Every day we bring you fresh insights about Fintech from an elite group of Authors who are just like you – senior executives, entrepreneurs and investors on the frontlines of the global Fintech & Crypto revolution. Once a week, Daily Fintech’s Editor summarises these posts so that busy people can get a peek at what you will get by reading the whole article.
Bernard Lunn @LunnBernard is a Fintech deal-maker, investor, entrepreneur and advisor. He is CEO and Editor of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy.
Monday, Ilias Hatzis @iliashatzis, our Greece-based crypto entrepreneur, wrote Bitcoin could be America’s greatest weapon
Some governments feel that Libra poses a threat to cross-border payments, monetary policy and even financial sovereignty. China certainly feels that way. Facebook’s plan to launch its own cryptocurrency has pushed the Chinese central bank to step up its efforts to release the digital yuan, as soon as November 11, to coincide with the Singles’ Day online shopping festival. Why isn’t the United States jumping into the race, to challenge all those that are trying to undermine the dollar’s reserve-currency status? Maybe it feels it can deter attempts to supplant the dollar’s role in the global financial system by other sovereign currencies. Maybe by committing to this course of action the United States becomes the center of an open digital financial system. Maybe it understands full well that no matter what it does, people will choose a currency that governments can’t control.
Editor Note: Money quote is ”The real threat to America comes less from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Libra or El Petro and more from not embracing and accelerating technological developments in the financial sector, to maintain its role as the gatekeeper for digital innovation.” I hope some American politicians are listening – maybe Andrew Yang?
——————————————-
Tuesday, Efi Pylarinou @efipm our Swiss-based Fintech Adviser wrote Category 5 hurricane in cash markets – Dollars, Bitcoins, …
Efi Pylarinou is the founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory and a Fintech/Blockchain influencer – No.3 influencer in the finance sector by Refinitiv Global Social Media 2019.
The USD suffered a serious cardiac liquidity episode in late September. Not as bad as the 2013 China`s one but of course, with substantially larger global impact. This time it even affected the seemingly unaffected digital asset class.
Editor Note. I was waiting for the analysis of Dr. Efi Pylarinou on the wild ride in the Repo markets in relation to Crypto. Sounds like we are in uncharted waters with big storms brewing!
——————————————-
Wednesday, Jessica Ellerm @jessicaellerm our Australia-based Fintech entrepreneur wrote wrote Fintech startup Adatree first to market with Australian Open Banking aggregation
Jessica Ellerm is a thought leader specializing in Small Business and the Gig Economy and is the CEO and Co-Founder of Zuper, a neowealth disruptor in Australia.
In July of this year Australia’s first Open Banking APIs went live, under the umbrella of the government’s broader Consumer Data Right (CDR) legislation. The first APIs to be released publicly by the major 4 banks are Product APIs, that conform to the API standards built by Data61. They include public information such as product rates, fees and Terms and Conditions across a bank’s consumer and business banking deposits, transaction and credit card products.
Editor Note. The regulation around open banking was always going to be a major disruptor, particularly in highly concentrated banking markets such as Australia and UK. It looks like this is now turning into reality.
——————————————-
Thursday, Patrick Kelahan @insuranceeleph1 our US-based Insurtech expert, wrote Hope springs eternal- did ITC 2019 foster a ‘customer first’ future for InsurTech?
Patrick Kelahan is a CX, engineering & insurance professional, working with Insurers, Attorneys & Owners. He also serves the insurance and Fintech world as the ‘Insurance Elephant’.
It’s a week since ITC 2019 wrapped up for the 7,000 attendees; debriefs and observations abound- kind of. McKinsey & Co. posted a follow-up on the themes that were observed, kudos were conveyed to Jay Weintraub and Caribou Honig. Matteo Carbone mentioned 70 meetings he enjoyed. What say the customers? If it’s akin to daily perspective of the InsurTech concept then customers yawned.
Editor Note. Reporting on innovation from the seller perspective is easy because sellers make themselves available to media. Reporting on innovation from the customer perspective is much harder because customers have little motivation to share their stories. This real world reporting is missing from most media/events.
——————————————-
Friday, Arunkumar Krishnakumar @karunk our UK-based Fintech investor, wrote Corda powered SWIFT GPI Link could be a game-changer in global trade finance
In September, SWIFT – the inter-bank messaging firm, announced the successful proof of concept (PoC) of the “GPI Link” platform in collaboration with R3. The SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (GPI) platform has previously trialled Hyperledger without much luck.
However, with R3’s growing network of corporates, the pilot seems to have gone better. The pilot also had used Ripple’s XRP, although R3 have stressed that they are agnostic to cryptos or fiats that the transactions are in.
This is a major announcement. Will this be a game-changer in Trade Finance?
Editor Note.Trade Finance is such a huge money spinner for the banks and massively inefficient. In short it is a window of opportunity big enough to drive a truck through and it is SWIFT’s game to lose.
——————————————-
Subscribe to join the other Fintech leaders who read our research to stay ahead of the curve. Check out our advisory services if you want to talk to the people who create this insightful research.