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Fred Joseph retired from overseeing banks and securities firms last month. In a wide-ranging interview, he reflected on his career and provided perspective on the future of the banking industry.
January 2 -
The virtual currency has the potential to serve as collateral for loans, but creditors are likely more concerned with restricting borrowers Bitcoin use due to the regulatory uncertainty, irreversible payments, volatile exchange rates and the systems anonymity.
January 2
Wells Fargo (WFC) wants to get to know Bitcoin.
The nation's fourth-largest bank by assets convened a meeting in the Bay Area Tuesday with experts on the digital currency and payment system, and other systems like it, to obtain a better understanding.
"We had a gathering of internal and external experts and interested people to learn more about virtual currencies, including Bitcoin," says Mary Eshet, a spokeswoman for the $1.5 trillion-asset Wells Fargo.
"It's a new, evolving currency," she says, "and since we have so much interest and invested in payment system we want to understand everything that's relevant about it."
The Financial Times
Bitcoin,
The virtual currency has acquired a sordid reputation due to its use in a now-shuttered online underground drug market and the ability to transact anonymously on the Bitcoin network. However, at Senate
A number of venture capital firms have invested in Bitcoin startups, and recently Overstock.com became the largest retailer to accept the currency. Bitcoin is attractive to many independent online merchants because the fees for accepting payments are negligible and transactions cannot be unilaterally reversed, a risk of accepting credit cards. Bitcoin's decentralized nature it has no central issuing authority or controlling entity has made it popular among libertarians and others distrustful of governments and financial institutions, and its cryptographic security features have appealed to online
Still, banks have been reluctant to do business with startups in the Bitcoin field because it is perceived to carry high anti-money laundering compliance risk, and many Bitcoin-related businesses have