Recent News

The International Monetary Fund has warned Zimbabwe against implementing a gold-backed digital currency. This decision was taken by the government of Zimbabwe to address macroeconomic issues such as volatility in the local unit. Source:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-09/imf-cautions-zimbabwe-against-plan-for-gold-backed-digital-money The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) began selling gold-backed digital tokens to investors on May 8, setting a minimum price of $10 for individuals and $5,000 for companies. The government hopes this will reduce demand for the US dollar, which is now replacing the local unit as the preferred currency. for transactions. Later, the token will also be used for transactions. "A careful assessment is required to ensure that the benefits of this measure outweigh the costs and potential risks, including, for example, risks to macroeconomic and financial stability, legal and operational risks, governance risks, and the cost of lost foreign reserves," an IMF spokesperson said. The Washington creditor called on the authorities of the South African country to use the usual measures to solve economic problems. These measures include...

Singaporean banks will be able to exchange information on potentially risky clients next year. The move aims to curb illicit flows amid the city-state's growing role as a key financial and wealth hub. Source:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-09/singapore-to-allow-banks-share-client-data-to-fight-crime?srnd=premium-middle-east On Tuesday, Parliament passed a bill that paves the way for the Monetary Authority of Singapore to establish and maintain a secure digital information exchange system. The platform, called Cosmic, aims to make it easier for financial institutions to detect and stop activities in areas such as fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing. The system will be introduced in the second half of next year in six banks. DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., United Overseas Bank Ltd., Standard Chartered Plc, Citigroup Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc will be the first group to gain access to Cosmic. Currently, financial firms are prohibited from sharing customer information, and are mostly able to do so following police investigations and court orders. "A clean and sound financial sector is the foundation upon which...

From May 1, 2023, the Ukrainian WayForPay service could not accept payments, because the NBU did not issue a new license to FC WAY FOR PAY LLC, which owns the service. Source:https://finclub.net/ua/news/wayforpay-vidnovliuie-robotu-cherez-poserednyka.html The founder and CEO of WayForPay Gennadiy Vasyukov said that the system resumes accepting payments through third-party services. According to him, the company does not know what exactly is the problem with the license. The NBU extended the licenses of 21 companies, the remaining 126 are awaiting a decision. WayForPay is still undergoing relicensing by the NBU. The term of the license is still unknown, but there was no refusal from the regulator. In order to receive payments, current customers were offered to temporarily connect LiqPay or the Raiffeisen Bank service. This will enable you to accept payments via WayForPay; view payment statistics in the office; returns, holds, write-offs will also be available. Technical support of the service promised to help connect to an...

The Montana Senate passed a law to protect cryptomining from discrimination. Source:https://incrypted.com/montana-prinyala-zakon-o-zashite-kripto-majnerov/ Project 37-13 is designed to protect domestic mining and enterprises. It prohibits operators from introducing "discriminatory utility tariffs." And mining companies are protected from taxation on mined cryptocurrency. Supporters of the bill believe that the mining business is good for the state's economy. Mining creates new jobs and brings income to the budget. Of course, there were those who opposed the adoption of the law. Traditionally, their arguments have been that mining is bad for the environment and consumes too much energy. Despite the debate, the bill passed first the state House of Representatives and then the Senate. It was signed by Montana Governor Greg Gianforte on May 2. The law was authored by Dennis Porter and the Satoshi Action Fund. In general, Montana has become a popular region for cryptocurrency mining. Two factors coincided here — low electricity tariffs and favorable climatic conditions for equipment operation. It is important that the state approves the development of the crypto...

The Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading draft law No. 8137 aimed at improving the procedures for the administration of taxation of controlled foreign companies (CFCs). The explanatory note to the bill states that it aims to make the administrative procedures for disclosure of information about controlled foreign companies simpler and more sophisticated, which will ultimately ensure a better balance between public and private interests. What is interesting? Notification of KIK Fines for failure to submit CIC notifications for the period from January 1, 2022 to the date of entry into force of the draft law shall not be applied. The fine for failure to submit a notice of CIC was reduced from 300 to 50 minimums (from 802 to 134 thousand). Please note that a fine has been introduced for late submission of the notification. For each day of delay, you will have to pay 1 minimum (2,684 UAH in 2023), but the maximum fine is no more than 25 minimums. That is, if the notification is overdue by 100 days, the fine will be a maximum of 25 minimum - UAH 67,100. The acquisition of ownership and/or control over KIK must be reported within 60 calendar days. Previously, there was no...

The Executive Board of the World Bank has approved Ajay Banga as President. Interestingly, this is the former CEO of Mastercard. He was Chairman Emeritus of the International Chamber of Commerce, serving as Acting Chairman for 2020-2022, and co-founded the Cyber Readiness Institute and served as Vice Chairman of the Economic Club of New York. Source:https://finbalance.com.ua/news/novim-hlavoyu-svitovoho-banku-stav-eks-kerivnik-mastercard "I sincerely congratulate Ajay Banga on his election as the president of the World Bank. Ajay Banga will bring to this important position the necessary leadership and management skills, experience of living and working in emerging markets, as well as knowledge in the financial sphere," said the head of the US Treasury Department. She also added that Ajay Banga is leading the World Bank at a critical moment in its existence: "Ajay understands that the challenges we face - from tackling climate change, pandemics and fragility, to eradicating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity - are deeply interconnected." The candidacy for the position of the head of the World Bank is proposed by the President of the United States, and...

Payments giant Mastercard has announced that it is working on a new set of Mastercard Crypto Credential standards with Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, Polygon and the Solana Foundation. The main goal of the initiative is to strengthen the trust of consumers, businesses and governments in this sector. "Building trust in the blockchain ecosystem is the most important step towards realizing its full potential," said Raj Damodharan, Executive Vice President of Digital Assets at Mastercard. "A new set of standards ensures that those interested in interacting in the Web3 environment meet certain standards for the activities they want to do." The Mastercard Crypto Credential aims to create a set of common standards and infrastructure that will help validate the trustworthiness of interactions between consumers and businesses using the blockchain. While Aptos Labs, Polygon, Ava Labs, and Solana will help bring the standards to app developers in their ecosystems, wallet providers Bit2Me, Lirium, Mercado Bitcoin, and Uphold will begin using new tools as part of an initial project to enable cross-border transfers between the U.S. and Latin countries America and the Caribbean. "Together we will...

The sale, which includes long-term mortgages and securities, aims to reduce the mismatch between the bank's assets and liabilities. Source:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-25/first-republic-said-to-weigh-up-to-100-billion-in-asset-sales Potential buyers, including major US banks, could receive guarantees or preferred shares as an incentive to buy assets above market value, one source said. The day after First Republic reported earnings well below analysts' estimates, investors are fully aware of the challenges facing the bank. The lender is trying to bolster its balance sheet to avoid a FDC arrest and clear the way for a possible capital increase, the source said. The source added that the US government may need to assist in negotiations with some of the largest banks in the country to stabilize the lender while it is bailing out. This would be a much cheaper alternative than bankrupting the company. First Republic shares tumbled 23% in early New York trading on Wednesday, after falling on Tuesday halved its market value to $1.5 billion. In early March, the bank's value exceeded $22 billion. In addition to selling assets, the bank also plans to focus on loans...

Bitpanda Technology Solutions, Europe's leading investment-as-a-service platform, and Austrian-based Raiffeisenlandesbank have reached an agreement to explore ways to offer digital assets to their clients. Raiffeisenlandesbank, which also has a presence in Europe, breaks new ground in the development of innovative investment solutions. Source:https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/raiffeisenlandesbank-becomes-the-first-major-traditional-european-bank-to-move-into-digital-assets-in-partnership-with-bitpanda/ “In the spirit of absolute customer orientation, we support our customers as a reliable and strong partner. Personal advice is just as important as modern digital solutions,” said Michael Hellerer, CEO of Raiffeisenlandesbank NÖ-Wien: “The Bitpanda deal aims to expand our product range with an innovative and secure aspect and make it easy for everyone to accumulate wealth.” RLB NÖ-Wien is set to become the first traditional bank in the European Union to include cryptocurrencies and other asset classes in its digital investment offering. Bitpanda will provide a SaaS trading infrastructure to achieve this goal quickly and securely. “We have created Bitpanda technology...