Union Bank of the Philippines is experimenting with blockchain for remittances, as its chairman believes that the technology can boost financial services in rural areas.
Chairman Justo Ortiz revealed that the bank is allowing overseas Filipino workers to send money home quickly while also maintaining more control over who receives the funds and how the money is used.
Ortiz also told Bloomberg that the bank recently piloted a blockchain-based remittance between Singapore and the Philippines with Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
In other news, Germany’s financial regulator has granted blockchain startup Fundament permission to issue the first tokenized real estate-backed bond for individual investors. The offering was worth 250 million euro ($280 million).
“We can confirm that we granted approval for a Fundament Group prospectus. It has indeed been the first time we have approved a prospectus regarding blockchain-based real estate bonds, but not the first time in respect to blockchain technology as such,” a BaFin representative told CoinDesk.
CoinDesk also reported that RenrenBit, a China-based crypto peer-to-peer lending and wallet startup, has secured commitments worth $21 million for its own token (called RRB) sale.
RRB runs on top of ethereum, and according to a notice on the company’s mobile app, the sale was fully subscribed within about four hours with all 21 million RRB spoken for.
And a crypto investor can move ahead with his lawsuit against AT&T Mobility.
According to CoinDesk, Michael Terpin is seeking $23.8 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages over a SIM-swapping hack that cost him $24 million.
While AT&T had asked for the suit to be dismissed entirely, Los Angeles federal judge Otis Wright II ruled last week that the lawsuit should proceed, forcing the company responding to allegations that it has been in violation of the Federal Communications Act, breach of contract, and other legal violations.
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