Politics, Legal & Regulation

December 9, 2019 @ 11:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

Depending on the jurisdiction, big tech is moving into financial services at various speeds. In China, big tech already dominates much of the Fintech landscape from payments, to lending, to Wealthtech to savings. It’s all there. In the US, there is a constant, pensive shuffle… Read More

December 9, 2019 @ 4:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, Representative Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, announced that Representative Brad Sherman was elected by the Committee’s Democratic Caucus to serve as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets. Sherman, from California, has been in the… Read More

December 9, 2019 @ 7:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Some of Hungary’s financial institutions might be forced to exit the market as they may not be adequately prepared to continue to compete with challengers from the Fintech industry. Traditional institutions are also facing increasing pressure due to declining revenues from a consistently low-yield environment,… Read More

December 9, 2019 @ 5:00 am By Jonathan J. Attia and Thibault Verbiest  |  

We have deliberately chosen to limit our presentation, for pedagogical reasons, to the four fundamental periods represented by the emergence of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Libra and CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currency) because no other event (derived or similar project) has had such an impact on the… Read More

December 8, 2019 @ 10:08 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee has scheduled an additional meeting to discuss regulatory harmonization along the lines the Commission’s Concept Release published earlier this year. The SEC officially closed comments on its Concept Release in September but feedback… Read More

December 8, 2019 @ 8:39 pm By Cali Haan  |  

US Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin told members of the US House Financial Services Committee Thursday that both he and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell feel there is “no need” for the US to develop a digital currency in the near term. Currently, multiple… Read More

December 8, 2019 @ 6:26 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Ukraine’s government has reportedly approved the nation’s final draft of a new money laundering law that applies to virtual assets (or cryptocurrencies) and virtual asset service providers (VASPs), according to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) guidelines. The Rada, the country’s legislative body, released a… Read More

December 7, 2019 @ 7:44 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Authorities in Thailand have arrested 24 Chinese nationals perpetuating a scam involving cryptocurrencies and solicitation phone calls to citizens living in China. According to the Thai Immigration Bureau, the parties arrested were recruited by a gangster who, open the workers’ arrival, confiscated their passports. The… Read More

December 7, 2019 @ 12:57 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Council of the European Union, which implements laws for the EU region, has issued a statement on “stablecoin” cryptocurrencies indicating that, “no global ‘stablecoin’…should begin operation in the European Union until the legal, regulatory and oversight challenges and risks have been adequately identified and… Read More

December 7, 2019 @ 11:44 am By JD Alois  |  

The “Loi Pacte” was approved by the French government earlier this year. the new law included multiple policy moves designed to improve the overall competitiveness of the French economy. As part of the legislation, France created bespoke rules for initial coin offerings. Under French law,… Read More

December 6, 2019 @ 9:11 am By Cali Haan  |  

Chinese state media vehicle Xinhua is reporting details about a state-supported blockchain initiative in the South China island province of Hainan. Hainan’s blockchain pilot zone, which is based in the Hainan Resort Software Community (RSC) industrial park, was actually launched in October 2018. The zone… Read More

December 6, 2019 @ 8:20 am By Omar Faridi  |  

China’s central bank announced on December 5 that it’s planning to support the nation’s capital city Beijing in exploring and experimenting with various regulatory guidelines for the evolving Fintech industry in order to develop a more inclusive and suitable supervision framework. The nation’s Fintech regulation… Read More

December 5, 2019 @ 6:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Banque of France will begin testing a Central Bank Digital Currency (or CBDC) in 2020, according to a report in Les Echos – the leading business publication of France. Quoting François Villeroy de Galhau, the Governor of the Banque of France, who was speaking… Read More

December 5, 2019 @ 4:30 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Dalia Blass, director of the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Division of Investment Management told an audience at the 2019 ICI Securities Law Developments Conference this week, “that a registered closed-end interval fund with a bitcoin futures strategy is preparing to launch.” According to Investopedia: “An interval fund is… Read More

December 5, 2019 @ 8:09 am By JD Alois  |  

New peer to peer lending rules come into effect on Monday, December 9th. The new rules were the result of a review by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The UK largely created the entire sector of peer to peer lending. One of the most… Read More

December 4, 2019 @ 9:43 am By Cali Haan  |  

Lawyers for plaintiffs in a class action suit brought against cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in New York have declined to revise their complaint alleging the exchange used prints of a crypto-synthetic type of USD to, “creat(e) the largest bubble in human history.” “Plaintiffs do not wish to… Read More

December 3, 2019 @ 1:58 pm By JD Alois  |  

Benoît Cœuré, the outgoing European Central Bank Executive Board Member – and an individual some thought was the best person to lead ECB before Christine Lagarde was selected, has delivered an interesting speech in Brussels lambasting the state of the European Union and the lack… Read More

December 3, 2019 @ 11:51 am By JD Alois  |  

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) along with three other federal agencies and in conjunction with the state bank regulators have issued a statement clarifying the legal status of hemp growth and production and the relevant requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act… Read More

December 2, 2019 @ 8:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has appointed Kristina Littman as Chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Cyber Unit, a specialized unit that focuses on protecting investors and markets from cyber-related misconduct. Littman succeeds Robert Cohen, who left the Commission in August 2019.  Cohen was… Read More

December 2, 2019 @ 4:50 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Crypto Valley Association (CVA), a Switzerland based blockchain advocacy group, has published an “Asset Tokenization Paper” at the inaugural launch event for its Western Chapter today taking place at the EPFL Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. The CVA seeks to define the… Read More