Tag Archives: Banks

Russia’s central bank granted the country’s largest lender Sberbank a license to issue and exchange digital assets. The latest move opens new avenues for the nation’s economy hammered by western sanctions. The Approval According to the official statement, local companies will be able to issue their own digital assets to lure market investments, purchase digital assets through Sber’s system, or make other such transactions under the new license. The lender also stated that it...

CoinShares – a digital asset management firm – has increased its stake in the Swiss online banking platform ‘FlowBank’ following approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. According to a press release from CoinShares earlier today, the increased investment will facilitate “increased digital asset exposure” for FlowBank’s clients using the CoinShares platform. CoinShares’ previous stake in FlowBank was established in October of 2021 at 9.02%. The...

The line between banks and crypto is becoming a lot thinner thanks to republican politicians in Virginia. A new amendment will be signed into law by the state’s conservative governor Glenn Youngkin that will allow banks in Old Dominion to offer crypto assets and services to their customers. Virginia Is Plowing Headfirst Into Crypto Last week, the state senate of Virginia unanimously voted to move forward with a bill amendment that focused on digital currency custody. The...

Credit Suisse – a Switzerland-based global investment bank – released a report yesterday predicting radical change to the global monetary system. Given western inflation dynamics and eastern geopolitical tensions, the firm expects a “new monetary world order” based on commodity-backed currencies to emerge – in which Bitcoin will likely benefit. Breton Woods III The analysis by investment strategist Zoltan Pozsar was titled “Bretton Woods III,” harkening back to the Bretton...

ApplePay – Apple’s digital wallet service – is no longer providing support to Russian banks following sanctions from the United States and its western allies. Applications from Promsvyabank – a state-backed Russian bank – have also been removed from the App Store. Sanctioning Russia Apple’s removal of Russian financial services was reported by Russian news outlet RBC on Thursday. Three of Promsvyabank’s applications have vanished from the Apple store: mobile banking, PBS...

Recently leaked documents allege that the giant private bank Credit Suisse had held hundreds of billions of dollars of clients alleged or involved in drug trafficking, corruption, torture, money laundering, and other serious crimes. This comes years after the bank bashed the cryptocurrency industry, claiming that bitcoin presents money laundering challenges. The Leaked Documents A whistle-blower shared compromising data on more than 18,000 bank accounts holding over $100...

A top official at India’s central bank recently reiterated warnings to Prime Minister Modi’s government about the risks cryptocurrencies pose to the country’s financial system. This time, he compared digital assets to “Ponzi schemes”, mirroring some investors’ long-held criticisms of the asset class. Crypto Is A Ponzi, Says RBI Governor T. Rabi Sankar of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) offered his criticisms during a banking conference speech on Monday. As reported by...

Digital asset platform Bakkt Holdings has teamed up with Valliant Bank, an institution that provides financial services, to bring a seamless crypto experience to the bank’s customers. According to a press release on Monday (February 14, 2022), Valliant Bank would enable customers to easily buy, sell, and hold bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and other altcoins within the bank’s digital banking infrastructure via the Bakkt crypto connect solution. Bakkt’s program, which is...

Leading Israeli bank, Hapoalim Bank, has recently filed a letter of defense to dismiss the claims of the 69-year-old pensioner, Esther Freeman, to allow the deposit of $320k profit she made from a $3,000 Bitcoin investment nearly nine years ago. According to a Thursday report by a local media outlet, the bank claims that its insistence on denying the deposit was because of cases where digital currencies are used to facilitate money laundering and terrorist financing. Hapoalim...

While the Federal Reserve continues to threaten interest rate hikes amid rising inflation, the ECB has taken a different approach. Bank President Christine Lagarde stated they will “not rush into a decision,” deeming inflation as merely a short-term problem. Interest Rates Remain Unchanged As reported by CNBC, the ECB’s refinancing rate will remain at 0%. Meanwhile, its marginal lending rate will stay at 0.25%, and its deposit facility rate will be kept at -0.5%. The decision...