On 14 December 2020, the outgoing German Presidency of the Council hosted the last working group under its leadership for Member States representatives with a purpose of continuing discussions on the recently proposed regulation on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA). The meeting’s agenda covered the fundamental issue of scope and definitions, as well as own fund … Continue Reading
On 16 December 2020, the European Commission published a new EU cybersecurity strategy. Key components of the strategy include: A proposed Directive on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the EU (revised NIS Directive or ‘NIS 2′), in order to increase the level of cyber resilience of critical public and private sectors. … Continue Reading
On Tuesday, 8 December 2020, the outgoing German Presidency of the Council held another working group to continue its substantive review of the European Commission’s proposal for regulation on digital operational resilience in financial services (DORA). On the agenda for discussion was, among other, in-depth review of certain provisions concerning third-party ICT service providers. Key … Continue Reading
In this series of blogposts, we explore some of the main types of decentralised finance (DeFi) applications (dApps), and key areas of legal risk that may be of particular relevance for that type of application or product. In this second blogpost in the series, we consider the nature of tokenised insurance or alternative risk coverage … 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
In September we published a blog setting out 10 key things that firms needed to know about the draft regulation on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA). We have since published an update on what’s been happening and as we continue our close monitoring of the key developments regarding the MiCA review, in this blog we provide … Continue Reading
On 21 May 2020 the Act implementing the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) (Implementatiewet wijziging vierde anti-witwasrichtlijn, the Act) entered into force. The Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) has published a news item emphasizing that the transitional arrangements laid down in the Act will expire on 21 November 2020. As a result, crypto … Continue Reading
On September 24, 2020 the European Commission published its long-anticipated Digital Finance package, comprising legislative proposals and non-legislative communications. One of the legislative proposals published included a draft regulation on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA). MiCA is the first European-level legislative initiative aiming to introduce a harmonized and comprehensive framework for the issuance, application and provision … 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
In September we published a blog setting out 10 key things that firms needed to know about the draft regulation on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA). In this blog we provide an update on what’s been happening. On 13 November 2020, the German Presidency of the Council hosted a meeting of a working party on financial … Continue Reading
On 28 October 2020, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) published updates to the ‘IIFA Cybersecurity Program Basics, a document that lays out the key cyber-prevention standards for investment management companies. The document sets out key cyber-prevention standards for investment management companies. The commonly-shared principles that firms should apply in order to minimize … Continue Reading
The proposal for a Regulation on digital operational resilience in the EU financial sector (DORA) is making its first steps through the EU legislative process. The proposal, which would introduce a detailed legislative framework on operational resilience for financial institutions in the EU, has entered the negotiating phase in the Council. Member States are discussing … Continue Reading
On 22 October 2020, the German Presidency of the Council held a meeting of a working party on financial services, agenda of which included discussion on the recently published European Commission proposal for a Regulation on digital operational resilience in financial services (DORA). We provided an overview of the proposed legislation in our earlier blog … Continue Reading
On 19 October 2020, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a toolkit of effective practices for financial institutions’ cyber incident response and recovery (CIRR). The toolkit draws on the feedback from a public consultation process, including four virtual outreach meetings. The report was delivered to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors for their October … 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 13 October 2020, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published the final version of its high-level recommendations for the regulation, supervision and oversight of “global stablecoin” (GSC) arrangements following an earlier public consultation. The report states that GSC arrangements are expected to adhere to all applicable regulatory standards and to address risks to financial stability … Continue Reading
On 9 October 2020, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a report, Central bank digital currencies: foundational principles and core features. The report was compiled by the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, Sveriges Riksbank, the Swiss National Bank and the BIS. … Continue Reading
On 9 October 2020, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a report on the use of supervisory (SupTech) and regulatory (RegTech) technology by FSB members and regulated institutions. The report notes that SupTech and RegTech tools could have important benefits for financial stability. For authorities, the use of SupTech could improve oversight, surveillance and analytical … Continue Reading
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published guidance on information and communication technology security governance. The Solvency II Directive (2009/138/EC) requires that insurers and reinsurers have in place effective systems of governance. This includes systems in respect of IT security. EIOPA has developed its guidance on information and communication technology (ICT) security … Continue Reading
In this series of blogposts, we explore some of the main types of decentralised finance applications and key areas of legal risk that may be of particular relevance for that type of application or product. In this first blogpost, we consider the nature of decentralised finance itself. What is DeFi? Decentralised finance (or DeFi) is … Continue Reading
On 23 September 2020 the European Commission published its long-awaited draft regulation on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA), with its accompanying annex and a draft regulation on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (DLTR). The proposals, which are part of the broader Digital Finance Strategy package, are the first European-level legislative … Continue Reading
On 24 September 2020 the European Commission published its long-awaited draft regulation on digital operational resilience for the EU financial services sector (DORA). The proposal, which is part of the broader Digital Finance Strategy package, is a first European-level legislative initiative aiming to introduce harmonised and comprehensive framework on digital operational resilience for European financial … Continue Reading
On 15 September 2020, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that members of the Euro Cyber Resilience Board for pan-European Financial Infrastructures have created the Cyber Information and Intelligence Sharing Initiative (CIISI-EU). This is a multilateral initiative which brings together a community of public and private entities. The CIISI-EU initiative is further explained in a … Continue Reading
In September 2020, SWIFT (a global member-owned cooperative and provider of secure financial messaging services) published a report to support market participants in understanding the money laundering techniques which underpin large-scale cyber-attacks. The report sets out the end-to-end journey commonly used by criminals to launder funds obtained through illicit cyber-crime related activities, and focusses on … Continue Reading
