Blockchain

Blockchain technology requires major change in people and processes and smaller banks need to prepare, according to Joe Dewey, an attorney at Holland & Knight and author of a new book about distributed ledger technology.

The bank has quit the R3 consortium, whose tech decisions were at odds with its own.

With an ever-increasing number of unsecured devices connected to one another, the potential for cyberattackers to overwhelm any organization is a clear and present danger.

The global messaging network Swift and its fintech challenger, Ripple, have been vying for bankers’ hearts and minds for more than a year. Whoever prevails, their latest moves could bring needed change to how international banking is done.

There has been a lot of activity lately around modernizing cross-border transfers through the use of blockchain and and cloud-hosted technology, but despite the potential savings in cost and time, none of these methods has caused a meaningful decline in the use of cash.

Using a program built by Ripple, BBVA has transferred about 50 euro-denominated payments to Mexico from Spain in seconds. Such transactions normally take up to four days to clear, the bank said.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Spain’s No. 2 lender, has executed its first cross-border payments through a system based on the software that supports bitcoin.

Ripple's distributed ledger platform has fed an appetite for cheaper and more efficient cross-border payments, but it may not measure up to the needs of a larger market. Ripple wants to scale its payment system to something resembling a large card network.

The bank said the test showed blockchain can be used to conduct secure, low-cost cross-border payments without intermediaries.

The blockchain-based platform, set to launch later this year, promises to make gold trading around the world faster, more transparent and safer.

Five banks and the tech firms R3 and HQLA^X are using distributed ledger technology to make it easier to transfer liquid securities and collateral.

Genpact's new platform promises to reduce the number of past-due invoices to less than 3% in most companies.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s head of new technologies has been hired by Lending Club Corp. as the peer-to-peer lending pioneer seeks to rebuild business following a scandal over its corporate controls.

Coordinators of a blockchain project backed by the financial industry say they have successfully demonstrated that the distributed ledger technology can be used to syndicate, trade and make payments on leveraged loans.

Blockchain Capital wants to raise $10 million by issuing its own digital token, a method the firm says is the future for startups, VCs and everybody else.

Despite massive technological changes over the last two decades, Pam Brodsack of TMG says credit unions still face the dual challenge of not just catching up but getting ahead of the curve.

Readers sound off on airing political opinions at the office; putting banks and fintechs under the same regulatory umbrella; putting consumer needs first regardless of tech advancements; and more.

Slock.it says its current project will enable people to exchange the ownership of devices connected to the internet of things.

The exchange, founded by a bitcoin pioneer in 2014, is facilitating more than $50 million worth of transactions each month, as the "gold rush" in blockchain-based assets takes hold.

As blockchain projects have proliferated, the need for them to be compatible with one another has become paramount.