The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued the Rules on Insurance Asset Management Company (New Rules) after extensive consultation on 05 April 2022. These will come into force on 01 September 2022.
On 21 June 2021, the first batch of four real estate investment trust funds in the field of infrastructure (REITs) were successfully listed at Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE). Over the past year, these products have operated smoothly, the supporting system has been continuously improved, investors have actively participated, and the market function has been gradually brought into play— realizing the phased targets of “a stable and good start”. In June 2022, the relevant person in charge of SZSE said that SZSE will promote the high-quality development of the infrastructure REITs market from five aspects, one of which is “continue to support QFII and RQFII to invest in domestic REITs products”.
The digital assets industry in Thailand has been growing significantly between 2021 and 2022, as more big players in the traditional financial industry and startup players enter the digital assets market. Despite the price volatility and regulatory complexities, the country has seen a rise in crypto-related activities.
Digital bonds can reduce the need for intermediaries and therefore lead to lower fixed costs provide better market transparency by increasing capacity to see trade flows and the identity of asset sellers and buyers and provide a much faster settlement speed. While there are still development milestones necessary to make these benefits apparent, the private sector has begun discussions on how to enter this space.
On 13 April 2022, three organizations – the National Internet Finance Association of China, the China Banking Association and the Securities Association of China – jointly issued the Initiative to Prevent relevant Financial Risks of Non-fungible Tokens (“Initiative”). This is the first Non-Fungible Token (NFT) themed official document involving NFT compliance since the rapid development of NFT in China. Although the Initiative is only a self-regulatory statement and not mandatory regulatory rules, considering the special status of the three associations as official industry self-regulatory organizations, to a great extent it still represents the regulatory attitude and trend of supervision.
On June 7, 2022, Senators Cynthia M. Lummis (R-WY) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced a bill to regulate digital assets and promote financial innovation. The proposed legislation is the first significant, bipartisan effort to apply comprehensive regulation to digital assets.