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 BRIEFINGS AND MATERIALS

•  (28 Nov 2023) Clifford Chance briefing – Data and cyber litigation + Damages
• (23 Nov 2023) Clifford Chance briefing – Germany's new Financial Market Digitalisation Act

SPOTLIGHT

Our Lawyers v GenAI

We decided to pit Clifford Chance experts against Generative AI, with our lawyers assessing whether AI-generated predictions reflect the reality for issues fintechs need to think about right now when using AI, how AI will influence regulation across Asia Pacific and the future of web3.

GLOBAL LEGAL AND REGULATORY UPDATES, INDUSTRY GUIDANCE AND PUBLICATIONS

International

• (28 Nov 2023) Financial Stability Board (FSB) report on the financial stability implications of multifunction cryptoasset intermediaries (MCIs). The report warns that combining different activities within MCIs, many of which are typically restricted or separated in traditional finance, could exacerbate MCI vulnerabilities and suggests that further work may be needed to enhance cross-border cooperation and information sharing and to address information gaps. | Press release
• (27 Nov 2023) Basel Committee on Banking Supervision supervisory newsletter on the adoption of the Principles for Operational Resilience and the revised Principles for the Sound Management of Operational Risk
• (27 Nov 2023) Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) blog post on increasing transparency in crypto and digital asset trading markets with the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)
• (26 Nov 2023) Guidelines for secure AI system development, published by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and a number of international partners, which are intended to help providers of systems that use artificial intelligence (AI) to build systems that function as intended, are available when needed, and work without revealing sensitive data to unauthorised parties.

APAC

Singapore:    

• (23 Nov 2023) The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has published the final tranche of responses to feedback received on its October 2022 consultation on proposed regulatory measures for digital payment token services. The proposals are aimed at licensed and exempt payment service providers that carry on a business of providing a digital payment token (DPT) service under the Payment Services Act 2019 (PS Act) (DPTSPs). In July 2023, the MAS published Part 1 of the consultation response, which focused on the requirements for segregation and custody of customers’ assets, as well as draft legislative amendments to the Payment Services Regulations 2019 to safeguard customer assets under a statutory trust. Part 2 of the consultation response covers business conduct, consumer access measures, and technology and cyber risk management requirements. | Press release

South Korea:

• (23 Nov 2023) The Bank of Korea, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) have announce a detailed implementation plan for their central bank digital currency (CBDC) usability test. | Press release (in Korean)

Europe

EU:  

• (28 Nov 2023) The EU Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection has adopted its draft report on virtual worlds – opportunities, risks and policy implications for the single market | Press release
• (27 Nov 2023) European Banking Authority (EBA) amending guidelines on the characteristics of a risk-based approach to anti‐money laundering and terrorist financing supervision, which extend the risk-based supervision guidelines to AML/CFT supervisors of cryptoasset service providers (CASPs). | Press release
• (24 Nov 2023) EBA consultation on draft 'travel rule' guidelines on preventing the abuse of funds and certain cryptoassets transfers for money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) purposes under Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain cryptoassets. The EBA will hold a virtual public hearing on 17 January 2024 from 14:00 to 16:00 Paris time. Deadline for comments: 26 February 2024 | Press release
• (23 Nov 2023) Joint statement by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the European Banking Federation (EBF), the European Payment Institutions Federation (EPIF), the European Savings Banks Group (ESBG) and the European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB), which highlights duplication between the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and warns that this could result in a highly complex regulatory landscape for financial services
• (22 Nov 2023) EU Parliament briefing on the digital euro, which summarises the conclusions of the European Central Bank (ECB)’s investigation phase and gives an overview of the recent legislative proposals from the EU Commission.

Germany:     

•  (23 Nov 2023) German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) guidance note (in German) on the operation of a crypto securities register pursuant to section 1 para 1a sentence 2 no 8 of the German Banking Act
• (21 Nov 2023) BaFin has updated its dedicated webpage on DORA with new information particularly relevant for corporate practice. | Press release

Italy:

• (22 Nov 2023) Bank of Italy consultation (in Italian) on a set of proposed measures intended to implement Article 4-sexies.1 of the Italian Financial Act (Legislative Decree 24 February 1998, no. 58) in relation to crowdfunding service providers and their reporting obligations to the competent authorities

Spain:

• (20 Nov 2023) Speech by Pablo Hernández de Cos, Governor of the Bank of Spain, on the digital euro

UK:

• (28 Nov 2023) Draft Data Reporting Services Regulations 2023, which have been laid before Parliament according to the affirmative procedure. The draft regulations replace retained EU Law in relation to data reporting services providers (DRSPs) and establish a new legislative framework for the regulation of DRSPs| Draft explanatory memorandum | Draft impact assessment
• (24 Nov 2023) Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) call for input on the potential competition impacts from the data asymmetry between Big Tech and firms in financial services. Deadline for comments: 22 January 2024. | Press release
• (24 Nov 2023) Technology Working Group interim report on its work on the implementation of fund tokenisation in the UK, setting out a recommended 'baseline approach' to implementing the tokenisation of UK investment funds, under which firms could develop and pilot models for fund tokenisation within the existing legal and regulatory framework. | FCA letter published alongside the report | Press release
• (24 Nov 2023) UK Finance blog post entitled ‘Explainable AI: Revolutionising lending in the UK’
• (23 Nov 2023) UK Finance report on the impact of AI in financial services | Webpage
• (22 Nov 2023) Pro-innovation Regulation of Technologies Review report by Professor Dame Angela McLean, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, which considers how pro-innovation regulation can support regulated industries and puts forward cross-cutting recommendations. The Government has published a response that accepts recommendations to encourage pro-innovation regulation and that sets out plans for implementation. Amongst other things, the Government has indicated that it will publish a roadmap in early 2024 with its vision for the Smart Data ecosystem, which will set out how the Government intends to explore the potential for Smart Data schemes within various sectors including finance and banking, building on recent Government commitments towards moving Open Banking to a long-term regulatory framework. | Webpage
• (22 Nov 2023) Future of Payments Review report, which considers how payments are likely to be made in the future and makes recommendations on the steps needed to deliver world leading retail payments and boost UK fintech competitiveness
• (22 Nov 2023) Consultation outcome on the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), providing a summary of the feedback received and the Government's final approach to implementing the DSS, which is intended facilitate the use of digital assets in financial markets. Legislation implementing the DSS will be laid before Parliament in due course.

EVENTS

• Global Financial Markets Perspectives Series: Space tech for smart cities (online, 5 December 2023): Smart cities are using technology to make cities faster, smarter, more efficient and sustainable. The market for smart city related services is growing fast, with the European Space Agency referencing a forecast growth of +57% between 2020-2025. Many of these smart city services and associated technology are heavily reliant, if not entirely dependent, on space tech. Our panel will explore the importance of space tech to smart cities, the latest developments, and the opportunities and risks for financial investors in the sector. | To register, please see the event series registration form