Tag Archives: crowdfunding

tom-hayes-libor-crowdfund

Convicted Libor Trader Launches Crowdfund Campaign

(FinanceMagnates.com) Supporters of Tom Hayes, the former UBS rates trader and the first person to be convicted for the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), have launched a crowdfunding appeal via UK platform Fundrazr to raise £150,000 ($217,403) to underwrite a further appeal against his conviction. The former trader, currently serving an 11-year prison sentence, was also ordered to pay a confiscation order of £878,806 ($1,240,267) in February by a UK criminal court.

The crowdfund campaign hopes to to raise 150,000 pounds to pay for a fresh attempt to appeal against his conviction.

Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup derivatives trader, last August became the first person to be convicted of fraud offences linked to the setting of benchmark Libor rates. In sentencing him for dishonesty, the judge said a message must be sent to the world of banking, “where probity and honesty are essential”.

He was initially handed a 14-year jail sentence – one of the toughest in the UK for white collar crime – before it was reduced to 11 years on appeal four months later. However, his simultaneous appeal against the conviction failed and in March the Court of Appeal also refused leave for his case to be brought before the UK’s Supreme Court.

Hayes on Tuesday formally announced plans to bring his case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which looks at miscarriages of justice and can refer a case back to the appeal courts – usually on the basis of compelling new evidence.

 

Hayes was initially given a 14-year sentence before it was reduced to 11 years on appeal four months later. However, his concurrent appeal against the conviction failed and in March the Court of Appeal also refused leave for his case to be brought before the UK’s Supreme Court.

This week, Hayes formally announced plans to bring his case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which examines miscarriages of justice and can refer a case back to the appeal courts, usually on the basis of compelling new evidence.

Hayes’ family is now said to be in possession of fresh evidence, some of which he had requested in his trial but which the prosecution did not supply. His latest attempt to appeal comes three months after six former brokers he is alleged to have conspired with were acquitted in a separate London trial.

Hayes’ attempt to appeal is supported by David James, a member of the House of Lords, who is reported to have said that Hayes had been victimised and called for a more precise legal clarification of Libor and how it should be supervised.

Last year, European Union lawmakers gave their backing to a draft law introducing direct supervision of important benchmarks like Libor. The UK has also introduced a law requiring Libor to be compiled by a third-party administrator which fulfills certain requirements.

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BNP-PARIBAS-FINTECH-BLOCKCHAIN-CROWDFUNDING

BNP Paribas Gets Blockchain for Crowdfunding

(RaiseMoney.com)-French broker-dealer BNP Paribas “gets the joke” when it comes to fintech applications for equity crowdfunding and is embracing blockchain technology to advance their vision.

A subsidiary of BNP Paribas Group has announced a partnership that will find it leveraging blockchain technology to enable private companies to issue securities via equity crowdfunding.Revealed today, the partnership finds BNP Paribas Securities Services, its asset services division, working with investment platform SmartAngels on a pilot the firms said would be launched in the second half of 2016, pending regulatory approval.

In statements, BNP lauded the effort as a “major step” in advancing crowdfunding. The project will see BNP Paribas developing and managing a registry for shares in private companies using the blockchain that in turn will automatically register securities issued by SmartAngels.

Smart Angels will serve as a secondary market for shares registered on the BNP platform, a move the partners said would make it easier for startups and small businesses to access financing.

“Investor payments will be processed immediately and e-certificates will be issued to them straight away. Financial transactions made via the platform will therefore be performed simply, quickly, securely and for a lower cost.”

 

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Philippe Ruault, Head of Clearing, Settlement and Custody Solutions, BNP Paribas Securities Services

Philippe Ruault, head of product for clearing at BNP, emphasized his belief the program would accelerate trading in the private securities market.

“This is a major innovation for the custody and account-keeping of unlisted securities,” he said.

The project is not the first that finds a major financial firm seeking to leverage the blockchain as a way to ease aspects of the private securities process. The effort notably follows Nasdaq Linq, a pilot designed to allow entrepreneurs the ability to issue and manage private shares using a private blockchain system.

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vetedchallenge crowdrise

Hedge Fund Honcho Behind Crowdfund for Veterans Education

Marathon Asset Management CEO Bruce Richards Leads Crowdfund Campaign for “Veterans Education Challenge”

Hedge Fund Honcho Will Match $1mm Raised via Crowdfunding Platform CrowdRise

(RaiseMoney.com) For those Wall Street sharks and finance industry wonks who haven’t yet received the memo about crowdfunding, you might want to dial in to hedge fund industry icon Bruce Richards, Co-Founder and CEO of Marathon Asset Management, the $12.5 billion investment firm that specializes in global credit markets. Richards, whose pedigree includes 15 years in senior trading desk roles for top Wall Street banks before migrating to the world of hedge fund management in 1998, is not only at the helm of one of the investment industry’s most successful and most philanthropic fund managers, he’s just promised to personally match the first $1million raised on crowdfund site Crowdrise for “Veterans Education Challenge”; a campaign dedicated exclusively to funding college scholarships for US military veterans.

Marathon Asset Mgt
Bruce Richards, Marathon Asset Mgt

The fund raising campaign, announced this past week in conjunction with the celebration of Veterans Day 2015, seeks to raise at least $1mil within the next 12 months, according to the campaign information at crowdfund platform Crowdrise, one of the industry’s leading charitable donation portals co-founded in 2010 by film industry icon and social activist Edward Norton. The goal for the Veterans Education Challenge is to provide scholarship funding for any veterans at 4-year accredited starting the coming school year. This $1 million matching contribution will remain in place until November 11, 2016, next year’s Veterans Day.

In a special note sent to recipients of Richards’ email distribution list, one that typically provides Marathon clients with the firm’s widely-sought insight to global credit markets, Richards provided a starkly compelling investment thesis as to the importance of supporting advanced education for US military members and the need to insure their successful transition into private sector roles in ways the US Government often falls short in providing. In addition to pointing investment firm clients and friends to the Veterans Education Challenge Crowdrise page, Richards encouraged his followers to help advance awareness of the campaign’s FaceBook page and to enlist their following the Twitter account for VetEdChallenge via @VetEdChallenge.

One such recipient of Richards’ outreach included Dean Chamberlain, the Chief Executive of Mischler Financial Group, the securities industry’s oldest investment bank owned and operated by Service-Disabled Veterans and a firm widely-known for underwriting philanthropic causes that benefit military veterans and their families. Stated Chamberlain, “I’ve known Bruce for nearly twenty five years and I commend his philanthropic leadership. I wholeheartedly endorse and have already made my contribution to the VetEdChallenge crowdfund campaign and I will encourage others to follow suit.”

Richards, along with his wife Avis, an award-winning documentary film producer and director and the founder of Birds Nest Foundation, are considered to be one of New York’s top society couples. They are widely-credited by hedge fund peers for their philanthropic thought-leadership. Marathon Asset Management, whose two other leaders include co-founder Louis Hanover and Andrew Rabinowitz, Marathon’s COO is repeatedly lauded for the firm’s culture of supporting critical philanthropic missions that benefit health and welfare social causes.

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FinTech Chapter 6: The Super 7: London Startups Dazzling Tech Scene

MarketsMuse is keeping its fingers on the pulse of the FinTech movement, and aside from the initiatives that we’ve spot-lighted taking place courtesy of Wall Street Wonks, its more than fair to say that London is fast becoming the hub of innovation and technology, and attempting to lay claim to the position as the fintech capital of the world, strengthening its place within the global financial market.

To put this into perspective, the UK is now the fastest growing region for fintech investment with deal volumes growing at 74% per year since 2008, topping $265 million in 2013 alone (Accenture).  That’s twice as fast as its American counterpart Silicon Valley.

Commonly referred to as Tech City, London’s fintech cluster is now thriving, nurturing entrepreneurs, new business models and technologies. Last year alone, over 15,000 (UHV Hacker Young) new businesses were set up in EC1V, more than any other area in the UK. These are being celebrated and promoted with the help of new London initiatives such as the Fintech 50 and the first official Fintech Week.

Here are 3 of the top 7 tech start-ups that have added some air to the latest “tech bubble.”

Osper 

Osper has come up with an innovative way to create a banking service than can be used by children, combining prepaid debit cards and smartphone apps controlled by both them and their parents. The approach could potentially reach a market underserved by most banks, but which may also be embraced by parents keen to educate their children early on about how to manage money.

Elliptic  

Elliptic, thinks it’s just made a huge breakthrough that could make banks way more interested in bitcoin. The company has created a sophisticated bit of software that it claims can identify where a bitcoin has come from. That’s a big deal for banks, who have a legal obligation to find out where the money they hold is coming from to ensure they’re not holding proceeds of crime.

coinfloor

Coinfloor is a new VC-backed Bitcoin exchange that prides itself on complying to strict anti-money laundering and “know your customer” procedures, despite the fact that Bitcoin isn’t classified as money by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.

 

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What’s Next: ETFs For Crowdfunding Industry?

This post was written by Pete Hoegler, Washington DC-based Social Media Savant for The JLC Group. 

Three years after the JOBS Act was passed, it seems that Washington is back for more–a curtain call if you will–making it easier for small ventures to raise capital.

The House Financial Services Committee in early June floated a draft bill that would allow the creation of “venture exchanges” tailored to the needs of small companies looking to raise money. In many ways, the success of the JOBS Act hinges upon the creation of such markets. A healthy secondary market created liquidity that is critical to building investor confidence and creating a robust alternative to the global markets that today are dominated by enormous corporations.

The new proposed “venture exchange” laws are aimed at increasing access to early stage investors in private startups and small businesses (some of which could be JOBS Act enabled investors), as a lack of liquidity was a concern voiced by some surrounding the new laws for equity crowdfunding with non-accredited investors.

Investors in technology startups, for example, are likely to have to hold their position in any one investment for an average of 7 years. Creating opportunities for selling private stock in a start-up investment sooner through venture exchanges has the potential to reduce some of the early stage investment risks.

Where or How is there a link between Crowdfunding and Exchange-Traded Funds? Well, those following the creative finance wizards from the world of exchange-traded products can speculate the next  innovation will be ETFs comprised of non-public companies that were funded via crowdfunding platforms..and those companies will be labeled “pre-emerging start-ups” and there will be ETFs for each category of ‘project.’

While the underlying components might not necessarily be easily-traded by the universe of market-makers who profit by arbitraging the cash index vs. the underlying constituents, the advent of ETMFs, a structure that Eaton Vance hopes to bring to market and is based on a “non-transparent” construct (meaning the investor has no idea what the underlying constituents are), Crowdfunding ETFs could create markets that allow early investors who invested via equity crowdfunding to hedge their bets far before any kind of liquidity event like a public offering (IPO) might take place, spelling an opportunity for liquidity for those early investors.  Just like the current ETF landscape, these crowd-funding indexes would be themed according to industry sector and/or product categories.

OK, some of the wonks who are reading that last tongue-in-cheek idea might be rolling their eyes. That said, given the creative juices that flow from the capital markets, we’re willing to bet that at least one of the current innovators in the ETF world grabs on to this idea and such products will be introduced within the next 18-24 months. Oh, it was our idea…

The number of IPOs has gone from an average of 311 from 1980-2000 down to an average of 99 IPOs each year from 2001-2011 so opening up other alternatives for liquidity will de-risk the growing number of startup investments happening online.

This is yet another step towards reforming our capital markets. The first step was to enable access, and was addressed by Titles II, III & IV of the JOBS Act. So regardless of your opinion on this matter, the summer is shaping up to be an interesting time for equity crowdfunding investors, accredited and non-accredited alike.