August 29, 2017 – FinTech and Blockchain Law Watch

Faster Payments Task Force issues Part Two of Final Faster Payments Report

Aug 29 2017

The Faster Payments Task Force (the Task Force) has issued part two of its Final Report that sets forth a blueprint for achieving faster and more secure payments in the U.S. by 2020.

Convened by the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) and comprised of a broad cross-section of over 300 industry, government and consumer group stakeholders, the Task Force released part one of its Final Report in January 2017 which outlined the Task Force’s goals and the many advantages of faster payments. Instead of championing a single method to achieving “ubiquitous faster payments,” the Task Force states in part two that it favors competition among a wide array of potential ways to achieve this goal and supports collaboration with industry stakeholders to ensure “broad adoption; safety, integrity and trust; and interoperability.”

Monetary Authority of Singapore on Initial Coin Offerings

Aug 29 2017

By Judith Rinearson and Rizwan Qayyum

On August 10, 2017, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) jointly published a Consumer Advisory document which urged consumers to exercise due diligence before investing in digital tokens, with particular emphasis on the emergence of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). In Singapore, several ICOs have taken place in the past year and this has resulted in organisations raising millions of dollars in a few days since their launch.

An ICO is a crowdfunding method, facilitated by blockchain, through which a project or venture, usually a start-up organisation, raises funding by creating and selling its own digital asset, currency or token in exchange for digital currencies or assets of immediate value such as a Bitcoin. The practice is thus far unregulated and enables a new brand of alternative finance. An ICO campaign ‘runs’ for a defined period during which investors are able to support the project, with the aspiration that this digital asset becomes successful and their investment reaps profit.

Archive:August 29, 2017