What is Platform Banking?, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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What is Platform Banking?

Platform banking refers to lenders owning and operating a digital marketplace which allows for its customers to purchase physical goods and transact on non-banking services. Banks have the option of entering into the platform business through several entry levels, including a product, service or payments platform, thereby eventually creating an entire ecosystem of products and services for their customers. According to Infosys Finacle, a platform business is likely to receive a valuation two or three times higher than a linear business.

What are the types of Platform Banking on offer?

There are seven entry points to Platform Banking in India, according to a report by Infosys Finacle, which includes a Product Platform, Service Platform, Payments Platform, Investment Platform, Social Platform, Communication Platform, and a Social Gaming Platform. A Product Platform allows the lender to aggregate products and services sold on other e-commerce platforms, whereas a Service Platform allows one to aggregate service solutions for their customers. A Payment Platform offered generally by all lenders both in India and Globally, for their customers to transact, is a commonly taken avenue by banks to enter platform banking. An Investment platform allows lenders to, with a fee, connect their customers to lenders, whereas a Social Media platform like Facebook or Twitter, would represent a Social Platform. Communication Platforms, which have embedded payment features in them, including the recently launched Whatsapp Pay, serves as an excellent example of Platform Banking. Social Gaming Platforms have been tapped as the emerging field for bankers, to target gamers who trade in virtual currencies.

Are customers interested to use banking platforms for non-banking activities?

According to a Deloitte survey conducted in the United States, a third of retail banking customers were interested towards a platform services offered by their primary lender. 34% of customers surveyed said they were willing to use platform banking services, whilst 25% said they were neutral. 41% of respondents to the survey said they were unlikely to use platform banking services.

Notably, younger customers including both the Gen Z and Millennial customers were most responsive to the idea of a superstore, with a resounding 75% and 67% approval, respectively. 54% Gen X and 33% Boomers showed interest in a financial superstore app, whilst on a cumulative level, 55% of all respondents had shown interest in the India.



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Crypto exchange Binance to wind down derivatives in Europe, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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* Binance to exit derivatives in Europe

* Users in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy immediately affected

* Binance has been under concerted regulatory pressure (Adds context, Binance comment)

LONDON, – Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance said on Friday it would wind down its futures and derivatives products offerings across Europe, the latest move by the platform as pressure grows from regulators across the world.

With immediate effect, Binance users in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands would be unable to open new futures or derivatives products accounts, the exchange said in a statement on its website.

Increasingly worried over consumer protection and the standard of anti-money laundering checks at crypto exchanges, a string of regulators across the world – including Britain, Germany, Hong Kong and Italy – have in recent weeks ratcheted up pressure on Binance, one of the world’s largest exchanges by trading volumes.

“The European region is a very important market for Binance, and it is taking proactive steps towards harmonizing crypto regulations, which is a positive sign for the industry,” the exchange said on Twitter https://twitter.com/binance/status/1421033044337729536.

“We understand that many regulators at local levels may have their own positions on crypto, and we welcome the opportunity to engage in a constructive dialogue on local requirements.”

Users in the three countries will, from a date to be announced later, have 90 days to close any open derivatives positions, Binance said.

Germany’s regulator BaFin declined to comment on Binance’s move.

REGULATORY PRESSURE

Binance’s exit from derivatives in Europe is its latest exit from specific crypto products after growing regulatory pressure.

Malaysia’s securities regulator became the latest watchdog to target Binance on Friday, reprimanding it for illegally operating a digital asset exchange https://www.sc.com.my/resources/media/media-release/sc-takes-enforcement-actions-on-binance-for-illegally-operating-in-malaysia in the country.

It was not immediately clear how big Binance’s derivatives business in Europe was, though UK researcher CryptoCompare said in June it was the largest derivatives exchange with volumes of $1.7 trillion, down around 30% from a month earlier.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said this week he wanted to improve relations with regulators, adding the exchange would seek their approval and establish regional headquarters.

On Monday, Binance said it would stop offering cryptocurrency margin trading involving the Australian dollar, euro and sterling.

Earlier this month, it said it stopped selling digital tokens linked to shares, after regulators cracked down on the cryptocurrency exchange platform’s “stock tokens” offerings.

Bitcoin was on Friday morning down 3.4% at $38,674.

Market players said the move may contribute to wider concerns about the future of cryptocurrency derivatives trading for retail players.

“A huge amount of money in crypto markets is floating around exclusively because of the existence and availability of such products,” said Joseph Edwards of Enigma Securities, a cryptocurrency broker in London.

“Binance have crowded out large sections of the derivatives market over the last couple of years – if their retreat from said market deepens, the medium-term impact is unlikely to be positive.”



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Bitcoin leaps 12% to test recent peaks, ether hits 3-week high, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Cryptocurrencies popped to the top of recent ranges on Monday as short sellers bailed out in the wake of a strong week and while traders hoped a handful of positive comments from influential investors might signal a turnaround in fragile sentiment.

Bitcoin rose as far as 12.5% to hit $39,850, its highest since mid-June during the Asia session, while ether hit a three-week peak of $2,344. On the heels of bitcoin’s best week in almost three months, the move put the squeeze on short sellers.

Last week, cryptocurrency enthusiast and Tesla boss Elon Musk said the carmarker would likely resume accepting bitcoin once it conducts due diligence on its energy use. It had suspended such payments in May, contributing to a sharp crypto selloff.

Twitter boss Jack Dorsey also said last week that the digital currency is a “big part” of the social media firm’s future and, on Sunday, London’s City A.M. newspaper reported – citing an un-named “insider” – that Amazon is looking to accept bitcoin payments by year’s end.

Brokers said that taken together the remarks were enough to finally lift the market from the floor of support where it has held steady since a May plunge, while data also pointed to heavy short-seller liquidations – suggesting many might have given up.

“Over the last five trading sessions we’ve seen general near-term bullishness in the market, driven by key technicals, as well as recent positive comments,” said Ryan Rabaglia, global head of trading at digital asset platform OSL.

“With a record $1.2 billion in shorts liquidated over the past 24 hours, the outlook and momentum for the week ahead is positive,” he said.

Bitcoin was last up 8% at $38,064, putting it within sight of resistance around June’s $41,341.57 peak just a week after it was testing support at $29,500.

Ether was last up 5% at $2,304.



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Twitter CEO, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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San Francisco: The online world needs a global currency, and our focus is on Bitcoin because with this cryptocurrency, we can reach every single person on the planet, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has stressed.

A staunch supporter of Bitcoin, Dorsey said that the world of cryptocurrency allows speed, a lot more innovation and opens up entirely new use cases.

“If the Internet has a native currency, a global currency, we are able to move faster with products such as Super Follows, e-commerce, Subscription, Tip Jar and we can reach every single person on the planet,” Dorsey said during the Q2 investors’ call on Thursday.

“There are three trends relevant to Twitter and our shareholders. AI, decentralisation and the Internet, finally having access to a global native currency in Bitcoin. All these will help us do our jobs better and we intend to lead the way in each,” he emphasised.

In Q2 2021, Twitter saw its revenue reached $1.19 billion, an increase of 74 per cent (year-over-year).

The micro-blogging platform now has 206 million average monetisable DAU (mDAU) in Q2, up 11 per cent.

“As we enter the second half of 2021, we are shipping more, learning faster, and hiring remarkable talent. There’s a tremendous opportunity to get the whole world to use Twitter,” said Dorsey.

Dorsey and rap artist Jay-Z recently announced to invest 500 Bitcoins (approximately Rs 174 crore) in an endowment to fund Bitcoin development with a focus on India and Africa.

For Dorsey, Bitcoin is like poetry and that he sees ample opportunity for Bitcoin to bring about a sea change in the world.

“Most people access the internet on mobile. Any solution we build must provide an excellent experience when using mobile, despite its shortcomings and liabilities. An uncompromising focus on mobile interaction is likely to include the most people,” he had said.

He has announced plans to consider making a hardware wallet for Bitcoin for the customers of its digital payments services company Square.



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RBI hunts for entity that can develop multimedia publicity material for awareness campaign, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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MUMBAI: Seeking to accelerate its general awareness campaign, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has started looking for an entity that can develop multimedia publicity material in 14 languages.

The pan-India campaign to educate the general public about the essential rules and regulations will be launched in Hindi, Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu besides English.

The media mix, according to an RBI document, will include traditional as well as new media.

Besides newspapers, magazines, radio, television channels and cinema halls, the campaign will also cover digital media, web portals and social media, the RBI said while inviting applications from advertising agencies for designing the creatives for the awareness campaigns.

“The public awareness campaigns of RBI will be full-fledged multimedia, multilingual, pan-India level campaigns. The objective of the campaigns is to create general awareness among citizens of India about the RBI regulations and other initiatives,” said the request for proposal (RFP) in this regard.

Financial inclusion and education are two important elements in the RBI’s developmental role.

Towards this, the central bank has created a critical volume of literature and has uploaded on its website in 13 languages for banks and other stakeholders to download and use. As per the RBI website, the aim of the initiative is to create awareness about financial products and services, good financial practices, going digital and consumer protection.

The central bank runs a media campaign ‘RBI Kehta Hai’, is an initiative to educate the public about its regulations which are aimed at enhancing the quality of customer service in banks.

The number of followers of the Reserve Bank’s Twitter handle @RBI surpassed the one million mark touching 1.15 million as of March 31, 2021, signifying the “largest following among the central banks” of the world, said the RBI’s annual report.

During 2021-22, the apex bank aims to use public awareness programmes, social media presence and other channels of communication to further deepen engagement with the society.



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