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Transferwise to Roll Out Investment Feature in the UK in Upcoming Months; Wishes to Create a More Diverse Ecosystem

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As time progresses, more and more changes have taken place in the financial world. With the addition of the cryptocurrency industry and the way it has grown over the last decade, several organizations have grown by leaps and bounds.

One such company has been Transferwise, which began life as a cross-border payment solution but did not diversify into providing investment services. The United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority has been granted permission to deal with the investment wing. This will allow Transferwise to allow users to invest passively in third party funds.

Sources close to the company have revealed that the latest move was a bid for users to make a return on their investment. Transferwise CEO Kristo Kaarmann claimed that the main inspiration for the investment arm came back sometime when the company saw massive international trades. Kaarmann said that businesses had a lot of international payments coming from multiple regions, and it seemed to be a good thing to tap into.

Transferwise stated that they did not want to act as stockbrokers, but rather wanted to provide their users with a level playing field. Rivals such as Robinhood and Revolut have already ventured into the stockbroker field, but this has not dissuaded Trasnferwise from its aims. Sources indicate that Trasnferwise plans to launch its native investment feature in the next 12 months with an initial United Kingdom roll-out. Once the model is tested in the United Kingdom(UK), there are plans to expand it rapidly across the globe.

Speaking at a recent forum, Kaarmann said:

“We’ve been very humbled in some ways and proud that customers are funding our mission. They keep TransferWise running through the fees that they’re paying; they pay our salaries, they let us hire more people and grow the product. It’s not like if you put money into a savings account in a bank, money magically grows there. It’s still going to be invested in something.”

Trasnferwise already has a reliable customer base and anew investment feature will only do well to boost it. Officials of the company were confident that 2021 will see a massive demand surge in investment ideas and believed in staying ahead of the curve. The latest development is also set to increase the massive amount of capital deposited into the company, which currently clocked in at $2.5 billion.

Thai Central Bank Developing Payments Systems Prototype Using CBDC

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Thai central bank has become the latest financial watchdog to join the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) bandwagon. The Bank of Thailand (BoT) announced its project to build a decentralized payments system prototype for commercial use.

According to the announcement, the CBDC prototype will be hosted by the Inthanon Project, the blockchain infrastructure inaugurated by the Bank of Thailand. This will be achieved through a partnership with the country ‘s eight leading financial institutions.

The entire project involves carrying out a feasibility study and creating a procedure for linking Central Bank Digital Currency to the Business Payments System, as per the Thai Central Bank. The prototype project is set to start in July and will continue until the end of the year. The findings of the scheme will then be outlined by the Thai central bank to the public.

Thai Central Bank making a step forward in driving CBDC adoption

The Bank of Thailand sees the project as a significant step forward in expanding the CBDC ‘s realm and driving its adoption to a broader audience, starting with big corporations. The payment system will be linked to the procurement and financial management systems of Siam Cement Public Company and its stockists,

The Thai central bank anticipates that the CBDC prototype will facilitate coherent and more flexible transactions or a faster and more flexible settlement between suppliers. In addition , the Bank of Thai also noted that proof of concept for local wholesale revenue; was finalized in January alongside the cross-border transfer prototype; developed in partnership with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).

Development of CBDC’s worldwide

Different central financial authorities are keenly exploring the development of CBDC’s around the world. For instance, the Bank of Korea (BoK) recently established a legal advisory panel for the development of digital currencies.

Furthermore, the Bank of France has partnered with local private banks to run a pilot test for state-issued cryptocurrencies in Europe.

Blockchain Payments System Being Launched in Cambodia

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Southeast Asian nation, Cambodia is launching a blockchain payments system to enhance the use of the country’s fiat currency. The new blockchain network is set to improve the use of the country’s local fiat currency, scaling down the use of the United States dollar.

Moreover, the new blockchain payments system will enable real-time payments, and scaling down the nation’s cost of payment massively. Nevertheless, the new payments network will have several benefits, but bringing down the over-reliance in the U.S dollar is the key objective.

90% of local payments in Cambodia are in USD

According to the assistant governor of Cambodia’s central bank, Serey Chea during a recent event, the United States dollar accounts for more than 90 percent of local payments. In addition, he claims that the huge reliance on the dollar makes Cambodia one of the most dollar-dependent economies on the planet.

Nevertheless, the new blockchain payments system is Cambodia’s biggest chance of reducing the over-reliance on the dollar, which the central bank intends to use fully. Additionally, the assisted governor noted that the central bank intends to launch the DLT network later in the year, “hopefully very soon.” 

The new blockchain-based payments network aims to bring together banks, digital wallet platforms, facilitating transactions between users and their preferred platforms, and among themselves. 

All financial institutions to join the blockchain payments system

At the moment, the payments system has 12 of Cambodia’s top financial institutions. However, the assistant governor expressed a lot of confidence in all financial service providers joining the new blockchain payments system. 

Moving forward, the blockchain system will also expand to foreign soils, with money transfer services expanding to the neighbouring country of Malaysia. More than 300,000 Cambodia citizens work in Malaysia, and they transfer funds to their home country every month. Transferring the funds is very expensive, and the blockchain payments system is expected to bring this cost down massively.

Bank of International Settlements to Approach G20 Members to Back New Cryptocurrency Roadmap

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The cryptocurrency market has always been the subject of speculation and the concept of trust has been very difficult to establish. This has forced many institutions within the space to work together and come up with solutions.

According to recent reports, the Bank of International Settlements [ BIS ] is planning to submit a Cryptocurrency Roadmap to the G20 to lower cross-border transaction costs.

During the weekend this decision was announced with the bank saying it was high time institutions took a proper look at the crypto industry. Today, cross-border payment systems are operating in a slow and cumbersome manner and companies like Ripple were planning to change that.

This is the first time that such a large group of world leaders will be subject to developments in the cryptocurrency space and how to deal with them.

The Bank of International Settlements has urged members of the G20 to get behind its plan to reduce growing transaction costs in a faltering economy. High costs, low speeds, and cumbersome processes have been some of the biggest enemies of the current cross-border transaction system.

According to the bank, several regulators, central banks and treasury officials had put their heads together to come up with a solid plan.

Agustin Carstens, the General Manager of BIS had said:

“Central banks have a core role in payment systems. The changes underway require them to step up and play a more significant part in improving the safety and efficiency of these systems. Money and payment systems are founded on trust in the currency – whether cash or digital – and this trust is something that only the central bank can ensure.”

The body recognized that cross border payments were important for growing economies and the issue was of utmost importance. The roadmap will look into current costs, risks involved in crypto and the ways in which the public and private sectors could be involved.

The BIS acts as an umbrella group for a large group of banks and the jump into crypto meant that more and more players were getting interested in the field of digital assets.

For the first time, the BIS dedicated all of its time for a quarterly review to discuss the issuance of Facebook’s Libra. The Basel based organisation pointed out that central banks need to up their game in the financial landscape wit blockchain/crypto acting as the perfect tool. BIS also wants to remove the middle men from the process and establish a cheaper seamless network.

For the first time, the BIS has dedicated all of its time to a quarterly review to discuss Facebook’s Libra issuance. The organization based in Basel found out that central banks need to play their game in the financial environment as the ideal resource is blockchain/crypto. BIS also wants to take the middle men off the chain and set up a cheaper streamlined network.

The umbrella bank has not yet revealed what it plans to do with crypto regulations but that is probably a discussion for another day. Central banks have no hold over cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and that is the reason why some countries were planning to release state-owned CBDC‘s.

These Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDC] are expected to possess the best of both worlds: regulatory overwatch as well as all the features of a cryptocurrency.