Article: The Future Of Wall Street: Fintech 50 2021

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The Future Of Wall Street: Fintech 50 2021

JAMES ALBERT, 22 July 2021

Even before the Coronavirus pandemic closed bank branches and emptied Wall Street’s once-boisterous trading floors, the digitization of all things finance was well underway. Stock markets trade almost entirely electronically and many of Wall Street’s most valuable companies now provide data, technology and software to the big banks, private equity firms and hedge funds that execute the day’s big trades. Covid only accelerated the push for firms to digitize their businesses and handle an increasingly distributed workforce.

Behavox, founded by former Goldman Sachs stock analyst and hedge fund portfolio manager Erkin Adylov, has become the go-to solution for banks, hedge funds and PE firms looking to maintain control over their data as their workers trade and communicate digitally. Founded seven years ago by Kyrgyzstan-born Adylov, Behavox’s natural language processing algorithms and data lakes track and store email and voice communications for large banks and hedge funds, helping to protect against issues like market manipulation, insider trading and the stealing of intellectual property. Continue reading “Article: The Future Of Wall Street: Fintech 50 2021”

Article: fidomoney Launches in the UK

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fidomoney Launches in the UK

PRNewswire, 07 July 2021

YORK, England, July 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — fidomoney, an innovative fintech company offering bespoke business current accounts, has launched in the UK. The intelligent, tailor-made solutions fidomoney offer are based around the start-ups and small businesses it serves. fidomoney recognises the individuality of its customers and offers business current accounts with all the additional payment services businesses need – a business simply chooses what works for them and only pays for what it uses. Continue reading “Article: fidomoney Launches in the UK”

Article: DeFi May Not Herald Independence Day From Traditional Banking

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DeFi May Not Herald Independence Day From Traditional Banking

PYMNTS, 05 July 2021

Independence Day weekend brings to mind freedom, of course. And before too long, we may have independence from the banks, from the third parties, and from the financial system itself. Or maybe not.

The promise of decentralized finance (DeFi) is that the advent of cryptocurrencies, and perhaps more significantly, blockchain, will eliminate the reliance on the traditional players in financial services. Continue reading “Article: DeFi May Not Herald Independence Day From Traditional Banking”

Article: AWS Head of Payments: Fraud, Credit Decisioning Drive Move To The Cloud

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AWS Head of Payments: Fraud, Credit Decisioning Drive Move To The Cloud

PYMNTS, 15 June 2021

In an interview with PYMNTS, Mark Smith, head of payments for financial services at Amazon Web Services (AWS), said that “COVID has changed the conversation we’ve been having with payment customers, and it’s accelerated the trends we’ve been seeing over the past few years.”

Much of that changing conversation has to do with a pivot in consumer behavior, he said, which has spurred AWS’ own customers to migrate to cloud applications. “We all recognize that payments transactions are ‘bursty,’” Smith told PYMNTS. “We see a lot of this during the holidays and with seasonal shifts. But we weren’t ready for this kind of panic-buying, all done online.” One reason is to enhance card processing, as firms on the merchant processing side — which are focused on eCommerce — need to scale up and down as necessary based on those aforementioned shifts in consumer behavior, and as more transactions move online. Continue reading “Article: AWS Head of Payments: Fraud, Credit Decisioning Drive Move To The Cloud”

Article: SEC Launches Review Of High-Frequency Traders’ Market Abuses

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SEC Launches Review Of High-Frequency Traders’ Market Abuses

Tyler Durden, 09 June 2021

Nearly 8 years have passed since Michael Lewis published “Flash Boys”, raising awareness of the relatively new practice of high-frequency trading and its transformative impact on markets, allowing the most technologically-advanced traders to effectively see a picture of the market that’s nanoseconds ahead of what their non-NFT peers see, giving them a massive advantage.

Now, the SEC is finally considering changing the rules of how stocks are priced and traded to stop exchanges from incentivizing brokers (nowadays, particularly retail trading brokerages that have seen an explosion of activity in the past couple of years).

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Article: Banking Attacks Surge Along with Post-COVID Economy

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Banking Attacks Surge Along with Post-COVID Economy

Becky Bracken, 02 June 2021

FinTech fraud spikes 159 percent in Q1 2021 along with stimulus spending.

For many, COVID-19 has been a crushing catastrophe. But for bank scammers, it’s shaped up to be a nice little money-making opportunity.

As the post-pandemic economy roars back to life, cybercriminals are using a new whirlwind of transactions as cover to launch an extraordinary number of bank fraud attacks. In just the past quarter, the number of attacks on banks ballooned by 159 percent. Continue reading “Article: Banking Attacks Surge Along with Post-COVID Economy”

Article: N26 faces BaFin scrutiny over money laundering failures

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N26 faces BaFin scrutiny over money laundering failures

Finextra, 12 May 2021

German financial regulator BaFin has ordered mobile bank N26 to fix problems with its IT monitoring and customer due diligence to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

The watchdog is appointing a special commissioner to monitor the fintech giant’s compliance with the order to implement appropriate internal controls and safeguards and comply with general due diligence requirements.

N26 has also been told to ensure that it has the adequate personnel, technical and organisational resources to comply with its obligations under anti-money laundering law.The order comes two years after BaFin first reprimanded N26 for lax anti-money laundering controls.

It also comes as BaFin tightens up oversight in the wake of the Wirecard scandal, which cost the regulator’s head, Felix Hufeld, his job. N26 says that online criminal activity has soared around the world since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and that it is working closely with the appointed commissioner.

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Article: The Reddit revolt: GameStop and the impact of social media on institutional investors

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The Reddit revolt: GameStop and the impact of social media on institutional investors

Annabel Smith, 13 April 2021

The Reddit revolution in the US has drawn attention to the potential power that a growing force of retail investors can wield in stock markets when equipped by social media.

Amateur investors have increasingly engaged with retail platforms in the last year, partly due to the pandemic leaving them idol at home, but also due to the newfound onslaught of information through social media and access to the market through retail brokerages and platforms such as Robinhood. Continue reading “Article: The Reddit revolt: GameStop and the impact of social media on institutional investors”

Article: Fintech startup Feedzai valued at $1 billion in KKR-led funding round

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Fintech startup Feedzai valued at $1 billion in KKR-led funding round

Anna Irrera, 24 March 2021

LONDON (Reuters) – Financial technology group Feedzai said on Wednesday it had raised $200 million in a round led by investment company KKR valuing the startup at more than $1 billion.

Existing investors, including Sapphire Ventures and Citi Ventures, also participated in the round, the San Mateo, California-headquartered company said.

Feedzai develops artificial intelligence and machine learning technology that helps banks and other financial firms to spot and prevent payments fraud, money laundering and other types of illicit activities. Continue reading “Article: Fintech startup Feedzai valued at $1 billion in KKR-led funding round”

Article: $COTI — the undeniable SCAM run by criminals — Investigation Report

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$COTI — the undeniable SCAM run by criminals — Investigation Report

api3cloud, 18 March 2021

Part 1
‘’The criminals’’

I start this article with a disclaimer that this investigative research would not be possible without the help of many. A combined effort on Reddit, Discord, Telegram and Twitter to put together information of undeniable official evidences that COTI is in fact an orchestrated fraud operated by Israeli well known Binary Options criminals. All information provided is backed by public sources and data. This is not FUD. These are undeniable public evidences that the COTI team tried to hide from the public for a long time, the victims of the soon to be known as one of the biggest crypto scams ever seen, need to be informed and law authorities need to act fast.

In this article I will deep dive on the extensive criminal background of COTI team.

When was COTI created? In 2017, the exact month Israel authorities banned Binary Options the COTI team needed the next scam to pull. ICOS were hot at the time, easy money and easy preys.

SIMONA WEINGLASS: Twitter @simonaweinglass /// Email simona@timesofisrael.com

A reputable white collar crime and corruption investigative journalist for the biggest newspaper of Israel, and the responsible for taking down COTI founders Binary Options scams back in 2017 reports

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Article: Millions vanish into crypto world in high-yield bond scam

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Millions vanish into crypto world in high-yield bond scam

Michael Roddan and Jonathan Shapiro, 08 March 2021

Sophisticated British criminals exploited vulnerabilities in Australia’s search engine and cryptocurrency infrastructure to dupe small investors, lured by the promise of high-yield funds badged by some of the finance world’s most trusted brands.

The complex scheme involved stolen identities and fraudulent prospectuses that claimed to represent high-yield investment funds run by global managers Citibank, Nomura, and IFM Investors. It has ensnared millions from unsuspecting victims who sought better returns as interest rates collapsed during the COVID-19 crisis. Continue reading “Article: Millions vanish into crypto world in high-yield bond scam”

Article: Overstock Invests $4M In Digital Currency FinTech Firm

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Overstock Invests $4M In Digital Currency FinTech Firm

PYMNTS, 04 April 2016

Overstock’s CEO has a reputation for having an affinity for digital currency — which has been reflected in Overstock’s business plans — and now, the company has taken that vision a step further.

The company announced late last week a $4 million investment in Bitt, a Caribbean-based FinTech firm that aims to help digital currency adoption grow in that region. Continue reading “Article: Overstock Invests $4M In Digital Currency FinTech Firm”

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