EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys, has launched a blockchain framework targeted at the financial services sector. Called EdgeVerve Blockchain Framework, it is a permissioned ledger that allows banks to deploy blockchain-based services for “varied” business areas. EdgeVerve says it can “scale to the levels needed to support international, cross-border transactional business”; and therefore […]
Morgan Stanley has brought blockchain back to earth, calling it a “double-edged sword” because while it helps banks reduce clutter, profits could fall or shift to new players. In its 31-page report, “Global Insight: Blockchain in Banking: Disruptive Threat or Tool?”, the company predicts blockchain’s “widespread potential to disrupt financial intermediaries” but says there are […]
Cyber attacks against the banking industry have soared in the last few years. And financial institutions now face 300% more attacks than any other industry. Comparatively with other industries, the financial services industry isn’t shy where it comes to cyber security investment and generally has a superior level of protection. But this attracts a more […]
Blockchain is a revolution in reconciliation but not in payments, is one of the messages coming out of the Swift Business Forum London 2016. For the sixth edition of the show, more than 1,300 delegates were rammed and jammed into Tobacco Dock, London. This morning’s (20 April) sessions were dominated by warm-up speeches that praised […]
Distributed ledger specialist Digital Asset Holdings has acquired a small Swiss start-up, Elevence Digital Finance. Elevence’s niche is a modelling language for determining rights and obligations in blockchain collaboration agreements. Its takeover provides Digital Asset with a new, verifiable way for parties involved in a transaction to independently prove updates to a distributed ledger while […]
Chain, a provider of blockchain technology infrastructure, has teamed with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) to build blockchain solutions for Japan’s financial sector. Satoshi Murabayashi, CIO, in charge of digital innovation, at MUFG, says it wants to “explore the application of next-generation financial infrastructure that we believe could significantly enhance the experience for our clients”. […]
The blockchain (and bitcoin) industry welcomes regulations, but has to share the limelight with other digital currencies, as regulators look to deal with its rise and implications. At yesterday’s (4 April) afternoon session, “Blockchain and digital currency: Regulatory perspectives” at Money 20/20 in Copenhagen, a panel discussed the burning issues of the day. Present were […]
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“I’ve forgotten – woe is me! What the magic word may be.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1797) How smart is your code? So-called “smart contracts” are science fiction realised. Executable pieces of code stored on a mutual distributed ledger for future execution bind people and payments to actions and outcomes. Computer scientist […]
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Digital Asset Holdings have teamed up to develop and test a distributed ledger (blockchain) solution for repurchase agreement (repo) clearing. Blockchain will be used to manage the clearing and settlement of US treasury, agency, and agency mortgage-backed repo transactions. Mike Bodson, president and CEO of DTCC, says: […]
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, but the blockchain protocol behind it can be used for a variety of non-currency purposes. People are using the blockchain to develop everything from ride-sharing services to voting applications to cloud storage. This nifty infographics sums up how the blockchain protocol works and how it’s being used. Source: Who is hosting this?
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! MasterCard mulls VocaLink acquisition There are some things money can buy. US to move to shorter T+2 settlement cycle by September 2017 Make a note, industry target has been unveiled. Big US banks to fight for instant payments […]
With challenges across the board, banks will have their work cut out to keep up with the changing world of payments in 2016. It is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the payments industry as regulation, new technology, major infrastructure overhaul projects and security issues combine to reshape the landscape. According to a […]
Korea Exchange (KRX), the securities exchange operator in South Korea, plans to launch a platform powered by blockchain to liven up the off-board trading market. According to The Korean Times, KRX has started “preliminary steps” to introduce the new platform connecting sellers and buyers to trade securities directly. “Though many steps remain before the system’s […]
A quiet revolution powered by the force of data science has begun to deliver significant improvements in many areas including national security, business intelligence, law enforcement, financial analysis, healthcare and disaster preparedness. But are we ready to use the force in banking? Standard Chartered’s global chief innovation officer, Anju Patwardhan, explores the topic. Digital data […]
Mizuho Financial Group and Cognizant have teamed up to develop a blockchain solution for the “secure” record-keeping of documents among Mizuho Financial Group companies around the world. The agreement is the beginning of Mizuho’s programme to use blockchain for building new work processes for transactions and digital interactions. This engagement will initially focus on New […]
Blockchain gets another boost as IBM has made nearly 44,000 lines of code available to the Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Project to help developers build secure distributed ledgers. IBM has also made a range of announcements spanning technology and business consulting to “rapidly advance the use of distributed ledger technology across multiple industries”. These […]
Chainalysis, a New York-based cyber security start-up, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) on collaborating to fight online crime. Chainalysis aims to change “negative headlines where digital currencies have been connected to fraud and cybercrime” and is tracking digital identities on the blockchain. The start-up says its software […]
From the very first coins changing hands in 700 BC, through to the Bank of England pioneering the first use of a pre-printed form – or cheque – in 1717, and the emergence of credit cards in the mid 20th century, how we pay for goods and services has continued to evolve. We now face a cashless society
Blockchain has the potential to further disrupt banking in the way that we know it today, transform traditional interbank and even peer-to-peer payments, open up opportunities to replace existing mechanisms for the exchange of financial information, and how customer records are stored and processed.
Contrary to popular belief, the financial sector is now far more aware and better prepared for cyber attacks. The Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report, issued 1 July, states that threat awareness has grown exponentially and the sector is leading efforts to combat cybercrime. Perhaps this isn’t surprising given 90% of large businesses across the sector had suffered a malicious attack over the past year. But what is worrying is that the financial sector is falling into a familiar trap: by focusing so much on defence, it has failed to make provisions for an effective recovery
With reports suggesting hackers have siphoned off up to $1 billion from 100 banks across 30 countries as part of a targeted attack, there are heightened concerns over the cyber-threat facing the banking sector. Supply chains are a potential weak link and banks have been stepping up their pressure on vendors and suppliers to do more to protect themselves from online intrusion.
Banks will always be targeted by criminals and cyber attacks have become their most vulnerable attack surface. It isn’t simply about technology. It extends through people and process, and reaches from the central infrastructure all the way out to end users conducting online banking or financial transactions on laptops, tablets or smart phones. Because banks and financial firms have very large and sophisticated systems, this means that end-to-end security is notoriously difficult
The Biometrics Institute, Mobey Forum and Natural Security Alliance have launcehd a cross-association collaboration to promote the use of biometrics in digital services. The organisations plan to have their inaugural meeting, on biometrics for non-government services, in Paris on 1 July.
Banks need to recognise that building a wall to keep cyber security threats out will not work. With breaches from both sides of the wall inevitable, financial institutions would do better to pare down their activities and focus on defending their core assets – including intellectual property and transactional systems.
In a joint international operation Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre seized servers said to have controlled the Ramnit botnet that had infected 3.2 million computers internationally. The operation involved investigators from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK – which led the operation – along with partners from private industry.
Protecting your banking infrastructure from cybercriminals is one of the toughest IT challenges in banking. It keeps getting harder, even though banks are working tirelessly to protect both customers and assets. Attacks are growing in size, and new developments such as the Internet of Things mean attack surfaces are growing, as well as the number of endpoints that can be used to launch attacks.
The value of all cryptocurrency transactions will more than half this year, falling from $71 billion in 2014 to just over $30 billion. The decline was attributable to the combined impact of exchange collapses, Bitcoin theft and regulatory concerns.
A range of social, political, cultural and economic factors drives cyber attacks. How well banking and financial institutions understand the drivers for an attack and how effectively they respond in the 48 hours following the discovery of an attack has a major effect on the resultant impact.
Bitcoin market Netagio has launched credit and debit card payment options, as part of a push to make it easier to buy and sell Bitcoin with pounds, euros and US dollars. The exchange, which was founded in 2013, is seeking to popularise the alternative currency and improve its controversial public image.
Following its success during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy this year, alternative currency Bitcoin is gaining popularity and could be poised for major growth in 2015. But the currency still has a long way to go before it catches up with rivals such as PayPal, Visa and MasterCard.
Fraud and financial crime are growing substantially in their nature and complexity as we continue to evolve into an ever more connected world. New technologies, particularly the spread of mobile devices, have opened up different avenues of attack for technically sophisticated and well organised gangs of fraudsters and criminals. The social and economic costs of organised crime in the UK alone are estimated to be £24bn, of which £8.9bn are associated with fraud.
Greater information sharing and closer collaboration between the public and private sectors are needed to combat cyber-attacks, which are now the principal concern of the financial services industry, according to the DTCC. A top priority should be the creation of global industry working groups to engage with national regulators on the development of cyber-security regulations that address the real-time and evolving nature of cyber-threats.
Besides mounting enthusiasm for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, momentum is gathering to develop the infrastructure needed to turn what some see as a technology into a universally accepted currency.
When a new payment system such as Bitcoin arises it tends to be successful “in areas where a need is not being met”, Gottfried Leibbrandt, Swift chief executive told delegates yesterday. He said his fascination with Bitcoin – “both a currency and an innovation” – had not changed in the past 12 months.
The news last month (June) that the Luuuk malware had snared its first victim, an unnamed European bank, has again highlighted the magnitude of the challenge facing the banking sector. While the reported theft of €500,000 during the course of a week certainly does not break any records, the discovery of what is believed to be a variant of the feared Zeus malware, is just the latest in a line of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks
“The fastest growing national security threat facing the [US], which also happens to face the financial services industry, is cyber-espionage, cyber-crime and cyber-terrorism” according to a former deputy and acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, speaking at the SifmaTech conference in New York.
As the number of cybercrime incidents increases, financial institutions and their corporate customers should take renewed steps to protect their data – including using tokenisation and hosted payments pages, according to a new report by Chase Paymentech.
Bitcoin is the poster child of the cryptocurrency world, but it’s not alone. Michael Mainelli and Bob McDowell take a look at the real-world implications of the rise of AltCoins
Despite the high profile media scandals surrounding the demise of the Mt Gox exchange and the Silk Road trading website, Bitcoin is evolving rapidly and will soon present a better, more stable and accountable alternative to the fiat currencies most of us trust and use every day, according to Mark Lamb, chief executive of London-based Bitcoin exchange Coinfloor.
