At the Crossroads of Law, Innovation and Commerce
By Giovanni Campi and Sofia Karagianni
The digitalization of finance is accelerating during the COVID-19 outbreak. Even before the pandemic, FinTechs and BigTechs had begun to change market dynamics by offering new forms of money and new means of payment. Central banks are also looking into the future of money and payments, and at the potential issuance of digital currencies.
Read MoreBy Giovanni Campi and Sofia Karagianni
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) issued a consultation on a toolkit of measures designed to help ensure firms and regulators are well prepared to tackle cyber incidents. This consultation is part of the work initiated in 2017 following the launch of the FSB report gathering financial sector cybersecurity regulations, guidance and supervisory practices from several jurisdictions. The consultation is expected to lead to the submission of the toolkit to the G20 in October 2020.
Read MoreBy Judie Rinearson, Daniel Knight and Daniel Atkin
With Australia joining the boom in new and innovative Fintechs around the world, our challenger banks, payments businesses and Fintechs have gained global recognition.
While entering into the lucrative U.S market is enticing, it can also be a daunting concept for those without insider knowledge.
K&L Gates’ New York Fintech partner Judie Rinearson, was able to provide us with the information necessary for making the transition, successfully.
Read MoreBy Judie Rinearson and John ReVeal
On December 12, 2019, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPR”) to amend the brokered deposit regulation. While the proposed regulation will not eliminate the restrictions or remove all burdens from those institutions that accept brokered deposits, the NPR indicates that the FDIC has recognized that changes in technology call for changes in regulation. As a result, banks working with innovative prepaid payments companies to provide financial services might get some brokered deposit relief.
Read MoreBy Judith Rinearson and Philip Morgan
On November 18, 2019, Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the UK High Court, announced the launch of a “Legal Statement on Crypto Assets and Smart Contracts,” which he described as a “watershed moment” for English Law. The statement, which can be found here, brings new clarity to the likely status of both smart contracts and cryptocurrencies under English law.
A committee of experts has prepared the statement and, although technically it carries no binding legal authority, it is likely to be regarded as the most authoritative position available until the matters it covers are dealt with specifically by the English courts or by revised legislation.
Read MoreDaniel S. Cohen and Jeremy M. McLaughlin
On December 11, 2019, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) published “Proposed Guidance Regarding Adoption or Listing of Virtual Currencies” (“Proposal”). The Proposal would establish a framework to allow “regulated virtual currency licensees” and entities exempt from licensure, such as trust companies, to offer or incorporate into their services cryptocurrencies that are:
The Proposal is intended to “enhance efficiency” and enable licensees to “offer and use new coins in a timely fashion”.
Read MoreJeremy M. McLaughlin and Daniel S. Cohen
On December 3, the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) published a notice of proposed rulemaking to revise the Remittance Rule (“Proposed Rule”) and is accepting comments until January 21, 2020. The proposal follows the CFPB’s April 2019 request for information on the Remittance Rule (see here for our previous discussion). The key provisions of the Proposed Rule address two aspects of the Remittance Rule: (1) the Rule’s applicability to a company that executes 100 or more remittances per year in the normal course of business, and (2) the Rule’s allowance for insured banks and credit unions to disclose estimates, rather than exact figures, under certain circumstances. This latter allowance is set to expire on July 21, 2020.
Read MoreBy Tsuguhito Omagari and Yuki Sako
Japan will fundamentally change its crypto asset regulations effective in spring of 2020.
In May, 2019, the National Diet, the Japanese national legislature, passed an amendment bill to the Payment Services Act (the “PSA”) and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (the “FIEA”), which was promulgated on June 7, 2019 (the “2019 Amendment”). The 2019 Amendment will become effective within one year from promulgation, following further rulemaking by the Japan Financial Services Agency (the “JFSA”) to implement the 2019 Amendment, which is anticipated sometime soon and includes public comment process.
Read MoreBy Rebecca Laird, Anthony Nolan and Daniel Cohen
Over the last two days, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) (together, the “Agencies”) each issued a proposed rule (collectively, the “Proposed Rules”) that would codify the Agencies’ position that the interest on a loan originated on a bank, if permissible when the loan was made, will continue to be a permissible and an enforceable term of the loan following the sale, assignment, or transfer of the loan. This is known as the “valid-when-made” doctrine.
Read MoreBy Jim Bulling and Wendy Li
On 24 October 2019, China President Xi Jinping expressed strong support for blockchain, which was depicted as “a core technology” to promote China’s industry innovation and digital economy development. In his speech, he also noted that blockchain technology has already been applied in a number of sectors like digital finance, internet of things, intelligent manufacturing and supply chain management, and that since China has a solid foundation of blockchain technology, it should seize the opportunity to build up blockchain industrial ecology and accelerate the integration of blockchain, AI, big data and other cutting edge technologies.
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