Over 3 trillion dollars in daily transactions for the world’s biggest banks were disrupted Wednesday, according to an alert status on the Fed’s website announcing a disruption in several business lines for Fedwire, FedACH, and 11 other areas affecting wire transfers, ACH transactions and check-clearing in the U.S. banking system. About 850,000 transactions each day … Read more
Continuing a trend of European businesses moving independently to protect the Amazon, France’s BNP Paribas announced it will no longer finance companies that buy cattle or soy produced on deforested or converted Amazon lands after 2008. The measure also applies to deforested lands in Brazil’s Cerrado region, a threatened tropical savanna eco-region covering 20% of … Read more
UBS, Deutsche Bank, Santander, and BNY Mellon are working on a new blockchain-based digital currency. Currently, the new currency is being referred to by the banks simply as “utility settlement coin.” The four banks involved belong to the R3 consortium of 50 institutions looking into improving distributed ledger tech. “You need a form of digital cash … Read more
Focusing on the recent success of the Bank of North Dakota, talkshow host Thom Hartmann has raised the question of whether state-owned banks are something every state should have. Hartmann came out in favor of state-owned banks in his opinion blog, calling them a “win-win for all.” “You need to know this,” wrote Hartmann. “In 2014, … Read more