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

• (2 Feb 2026) Clifford Chance briefing – EU cyber reforms proposed, including overhauled Cybersecurity Act
• (30 Jan 2026) Clifford Chance briefing – Australia's National AI Plan 2025: key takeaways
• (29 Jan 2026) Clifford Chance Buy-side European Regulatory Horizon Scanner Q1 2026 covering developments relevant to investment managers, including the latest on the EU’s Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCA) and Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and UK operational resilience and cryptoasset regulatory developments.
• (29 Jan 2026) Clifford Chance Sell-side European Regulatory Horizon Scanner Q1 2026 covering developments relevant to banks and investment firms, including the latest on MiCA, DORA, EU payments regulation and the AI Act along with UK operational resilience, cryptoasset, payments and AI regulatory developments.

GLOBAL LEGAL AND REGULATORY UPDATES, INDUSTRY GUIDANCE AND PUBLICATIONS

INTERNATIONAL

• (3 Feb 2026) Financial Stability Board (FSB) 2026 work programme, which sets out key priorities including: (i) digital innovation and artificial intelligence (AI); (ii) operational resilience through public-private-sector collaboration; (iii) cross-border payments; and (iv) modernisation of financial regulation and supervision.

AMERICAS

Canada:

• (3 Feb 2026) Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) Notice setting out its expectations for the custody of digital assets by dealer members operating cryptoasset trading platforms (CTPs) in Canada. 

Cayman Islands:

• (Feb 2026) Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) Rule and Statement of Guidance on Market Conduct for Virtual Asset Service Providers, which establishes minimum requirements and guidance for VASPs in relation to market conduct.

US:

• (29 Jan 2026) The US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry has advanced the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, which would provide new authority to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to regulate digital commodities. | Press release
• (29 Jan 2026) The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CFTC have announced that they are re-launching Project Crypto as a joint policy initiative to upgrade their rules and regulations to accommodate blockchain technology and the future federal framework for digital asset markets currently advancing through the US Congress. | Statement | Speech by CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig
• (28 Jan 2026) SEC statement on the taxonomies associated with tokenized securities.

APAC

Hong Kong:

• (30 Jan 2026) Speech (in Chinese) by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui, in which he announced plans to introduce legislative proposals to the Legislative Council this year (i) on the regulatory regime for advising on virtual assets and virtual asset management service providers and (ii) to implement the relevant amendments to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) and the Common Reporting Standard.

EUROPE

EU:

• (3 Feb 2026) Speech by European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) Chair Verena Ross, in which she discussed: (i) what the Markets Integration Package means for digital finance and supervision; (ii) tokenisation and the DLT Pilot; and (iii) MiCA and the future of supervision.
• (2 Feb 2026) European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) report on the use of Generative AI (Gen AI) across Europe’s insurance sector. | Press release
• (28 Jan 2026) ESMA's guidelines for the criteria on the assessment of knowledge and competence under MiCA have been translated into the official EU languages and will apply from 28 July 2026.

UK:

• (2 Feb 2026) Speech by Bank of England (BoE) Executive Director Rebecca Jackson on the growing importance of specialist electronic market makers and liquidity providers known as Principal Trading Firms.
• (30 Jan 2026) Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) blog post on how AI Live Testing can support safe and responsible AI deployment.
• (30 Jan 2026) Speech by FCA Executive Director Sheldon Mills on the FCA’s long term review into AI and retail financial services.
• (29 Jan 2026) The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has launched an inquiry into and call for evidence on the growth and proposed regulation of stablecoins in the UK. Deadline for responses: 11 March 2026. | Press release
• (29 Jan 2026) Speech by BoE Executive Director Sasha Mills on shaping the UK’s digital financial future.
• (28 Jan 2026) Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) blog post on its work with UK law enforcement and regulatory partners to tackle the abuse of cryptoassets and associated money laundering activities.