockchain-style […]
Blockchain poised to revolutionise the financial services industry
It’s tempting to dismiss blockchains and the cryptocurrencies they support as a techno fad that will fade as quickly as it appeared. However, there are growing signs the technology is poised to shake the financial services sector to its core. At its heart, a blockchain is a digital ledger in which transactions between parties are recorded chronologically and publicly. Based on blockchains, cryptocurrencies are digital currencies in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, independently of any banks. Its role in the financial sector While awareness of blockchains and cryptocurrencies is already very high in the financial services […]
Blockchain technology drives demand for skilled business and IT leaders
Less than 10 years ago very few people were aware of what cryptocurrency was, let alone understand the technology that was driving it, and now it’s an industry that is hurtling towards being valued at $400 billion internationally as new “cryptos” are launched each month. Bitcoin was the trailblazing cryptocurrency which was launched with little fanfare in 2009 and its rapid rise in popularity and price has spawned the birth of more than 1,500 similar businesses. Bitcoin is just one of many cryptocurrencies that is successfully utilising blockchain technology to disrupt nearly every industry that exists. Blockchain is a new technology that more and more web systems are now based […]
Change Financial looks to shake up the status quo for financial enterprise
US-based yet ASX-listed fintech company Change Financial (ASX: CCA) has announced three commercial deals to assist the growth of its enterprise division ahead of the full launch of its Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. The fintech newcomer has secured variously structured deals with Mastercard, Central Bank of Kansas City (CBKC) and Pulse, respectively. The deals aim to improve operating conditions primarily for its enterprise division, although upon further analysis, it seems Change will be able to derive synergies for all three of its business units, serving consumers, enterprises and blockchain users. Its consumer unit is focused on ChimpChange, an award-winning digital bank account and mobile app. ChimpChange makes free […]
Novatti makes commercially astute blockchain move
Online payments processor Novatti Group (ASX: NOV) has made a commercially-astute move into blockchain payments by integrating its proprietary payments platform with The Stellar Network, an open-source protocol for exchanging money used via shared servers and “forming a global value exchange network”. In essence, Stellar is a blockchain-payment and asset transfer platform connecting banks, payment systems and customers with a network of low-cost financial services providers, including financial institutions, payment aggregators and technical specialists. The prime feature which attracts users is the commonly-shared commitment to support a new and inclusive global infrastructure for payments. Stellar is growing rapidly and sports a proprietary “native asset” digital currency called the Lumen. Its […]
Who invented Blockchain?
Contrary to popular belief, shadowy inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, did not invent blockchain. So who did? In 1991, Dr W. Scott Stornetta and his co-author Dr Stuart Harber published a whitepaper introducing ‘blockchain’, a decentralised, cryptic database where digital transactions are secured. The cryptographers’ research focused on creating a digital hierarchy system which time-stamped and chronologically secured transactions in a chain of blocks. Together, they co-authored several publications in the cryptography field to pioneer a system that was transparent and verifiable. The first major blockchain innovation came in 2008, when the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin whitepaper. Bitcoin is a digital currency which can be bought and transferred […]
How you may be confused about Ethereum
According to Coinmarketcap.com, Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Bitcoin leads with a cap at slightly over US$100 billion, and Ethereum follows at about US$40 billion. While this evaluation is commonly accepted, it isn’t entirely accurate. The assumption places a false equivalence in the mind of anyone exploring the number two cryptocurrency after learning about it through Bitcoin. The coin versus the blockchain Most importantly, Ethereum is not actually a cryptocurrency but a protocol with a blockchain on which, theoretically, an infinite or endless number of cryptocurrencies can reside. Its equivalence is Bitcoin, a protocol with a blockchain that only supports the bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency. In the […]
