Digital Financial News

Jio Financial Services: Jio Financial Services Ltd, the demerged non-banking financial services unit of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group, will be dropped from Nifty50, other indices, on September 7, the stock exchange NSE said on Tuesday. Shares of JFSL got listed on the stock exchanges on August 21 due to its spin-off from parent Reliance Industries. During the AGM, RIL announced that JFNSL will enter the insurance segment to offer life, general and health insurance products.

Genesis Global Trading (GGT), a New York-based subsidiary of Barry Silbert's Digital Currency Group, is set to halt its crypto spot trading services as of September 18. The decision comes directly from the company and is described as a voluntary measure due to unspecified business reasons.

By Jaiveer Shekhawat

The move to expand the programme follows an earlier pilot in 2022 conducted by EY and a subsequent 'Discovery Phase' held in consultation with market participants, including Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, Santander and Visa. It follow a recent PoC run by the Federal Reserve with a clutch of top banks that demonstrated the feasibility of a an interoperable network for wholesale payments operating on a shared multi-entity distributed ledger. While the UK Discovery Phase explored the delivery of a RLN for wholesale paymnts, the PoC will track the retail consumer market. This would test the use case for a RLN that would provide commercial bank money with the equivalent programmability of a future digital pound, in this way ensuring competitive consistency in the event of a full scale CBDC roll out. The importance of this was emphasised in a speech given in July by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, who stated: "We want to encourage more thinking and action in the world of enhanced digital bank deposits - sometimes call tokenised deposits.

The news sent crypto prices surging on Tuesday, with Bitcoin gaining more than six per cent, pushing the $28,000 mark. Grayscale and other asset managers, including BlackRock, WisdomTree and Fidelity, have pushed for the SEC to approve spot bitcoin ETFs, which would allow people to invest in the crypto without having to own it themselves.

The Bank of Canada is exploring technologies and technical ecosystems that may inform decisions relating to the development of a potential digital loonie.

CBS Studios is set to launch 'Star Trek: Very Short Treks,' comprising five new animated promotional shorts, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of 'Star Trek: The Animated Series.' Additionally, they will introduce the new comic book, 'Star Trek: The Animated Celebration Presents The Scheimer Barrier.' Both releases are scheduled for Friday, September 8, coinciding with the annual global Star Trek Day celebration.

In early 2019, Wyoming enacted legislation authorizing the creation of state-chartered banks catering to firms doing business with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The banks would serve as custodians of digital assets and take dollar deposits, forming a bridge between cryptocurrency and dollars for firms to make payroll and payments, or help realize crypto investment gains or losses. Four years later, the Cowboy State’s experiment with state-chartered crypto banking has gone slower than expected.

Open Society Foundations will spin off its support for Europe’s Roma communities into a new foundation to which it has pledged €100 million or around $107 million

The European Union’s Commission is reshuffling more of its top management because antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager of Denmark is seeking to become the president of the European Investment Bank

Crypto-backed investment funds saw minor outflows totaling $11.2 million last week, marking the third consecutive week of outflows from the sector.

cryptocurrency prices last year forced a procession of major firms into bankruptcy, trigging a government crackdown and erasing the savings of millions of inexperienced investors. But for a small group of corporate turnaround specialists, crypto's implosion has become a financial bonanza.Lawyers, accountants, consultants, cryptocurrency analysts and other professionals have racked up more than $700 million in fees since last year from the bankruptcies of five major crypto firms, including the digital currency exchange FTX, according to a New York Times analysis of court records. That sum is likely to grow significantly as the cases unfold over the coming months. Large fees are common in corporate bankruptcies, which require complex and time-intensive legal work to untangle.

As Bitcoin takes the limelight once again, its live valuation stands at $25,702, experiencing a minor slump of nearly 1% over the past 24 hours. 

MUMBAI : Self-regulation is the way to regulate fintech companies, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor T. Rabi Sankar. Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest on Tuesday, Sankar said that fintech companies are not strictly financial entities and, therefore, the current model of regulation may not apply to these companies.

New Delhi: Industry bodies, civil society organizations and consumer groups have raised concerns to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India over regulation of OTT apps, specifically on the selective banning of OTT apps, as has been proposed by the regulator in its ongoing consultation. In their submission to the TRAI, which is undertaking consultations over OTT regulation, the bodies including Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Broadband India Forum, Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) and Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) comprising nearly a dozen consumer groups, have said that such apps were already regulated under the IT Act 2000 which will be replaced by the upcoming Digital India Act (DIA), hence the ongoing consultations should form part of Digital India Act and any other additional consultations by regulators like TRAI will also lead to overlap of regulatory structure.

NEW DELHI : India has volunteered to man and manage the global repository of all digital public infrastructure (DPI) through an open-source platform, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, adding that there was interest from multilateral institutions, government and non-government organizations to finance the expansion and adoption of DPIs. “The global DPI repository, which would be essentially the platform where all of these DPIs, will be open in open-source manner, shared technology and innovation and be available to the whole world, will be manned by and managed by us.

central bank digital currency (CBDC) becomes a reality, said Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor, T Rabi Sankar. «Why is the average cost of transaction for retail 6%? It is not (because of) technology, technology can be made», said Rabi Sankar, at the Global Fintech Festival. «It's a question of consensus that has to arise globally and a commitment that has to come up on changing these systems (among central banks).» Many central banks across the world are working at digital currencies with the Bank for International Settlements guiding them.

Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) next week, officials have said it is not necessary for India to take a call on joining the trade pillar of the pact by the target conclusion date of November. Negotiators said India can join the IPEF trade pillar later, but there is a need to build consensus. While the supply chain agreement of the IPEF is awaiting comments from various ministries before it is sent for Cabinet approval, officials said negotiations on clean economy and fair economy are progressing well. New Delhi has an observer status on the trade pillar negotiations which deal with commitments required on environment, labour, agriculture, digital trade and public procurement.

Competition Commission of India (CCI) has sought to widen the definition of deal value for big-ticket merger and acquisition (M&A) exercise to include «every valuable consideration, whether direct or indirect, immediate or deferred, cash or otherwise», according to its draft Combinations Regulations 2023. Experts said such regulations, once finalised, will likely impact deals in sectors, including technology, infrastructure and healthcare, and lead to a surge in filings with the competition regulator.

digital economy ministers of the G20 nations have reached a consensus on the definition, framework and working principles for digital public infrastructure (DPI), minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said. «India is now a case study, as a nation that employed and deployed technological tools for progress and growth. Countries that have lagged behind increasingly see this as a way to follow India's lead in DPIs, an open-source digital infrastructure, and use it to create the same impact that India has,» he said. Chandrasekhar was briefing the media on the outcome of a meeting of the digital economy ministers of G20, which had happened in August.

Mint reported that India was holding discussions with Namibia, Mozambique and Kenya to enter into commercial partnerships for launching UPI in the markets. “We have specific objectives for popularising and internationalising Rupay and UPI," he added. Ritesh Shukla, the international chief executive of NPCI, recently said the number of countries using UPI will double in 12-18 months.