PUBLISHED: 25 OCTOBER 2019 AUTHOR: FINTECH CIRCLE A FINTECH Circle weekly round up of the latest fintech news, with headlines, summaries and links to the leading articles trending online.

Final Judgement: OCC Loses Fintech Charter Legal Battle as Judge Rules in Favour of New York State Department of Financial Services

The US District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to launch a “Fintech Charter” aimed at providing a federal path for Fintechs to operate across the U.S. providing banking services. The case was brought against the OCC by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). The New York Attorney General addressed the court in a written statement: “… if OCC were to begin issuing national bank charters to Fintech companies that do not currently have a New York nexus, serious questions will arise about whether and how those non-parties will be bound by any final judgment here if they later develop a New York nexus. Ultimately, OCC charters are not limited in geographic scope, and thus, any limitation at the time of licensure is meaningless.” Read more

Revolut goes live in Singapore

Following a beta test last year Revolut has launched in Singapore with 30,000 customers. Their Asia-Pacific hub is planning to scale up operations and is currently searching for local talent to join their existing team. Eddie Lee, head of operations for Asia-Pacific, said: “The average Singapore resident travels about seven times a year, and at the same time, they are transferring up to $7 billion overseas. For the most part, these are ordinary, hard working people who are unaware that their existing providers are charging them as much as five percent in fees.” Read more

Tide launches receipt management for SMEs

Tide is introducing optical character recognition to match receipts to transactions and perform bulk uploads to accounting software. Reported that in following months customers will be able to upload receipts in bulk automatically matching them to transactions on their account. CEO Oliver Prill said: “Tide is all about creating smart, integrated tools to help people run their businesses more smoothly. The developments announced today represent an evolution in our connected platform, allowing members to integrate their payments, expenses and accountancy software” Read more

G7 Evaluates Stablecoins as Risk to Global Financial Stability

According to a statement from the Financial Stability Board (FSB the world’s largest economies are assessing stablecoins as a potential risk to the global financial system. The G7 working group on stablecoins has published a report which acknowledges that stablecoins could help improve more inclusive payments while addressing the huge risks around issues such as legal certainty, cyber security, market integrity, AML, data privacy, and consumer protection. The report says: “Some risks are amplified and new risks might arise if adoption is global in nature. Stablecoin initiatives built on an existing – large and/or cross-border – customer base may have the potential to scale rapidly to achieve a global or other substantial footprint.” Read more

IBM and Tieto to slug it out for Bank of Lithuania LBChain sandbox project

IBM Polska and Tieto Lietuva, UAB have made it to the next stage to create a blockchain-based platform called LBChain. The Bank of Lithuania issued a call for fintechs and startups to register their interest in participating in the testing phase. “The final testing session will show which solution is most suitable for market needs,” said Andrius Adamonis, LBChain project manager, Bank of Lithuania. “We believe that the greatest advantage of LBChain is its versatility. We strive to create a platform that would not only serve for testing products or services that are already offered on the market, but would also be used to create those that might currently exist only in a financial. Read more For the latest fintech news and events sent straight to you inbox sign up to the FINTECH Circle newsletter