How Barclays Stole the Blockchain Spotlight in 2016
After keeping its projects to itself in 2015, 2016 may have been Barclays's year – at least, when it came to blockchain tech. According to industry analysts, there's a strong case the bank is at the forefront of the increasingly large group of incumbents seeking to harness the "technology behind bitcoin" heading into 2017. As noted by Patricia Hines, a senior analyst with Celent's banking practice, a key distinction is that, while other banks may have primarily sought PR pickup, Barclays was able to use its blockchain efforts in 2016 as a competitive differentiator. From....
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Eleven companies showcased their innovative fintech propositions at the Barclays Accelerator demo day in New York. Eight of these companies have already signed contracts with the bank. The demo day followed 13 weeks of intensive networking, mentoring and development. The Barclays Accelerator program, offered in partnership with the Techstars global networks, includes mentorship and opportunities for financial technology startups to access industry experts, influencers and potential clients. The program covers all areas of fintech, from cybersecurity and artificial intelligence to wealth....
Barclays Bank received the most complaints in the first half of 2016 of all financial services firm, according to latest figures from the UK financial regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority said that between January and June Barclays complaints increased 3% from the second half of 2015, reaching 287,463. HSBC was the only other big five High Street banks to see complaints increase. HSBC’s complaints also rose 3% to 124,891. Lloyds Bank, however, saw complaints decrease 7% to 213, 163, remaining second to Barclays. Barclays has taken steps to improve customer service, the banks says,....
Barclays, the UK banking company, teamed up with an Israeli startup to carry out the bank’s first Blockchain-based trade transaction. This allowed Barclays to send a transaction within minutes, both cost effectively and securely, rather than using the traditional transaction process which normally takes hours or days. According to Barclays, the transaction was approximately $100,000 worth of dairy products from an Irish food company, Ornua to the Seychelles Trading Company. Baihas Baghdadi, Barclays' Global Head of Trade and Working Capital, states: "We've proved the reality of this....
UK banking giant Barclays took another step toward positioning itself at the forefront of innovators in the blockchain sector last week with the news it had become the first to trial Corda, a new distributed ledger platform from partner R3CEV. The prototype, demoed at the Barclays Accelerator in London last week, follows a particularly active period for Barclays, which earlier this month revealed it would provide banking services to blockchain payments startup Circle, and earlier this year, participated in a test of a private version of the Ethereum blockchain with 11 R3 member banks. In....
Barclays has announced it will take its first steps toward supporting the use of bitcoin as an alternative payment method by allowing charities to accept donations in the digital currency. In a new article in The Sunday Times, the multinational financial services firm hinted that it had entered into a partnership with an unnamed "bitcoin exchange or spending platform", and that it would seek to begin a formal rollout of the service by 2016. Barclays chief design and digital officer Derek White provided the news source with few details about the partnership, other than to state that it was....