South Africa's Standard Bank: No Plans to Launch Bitcoin Integration
This week, it was reported that South Africa's Standard Bank was running a trial of Switchless' software that allows traditional financial institutions to integrate bitcoin storage, banking, and merchant services. It was unclear as to whether or not this trial would extend to customers, but we're learning now that it will not. A spokesperson for Standard Bank said that the internal trial was exclusive to the bank and limited to 8 individuals of the bank's staff. "No customers participated in the pilot," said the bank. The idea was to try and offer innovative financial solutions to....
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Representatives from Standard Bank say that it has finished testing the Switchless bitcoin trading platform, and that it will not be made available to customers. The bank said the test is part of wider research on "Internet-based financial services", and that eight internal Standard Bank employees participated in the completed pilot. A company called Switchless says it has developed a "fully operational and integrated bitcoin portal system for a large multinational bank", currently being run as an internal pilot. The news leaked out after the system was showcased at Finovate Europe 2014,....
Switchless is a start-up firm that is hoping to allow traditional financial institutions to bring bitcoin to their existing customers, and at FinovateEurope 2014, the company showed off a pilot of their product being run internally at Standard Bank of South Africa. Switchless' pitch: "Our proprietary modular enterprise software allows for partial or full integration into existing financial infrastructures, giving financial institutions maximum flexibility for the unique and complex requirements they face." The company's software currently offers the following modules: Brokerage: Buy and....
A Blockchain research arm of a bank in South Africa has said the technology could take up to 40% of banks’ revenue if it becomes a global standard. South Africa ‘Will End Up with a Blockchain’. Speaking at the Gordon Institute of Business Science Wednesday, Rand Merchant Bank’s (RMB) Farzam Ehsani said that blockchain “calls institutions to a new....
Bitcoin may soon be responsible for lighting up the streets of South Africa. Yes, because Invirohub, a South African smart meter developer, has integrated bitcoin payments into its smart meters. These meters allow consumers to "to up" an electricity allowance. Each meter will have a specific wallet address and 3G SIM card for connectivity. Once a user puts a deposit on the address their account will be credited at the current exchange rate. Months ago South Africa's Standard Bank, Africa's largest bank, was said to be testing bitcoin payment systems and more recent news of Johannesburg and....
One of South Africa’s biggest banks, Standard Bank, has reportedly sent account termination notices to clients that offer automated cryptocurrency arbitrage services. Bank’s Criteria Questioned This move, according to a Mybroadband report, has sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency industry. The sending of the notices has also raised questions about the criteria that Standard Bank is using when making a decision on which accounts must be terminated. For example, Carel de Villiers, the co-founder of an arbitrage trading firm Shiftly, is one individual quoted questioning....