The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has completed a hat trick of FinTech cooperation agreements with Hong Kong regulators by signing an agreement with the Hong Kong Insurance Authority (IA). This adds to those agreements already signed by the FCA with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on which we have blogged in previous posts.
By Giovanni Campi and Ignasi Guardans
The European Commission (EC) has published the summary of contributions to its ‘Public Consultation on FinTech: a more competitive and innovative European financial sector’. The consultation, conducted in spring 2017, sought stakeholders’ input to further develop the EC’s approach towards technological innovation in financial services. More than 200 respondents provided their views on FinTech’s legal, regulatory and policy aspects.
Respondents favoured a European Union (EU) policy approach to FinTech guided by the principles of technological neutrality, proportionality and integrity, as well as “same service, same risk, same rule” to ensure a level playing field among market players. The need to maintain an open dialogue between regulators, supervisors and the industry was emphasised. Most respondents expressed broad support for an EU framework for crowdfunding and peer-to-peer financing and convergence across the EU on how supervisors handle licencing, outsourcing, and support for innovation (e.g. innovation hubs).
On 14 September the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) announced that it has signed a series of FinTech cooperation agreements with several regulators in major financial centres. The SC has established FinTech bridges with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This follows the first agreement signed between the SC and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in June 2017.
By Jim Bulling and Felix Charlesworth
The Federal Government has released a consultation paper entitled ‘The Digital Economy: Opening up the Conversation.‘
The consultation paper invites all interested parties across the private and public sectors to contribute to and assist with the development of the Australian Government’s Digital Economy Strategy (Strategy). The Strategy will be launched mid-way through 2018. The Government estimates that adopting a strategy which embraces the emergence of the digital economy could boost the economy by $140 billion to $250 billion over the next 8 years.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has introduced legislation into the Australian Parliament to remove the double taxation of digital currency.
By Hilger von Livonius and Philipp Riedl
The raising of funds for cryptocurrency projects (also called Initial Coin Offerings or ICOs) gain more and more market interest. Although there is no specific and coordinated regulatory framework applicable to ICOs, it is not something happening in a completely unregulated area.
By Elizabeth C. Crouse, Mary Burke Baker, Robert M. Crea, Claire S. White and Rachel D. Trickett
As cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum become more prevalent in investment circles and acceptable for commercial transactions, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has said little other than to label “virtual currencies” as property and state that transactions involving virtual currencies may be subject to taxation under generally applicable law. However, on September 7, the Congressional Blockchain Caucus introduced the Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act which would exempt certain cryptocurrency transactions and create a cryptocurrency-specific information reporting requirement.
To read more about this update, click here.
The Islamic Finance News Europe Forum 2017 took place in London on 11 September. The Forum gave several insights into the Islamic FinTech regulatory space.
Ian Johnson, the Chief Executive of the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) (the regulator of the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC)) spoke at the Forum about his organisation’s approach to regulating the FinTech space. He said that regulators are engaging strongly in the sector, often at the behest of their national governments who are leading the charge as a policy matter. The regulator’s job was to allow innovation whilst maintaining systemic and investor protection.
By Jim Bulling, Daniel Knight and Felix Charlesworth
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced that will begin accepting applications under its new crowd sourced funding (CSF) regime from 29 September 2017 onwards. From this date, applications can be submitted via the existing ASIC ‘eLicensing’ portal.
In preparation for the commencement of the CSF regime, ASIC has released an information sheet outlining:
During the period between 29 September 2017 and 27 October 2017, ASIC will assess applications lodged on similar dates in ‘batches.’ Successful applications from each batch will progress broadly at the same time. Incomplete or inadequate applications lodged during this period may be refused or placed in later application batches. Applications which are lodged from 27 October 2017 onwards will be considered individually as soon as possible.
Swiss and Israeli financial regulators entered into a FinTech cooperation agreement on 4 September. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the Israeli Capital Markets Insurance and Savings Authority (CMISA) and the Israel Securities Authority (“ISA”) intend to cooperate with the aim of encouraging and enabling innovation in their respective financial services industries and of supporting financial innovators in complying with the regulations in each other’s jurisdictions.
The agreement sets out existing activities in the FinTech regulatory space by each regulator. The new cooperation will include information sharing (including on regulatory issues), support to financial innovators from the other’s country (including help to understand the relevant regulatory environment), dialogue on new innovations and knowledge and expertise sharing.
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