Finance & Money Edge

We previously wrote about how many central banks are considering forming its own digital currencies, now the European Central Bank (ECB) is seriously looking at having its own digital currency as soon as within two to four years, as shared by ECB President Christine Lagarde. While consumers around the world are embracing cashless digital payment

This past week, fifteen Asia-Pacific countries formed the world’s largest trading bloc, called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Highlights of the deal include: The trade bloc includes: all ten nations under the ASEAN, plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand Notably absent…the USA The RCEP deal is forecasted to account for 30%

“Green” bonds have been making their mark over the last few years and yielding growing interest among investors. The City of London has started offering these “green” bonds to fund environmentally-friendly projects now. This offering will attract the ESG (environmental, social and governance) concious investors and funds. France and Germany have been leading the EU

Paper money is one of the dirtiest items you can touch, so it’s even more pronounced during a pandemic. For countries in Western Europe, cash has been entrenched for ages. But with the pandemic, people are quickly adapting by increasing the use of cashless forms of payment. eMarketer expects a steady increase in the number

This item warms my heart because I see a lot of innovation in the payment solutions sector coming out of the African continent… …online payment behemoth, Stripe, has acquired Paystack, a Lagos-based payment technology company. Two of the largest markets in Western Africa, Nigeria and Ghana use Paystack for secure online payments so Stripe’s acquisition

The amount of fiscal stimulus and the accelerated acceptance of all things digital and online (despite the availability being there for years…) is triggering central banks around the world seriously looking at the adoption of central bank issues digital currencies. While there is no specific timeline, it does look like the possibility of adoption has

Another week goes by, and another bank is fined. (I swear I’m not trying to beat up on banks, but they keep providing fodder). Citigroup is the latest to be fined $400 million for engaging in “unsafe and unsound banking practices”…ouch. Risk management and back office operations are clearly in need of attention and perhaps

JP Morgan was found to be guilty of manipulating commodities markets using a tactic known as “spoofing”. The U.S. bank is fined $920M for the infraction. The infraction involved fifteen traders over a span of eight years of manipulating treasury contracts. By manipulating the price of gold and silver futures, they caused an overall loss

During the Global Financial Crisis, we saw that no bank or institution was too established to fail (hello Lehman’s). Now, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, one of the world’s oldest banks, is being shopped around for a potential rescuer/buyer. Marred by years of scandals and bailouts and loaded full of risks – finding a

Didn’t we hear this before? Britain’s government stated it is looking to stop money laundering from flowing through its banks after one of Britain’s largest bank, HSBC, has been found (again) to have let illicit funds pass through. Despite the fact anti-money laundering training and recent hefty fines, it still looks like the severity of

A few years ago, I took a digital photography class. Peter (not his real name), the instructor, introduced himself to the class and gave us a brief background as to how he ended up doing photography for a living. Peter didn’t start off in photography, he started off as an investment banker in New York…