Clifford Chance

Welcome to this week's global fintech round-up, summarising fintech regulatory developments that have happened around the world along with our Clifford Chance fintech publications and upcoming events. 

Details of these and previous developments can also be found on our Fintech Topic Guide on the Clifford Chance Financial Markets Toolkit.

CLIFFORD CHANCE PUBLICATIONS

• Ethereum Merge – What is at Stake?

GLOBAL LEGAL AND REGULATORY UPDATES, INDUSTRY GUIDANCE AND PUBLICATIONS

Americas

US:  

• (26 Sep 2022) Bank for International Settlements working paper on the impact of fintech lending on credit access for US small businesses.
• (23 Sep 2022) The Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has vetoed the Digital Financial Assets Law passed by the California State Assembly in August, which would have required digital asset exchanges and crypto companies to be licensed with the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The Governor said that it would be premature to create a licensing regime without first considering feedback to his May 2022 Executive Order on blockchain and responsible innovation as well as forthcoming federal legislation and regulation.

APAC

Hong Kong:

• (20 Sep 2022) Hong Kong Monetary Authority position paper setting out its policy stance on Hong Kong's retail central bank digital currency, the e-HKD, and outlining its next steps.| Press release

India:             

• (21 Sep 2022) Speech by Shaktikanta Das, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, on innovation in the Indian financial sector, including the roles that can be played by fintechs in the area of credit delivery in partnership with traditional lenders.
• (18 Sep 2022) The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have signed a fintech co-operation agreement to facilitate regulatory collaboration and partnership in fintech. | Press release

Singapore:   

• (18 Sep 2022) The MAS and the IFSCA have signed a fintech co-operation agreement to facilitate regulatory collaboration and partnership in fintech. | Press release

Europe

EU:

• (27 Sep 2022) European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) report on the distributed ledger technology pilot regime (DLT Pilot), which sets out ESMA's proposed way forward and includes the feedback received following the Call for Evidence launched in January and a workshop organised in March 2022. ESMA has concluded that there is no need to amend the regulatory technical standards on transparency and data reporting requirements before the DLT Pilot starts applying in March 2023. | Press release
• (27 Sep 2022) Association for Financial Markets in Europe paper "Open Finance and Data Sharing – Building Blocks for a Competitive, Innovative and Secure Framework". The paper precedes the EU Commission’s framework for data access in financial services, which is due to be published in the coming months. | Press release
• (26 Sep 2022) European Economic and Social Committee opinion on challenges and opportunities of cryptoassets, in which it backs increased regulation, with robust, coherent rules to better protect investors across the EU in line with current measures applied to traditional financial services. | Press release
• (26 Sep 2022) Speech by Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, on "Demystifying wholesale central bank digital currency".
• (23 Sep 2022) ESMA updated Q&A on the European Crowdfunding Service Providers for Business Regulation.

UK:

• (23 Sep 2022) The Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum has published stakeholder views submitted in response to two discussion papers on algorithms that it published in April 2022. | Response to call for input submissions | Discussion paper: The benefits and harms of algorithms: a shared perspective from the four digital regulators | Discussion paper: Auditing algorithms: the existing landscape, role of regulators and future outlook | Webpage
• (22 Sep 2022) The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill has been introduced to Parliament and given its first reading. The Bill includes additional powers to seize and recover suspected criminal cryptoassets. MPs will next consider the Bill at second reading on 13 October 2022. | Factsheet: cryptoassets - key terms and definitions | Fact sheet: cryptoassets technical | Fact sheet: cryptoassets - legislation

EVENTS

Talking Tech event: The metaverse – legal and economic perspectives on a growing industry (Frankfurt, 19 October 2022):

The metaverse has been described as the future of the internet – a digital world where we will live, work and play. Will our existing legal frameworks be fit-for-purpose? Members of our Clifford Chance Tech Group, together with Prof David Wuttke from the Technical University of Munich and Thomas Richter, in-house legal counsel technology at Deutsche Bank, will be available to provide you with a glimpse into some of the technological, commercial, and legal challenges the metaverse will bring. | You will also have the opportunity to try out various access options on site, such as a virtual reality headset. | For more information and to register, please see the event webpage.