FinTech Industry & Regulation – Page 10 – FinTech and Blockchain Law Watch

Expanding Your Fintech/Payments Business to the U.S.

Mar 31 2020

By 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.

To List or Not to List? NYDFS Seeks Comment on Proposed Rules Authorizing Bitlicensees to Self-Certify Cryptocurrency Listings

Dec 16 2019

Daniel 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:

pre-approved by NYDFS; or
certified by the licensee as being compliant with the licensee’s NYDFS-approved listing criteria.

The Proposal is intended to “enhance efficiency” and enable licensees to “offer and use new coins in a timely fashion”.

Japan’s New Crypto Regulation – 2019 Amendments to Payment Services Act and Financial Instruments and Exchange Act of Japan

Dec 02 2019

By 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.

International FinTech Watch: China Announced Positive Stance on Blockchain Technology

Nov 26 2019

By 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.

Open super in Australia: The Consumer Data Right could be extended to the superannuation industry

Nov 08 2019

By Jim Bulling and Rebecca Gill

On 23 October 2019, the Senate Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology (Committee) published an issues paper regarding its comprehensive inquiry into fintechs and regtechs in Australia. One aspect of the inquiry looks into the possibility of extending the Consumer Data Right (CDR) to the superannuation industry.

Rhode Island & Nevada Enter the Cryptocurrency Fray

Aug 28 2019

Jeremy McLaughlin and Dan S. Cohen

Effective January 1, 2020, Rhode Island will join the growing list of states that require entities to obtain a money transmitter license to provide certain services involving cryptocurrency (a.k.a. virtual currency). The Rhode Island General Assembly recently amended the state’s money transmitter law to require licensing for “currency transmission,” which is defined to include “maintaining control of virtual currency or transactions in virtual currency on behalf of others.” Similar to other states, the revised statute defines “control” as “the power to execute unilaterally or prevent indefinitely a virtual currency transaction.”

To regulate or not to regulate? That was the question: UK FCA provides its Final Guidance on regulation of crypto-assets

Aug 22 2019

By Jim Bulling and Rebecca Gill

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released its Feedback and Final Guidance (Guidance) on crypto-assets, specifying when certain types of crypto-assets fall under existing categories. The Guidance is in response to the FCA’s consultation paper from January 2019 on crypto-assets. As we have previously blogged, the consultation paper looked at whether crypto-assets could be considered ‘specified investments’ under the Regulated Activities Order (RAO) and other instruments, and therefore should be regulated.

When Does “Actual Delivery” of a Purchased Cryptocurrency Occur? U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Sheds Some Light

Aug 07 2019

By Judith Rinearson

Back in 2018, four different courts in the U.S. held that cryptocurrencies were commodities. This did not cause a huge ripple in the cryptocurrency community because the Commodity Exchange Act does not apply to retail commodity sales if the “actual delivery” of the commodity occurs within 28 days after the execution of the transaction, and generally cryptocurrencies are delivered in merely a few days or less.

A Future without Crypto Futures?

Jul 19 2019

By Jim Bulling, Felix Charlesworth and Charles McDonald

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has touted further regulation of cryptocurrency markets. In their Consultation Paper (Paper) published on 3 July 2019, the FCA has announced it will begin the consultation process on its proposed move to ban the sale, marketing, and distribution to retail consumers of derivatives and exchange traded notes (ETNs) that reference certain types of cryptoassets.

The RBA Gets Punitive: Penalties Recommended for Delaying New Payments Platform Participants

Jun 28 2019

By Jim Bulling and Charles McDonald

On 13 June 2019, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released its paper into the New Payments Platform’s Functionality and Access (Paper). In it, the RBA expressed disappointment with the slow roll out of New Payments Platform’s (NPP) services and functionality. As a consequence, the RBA will continue to push the major banks to prioritise the roll-out of services to their customers to address functionality gaps as quickly as possible. The Paper also recommends that NPP Australia Ltd (as operator of the platform) should:

Category:FinTech Industry & Regulation