Fintech Daily Digest

The Brazilian Central Bank is planning to have QR code-based instant payments up and running by 2020, a year earlier than expected.

The Bank of England said some aspects of supervision are amenable to new technologies while the Financial Conduct Authority said its Innovate program has helped new financial services firms come to market more quickly.

Canada is making a big leap in modernizing identity verification, tapping blockchain technology to let consumers digitally prove who they are to securely access banking and other personal services.

The current ecosystem for trading cryptocurrencies is still not suitable for institutional investors to expand into the new asset class, according to Northern Trust's technology expert.

Brave New Coin has developed the General Taxonomy for Cryptographic Assets - a tool that seeks to capture the breadth, depth and evolution of distributed ledger technology-based assets across industry sectors globally, as well as to advance the investigation of the assets being classified.

Thirty companies are currently approved by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) for its regulatory sandbox, half of which are crypto service providers including exchanges.

Since the US SEC's FinHub issued its analysis framework for digital investment contracts approximately a month ago, the long-awaited guidance likely has extended the digital asset winter rather than ending it.

The Riksbank proposes that a committee be tasked with reviewing the concept of legal tender and role of central bank money in a digitalised economy, and the role and responsibility of both the state and the private sector on the payment market.

The survey results highlight that Bitcoin is a demographic mega-trend led by younger age groups. The only area where older demographics matched younger demographics was awareness: Regardless of age, the vast majority of the American population has heard of Bitcoin.

Gemini is partnering with Harbor, an all-in-one platform for tokenized securities offerings, to allow users to invest in deals using Gemini dollars (GUSD) and receive any future distributions or dividends of such deals in GUSD.

Tether has cash and cash equivalents (short term securities) on hand totaling approximately $2.1 billion, representing about 74 percent of the current outstanding tethers.

BoE Governor Carney highlights the opportunities offered by Fintech, saying we're moving to a new kind of economy, which needs new kinds of financial services. He explains what the BoE is doing to embrace and support this financial innovation.

Beleaguered Bitfinex may soon issue a proprietary exchange token. The issuance method could be similar to that of other exchange tokens, which were distributed through pre-paid trading fee packages.

Tencent will work with Waterdrop, which forms part of China's rapidly-expanding crowdfunded health insurance industry, to leverage Tencent's existing presence and experience in the field to create as yet undefined blockchain tools.

Institutional crypto trading platform Bakkt has аcquired a crypto custodian service Digital Asset Custody Company, and filed an application with the New York Department of Financial Services to operate as a trust company.

The Indian government has kicked off inter-ministerial consultations on a draft bill to ban cryptocurrencies and regulate official digital currencies, according to informed sources.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is ensuring that Chinese businesses continue to accept cash despite the rapid spread of mobile payments throughout the country's economy. On 23 April PBOC announced that it had fined five companies in Beijing for refusal to accept cash payments.

Rating agency Moody's has warned of several risks of private, centralized blockchains, inclusing that consensus mechanisms in private chains may not be as strong as those seen in public chains, or may be absent altogether.

The only takers to date for blockchain-based CBDC are minuscule island nations. This may indicate there is a case to be made for adopting a distributed ledger format in certain geographies. Or it may mean the product is dead on arrival.

"Crypto loan platforms are booming as ether holders look to mitigate portfolio losses endured during 2018's bear market."