On August 23 and 24, officials from the People's Bank of China and scholars from Peking University arrived in San Francisco and had in-depth discussions with delegates at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco as well as some fintech companies including Coinbase, Prosper, Sofi, Circle and Ripple; discussion topics focused on digital currency, regtech, lending and inclusive finance; Sun Guofeng, the head of the Research Institute of PBoC, and Yao Qian, the head of Digital Currency Research Institute of PBoC, attended the tour; a report on the status quo of US fintech market, regulatory environment and its implications on China will be written after this visit. Source (Chinese)
As CoinDesk reports Chinese publication Caixin said that the PBOC did not hold a meeting on shutting down mining activities; the meeting was supposed to be held on January 3rd and meant to focus on banning mining; the news means that the Chinese government is taking a more agnostic approach to bitcoin mining, not endorsing it but at the same time not banning it; more concrete news should surface in the coming months, for now firms like Bixin and ViaBTC will keep operating. Source.
Mastercard has gained approval from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) to enter the Chinese market as a bank card...
According to more than 80 patents viewed by the Financial Times the People’s Bank of China has made significant progress...
Mobile payments in China have taken off in recent years as Ant Financial and Tencent dominate the market; in recent...
Fighting Chinese Artificial Intelligence with lasers and American Crypto with European Central Banks
How do the Americans and the Chinese have such different ethical takes on privacy, self-sovereignty, media, and the role of government? We can trace the root cause to the DNA of the macro-organism in which individuals reside, itself built over centuries and millenia from the collective scar tissue of local human experience. But there is more to observe. The technology now being deployed in each jurisdiction -- like social credit, surveillance artificial intelligence, monitored payment rails, and central bank cryptocurrency -- will drive a software architecture into the core of our societies that reflects the current moment. And it will be nearly impossible to change! This is why *how* we democratize access to financial services matters. We must be careful about the form, because we will be stuck with it like Americans are stuck with the core banking systems from the 1970s. But the worry is not inefficiency, it is programmed social strata.
This weeks WeiyangX Fintech Review on Crowdfund Insider covered the PBoC discussing key findings in their fintech sandbox program; Pinganfang.com found itself involved in a US crowdfunding fraud case; JD Finance and China UnionPay partnered on a blockchain based risk information sharing mechanism; Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma announced that Ant Financial will delay their IPO; Tencent reached an agreement with China CITIC Bank to cooperate on cloud services, a financial big data platform and security. Source.
Recent news about Chinese online lenders has caused regulators in China to begin looking at new regulations for the industry; “The public has doubts about its operating model and has appealed for it to be brought under regulation,” said Ji Zhihong, head of financial markets department at the People’s Bank of China, according to the FT; the potential regulations could hurt what has become a hot IPO market; Chinese lenders like Qudian who recently did a US based IPO and Paipaidai, Hexindai and Lexin Fintech who all have filed for potential US IPOs. Source.
Bitcoin Exchanges Try to Lure High-Speed Traders like Virtu and Citadel Zopa to boost regulatory clout ahead of Brexit PBoC...
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) had meetings with various bitcoin exchanges this week including BTCC, OKCoin and Huobi; along with the meetings two press releases were issued; according to a translation from Coindesk, the document reads, "Bitcoin is not a currency and shouldn't be viewed as such. Those who invest in bitcoin should accordingly be aware of the risks it poses and protect their investment"; officials also reminded exchanges about complying with local state laws and other regulations. Source