Politics, Legal & Regulation

November 13, 2020 @ 7:54 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced certain changes that are aimed at limiting the “risk of disruption” to Open Banking services after Brexit. The FCA’s changes are intended to allow UK-headquartered third-party providers (TPPs) to use an alternative to eIDAS certificates to gain… Read More

November 12, 2020 @ 5:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Chilean securities regulator, the Comision Para El Mercado Financiero (CMF), has posted draft regulations for Fintech including investment crowdfunding rules. The objective is to provide a regulatory framework for online capital formation. The CMF believes that a proportional, tech-neutral, framework will promote innovation in… Read More

November 12, 2020 @ 1:36 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is looking to boost its Fintech bench by hiring three individuals to help with legal issues regarding Fintech. According to a post on USAJOBS, responsibilities include: Analyzing and advising on the interpretation of statutes, common law, regulations, and legal… Read More

November 12, 2020 @ 8:24 am By JD Alois  |  

  The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has agreed to fast track the merger of Seedrs and Crowdcube – the two largest investment crowdfunding platforms based in the UK. The merging companies requested the fast track of the review to a Phase 2 stage… Read More

November 12, 2020 @ 8:10 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Sygna Bridge, the “market-ready” solution provider developed specifically for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to fulfill the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendation 16’s “Travel Rule,” has confirmed that Switzerland-based online bank Dukascopy Bank SA has joined its network of over 20 VASPs operating across… Read More

November 11, 2020 @ 11:55 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

India’s antitrust body has reportedly ordered an investigation that will look into whether Alphabet Inc’s Google has been taking unfair advantage of its market position in the country to promote its digital payments app. The tech giant has also been accused of forcing application developers… Read More

November 11, 2020 @ 3:28 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee met this week to discuss the topic of “Finders.” A Finder is an individual who helps a small business find investors and may be paid a fee for this service. Under existing rules,… Read More

November 10, 2020 @ 7:02 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak updated the House (on November 9, 2020) regarding ongoing plans for the country’s financial services industry, which is one of the “most productive and innovative sectors.” Sunak believes that financial services will be essential to the UK’s economic recovery from the… Read More

November 9, 2020 @ 1:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

The US government is looking to set a new record of sorts. The Department of Justice has filed a civil action to seize Bitcoin valued at more than $1 billion, the largest seizure of its kind ever. As has been widely covered, a long slumbering… Read More

November 9, 2020 @ 11:13 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reportedly planning to overhaul or fundamentally change the nation’s listing regime in order to attract more tech firms to London, according to a recent report from Sky News. Sources familiar with the matter said that Sunak will be working on… Read More

November 9, 2020 @ 9:39 am By Dror Futter  |  

TL;DR – The SEC announced a series of amendments (likely to be effective early next year) to the rules governing private offering exemptions – by far the most frequent path for venture fundraising.  The amendments retain the same “menu” of exemptions but make incremental improvements…. Read More

November 8, 2020 @ 7:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a series of updates to the exempt offering ecosystem that included changes to online capital formation. While Reg CF received a nice increase from $1.07 million to $5 million, Reg A+ (Tier II) also received some attention… Read More

November 7, 2020 @ 11:43 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Latvia-based peer to peer (P2P) lender Grupeer noted on November 5, 2020, that it would like to inform its users about the different actions it has taken (as a company) to meet its obligations towards platform investors. Grupeer’s management stated in a blog post that… Read More

November 7, 2020 @ 7:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

​Brazil’s National Monetary Council (CMN), which is responsible for establishing monetary and credit policies, will be working with Banco Central do Brasil (BCB), the nation’s reserve bank, in order to create guidelines for managing the operation of the “Controlled Tests Environment for Financial and Payment… Read More

November 5, 2020 @ 11:33 am By JD Alois  |  

In a blow to a significant Fintech, the US Department of Justice has filed suit in federal court pertaining to Visa’s (NYSE:V) pending $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid, a top open banking platform. Last January, Visa announced its intent to purchase Plaid. At that time,… Read More

November 5, 2020 @ 11:21 am By JD Alois  |  

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is sending PayPal payments of over $470,000 to consumers who lost money to “deceptive chain referral schemes involving cryptocurrencies” according to a release. The FTC states that the defendants promoted Bitcoin Funding Team and My7Network  falsely promised that participants could… Read More

November 4, 2020 @ 11:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The central bank in the UAE has issued new regulations on Stored Value Facilities (SVF). The updated regulatory guidelines apply to local Fintech companies and various other non-bank payment service providers. The new guidelines aim to make it easier to access the UAE market while… Read More

November 4, 2020 @ 10:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has hired two specialists who are focused on helping the regulator with managing and overseeing Fintech and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) projects. Binu Paul, a Fintech entrepreneur, will be serving as Specialist Lead, Fintech. He’ll be reporting… Read More

November 4, 2020 @ 6:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is reporting that the US District Court for the District of Colorado has entered a judgment against defendants Venture Capital Investments LLC (VCI) and its principal and manager Breonna Clark d/b/a Eliot Clark d/b/a Alexander Pak (Clark), of Denver,… Read More

November 4, 2020 @ 1:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday, the Hong Kong Government announced a consultation to enlist public opinion on legislative proposals designed to enhance anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) regulation in Hong Kong. Cryptoassets (digital assets) were included in the consultation with the introduction of a licensing regime for virtual… Read More