Introduction On 6 June 2023, the FCA published Policy Statement 23/6: Financial promotion rules for cryptoassets (PS23/6). Earlier consultations In January 2022, HM Treasury published a consultation response regarding its intention to legislate to bring certain promotions of qualifying cryptoassets within the FCA’s remit. On 1 February 2023, HM Treasury issued a policy statement confirming … Continue Reading
On 2 June 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its Q&As on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2022/858 on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology. In particular, ESMA has added new Q&As on DLT market infrastructures, cash settlement and exemptions from the Central Securities Depositories Regulation.… Continue Reading
On 23 May 2023, the Securities and Futures Commission (the SFC) published its much anticipated consultation conclusions (the Consultation Conclusions) on the proposed regulatory requirements for virtual asset (VA) trading platform operators (Platform Operators). The new licensing regime for Platform Operators under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO) will come into effect on … Continue Reading
On 25 May 2023, a group of central banks, together with the Bank for International Settlements, published a paper on central bank digital currencies (CBDC): ongoing policy perspectives. Since publishing (i) a report in October 2020 setting out the common foundational principles and core features of a CBDC, and (ii) an executive summary and three … Continue Reading
On 25 May 2023, the European Systemic Risk Board (ERSB) issued a report which considers the role of financial stability and macroprudential policy for cryptoassets, their service providers and decentralised finance (DeFi) applications. The report also covers the systemic implications of the cryptoasset market, its service providers and DeFi applications in the EU. The report … Continue Reading
On 23 May 2023, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published a consultation report containing 18 proposed recommendations intended to help IOSCO members apply IOSCO’s Objectives and Principles for Securities Regulation and relevant supporting IOSCO standards, recommendations and good practices to crypto-asset activities within their jurisdictions. The proposed recommendations cover six key areas: The … Continue Reading
On 18 May 2023, UNIDROIT’s Governing Council reported that it had adopted the UNIDROIT principles on digital assets and private law (the principles) at its 102nd session in Rome, Italy. The principles were prepared by a working group on digital assets and private law, which comprised of 25 members, 22 observers from international, regional and … Continue Reading
On 17 May 2023, the House of Commons Treasury Committee published a report on regulating crypto, in which it calls for consumer trading in unbacked cryptoassets to be regulated as gambling. The key conclusions and recommendations set out in the report include: The Committee plans to continue to follow developments in this space as both … Continue Reading
In light of recent market developments, firms in the FinTech space should be taking steps to review and enhance as needed their internal governance arrangements since these are key to mitigating the risk of misconduct and mistakes and consequential investigations, enforcement and claims, which can significantly impact not only the business but also its staff. … Continue Reading
On 26 April 2023, HM Treasury announced that the Economic Secretary has re-established the Asset Management Taskforce. The Taskforce is an influential forum convening senior leadership from industry and the FCA to identify and harness the potential of innovative new technologies for the UK asset management industry. Five new senior executives from the UK’s investment … Continue Reading
On 26 April 2023, the FCA published a speech by its Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of Authorisations, Emily Shepperd, delivered at City Week 2023. In her speech, Ms Shepperd discusses how regulation can help the UK lead in fintech. Topics covered in the speech include: Ms Shepperd concludes her speech by remarking that … Continue Reading
On 25 April 2023, the FCA published a speech by its Executive Director of Markets and Executive Director of International, Sarah Pritchard, at City Week 2023. The speech focuses on the regulation of digital assets in the UK. In her speech, Ms Pritchard notes the rapid growth in digital assets in the UK. She warns … Continue Reading
Introduction In a landmark decision on the legal status of digital assets in Hong Kong handed down on 31 March 2023, the Court of First Instance, in Re Gatecoin Limited[1], has ruled that cryptocurrencies satisfy the definition of “property” under Hong Kong law and are capable of being held on trust. The case arose in connection … Continue Reading
On 19 April 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published the 2022 report on quality and use of transaction data. The report highlights the increased use of transaction data by EU financial regulatory authorities in their day-to-day supervision and identifies significant quality improvements following a new approach to data monitoring. In addition, it … Continue Reading
On 19 April 2023, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of England (BoE) co-published Project Meridian. Project Meridian is a joint project between the BIS Innovation Hub London Centre and the BoE. It investigates how recent rapid advances in financial technology could deliver innovations in real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems, which sit … Continue Reading
On 17 April 2023, the FCA published a speech by Jessica Rusu, FCA Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer, at the Innovate Finance Global Summit. The speech focused on innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of financial regulation. Ms Rusu begins by noting that, in the past 2 years, the FCA has completely refreshed … Continue Reading
In two recent webinars, we explore some of the key situations in which AI liability can arise and consider what businesses (including financial institutions) can do to manage these risks. Regulatory liability – In this session, we explore the regulatory framework that governs the use of AI through the lens of the proposed EU AI … Continue Reading
On 13 April 2023, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a Final Report on recommendations to achieve greater convergence in cyber incident reporting. The report notes that cyber incidents are rapidly growing in frequency and sophistication. At the same time, the cyber threat landscape is expanding amid digital transformation, increased dependencies on third-party service providers … Continue Reading
On 11 April 2023, the FCA announced that it would be leading the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN)’s first ever virtual Greenwashing TechSprint. The TechSprint will be hosted on the FCA’s Digital Sandbox and aims to bring together international regulators, firms and innovators to address sustainable finance as a collective priority. UK-based firms are invited … Continue Reading
In a special edition of our FinTech Pulse podcast series, US partners Stephen Aschettino, Andrew Lom and Kevin Harnisch discuss the recent uptick in regulatory enforcement activity from federal regulators against crypto exchanges, with the SEC issuing a Wells Notice to Coinbase and suing Beaxy, and the CFTC suing Binance and seeking permanent injunctions to … Continue Reading
On 27 March 2023, HM Treasury published a draft of The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) (Amendment) Order 2023, along with a draft explanatory memorandum. The draft statutory instrument (SI) proposes to expand the scope of the financial promotion restriction in section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), … 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 … Continue Reading
On 16 February 2023, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a report on the financial stability risks of decentralised finance (DeFi). The report describes DeFi as an umbrella term commonly used to describe a variety of services in crypto-asset markets that are intended to replicate some functions of the traditional financial system by seemingly disintermediating … Continue Reading
On 14 February 2023, the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) published a report on advancing macroprudential tools for cyber resilience. The report has been published given the recent geopolitical backdrop of heightened cyber risk, and the need to boost cyber resilience. The report builds on previous work by the ESRB to prevent and mitigate risks … Continue Reading
