In a recent research paper, Mufti Faraz Adam has considered whether Bitcoin is Islamic-compliant. This is an important area of interest given the growing Islamic finance market which is expected to be worth more than US$6.5 trillion by 2020. The paper examines whether Bitcoin is money, a commodity or something else entirely.
By Jim Bulling and Michelle Chasser
As one year has drawn to a close it is time to look forward to 2018 and our tips for the most important 5 regulatory changes for the FinTech industry in Australia.
The Government has announced its intention to introduce an open banking regime in Australia under which customers will have the ability to give third parties such as FinTechs access to the customer’s banking data. Treasury is currently conducting a review into open banking models, with the report which was due at the end 2017 yet to be released.
Also planned to come in to effect by 1 July 2018 is mandatory comprehensive credit reporting which will give lenders access to deeper and richer sets of data on consumers to base their credit decisions on. Comprehensive credit reporting is currently voluntary.
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance sits within the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and has recently published its 4th UK Alternative Finance Industry Report entitled “Entrenching Innovation”. The Centre defines alternative finance as financial channels and instruments that emerge outside of the traditional financial system (i.e. regulated banks and capital markets).
By Dan Cohen
The FinTech charter may have an important new, if tepid, ally: U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting. Speaking at a press conference on December 20th, Comptroller Otting signaled a cautious openness to the charter, stating, according to various media outlets, that although he is “not sure what it [FinTech charter] looks like and how it’s funded…there’s a space there that a technology solution can solve.” The key question to him is “what is the requirement…to get that charter”, a topic on which he did not elaborate.
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