In an updated Bitcoin Adoption Survey, consumers’ attitudes towards Bitcoin and what it could mean for the future of crypto are analyzed. In terms of trust in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, a third of respondents stated that they are more confident in Bitcoin compared to financial institutions, with male and female millennials in the lead. In addition, over 59% of respondents consider Bitcoin as a “positive innovation” in the realm of digital technology and finance. This represents a significant increase of about 27% compared to those surveyed three years ago. Read more

In a new regulatory framework, the European Parliament is currently preparing its first set of rules to manage the opportunities and threats of AI. The main items of the agenda are focusing on how to gain the trust of individuals to use the AI technology, and providing an environment in which European researchers, developers and businesses can thrive. The EU Commission further aims at increasing investment in AI up to €20 billion per year. Read more

Marqueta and Coleman Parkes Research surveyed over 200 banking executives in their latest report, “Covid-19 European Banking Survey”, in order to find out how the banking industry has adapted to the new circumstances. The findings show that banks are reprioritising, reinvesting and readjusting their strategies. As a key result, the analysis argues that 88% of the banking executives experienced an overwhelming demand for online and mobile banking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more

In a new paper, the Bank of Canada argues that the safety of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) needs to be further analyzed before involving third-party services. The main conclusion of the report states that the central bank should consider limiting balances or transfers, modifying liability rules or imposing security protocols on storage providers. Read more

“Enhancing Cross-border Payments” report by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) presents a roadmap to highlight the key challenges often faced by cross-border payments and the obstacles in existing processes that contribute to these challenges. The paper shows that high costs, low speed, limited access and insufficient transparency, affect end-users and service providers, but on different levels. Read more

In a new mapping, “Threat Landscape 2020” by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), cyberattacks are shown to be on the rise and becoming more efficient, sophisticated, widespread and also harder to detect. As the primary form of cyber threats, Malware takes the lead on the list, closely followed by Phishing, Identity Theft and Ransomware. Due to current weak cybersecurity protocols caused by the changes in the system infrastructure imposed by Covid-19, businesses struggle to reach a more secure digital environment for their users. Read more

The “Diversity in FinTech” report by Barclays emphasizes the importance of a diverse and inclusive environment for the workplace. The report highlights that for the fintech sector, besides transformation and innovation, it is equally essential to encourage diversity in order to truly find radical and new solutions. By working with a diverse group of people, in terms of gender, culture and ethnicity, the fintech sector can benefit greatly in gaining fresh perspectives. Read more

The “2020 Benchmark Report for Fintech Apps” by CleverTap analyzes over 1.95 billion messages across 500+ million devices and 250+ million users in order to discover the most effective and successful marketing solutions, find the right KPIs and practices that have made the leading fintech apps dominant. As the main highlight, the report shows that the onboarding process experience is an important key element for users. Read more

For fintech, the European VC sector sees a stable and growing trend, with 20 European companies that raised rounds above $100 million for Q3 2020. Highlighted companies include Klarna (Sweden), a firm focused on payments, Karma Kitchen, a cloud kitchen service company, Snyk, a security and analysis platform, Auxmoney, a P2P loan marketplace. The leading countries for investments are the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Sweden. Read more

The “2020 Euroscape: Decacorn Unleashed” report by Accel presents 2020 as the year of software technology and the rise of the “giants.” As such, there are now 8 software companies worth a $100 billion market cap, representing $2.7 trillion of market value and 75 public cloud companies valued above $1 billion. Moreover, the analysis highlights the growing popularity of cloud markets. Read more

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Read here our other sections of this week:

• Weekly funding highlights 23 October 2020
• Weekly news highlights 23 October 2020
• Weekly analysis & opinion highlights 23 October 2020

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