Switzerland is quickly emerging as a crypto paradise, supported by the country’s banking prowess, low taxes, elite universities and the Swiss brand itself that have attracted foreign cryptocurrency and blockchain startups into settling in the small European country. Efforts to expand the so-called Crypto Valley in Zug into what Switzerland’s economics minister Johann Schneider-Ammann has called Crypto Nation have seen some success. “We have over 400 players already in Switzerland and the government is very pro-business, very helpful,” Oliver Bussmann, president and co-founder of Crypto Valley Association, told Cointelegraph. “It’s a very decentralized culture and it’s really in line with…

Nummo, a personal financial manage­ment platform that provides a singular view of your financial health across multiple banks announced that they closed a funding round of US$ 1.9 million. The funding was round was led by a group of undisclosed American and European entrepreneurs, this latest round adds to their initial funding of US$ 700,000 raised at private funding round. The funds will be utilised to  set up its American headquarters scheduled for 2019 along with increasing market penetration, application support and product development The company claims to have to connect to over 19,000 financial institution and even robo-advisors to…

Germany has one of the largest and most dynamic cryptocurrency communities in the world. Berlin in particular is a major blockchain hub, hosting some 120 startups, according to data from LSP Digital. Over the past months, new developments and projects have been announced, further expanding the German blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Perhaps one of the biggest news was that Boerse Stuttgart Group, the second largest stock exchange in the country and the ninth largest in Europe, was serious about getting into the cryptocurrency game. In August, the bourse announced that it was creating an end-to-end infrastructure for digital assets. In…

JP Morgan’s ambitious Ethereum-backed blockchain project, the Interbank Information Network (IIN) gains 70 additional banks, including France’s Société Générale and Spain’s Santander. This brings the number of large banks on the network up to 75. The IIN is a collaboration between JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ}. The 11-month experiment looks into blockchain’s potential in obliterating the difficulties in cross-border payments—and speed up an otherwise error-prone process that would be bogged down by compliance checks. Interbank blockchain projects have been all the rage lately. IBM and CLS are attempting to bring the disparate financial sector together under one…

After signing their memorandum of understanding (MoU) Tel Aviv, Swiss delegates landed in Jerusalem to request that Israel opens its market for Swiss banks to trade in the region. The Swiss Minister for Finance Ueli Maurer made the journey, along with State Secretary for International Matters Jörg Gasser, representatives of the Swiss authorities, as well as senior representatives from the banking and fintech sectors. Both parties have expressed that they would cooperate on market access, fintech regulation, cryptocurrencies and especially combating money laundering and terrorist financing. According to Reuters, discussions between Jörg Gasser and the Deputy Minister of Finance in Israel Yitzhak Cohen…

The Swiss-based cybersecurity startup Futurae Technologies founded by ETH Zurich security researchers and known for its artificial intelligence-powered, two-factor authentication suite, will be gunning for a market expansion now that they have closed a CHF 2 million financing round, led by AXA Venture Partners and DIventures, with participation from Zürcher Kantonalbank and Stefan Muehlemann, founder and CEO of Loanboox. Futurae is primarily known for its ‘Zero-Touch’ product, which offers two-factor authentication without the need for user interaction, instead uses a machine learning algorithm to  authenticate the user via ambient noise, ultra-sound and context information. The company also offers complements to their leading…

21.finance Scores Bank Frick’s Investment Thanks to Upcoming Blockchain Platform A capital injection sees Bank Frick acquiring an approximately 25% stake into 21.finance AG, known for running the area2Invest crowdfunding platform which connects accredited issuers in the European Economic Area and Switzerland to investors. The investment is seemingly tied to 21.finance’s blockchain-based tokenised financial instruments that will make a debut soon. Raphael Haldner, Head of Funds and Issues at Bank Frick said that: “Bank Frick is intensively involved in blockchain banking. The transparent distribution of tokenised financial products is a strong argument for us taking a stake in 21.finance.” “The…

Apiax, a Swiss regtech company, has launched a new tax product that allows banks and asset managers to factor the tax impact of financial instruments into their investment recommendations, addressing key challenges in wealth management, such as the need to increase the quality and frequency of client interactions and the rising demand for tailored investment advice. “Together with our content partners, we’ve found a way to digitalize tax regulations on the ISIN- level so we know on the level of the financial instrument how it will be taxed in all possible scenarios,” Ralf Huber, co-founder and legal lead of Apiax,…

Despite decentralisation being a key point of interest for bitcoin, a slew of hacks and thefts have left a certain segment of the market hungry for regulations. Bitwala, a German blockchain banking service, have raised about 4 million euros in funding in order to create a fully regulated blockchain bank account slated for launch in November—a multi-currency bank account that joins bitcoin and regular fiat currencies into one account. The upcoming cryptocurrency wallet will incorporate both a more conventional German bank account—complete with SEPA transactions, management of recurring payments and a debit card—with a cryptocurrency wallet. Therefore, users would be…

The annual Swiss Fintech Awards has returned for its 2019 edition to recognise outstanding fintech start-ups and influencers. The award that’s been running since 2016 has seen many fintech entrepreneurs benefiting from taking part in this show. According to 2016’s winners Sentifi, the award put them in a strong position to attract talent, in fact they received over 500 applications in 1 month which subsequently led to them hiring a top CTO from USA. Qumran (now Dynatrace after successful exit) who won the last year’s award also shared that it did a great deal in speeding up their business and…

The recently published IDC Fintech Rankings’ Top 100 shows that Switzerland continues to be major fintech player within the global arena with 4 of its company making it into the list. The IDC Fintech Rankings list, which is in its fourth year is intended to recognise IT providers that have enabled a genuine measurable change at a client financial institution. The ranking is measured based on annual revenues attributed to financial institutions. With that said, here are the 4 top Fintech Companies companies in Switzerland that’s making us proud. IDC has made the full list available here, for our readers who…

The number of blockchain companies in Switzerland has risen sharply. Opening an account for blockchain companies poses various challenges for banks, because the new blockchain technologies can also be associated with risks, especially in relation to money laundering. Switzerland has strict laws and due diligence requirements in place governing financial transactions. Banks must therefore carry out careful checks when opening an account. However completely disregarding this segment would also be remiss, the Swiss Banking Association said in a press release that they take a positive view of blockchain as it boosts Switzerland’s attractiveness as a financial centre. In light of…

Switzerland is stepping up its open banking game, with the Swiss Fintech Innovations Association recently publishing their API standard and Swisscom’s latest partnership with NASDAQ listed software house CA Technologies. Not wanting to be left behind the nation’s telecom giant, Swisscom announced its strategic alliance to create an Open Banking Hub with CA Technologies. Commenting on the Open Banking Hub, André Durrer, Head of Digital Business Platforms at Swisscom said, “Traditional banks and new, nimble Fintechs are no longer working against each other, but rather in tandem to create exciting and compelling new financial solutions, the Swisscom Open Banking Hub provides banks,…

With the world of finance moving into open banking, API has quickly become the poster child for innovation for the financial sector. Beyond Europe’s well-known PSD2 initiative, Asian countries including but not limited to Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia are also making serious strides towards open banking. 2 Years in The Making– SFTI’s Initiative to Develop API Standards In keeping with global trends, the Swiss Fintech Innovation Association (SFTI) has been very vocal in supporting this development. Walking the talk, the association commissioned working group to implement standardised APIs for the industry two years ago. (The api specifications can be found on their…

The Swiss city of Zug, also referred to as Crypto Valley, was ranked the third city in the world in terms of startup funding volume in H1 2018, primarily driven by its growing crypto-community, according to a report by Speedinvest X and Frontline. Among the top ten cities by deal volume, three are located in the DACH region, which comprises Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Berlin came in fourth position and Zurich in seventh. In recent years, Switzerland has emerged a fintech powerhouse with Zug its blockchain hub. The city has been nicknamed Crypto Valley for the high concentration of blockchain…

Nachdem Zug kürzlich zusammen mit Twint das mobile Zahlen der Parkuhren eingeführt hat, kommt diese diese Bewegung nun auch in die Städte Stadt Kreuzlingen, Sion und Lugano.  Künftig kann dort dank Parkingpay auf den Gang zur Parkuhr verzichtet werden. Seit Einführung von Parkgebühren auf Strassenparkplätzen in Schweizer Städten Mitte der sechziger Jahre ist das Thema ein Ärgernis für die Automobilisten und eine Herausforderung für die Behörden. Die Benutzer wollen möglichst einfach und schnell bezahlen können während die Betreiber von Parkplätzen Wert auf Zuverlässigkeit, Langlebigkeit und Effizienz bei der Kontrolle setzen. Zwei Jahrzehnte lang erfüllte die Sammelparkuhr TOM von Taxomex diese Anforderungen am…

Thomson Reuters, a Canadian mass media and information firm struck a partnership with Squirro (Swiss) to channel its extensive data and insights via artificial intelligence provide customer intelligence platform. Instead of having a vast amount of data scattered across unconnected siloes, Thomson Reuters and Squirro’s combined technology allows the co-mingling of customer’s own proprietary data with third-party content. Thomson Reuters has offered up data like company overviews, Institutional Brokers’ Estimate System (IBES) and financial statements. The partnership’s solution is said to also use AI to offer predictive analytics to facilitate cross-selling across what would have been unconnected information, and providing talking points and…

Following a series of expansions in countries like Singapore and US, the European fintech unicorn has announced its debut into the Maltese market. According to Revolut, it has already signed up over 25,000 Maltese customers, around 6% of the population, and they are confident that they can reach 60,000 Maltese customers by the end of the year. Nikolay Storonsky, Founder & CEO of Revolut said: “The big banks in Malta have been taking advantage of their customers for years with endless banking fees and crappy technology. Revolut is here to end the party for the bankers and provide the Maltese people with aninnovative,…

The emergence of fintech has driven the introduction of new business models, including peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, a sector that’s grown in popularity around the world for its ability to fill the void left by traditional lenders. Alternative marketplace lending or P2P lending refers to a non-traditional form of lending money. It is in contrast with the traditional lending method, where the bank or other financial institution offer loans to individuals or small and medium businesses (SME). Instead, P2P operates through an online platform that matches lenders with borrowers, promising lenders higher returns than a savings account or other investments, and…

Zurich-based blockchain hub Trust Square is expanding its Bahnhofstrasse location to cover more than 3,000 square meters, offering 300 workstations to startups and researchers. The move is set to turn Trust Square into the world’s largest blockchain hub. An open day will take place on September 20, 2018. In the fourth quarter of this year, Trust Square will increase its capacity by renting additional office space at its current location. Additionally, it has renewed its lease at Bahnhofstrasse until the end of 2019 and is currently in discussions about a further extension. In parallel, Trust Square is assessing options for…