Politics, Legal & Regulation

October 18, 2017 @ 2:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has published principles for data sharing and aggregation regarding individual consumers. As data become ubiquitous there is a looming concern about who owns or controls personal information. In an age of rampant cybersecurity issues, setting guidelines for what banks… Read More

October 18, 2017 @ 11:54 am By JD Alois  |  

The annual Securities and Exchange Commission’s Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation has been scheduled for November 30th.  In a shift from years past where the Forum was held in the SEC’s headquarters in Washington, DC, the event will take place in Austin, Texas…. Read More

October 17, 2017 @ 2:49 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

“We simply don’t understand why civilians need military-grade weapons, and we prefer not to insure them.” Discussing guns has become a polarizing topic, which is why most companies avoid gun discussion. Period. But Lemonade, the insurance tech company powered by artificial intelligence and behavioral economics, was founded… Read More

October 17, 2017 @ 12:29 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Several leading Spanish banking, energy and telecommunications companies have established Alastria, a new regulated national network based on blockchain. The non-profit consortium was presented simultaneously in the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia and Malaga with the aim to develop the Distributed Ledger Technology (DTL),… Read More

October 17, 2017 @ 10:44 am By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has published primer on cryptocurrencies. The document was produced by LabCFTC, the section of the CFTC launched to promote responsible Fintech innovation and fair competition. The publication comes at a time when digital currencies have become extremely popular, especially… Read More

October 15, 2017 @ 5:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Keith Noreika, acting Comptroller of the Currency, published an Op-Ed in the Hill on Friday that hammered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) decision to push forward an updated rule on arbitration clauses for financial service firms. At the time the ruling was announced, CFPB… Read More

October 15, 2017 @ 4:17 pm By Joey Garcia and Joshua Ashley Klayman  |  

  On September 22, 2017, the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) issued a Statement on Initial Coin Offerings (ICO).   With the GFSC Statement, Gibraltar joined a growing number of jurisdictions that have provided token sale guidance, including, among others, the United States, Canada,  Singapore,  Hong… Read More

October 12, 2017 @ 5:11 am By JD Alois  |  

At a presentation by the City of London, a report by KPMG entitled the Value of Fintech, was distributed along with a discussion on the need for the UK to do more to maintain and improve their global Fintech prominence. Speaking for the City of… Read More

October 11, 2017 @ 8:54 am By JD Alois  |  

There are two ways that big business competes in the USA. You can provide a better product or service for your customers or you can work with elected and appointed officials to block innovative firms. Of course, the consumer loses out in all this, but… Read More

October 11, 2017 @ 3:07 am By JD Alois  |  

While some financial regulators have simply stopped Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) or slowed activity in the cryptocurrency space, others have been more receptive towards embracing change and recognizing the fact you need to be more innovative. The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is one of the… Read More

October 9, 2017 @ 6:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

Theo Chino will be back in court tomorrow (October 10) regarding his ongoing battle with the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). In brief, Chino is battling the DFS creation of the “BitLicense Regulatory Framework” that delivered a bumpy process to license virtual currency business… Read More

October 9, 2017 @ 10:22 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has set out in Guidance its approach to Initial Coin/Token Offerings (ICOs) and virtual currencies under the Financial Services and Markets Regulations (FSMR). The FSRA’s full approach to ICOs and virtual currencies is clarified here…. Read More

October 8, 2017 @ 11:31 am By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in Switzerland commented on the initial coin offerings (ICOs) market in Switzerland last month. FINMA issued Guidance 04/2017 on this topic just as it announced it was investigating a number of ICOs to determine if laws had been broken…. Read More

October 8, 2017 @ 6:35 am By JD Alois  |  

The US Department of Treasury has published a report on ways the government may streamline and reduce burdens of capital markets regulation. The report is an interesting compendium of the pressing need to reduce regulatory hurdles while pointing to policy initiatives that can improve access… Read More

October 7, 2017 @ 10:01 am By JD Alois  |  

Taiwan appears to be taking a different approach than its neighbor China when it comes to distributed ledger technology and cryptocurrency. In a report from the Newslens, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Wellington Koo told a joint meeting of Parliament and the cabinet that… Read More

October 6, 2017 @ 2:29 pm By JD Alois  |  

The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a hearing for next Wednesday, October 11 with an entire battalion of bills to consider. The more than twenty bills include several interesting acts of legislation.  Included on the list is a fix to the onerous definition of… Read More

October 6, 2017 @ 8:35 am By JD Alois  |  

Andrew Hauser, the Executive Director of Banking, Payments and Financial Resilience from the Bank of England, delivered a speech today explaining why “this time is different.” His statement reflected on detractors who criticize Fintech as more of the same. Sure, ATMs came along and they were… Read More

October 6, 2017 @ 7:58 am By JD Alois  |  

The Bank of England has published an update on their FinTech Accelerator program announcing the latest cohort of proofs of concepts along with a status report. The news shared as part of a speech by Andrew Hauser, Executive Director for Banking, Payments and Financial Resilience delivered… Read More

October 5, 2017 @ 10:02 pm By JD Alois  |  

Late last month, Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund Managing Director, delivered a speech in the UK envisioning a future without banks. Now Lagarde did not say banks will no longer exist but she stepped up to the precipice of the death of banking stating there… Read More

October 5, 2017 @ 6:16 pm By JD Alois  |  

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has a mission of working towards a single regulatory and supervisory framework for the European Union member states. The goal is to make things simpler for consumers and businesses to operate across the EU. As the digitization of banking and… Read More