Introduction On 30 August 2022, the FCA published Occasional Paper No. 61 ‘Robo-Advice for Borrower Repayment Decisions’. Concerns about consumer indebtedness and financial distress are growing. Most debt advice services – both free and paid for – are designed to help consumers already in serious financial difficulty. But poor repayment decisions upstream of this – … Continue Reading
On 24 August 2022, the FCA launched a new webpage announcing that it has launched a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) spotlight initiative. The initiative aims to encourage firms developing innovative products, focused in the DEI space, to work with the FCA’s innovation services. The FCA is mindful that the financial wellbeing of consumers has … Continue Reading
On 20 July 2022, HM Treasury published the Terms of Reference for the Digitisation Taskforce. On 19 July 2022, the Government announced that it would be taking forward Mark Austin’s Secondary Capital Raising Review (SCRR) recommendation to establish a taskforce driving forward full digitisation of shareholdings, led by an independent, neutral chair. The objectives of … Continue Reading
On 14 July 2022, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) issued a report on the use of innovation facilitators in growth and emerging markets. The report covers three types of innovation facilitators (IFs): innovation hubs, regulatory sandboxes, and regulatory accelerators. Chapter 1 of the report covers definitions and the risks and opportunities posed by … Continue Reading
Every month we provide the Global Blockchain Business Council’s Post-Trade Distributed Ledger group with a global regulatory FinTech updater, the latest version of which can be found here. Post Trade Distributed Ledger (PTDL) Group is composed of over 40 prominent market infrastructure stakeholders whose shared vision of the use of distributed ledger technology has brought them … Continue Reading
On 13 July 2022, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published a report containing final guidance on the application of the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMIs) to stablecoin arrangements (SAs) that are considered systemically important financial market infrastructures (FMIs), including the entities integral to … Continue Reading
On 11 July 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a consultation paper on draft guidelines on standard forms, formats and templates to apply for permission to operate a distributed ledger technology (DLT) market infrastructure. Regulation No 858/2022 on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (DLTR) introduces three … Continue Reading
On 2 June 2022, there was published in the Official Journal of the EU, Regulation 2022/858 of 30 May 2022 on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), and amending MiFIR, CSDR and MiFID II. Most of the provisions of the Regulation apply from 23 March 2023. The Regulation is … Continue Reading
On 31 May 2022, HM Treasury published an open consultation seeking views on a regime to address the failure of a systemic digital settlement asset (DSA) firm. The government is taking a staged approach to cryptoasset regulation with the goal to create the conditions for issuers and service providers of stablecoins (used as a means … Continue Reading
The latest post from our firm’s banking and commercial disputes blog, Inside Disputes, discusses causes of action that may arise from both algorithmic and traditional asset-backed stablecoins, and highlights the key litigation challenges in respect of blockchain technology.… Continue Reading
On 28 April 2022, a first political trilogue on the proposed regulation on information accompanying transfer of funds and certain crypto-assets (Transfer of Funds Regulation) took place between the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. By way of background, the proposed legislation seeks to implement in European law the so called “travel rule” … Continue Reading
On 11 May 2022, it was announced that the Council presidency and the European Parliament had reached provisional agreement on the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). The provisional agreement is subject to approval by the Council and the European Parliament before going through the formal adoption procedure. The European Parliament’s press release on the provisional … Continue Reading
The FCA has recently conducted a review of financial crime controls at a sample of six challenger banks in order to identify the key financial crime risks to which such banks are exposed. The review was prompted by a substantial increase in the volume of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed by challenger banks. Whilst the … Continue Reading
Every month we provide the Global Blockchain Business Council’s Post-Trade Distributed Ledger group with a global regulatory FinTech updater, the latest version of which can be found here. Post Trade Distributed Ledger (PTDL) Group is composed of over 40 prominent market infrastructure stakeholders whose shared vision of the use of distributed ledger technology has brought them … Continue Reading
Every month we provide the Global Blockchain Business Council’s Post-Trade Distributed Ledger group with a global regulatory FinTech updater, the latest version of which can be found here. Post Trade Distributed Ledger (PTDL) Group is composed of over 40 prominent market infrastructure stakeholders whose shared vision of the use of distributed ledger technology has brought them … Continue Reading
A new Regulation Tomorrow Plus episode covering HM Treasury’s response to its consultation on the UK regulatory approach to cryptoassets, stablecoins and DLT is out now to stream and download. In this episode Hannah Meakin and Albert Weatherill discuss various aspects of HM Treasury’s response including the possible impact that the proposed changes will bring … Continue Reading
On 8 April 2022, the European Commission (the Commission) launched an EU Digital Finance Platform that is intended to bring together industry and European public authorities in a joint effort to continue building the Single Market in digital finance. The Platform provides for a Digital Finance Observatory including, among other functionalities, a European Fintech Map … Continue Reading
On 5 April 2022, the European Commission (the Commission) lunched a targeted consultation on a prospective establishment and regulation of essential aspects of a digital euro as a new form of central bank money. The Commission recognises that there are wide ranging challenges that a prospective digital euro would need to tackle. These range from … Continue Reading
On 4 April 2022, the FCA published a speech by Jessica Rusu (Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer, FCA) entitled Building a digital regulator: how the FCA is riding the innovation wave. Key points in the speech include: The role of data and technology is increasingly pertinent given the volatile geopolitical conditions, as can be … Continue Reading
On 4 April 2022, HM Treasury published the keynote speech given by John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, at the Innovate Finance Global Summit during Fintech Week 2022. Key points in the speech include: Year-on-year investment growth in UK fintech was up more than 200% in 2021. Almost half of the fintech unicorns in … Continue Reading
On 4 April 2022, HM Treasury published the Terms of Reference for the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) Steering Committee. The CFIT was a key recommendation of the 2021 Kalifa Review of UK Fintech. The CFIT Steering Committee (SteerCo) is being chaired by Ron Kalifa OBE and its membership comprises a range of … Continue Reading
On 1 April 2022, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) published a report setting out its proposed amendments to the draft regulation on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets (recast). The Transfer of Funds Regulation (EU) 2015/847 was adopted to enhance the traceability of transfers funds by requiring payment … Continue Reading
On 30 March 2022, the Council of the EU published its text of the proposed Regulation on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology. Earlier this month the European Parliament published its adopted text of the draft Regulation. The next step for the draft Regulation is for the Council to adopt … Continue Reading
On 30 March 2022, the FCA published a call for input regarding synthetic data to support financial services innovation. The FCA aims to understand the existing market maturity of ‘synthetic data’ within financial services and its potential for safely opening data sharing between firms, regulators and other public bodies. Financial data, such as consumer transaction … Continue Reading
