EU – FinTech and Blockchain Law Watch

EU/Luxembourg Update: New Blockchain/ DLT Pilot Regime for Financial Instruments Becomes Effective on March 23

Mar 07 2023

By Dr. Jan Boeing and Maxime Barthez[1],

Luxembourg and the EU have taken an important step forward in the area of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (“DLT”). With a view to removing regulatory hurdles to the issuance, trading and post-trading of many financial instruments for which an EU regulatory framework already exists (such as the regulation of transferable securities, units in collective investment undertakings and derivatives under MiFIR, MiFID II and CSDR[2]), the EU has put in place the DLT Pilot Regime through Regulation (EU) 2022/858 of 30 May 2022. The new DLT Pilot Regime applies (with certain limitations) to all (traditional) financial instruments within the meaning of MiFID II[3] that are issued, recorded, transferred and stored using blockchain or distributed ledger technology (“DLT Financial Instruments”).

MiCA is Here: European Ground-breaking Rules for the Cryptocurrencies Market

Jul 11 2022

By Giovanni Campi, Mathieu Volckrick, Paula Estaban Gomez

On 30 June, European institutions reached a provisional political agreement on the proposal for a regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets, also known as MiCA.[1]

Do Consumers Really Need More Financial Protections? The UK Government Says Yes!

Jan 20 2022

By Judith Rinearson and Kai Zhang

In May 2021, the UK‘s Financial conduct authority (FCA) published a consultation paper proposing there would be a “new consumer duty“.[1] The central proposition is that a firm must deliver “good outcomes” for consumers which is then supplemented by additional requirements.

New EU digital finance rules by the end of 2020

Jul 09 2020

By Giovanni Campi

In a recent address on digital finance in the context of the European Commission’s Digital Finance Outreach, European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, shared some of the Commission’s thinking on technological innovation and digital finance.

Launch of European joint platform for EU sandboxes and innovation hubs

Apr 07 2019

By Giovanni Campi, Martina Topercerova and Jonathan Lawrence

On 2 April 2019, the European Commission announced the launch of the European Forum for Innovation Facilitators (“EFIF”). The EFIF will serve as a joint platform designed to foster collaboration and experience sharing among European financial supervisors on their engagement with FinTech firms through sandboxes and innovation hubs. On an ad-hoc basis, the European Supervisory Authorities (“ESAs”) and EU Member States’ National Competent Authorities (“NCAs”) will also be joined by third-countries’ authorities to exchange best practices, identify regulatory obstacles and share knowledge.

EU supervisors call for EU-wide policy response to crypto-assets

Jan 17 2019

By Giovanni Campi and Martina Topercerova

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) published two complementary assessments of the regulatory coverage of crypto-assets under existing EU legislation and also set out their advice to the European Commission on potential policy initiatives in the future.

EU supervisor warns about risks of ICOs and calls for regulatory compliance

Nov 22 2017

By Giovanni Campi and Ignasi Guardans

Following the rapidly increasing use of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued two statements to warn investors on ICOs’ risks and to encourage companies involved in ICOs to comply with the relevant European legislation.

ESMA defines an ICO as “an innovative way of raising money from the public, using coins or tokens”. In an ICO, businesses issue tokens and sell them in exchange for traditional, or more often, virtual currencies like Bitcoin or Ether. The tokens are created and disseminated using distributed ledger or blockchain technology (DLT).

Contributions to European Commission Public Consultation on FinTech

Sep 25 2017

By Giovanni Campi and Ignasi Guardans

The European Commission (EC) has published the summary of contributions to its ‘Public Consultation on FinTech: a more competitive and innovative European financial sector’. The consultation, conducted in spring 2017, sought stakeholders’ input to further develop the EC’s approach towards technological innovation in financial services. More than 200 respondents provided their views on FinTech’s legal, regulatory and policy aspects.

Respondents favoured a European Union (EU) policy approach to FinTech guided by the principles of technological neutrality, proportionality and integrity, as well as “same service, same risk, same rule” to ensure a level playing field among market players. The need to maintain an open dialogue between regulators, supervisors and the industry was emphasised. Most respondents expressed broad support for an EU framework for crowdfunding and peer-to-peer financing and convergence across the EU on how supervisors handle licencing, outsourcing, and support for innovation (e.g. innovation hubs).

PSD2 major incident reporting guidelines

Aug 09 2017

By Judith Rinearson and Rizwan Qayyum

On July 27 2017, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published the Final Guidelines (the Guidelines) on major incident reporting under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The Guidelines were developed in conjunction with the European Central Bank (ECB), and are addressed to all payment services providers and competent authorities within the 28 European Union Member States. With the expected implementation of PSD2 in January 2018, the Guidelines further contribute to the objective of the PSD2 aiming to minimize disruption to its users, payment service providers and the systems.

European Securities and Markets Authority identifies RegTech risks

May 30 2017

By Jonathan Lawrence

A senior official at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has given a speech on “The Adoption of RegTech within the Financial Services”. Patrick Armstrong is the Senior Risk Analysis Officer, Innovation and Products Team at ESMA and gave the speech on 16 May at a RegTech conference in London.

Mr Armstrong identified three risks of RegTech:

Disintermediation – when collaborating with RegTech firms, financial institutions cannot delegate responsibility for their compliance and risk management activities. Instead, the ultimate responsibility remains with the regulated financial institution. While greater specialisation brings efficiency gains, it means there is a risk that full oversight does extend all the way down the value chain. Additionally, while established financial firms have experienced compliance staff, this may not be true of all new entrants in the sector, who may be unaware of exactly how far their responsibility extends.
Digital Security – a major concern across sectors, and of course security needs are especially acute in the financial sector. One can argue that the migration to a digital centralized data infrastructure increases a firm’s vulnerability to attack, theft and fraud. We must develop mind sets in which client data is viewed with the same level of security as that given to money placed in secure vaults. To achieve this, we may need to promote increased real-time collaboration between financial sector institutions on cyber security matters.
Migration Risk – the differential adoption of new technology. Failure on the part of market participants to adapt to the newer digitalized infrastructure presents business risk that may separate winners from losers in the coming years. As well, failure to adapt to a more automated regulatory compliance process may leave participants with platforms ill-suited for the current regulatory framework. For their part, regulators must migrate to a digital based supervisory process, only then can they cope with the volume of data they will soon receive.

Just as FinTech is introducing changes to the way in which market participants offer their services, so too Mr Armstrong saw that RegTech may alter the way in which financial institutions and regulators comply and supervise. Implemented correctly and monitored effectively, Mr Armstrong recognised that RegTech has the potential to improve a financial institution’s ability to meet regulatory demands in a cost efficient manner. Similarly, as a regulator, ESMA is constantly looking for tools to improve the way in which it can better supervise market behaviour. Provided both parties manage this process of change suitably, he thought they can work towards putting in place an effective, fair and transparent financial services sector that stimulates growth and benefits society as a whole.

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