The UK’s fintech sector is due to get a major boost in reforms suggested as part of the Kalifa Review of UK Fintech. In our latest alert, we provide a high level overview of the Review’s recommendations, and highlight some of the key ways in which the Review may fundamentally reshape financial services regulation and policy in the UK.
On a high level, there remains a lot of uncertainty around the region – the means and spread of any economic recovery, and what structural changes it will bring in the longer term.
Baker McKenzie’s Latin America Financial Institutions (FI) Industry Group held the first session of Fintechfest, a series of webinars that aims to provide insights on key market trends, opportunities, and legal and regulatory challenges to guide financial institutions and technology companies on a range of issues in the rapidly evolving Fintech sector.
On 7 January 2021 HM Treasury (HMT) published consultation and call for evidence on the regulatory approach to cryptoassets and stablecoins. The consultation represents the first stage in HMT’s consultative process on the broader regulatory approach to cryptoassets and stablecoins. The consultation closes on 21 March 2021. Our crypto regulatory experts have published a briefing in which we explore the policy background underlying the consultation, set out the key points of HMT’s proposals, and provide a comparison to corresponding provisions in the European Commission’s recent proposal on a regulatory framework for cryptoassets.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced a ban on the sale of crypto-derivatives and exchange traded notes (ETNs) that reference certain types of crypto-assets (crypto-ETNs) to retail consumers. Firms who carry out marketing, distribution or selling activities in or from the UK of the relevant products to retail clients, will need to comply with these rules by 6 January 2021.
On 3 September 2020, Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, delivered a speech to the Brookings Institution regarding innovation in payments, setting out his view that innovations need to be underpinned by an appropriate regulatory framework to be suitable for use on a wider scale. In his view, stablecoins have the potential to be suitable for widespread use, but must meet the standards of other regulated payments to maintain consumer protection and promote consumer confidence.