Issue #358 - Fintech Around The World April 5th, 2022

The Forbes Technology Council discusses the latest developments in the cybersecurity space: from blockchain vulnerabilities to data sovereignty, in today’s business it is fundamental to know and understand all the tools available to protect data.

David M. Brear and Sim Rai are joined by Alan Ainsworth (OBIE), Axel Bruzelius (ArK Kapital) and Shaun Port (Chase UK) to discuss the latest funding rounds, regulatory frameworks and innovation in the fintech space.

John Glen, the Economic Secretary of the Treasury of the U.K., said that the country is taking all the necessary steps to regulate the crypto space: the government wants to focus on stablecoins to allow the crypto market to flourish in the country – but within regulatory boundaries.

Even if Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency by market capitalization, one of the main concerns around this crypto is energy consumption – BTC is not considered environment-friendly. But Norway, the country that hosts almost 1% of BTC’s hash rate, manages to mine this crypto with renewable energy.

Wei Zhou, former CFO of Binance, bought Coins.ph. The crypto exchange and wallet provider was bought by Gojek, an Indonesian tech company, for $95 million. Now, Zhou wants to steer Coins back to its roots in the crypto space.

Fintech companies are replacing traditional banks and payment methods in India: some of the reasons that led to this new system can be found in the high cost of the pieces of hardware needed to read traditional cards – hard to afford, especially for small businesses in emerging countries; the knowledge needed to manage these kinds of tools; the lack of viable options for smartphones.

Even if financial institutions recognize that climate change is a serious issue, they don’t agree on solutions. The People’s Bank of China is working on specific solutions: one of this solutions is to finance all those sectors that contribute to greening the Chinese financial system.

CarbonPay launches CarbonPay Business Ctrl: with this prepaid card – available in the U.S. and the U.K. – the green fintech company allows its users to offset 1kg of CO2 for every dollar spent.

Interesting article about the reasons why the U.K. is so successful in fintech: from the importance of talent to the pivotal role of infrastructure, panelists led by Cristopher Woolard discuss the fundamental role of this country in financial technology.

Tiffany Kary talks about the interesting developments in the cannabis industry, and the role of fintech players: “cannabis fintech” is what the industry needs to avoid compliance concerns, thanks to the use of alternative payment methods.