Financial institutions offering crypto-related services are expected to assess, address, and mitigate the risks associated with these cryptoassets, which includes fulfilling their anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations.
Our new episode of FInsight: Global Financial Institutions Industry Podcast is the first of two episodes focusing on cryptoassets and regulatory developments, taking off from our publication Crypto around the World. In this episode, Sue McLean, a Partner in our London office and global tech lead for fintech talks to the team that started this project: Iris Barsan, counsel from our Paris office, Julian Hui, associate from our London office, and Chris Murrer, a US attorney in our Zurich office.
Key highlights of the episode include:
- From a market perspective, there are a number of different participants – they will not necessarily be involved in every single type of cryptoassets as there are different types in the market, and there are also different ways by which entities engage with these cryptoassets.
- When looking at financial regulation, there is a need to qualify the features of cryptoassets in order to determine what rules and regulations apply. There is a consensus among regulators, focused on substance over form.
- There is a growing need for investor protection. Regulators are implementing more rules to protect investors from threats and scams. Given the complexity of the crypto market, regulators are looking into establishing protections that focus on ensuring transparency and market integrity.
- There are different regulatory approaches to cryptoassets – (1) reliance on existing regulations, (2) taking the AML-registration approach, (3) introduction of crypto-specific regulation and; (4) regulating cryptoassets as a specific asset class.
You can also read about the twenty questions we addressed in the publication Crypto around the World. In this edition of the guide, we cover multiple jurisdictions across three major regions – Asia Pacific (Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand), EMEA (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK and Ukraine), and North America (USA). You can read the most recent version and visit our page to see more updated content and relevant information.
The second episode will will focus on how regulators approach market abuse, the compatibility of ESG when talking about cryptoassets, decentralized finance, and the future of cryptoassets
