Opinion

August 8, 2017 @ 12:42 pm By Timothy Li  |  

Familiar Faces This is the second year that I travelled to China for the LangDi FinTech Conference in Shanghai. What a difference a year makes? Last year, the conference had a massive showing of over 1,300 attendees. This year, the conference nearly doubled to 2,400… Read More

August 5, 2017 @ 7:50 pm By JD Alois  |  

  The digitization of finance is upon us. Fintech is rapidly changing all aspects of the financial services sector but different countries are adapting at different paces – regulation is largely why. Jackson Mueller, writing for the Milken Institute, hosted several roundtables earlier this year… Read More

August 3, 2017 @ 9:56 am By JD Alois  |  

In the financial services sector clear and transparent regulation is vital to a healthy marketplace. There is no financial services firm that will take issue with this statement. Yet regulation that balances on the tightrope of an efficient market and investor protection is quite hard…. Read More

August 2, 2017 @ 12:47 pm By Dara Albright  |  

It was the summer of 1995. Hootie and the Blowfish were on tour and Brad Pitt was People Magazine’s sexiest man alive. It was a time when salads were big and shirts were puffy. Microsoft released Windows 95, fueling a revolution that helped shape the… Read More

August 1, 2017 @ 1:00 pm By Jonathan Nieh  |  

  Disclaimer: Although I am a securities attorney, I am not your securities attorney, so the following is in no way legal advice. If you are thinking about doing an ICO or token sale, I highly recommend talking to and hiring your own attorney. If you’ve been… Read More

July 31, 2017 @ 11:53 am By Jason Best & Sherwood Neiss  |  

Regulation Crowdfunding is a little over a year old and the data indicates that it is a revenue and income generator for companies and a jobs engine for the economy. The law requires companies that complete successful campaigns to file an Annual Report with the… Read More

July 29, 2017 @ 6:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Tim Draper, a well known Venture Capitalist who is very active in Fintech, posted an open letter last week addressed the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the recent comments on regulating Initial Coin Offerings. The letter was published in conjunction of the launch of the… Read More

July 27, 2017 @ 3:00 pm By Patrick A. Reardon  |  

  The decline in the number of public companies in the United States and the decline in the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) that occur each year are widely decried. It is irony that many who bemoan these changes are the very persons who… Read More

July 25, 2017 @ 7:03 pm By Amy Wan  |  

My Facebook Messenger was blowing up this afternoon. “OMG Have you seen this?” “What does this mean?” “Can you explain what this says in stupid people talk?” They were all referring to today’s SEC  announcement on ICOs. So, I’ll take 15 minutes from what was… Read More

July 25, 2017 @ 5:32 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an investigative report on the fast-growing Initial Coin Offering (ICO) market that will squelch the ICO market, at least in the US. The report, embedded below, was specifically directed at the DAO or Decentralized Autonomous Organization that launched… Read More

July 24, 2017 @ 1:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, the Independent Community Bankers of America  (ICBA) sent a letter to the attention of Kathy Moe, Regional Director of the FDIC in San Francisco. The subject of the letter was the ICBA’s vehement opposition to Fintech darling SoFi’s effort to become a licensed… Read More

July 24, 2017 @ 12:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

It is a fact that the number of public companies and the number of companies going public have dramatically decreased over the last 15 years. For private investors like High Net Worth Individuals or Venture Capitalists this has not been an issue. It is arguable… Read More

July 23, 2017 @ 6:38 pm By Howard Sherman  |  

Working with crowdfunders for nearly five years we’ve seen and heard almost everything.  While I could write a book – or perhaps even a series of books – on all the different experiences, observations and encounters I’ve accumulated over time – I’m writing this article… Read More

July 23, 2017 @ 2:15 pm By JD Alois  |  

CrowdfundRES is a group of policy recommendations to improve the regulatory and market framework to boost investment in renewable energy across the European Union. A group of 14 different partners worked on the project that saw the participation of the European Crowdfunding Network and four… Read More

July 21, 2017 @ 2:35 pm By JD Alois  |  

Today the Faster Payments Task Force, created by the Federal Reserve, released its final report along with their recommendations on what needs to be accomplished to bring the US up to date in the payments space. Anybody engaged in the payments sector understands that the US… Read More

July 20, 2017 @ 7:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

Commissioner Michael Piwowar, who was Acting Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) until the successful appointment of Jay Clayton, visited with David Burton of the Heritage Foundation earlier this week providing a unique glimpse into the world of the SEC. Burton, who is… Read More

July 20, 2017 @ 5:06 pm By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday, the acting Comptroller of the Currency, Keith Noreika, dove into one of the hottest debates the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has endured in years. Noreika expressed his support on the concept of creating a national Fintech Charter to allow nascent… Read More

July 20, 2017 @ 9:33 am By JD Alois  |  

RateSetter has been hit with a series of significant operational challenges as several large loans have struggled.  The widely reported series of events have culminated in approximately £48 million worth of loans being taken over by the P2P Lender. This amount would have  outstripped the… Read More

July 19, 2017 @ 2:44 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Acting Comptroller of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Keith Noreika, answered a pressing question today in a speech delivered at the Exchequer Club in Washington, DC. Noreika asked the question of himself that everyone in finance had been wondering; “What are… Read More

July 18, 2017 @ 1:50 pm By Victoria Silchenko, Ph.D.  |  

This article is my attempt at providing a definitive guide to the complex, and so far, self-regulated, landscape of ICOs. Warning: mature content. What on Earth is ICO? Just as how in the ancient movie “Eyes Wide Shut” the password “fidelio” gave access to a… Read More