October 2017 – Page 3 – FinTech and Blockchain Law Watch

FinTech in Taiwan: Regulatory Efforts and the Need for Speed

Oct 03 2017

To encourage financial services industry and the related industry to apply innovative technology for enhancing financial accessibility, practicability, and quality, on May 4, 2017, Taiwan’s Executive Yuan proposed the bill called “Financial Technology Innovation Experimentation Act” (the “Bill”) to create its version of “regulatory sandbox.” It would enable experimenting innovative financial technology within a well-defined space and duration under relaxed legal requirements.

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Gibraltar issues statement on initial coin offerings

Oct 03 2017

By Jonathan Lawrence

The Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) issued a statement on initial coin offerings on 22 September. The GFSC has noticed the increasing use of tokens or coins based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) as a means of raising finance, especially by early-stage start-ups. The sale of such tokens is often conducted using terms such as initial coin offering (ICO), token sale, initial token offering and the like.

A new regulatory framework for DLT will become operational in Gibraltar as from January 2018 and will regulate the activities of firms, operating in or from Gibraltar, that use DLT to store or transmit value belonging to others, such as virtual currency exchanges. Gibraltar is considering a complementary regulatory framework covering the promotion and sale of tokens, aligned with the DLT framework. In common with regulators around the world, the GFSC says that is continuing to monitor the use of unregulated tokens as a means of raising finance.

Archive:October 2017