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The former Group CEO of Barclays, Anthony Jenkins, predicts a future within the next ten years wherein financial technology or fintech will substantially disrupt traditional banking systems and the banking industry as a whole. He is convinced banking installations and those employed in banking institutions will be reduced by at least 20% in the coming ten years, if not up to as much as 50%. Anthony Jenkins, former CEO of one of Barclays, the UK’s second biggest bank in assets after HSBC has predicted an “Uber-like” disruption from the Fintech sector to come crashing down on the current banking industry. […]

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As cryptocurrencies have expanded as a medium of exchange, governments worldwide have struggled with how best to regulate them. While one of the draws of cryptocurrencies is that they are less regulated than traditional currencies, problems associated with these currencies (such as financial crimes and terrorist financing) have encouraged governments to develop regulations. A recent report by the SWIFT Institute summarizes regulatory initiatives to date and identifies some of the problems that governments encounter in attempting to regulate cryptocurrencies. The 77-page paper, titled “The Evolution of Third Party Payment Providers and Cryptocurrencies Under the EU’s Upcoming PSD2 and AMLD4,” summarizes […]

The post Swift Institute: Problems And Progress Regulating Cryptocurrencies appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The price of bitcoin increased by 12% today, reaching a weekly high of $368.51 at 12:30 (UTC).

The Kenyan High Court heard a case brought by bitcoin startup BitPesa against mobile money giant Safaricom two days ago.

Bitcoin price continued advance today in a strong surge that hit $360. At the time of writing price is drawing back as the market comes to terms with the day's price action. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now and receive a $29 discount using the code CCN29. Bitcoin Price Analysis Time of analysis: 14h00 UTC OKCoin 3Mth 1-Hour Chart From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today: Price pushed higher in a manner that is characteristic of strong advance. However, initial surges during advance are often […]

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NextBank, which bills itself as the first bitcoin-friendly bank and is slated to open in 2016, announced that it has received $1.4 million for 4% of the company from two venture capitalists in Europe and has called off its crowdfunding campaign. Crowdfunding investors can choose to be minority investors or have their contributions refunded. CCN reported last month that NextBank received $0.95 million in private venture capital and was accepting early registrations. The new investment brings the total investment $2.35 million USD. The company will continue to seek funding through venture capital avenues to “ease concerns of the public,” according […]

The post Bitcoin-Friendly NextBank Receives $1.4 Million, Calls Off Crowdfunding Campaign appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Having broken out of a wedge pattern, Bitcoin price quickly gained momentum and galloped to hit a high of $369 today. The Bitstamp Price Index started the day at $328.90 and quickly rose through the morning to peak at $367.44 at 12:40 UTC today, November 26. The figure represents a two-week high with Bitcoin price last seen at the $350 mark on November 10, with Bitcoin price hitting a monthly low of $300.30 the next day. Bitcoin price struck a high of $502 this month with multiple factors such as an outflow of capital away from China, increased trading among […]

The post Newsflash: Bitcoin Price Leaps $40 to Touch $369 Today appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Get your bitcoin wallets at the ready and prepare yourself for a day of frenzied discounted online shopping. Bitcoin Black Friday is back!

The ways that companies like Apple try to extract more cash from their customer base are many. The notion of planned obsolescence is defined by the Oxford dictionary like so: A policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of nondurable materials.

The post You Don't Really Own Your Hardware: The War on Electronics Repair appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The European Union (EU) is years away from implementing a consistent framework for cryptocurrency regulation, according to a new report by SWIFT.

Bittunes has a simple approach to how the blockchain can transform the music industry. While other music oriented startups in the field remain very focused on technology driven solutions, Bittunes wants to initially focus on the problem: the way the music industry is today. “We have tried from the beginning to keep things as simple as possible,” Bittunes managing director Simon Edhouse tells CCN. “This has been for a number of reasons. Ultimately we believe the challenge for adoption of 'new to market' systems like this is not so much a technical one but rather, it is related to developing […]

The post Bittunes Looks To Bitcoin To Transform Music Industry appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Antony Jenkins, the former CEO of Barclays, has a nightmare vision for the future of big banks.

In a speech in London this week he said: "The incumbents risk becoming merely capital providing utilities that operate in a highly regulated, less profitable environment, a situation unlikely to be tolerated by shareholders."

Jenkins says a series of Uber-style disruptions in the industry could shrink headcount at traditional big banks by as much as 50%, while profitability in some areas could collapse by over 60% — huge predictions from a man who, until recently, ran one of Britain's biggest banks.

He adds: "In my view only a few [incumbent banks] will have the courage and decisiveness to win in this new field."

The problem? Financial technology, better known as fintech.

Jenkins, who was ousted as Barclays CEO in July, says a new wave of tech-savvy startups that can do things better, faster, and cheaper than the big banks will disrupt their traditional businesses like lending, payments, and wealth management.

He isn't alone in thinking this. A survey by software firm Temenos released on Thursday found 27% of senior bankers named tech companies as the biggest threats to their businesses.

In fact, we're already seeing it happen with startups like Lending Club and Funding Circle (lending), Square (payments), Nutmeg (wealth management), and TransferWise (international payments) — all of whom Jenkins name checks in his speech at Chatham House.

Jenkins recently visited Silicon Valley to hobnob with fintech types out there and it's convinced him that financial services are about to be disrupted in the same way publishing, telecoms, and the music industry have been.

He says:

We will see massive pressure on incumbent banks, which will struggle to implement new technologies at the same pace as their new rivals. That will make it increasingly challenging for them to deliver the returns and profitability that their shareholders demand.

Ultimately, those forces will compel large banks to significantly automate their business. I predict that the number of branches and people employed in the financial services sector may decline by as much as 50% over the next 10 years, and even in a less harsh scenario I expect a decline of at least 20%.

A halving of headcount and branches over 10 years! That is a huge decline. The prediction coincides with reports that Lloyds is poised to axe 1,000 jobs as part of branch closures and increased automation.

Jenkins also quoted research from consultancy McKinsey that technology will wipe out two-thirds of profits from things like retail lending, car loans, and credit cards.

So why are banks suddenly facing a swarm of new tech businesses eating away at their businesses? There are 2 big factors.

Firstly, the 2008 financial crash. Not only did this lead to a mistrust of big banks, making people more willing to embrace startups, it also led to a huge number of redundancies that meant there were a lot of smart people who understood the world of finance looking for something new to do.

The 2008 crash also led to a big increase in regulation, which has forced banks to take their eye of customer needs.

The second reason is the cost of starting a technology business has come way down. It used to be conventional wisdom that it would take $50 million to get a software business off the ground — at least half of that would go on server banks.

But the advent of cloud computing, that lets you pay for space as you go, and the rise of APIs, which let you buy out-of-the-box tools you can just connect together to make your product, has bought the cost way down. A report from CB Insights earlier this year estimates that the cost to launch a startup had fallen to just $5,000 by 2011. (This seems a little optimistic for fintech. Another figure I've heard quoted for a fintech startup today is $2 million.)

But while Jenkins is pretty pessimistic about the prospects for big banks in the future, he doesn't think the Apocalypse is here just yet.

He said: "I would see much of the fintech activity as version 1.0. Some would even argue there's not that much tech in some of these fintech companies.

"While there is a burgeoning fintech scene in the UK, we're still waiting for truly transformative projects. But with the tsunami of capital working in the sector we cannot be far away."

So how can big banks stop their dinner being eaten by nimble startups? Jenkins says:

Incumbents will need address 3 significant issues. First, boards will need to accept that we live in a discontinuous world. They should ask executives to take significant but calculated risks by working on projects that no one else is working on. Looking for a linear progression just won't cut it.

Secondly, there shouldn't be a technology strategy. There should only be a strategy with technology at its core. There's a huge difference. And thirdly, leaders need to lead differently. In my experience, people become more risk averse the more senior they become. But doing the same thing a little better is now the riskiest thing you can do.

While Jenkins is no longer at the helm, Barclays is going big on technology, sponsoring startups and working with the blockchain — the technology that underpins bitcoin — to try and improve payments.

In fact, pretty much every big bank has made technology a priority in one way or another, either by tapping startup expertise like UBS or by experimenting with systems and technologies internally.

Just under a third of Goldman Sachs' employees are now engineers — 11,000 — and its big projects at the moment include messaging platform Symphony, an online peer-to-peer lending platform, and Marquee, an "app store" that lets clients use its internal trading a modelling tools for a fee. Thousands of clients are already using it.

58% of senior bankers polled by Temenos said they plan to spend more on IT this year, the highest percentage since the survey began in 2008.

The big question, as Jenkins points out, is whether these huge institutions can move fast enough to get ahead of the wave of change — or at the very least ride it.

You can watch the whole Chatham House speech here.

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