The founder and former chairman of Canadian foreign exchange company OANDA, Richard Olsen, has unveiled his most recent venture: a global marketplace for multiple assets and financial instrument built on the Bitcoin blockchain. Dubbed Lykke, the company launched in late-September and seeks to provide every person on the planet with market access as well as the ability to issues his or her currencies. Qualifying distributed ledger technology as “one of the greatest innovations in recent history,” Olsen said his company will use the Bitcoin blockchain as a global notary service to record and settle all types of transactions. Lykke, a…

Banks and fintech startups have more business interests in common than issues that divide them, according to a new report from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The document, entitled ‘The Disruption Of Banking,’ is based on surveys of more than 100 senior bankers and 100 fintech executives and seeks to determine their respective views on the impact of financial technologies. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of both banks and these new players and the likely outcome of the phenomena for the retail banking industry over the next five years. Findings suggest that 33% of bankers predict the upcoming retail banking…

Known in the UK as the “cheapest online broker,” iDealing is now further expanding in Europe, launching an aggressive commercial policy and removing brokerage commission for stocks listed on the Dutch, French or Belgian Euronext markets. Last week, London-based European online securities brokerage iDealing became the first broker in the continent to provide its clients with commission-free trading, a news that broke simultaneously with the announcement that the company has launched in the Netherlands and Belgium. According to Lee Foster Bowman, the founder and managing director of iDealing and a former banker at major banks and financial institutions including Barclays,…

Fintech startups are “cannibalizing banks,” attacking every single service typically provided by financial institutions ranging from lending to wealth management among many other areas. Their key strengths: they understand much better the real consumers’ needs and “excel” in meeting those needs, according to IT consulting firm OCTO Technology. In a white paper called ‘Fintech is Cannibalizing Banks,’ the France-headquartered consulting firm argues that in a world that is changing at the pace of technology, the digital era will not spare any industry, and especially not the financial and banking industry. Since the subprime crisis, governments have been calling for more…

Bank boardrooms dramatically lack technology expertise with only 6% of board directors and 3% of CEO of the world’s biggest banks having expertise in the field, according to a report from Accenture. At the time when banks’ major challenges are “intimately connected with technology,” banks need to re-think their boardroom culture and start including at least one or two technology experts in their board, the consulting firm said. “It’s not sufficient for banks to just realize that their businesses are under threat and that innovation is critical to prevent them from being disrupted,” Richard Lumb, group chief executive of Financial…

Identity and access management is no exception to the digitization of everything. The use of biometric features, behavioral aspects and physiological technologies is just around the corner, bringing new authentication and authorization methods to the market. Another wave of technology disruption or an actual business need? by Maurice Bollag*, Senior Manager Ernst&Young Era of digitalization and disruptive technology The unprecedented explosion of technology disruption and innovation, the velocity of change and the tremendous impact on businesses are ultimately forcing a large number of industries to increase the pace at which they do business and transform technology. At the same time, the need…

Die in Zürich ansässige Fintech-Plattform Nexussquared hat den Setup und Zeitplan für ihr virtuelles Blockchain Startup-Programm Nexuslab bekanntgegeben. Nexuslab verfolgt bei der Unterstützung von Startups einen neuartigen Ansatz und bietet ein Programm, das die Blockchain-Paradigmen Dezentralisation, Vertrauen und Effizienz wiederspiegelt. Durch eine Zusammenarbeit mit Startupbootcamp Fintech erweitert Nexuslab das eigene Mentorennetzwerk und vertieft das vorhandene Expertenwissen. Anfang 2016 wird Nexuslab den ersten Durchgang seines dreimonatigen Programms starten, welches primär auf einem virtuellen Setup aufbaut. Gestützt auf eine sichere Kollaborationsplattform wird Nexuslab den Teilnehmern massgeschneidertes Coaching und On-Demand Training anbieten. Drei an verschiedenen Wochenenden stattfindende „Hangout Sessions“ in Europäischen Metropolen geben…

Each week, a tremendous amount of news stories related to bitcoin and blockchain technology are being published. At Fintechnews alone, not one week passes by without at least two or three new articles on the matter. Surely, Bitcoin is hot topic and all major news organizations, blogs and firms are talking about its disruptive potential in all sorts of industries, either it is in the financial services sector or for other use cases such as personal identification and document certification. For those you arrived late to the party and kind of missed the boat, Diana Biggs, Founder of Global Fintech…

The blockchain has the potential to do much more than just support cryptocurrencies; in fact, Capgemini expects that the technology will “revolutionize the financial services sector… [by providing] unprecedented transaction security through cryptography.” In a new report called ‘Blockchain: A Fundamental Shift for Financial Services Institutions,’ French multinational management consulting corporation Capgemini, looks at blockchain technology and explores how the technology can transform banks financial institutions. “Beginning from a ‘standing start’ 7 years ago, we are now witnessing the first tentative steps of blockchain technology adoption quicken as interest widens and investment accelerates,” Capgemini said, indicating that startups, corporations and…

Firms must embrace RegTech solutions as they will help them automate compliance tasks and reduce operational risks associated with meeting compliance and reporting obligations, according to a report from Deloitte Ireland. Entitled ‘RegTech Is The New FinTech, How Agile Regulatory Technology Is Helping Firms Better Understand and Manage Their Risks,’ the report authored by Lory Kehoe, Senior Manager in Strategy & Operations Financial Services Consulting for Deloitte Ireland, is based on research and interviews with RegTech companies and explores how firms can benefit from regulatory technologies and how they can leverage regulatory focused data to better understand and manage their…

Financial technology is a hot topic and has become an important subject that is discussed in nearly all tech and startups events. As the world of fintech is moving fast, it can sometimes be a bit tricky to stay on track. What are the emerging trends? What are the hottest startups? What will be the killer apps? In order for you to stay up-to-date and not miss a single thing of the Swiss fintech ecosystem, we have compiled a list of some of the upcoming fintech events to finish year 2015 and start 2016 on a high note: Swiss Payment Forum…

Bundeshaus Startup Hearing: Anfangs November haben sich Ruedi Noser zusammen mit verschiedenen Verbänden und Interessensvertreteren für Schweizer (Fintech) Startups im Bundehaus eingesetzt. Wir von Fintechnews.ch sagen DANKE für den Einsatz an Ruedi Noser, Swiss Finance Startups, Digital Zürich 2025, Swiss Crowdfunding Association, Swiss Startup Association, Impact Hub, Le Réseau und alle weiteren Beteiligten. Einige Statements hier vom Bundeshaus Fintech Startup Hearing: “Mark Zuckerberg hätte in der Schweiz längst nur noch 0.01% an Facebook Aktien” “Schweizer Fintech Startups werden gezwungen ins Ausland abzuwandern” “Es kann nicht sein, dass Regulierung gleichermassen auf internationale Banken und neue Fintech Startups angewendet wird” “Finma macht gewisse Hausaufgaben, die…

A startup accelerator program is an intensive business development program that supports founders and helps them turn their ideas into successful businesses. The support comes in a form of mentorship, affordable office spaces and some starting capital. For fintech startups, there is an extensive list of programs in Europe to choose from. Today, we’ve compiled the top ten accelerators for fintech startups in Europe. Seedcamp Launched in 2007, Seedcamp is UK-based venture-capital accelerator offering seed funding to innovative European startups. In eight years, Seedcamp has backed almost 200 companies with one unicorn and 91% having raised further funding to a…

Emerging fintech players and regulatory reforms are posing new challenges to European retail banks notably in the area of payments. Banks will need to collaborate with other banks and non-banks in order to stay in the game, according to a new report from Deloitte. Entitled ‘Payments disrupted: The emerging challenge for European retail banks,’ the report is based on interviews with 24 payments experts and sought to understand their perspective on developments in payments. The report also explores the main scenarios that are likely to emerge as well as the strategies banks could follow to respond to these market changes. Payments,…

Infografik zu Fintech Schweiz. Wo stehen wir? Gute Infografik von der IG Bank zur Fintech Schweiz Szene. Weitere Informationen zu: “Fintechs in der Schweiz – Chancen und Herausforderungen” hier. …

Am 10.Dezember werden in Zürich die Gewinner für die UBS Future of Finance Challenge gekürt. Diese erhalten Preise bis zu 300’000 USD und Zugang zu einem speziellen UBS Mentoring-Programm. Nun stehen die Finalisten fest, die in lokalen Ausscheidungen in Zürich, New York, London und Singapur ermittelt wurden. Auch zwei Schweizer Startups sind dabei. In den lokalen Ausscheidungen in Zürich haben sich Biowatch, Embotech sowie Wayerz Solution aus Israel  in einem Finale mit 15 Initiativen durchgesetzt. Biowatch ist bereits Mitglieder der Fintech Fusion Familie in Genf. Wayerz Solutions – Zurich (Israel) @iwayerz Wayerz provides an integrated bank-to-bank platform that includes a navigation-like system used to optimize international money…

Launched in February this year, FUSION is a Swiss accelerator program dedicated to financial technology startups. Self-proclaimed the “Swiss fintech factory,” FUSION was created by Swiss venture capital firm Polytech Ventures and Temenos, a leading banking technology provider, and is the very first program of its kind in the country. In September, FUSION selected its first batch of 10 startups coming from all around the globe to integrate its program. These startups come from seven different countries and tackle segments that include blockchain tech, insurance, crowdfunding, payment, wealth management, risk management and cyber-security. They are AceBanker, BIOWATCH, DXMarkets, Edge Laboratories,…

Das Staatssekretariat für Wirtschaft (SECO) und das Lausanner Start-up TawiPay treten in die Endphase einer öffentlich-privaten Partnerschaft ein, bei der die hohen Kosten von Geldtransfers zwischen der Schweiz und den Balkanländern aufgezeigt werden sollen. Nach der Analyse lanciert TawiPay nun eine Sensibilisierungskampagne, um über die effektiven Kosten von Geldtransfers sowie über Transfervarianten zu informieren, die zu vermeiden sind, will man nicht mehr als nötig bezahlen. Weltweit überweisen jedes Jahr schätzungsweise 232 Millionen Migrantinnen und Migranten insgesamt über 580 Milliarden US-Dollar an ihre Familien und Bekannte in ihren Herkunftsländern. Gemäss der Weltbank belaufen sich die Kosten für diese Überweisungen durchschnittlich auf…

Swiss bitcoin startup ECUREX has released an extensive 110-page report on the ongoing innovations in the financial sector brought by digital currencies. Main author is Paolo Tasca, Economist at Deutsche Bundesbank and Executive Director at Ecurex. Entitled ‘Digital Currencies: Principles, Trends, Opportunities, and Risks,’ the report is aims to be a comprehensive study on digital currencies with a deep quantitative analysis of their technological, entrepreneurial, economic, and legal aspects. The report is the result of over two years of work and suggests nine key findings. Larger transactions During the period of 2011-2015, ECUREX found that the average amount per transaction in…

Swiss Fintech Study by Roland Berger: Fintech will play an important role in the financial services industry. While Switzerland’s financial center offers a promising starting point for fintech companies, the country is still well behind expectations, according to this new report. Conducted by global consultancy firm Roland Berger and Swiss Finance Startups, the Swiss Fintech study is based on a set of experts interviews, questionnaires and analysis of global trends, and aims to identity the opportunities and challenges of the Swiss fintech ecosystem. Compared to leading international fintech hubs such as London, New York or Silicon Valley, experts said that…