payments
Facebook has issued a series of whitepapers outlining its plans regarding the new cryptocurrency that it intends to launch in the first half of 2020. According to the materials released today, the underlying aim of the proposed cryptocurrency, called Libra, is to make moving money around globally as easy, cost effective and safe as sending […]
Arjun Jayaram, CEO of Baton Systems, talks to Profit & Loss about how distributed ledger technology (DLT) is already helping the FX market, why the hype cycle around this technology is coming to an end and who he expects to win the “blockchain wars”. Profit & Loss: What is the problem in the FX market […]
The Global Payments Division of INTL FCStone’s London based subsidiary, IFL, has announced plans to roll out its FXePrice platform to its entire network of counterparties.Launched in June 2018, FXePrice enables correspondent banks to feed local currency live prices electronically to IFL, allowing users to stream foreign exchange prices, which reduces latency and ensures efficiency by integrating with counterparties’ straight-through-processing (STP) systems.
he platform automates the manual process of FX price discovery in emerging markets and facilitates instant electronic price discovery via both streaming and request-for-quote (RFQ) functionality.
The consultancy firm, Point Group, has launched an online foreign currency exchange and international payments platform, called edgeFX.The platform is designed as a payment solution for international business, global investors, wealth managers, IFAs and private clients. To launch it, Point partnered with Monex Europe to use its technology platform and global network, which enables cross-currency payments both domestically and internationally in over 60 currencies and to approximately 185 countries.
In an online post announcing the launch, Henry Wilkes, head of FX at Point, says: “EdgeFX brings together all of the features clients expect of an FX service in a clear, concise and low-cost environment.
The Global Payments Division of INTL FCStone’s London based subsidiary, IFL, has introduced FXePrice, a proprietary Web-based platform allowing IFL local currency liquidity providers to streamline executable prices to 140 currencies and 175 countries, according to the firm.
The company says it has released the platform to select members of its global network of more than 300 correspondent banks, to obtain feedback and incorporate recommendations. A full roll out to its entire network of counterparties is planned for later in 2018.
Mobile payments and cryptocurrency startup, Circle, has acquired the crypto-asset exchange Poloniex.
Circle is backed by $140 million in venture capital from investors including Goldman Sachs, IDG Capital Partners, Breyer Capital, Accel Partners, General Catalyst Partners, Baidu, CICC Alpha, EverBright, WangXiang and CreditEase.
Circle has two main business lines. According to the company, “Circle Pay helps people around the globe connect to one another and share value just as they would share any other kind of content on the open borderless Internet; Circle Trade serves institutions and investors as one of the world’s largest providers of crypto asset liquidity.”
Circle says that it is also planning to launch an app that will enable individuals to tap into crypto-asset investment “through a simple, seamless, mobile experience”.
R3 and 22 of its member banks have developed a new international payments solution that leverages distributed ledger technology (DLT).
A protoype of the solution – which is being built on R3’s Corda platform – is due to be released by the end of 2017.
In a release issued today, R3 notes that domestic payment systems have advanced in many countries to the point of providing real-time funds transfer for customers, highlighting by contrast the extremely inefficient, expensive and slow experience businesses encounter with international payments.
Banks aren’t actively engaging corporates about blockchain solutions, even though these could be beneficial to their businesses, according to speakers at the Swell event hosted by Ripple in Toronto this week.
“[The banks] are all eager to work on blockchain, but what typically gets caught up is that they’re waiting for the use case and the ROI to be defined before they act, and what ends up happening is that they become fast followers, not leaders, and unfortunately in the problems that we’re trying to solve they can’t be followers, they have to lead,” explained Kapil Mokhat, global director payments programs and partnerships at Airbnb.
Similarly, Paul Snaith, manager of treasury operations for capital markets and banking and payments at the World Bank, noted that banks haven’t been knocking down his door to talk about how blockchain technology can be utilised for his business.
NEX Optimisation, NEX Group’s post-trade services unit, has announced that Baton Systems, a high-speed payments infrastructure provider, has joined NEX Infinity as the first third party to provide its services through the platform.
The two businesses say they have been working in partnership alongside an existing but un-named large, multinational bank client of Nex to deliver a new post-trade solution for FX spot transactions delivered through the Infinity platform. The solution combines Nex Optimisation’s existing matching and confirmation services with Baton’s settlement and payments services.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) has announced that it has expanded its payments capabilities with the launch of a new multicurrency netting solution.
The bank says the new solution centralises inter-company payments, enabling large companies that operate across multiple borders to reduce both the number of payments and the total value of payments made between companies that regularly invoice one another.
Large corporations typically make hundreds of inter-company payments worth millions of dollars every month, the bank further adds.
