SEC. 629. From the unobligated balances available in the Securities and Exchange Commission Reserve Fund established by section 991 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Public Law 111– 203), $25,000,000 are rescinded With that (on P615 of the US Omnibus Spending Bill H.R. 83) the single largest concern from the 2007 banking crisis, which was front and centre in the Dodd Frank legislation is quietly removed. Derivatives. Banks won a measure easing restrictions on their derivative-trading activities. The change would affect requirements under the Dodd-Frank law that banks spin off certain derivatives-trading activities into units that … Continue reading Treatment of Derivatives on US bank balance sheets is swept under the table

These are not quotes you want to see following a catastrophic IT failure such as hit UK NATS just now. Traffic control failure hits London flights He added: “We think it’s the whole of the UK,” He added the airport had no idea precisely what caused the problems. “We’ve got no idea how long it’s going to last. We’ve got no further information at the moment.” NATS said its engineers were en route to Swanwick to identify the problem. They would not give any further details but other than that it is a “technical problem” [ed. en-route from where one … Continue reading How not to manage IT failures

BBVA continue on their non-traditional bank approach following their purchase of Simple. This purchase is equally interesting being a company that is engaged in that persona non grata capability for bank regulators … the cloud! BBVA acquires big data startup Madiva BBVA has acquired Spanish big data and cloud computing startup Madiva Soluciones as part of its strategy to buy up companies that are developing new technologies and disruptive business models. Madiva Soluciones or Grupo Madiva – this from their home page translated by google.com/translate. BBVA has agreed to buy Madiva Solutions, a Spanish-based startup specializing in big data and … Continue reading BBVA acquires big data startup Madiva | Finextra

Another interesting payment/ P2P payment play, this time in Belgium. What sets this one aside is the co-operation amongst banks to provide a common standard and method. Bank-backed QR code-based mobile payments app launches in Belgium Customers who download the app, pick their bank and add a Bancontact card before creating a six-digit code. To make instore, P2P and online payments, users then enter this code and scan a QR squiggle. The partners say that, thanks to the six-digit code, and because no data is stored on the phone, security is guaranteed. Card details are no longer stored in the … Continue reading Bank-backed QR code-based mobile payments app launches in Belgium | Finextra

It should be a safe bet the current person in that role at Sony, if he wasn’t gone after last weeks fiasco, then todays information about the PlayStation network being hacked and taken down, should do it. In the land of fintech we have many discussions about security risk, adequacy, potential over-reaction and generally finding the right balance between risk, and cost. Sony are a company highly dependent on technology but do not have the regulatory oversight banks have in the cybersecurity space. Sony do have the oversight however from customers and shareholders, that will ultimately determine their fate. Sony … Continue reading CIO wanted; major entertainment, gaming company

More on previous post and the underlying intention behind the UK governments intentions. Standardised APIs to be used to facilitate data portability in banking Anderson also said that the use of standardised APIs in banking would create a much more public source of data about customers and said there would be certain parallels with a ‘know your customer’ (KYC) data sharing initiative that is being developed by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). Basically what I take from these posts is that UK is supporting the SWIFT initiative to better co-ordinate KYC between banks with a centralized KYC … Continue reading More on the UK centralized KYC initiative

While perhaps well intentioned in calling for solutions that provide better quality comparison shopping, it worries me when I see HM Treasury calling for banks to provide an API as the solution, and also solution to what? AUTUMN STATEMENT 2014 2.176 Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in banking – Following publication of a Government commissioned report on APIs and open data, the government will launch a Call for Evidence on how APIs could be used in banking. This will enable financial technology companies to develop innovative solutions to allow customers to make better comparisons between different banks and financial products. I … Continue reading HM Treasury and “Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in banking” – really?

Despite a few missteps that seemed to place Uber on the wrong side of ‘do no evil’, (Uber Godview) this financing round seems to unequivocally see them as a force that will continue to expand and battle against legal and taxi interests attempts to slow them down. Uber valued at $40bn in latest funding round Investors looked past Uber’s recent controversies over its handling of competitors, the press and users’ privacy to give it a huge $40bn valuation as it announced the completion of a $1.2bn funding round on Thursday. Continue reading Uber is not going anywhere after raising $1.2 Bn

I have been following Stripe for a while, and now I wish they were listed 🙂 Stripe banks $70m in fundraising, valuing company at $3.5bn ft.com Good for them. Stripe and Ripple are the two that I would bet on in payments. Continue reading Stripe land another $70 million

This is an interesting partnership. TD are portraying as a PFM play. Moven has been promoting till now as a full debit account with Spend, Save & goal tracking. It will be interesting to observe how TD implements and how this impacts Moven strategy going forward. Continue reading Moven agrees to partnership with TD Bank