FinTech Weekly - Even Giants Cry - Issue #424

Warren Davidson, like all crypto advocates, would like to fire Gary Gensler. Is the U.S. losing ground to Europe and Asia because of the SEC's decisions?

Hong Kong has many crypto gray zones when it comes to physical stores that use cryptocurrencies – and visitors from the mainland impressively increased because of this.

The UK should rejuvenate the economy, but it looks like it has collected some tech failures over time. While countries like Sweden and Singapore managed to favor retail investors and savers, it seems that the UK still has a long way to go.

In the meantime in Hong Kong, Payment Asia launches its first AI-powered complete payment processing service, “taking merchants’ sales to the next level”.

The National Press Club Luncheon will host SEC’s Gary Gensler – who will address hot topics like security and artificial intelligence. What are the plans of the chairman for these fields?

UK small businesses might be “disproportionately affected” by the proposals regarding subscriptions. As a part of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, ministers want to make it easier for customers to cancel paid subscriptions. This is a good proposal for customers, but as Tina McKenzie – policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses – pointed out, the fact that customers would be able to cancel subscriptions “by any means” would be too difficult for businesses to manage – since “any means” even includes social media.

The Future FinTech Group (FTFT) finally agreed to pay a $1.65 million fine levied by the SEC. According to the regulator, the group filed inaccurate annual reports. As reported by Compliance Week, the group paid, but “without admitting wrongdoing”.