Regulation & Compliance - Long Reads, News, Articles & Research: Finextra

The Westminster Series: The arrival of the Financial Services and Markets Bill

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: The arrival of the Financial Services and Markets Bill

Since its inclusion in the Queen’s Speech on May 11, 2022, many of us have been awaiting the arrival of the Financial Services and Markets Bill. It finally emerged on the hottest day ever recorded in the UK. Forming a significant slice of the Chancellor’s speech at Mansion House on July 19, it was given First Reading down the road in the House of ...

26 July 2022 /regulation

The India Policy Series: What does RBI’s credit line move mean for BNPL innovation?

Retired Member

The India Policy Series: What does RBI’s credit line move mean for BNPL innovation?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently issued an internal clarification that prepaid payment instruments (PPIs), such as m-wallets and prepaid cards, cannot be loaded through credit lines. The clarification hits certain fintech models in India including many buy now pay later (BNPL) offerings and new age ‘challenger credit cards’. A common model...

20 July 2022 /regulation

Stephen Elam Partner at Cooke Young & Keidan

When Smart Contracts Go Wrong

This article was co-authored by Stephen Elam, partner, and Elizabeth Meade, senior associate, Cooke Young and Keidan LLP. What is a smart contract? Smart contracts are computer code that automatically run when certain conditions are met, thereby executing all or parts of an agreement. Their use is widespread use in transactions on cryptocurrency ex...

23 June 2022 /regulation

The Westminster Series: What to expect from the UK's BNPL regulation

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: What to expect from the UK's BNPL regulation

This week the government has published plans to strengthen regulation of the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) market. Key proposals have been set out in an HMT Consultation response, lenders will be required to carry out affordability checks and financial promotion rules will be amended to ensure BNPL advertisements are “fair, clear, and not misleading”. ...

22 June 2022 /regulation

The Future of Payments 2022: Building operational resilience

Paige McNamee

The Future of Payments 2022: Building operational resilience

This is an excerpt from Finextra’s report, ‘The Future of Payments 2022: The Cutting Edge of Digital Payments.’ The Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are two highly relevant recent examples which underscore the need for greater operational resilience (OR) across financial services. Aimed at developing a far more resilient financial...

10 June 2022 /regulation

The Westminister Series: What does the Queen’s Speech have in store for Fintech?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminister Series: What does the Queen’s Speech have in store for Fintech?

The most obvious place to start is the Financial Services and Markets Bill, introduced to “strengthen the United Kingdom’s financial services industry, ensuring that it continues to act in the interest of all people and communities”. Financial services are vital to the UK economy, employing more than 2.3 million people across the UK, and contribut...

11 May 2022 /regulation

The Future of Regulation: Time for ESG consolidation and cooperation

Paige McNamee

The Future of Regulation: Time for ESG consolidation and cooperation

This is an extract from Finextra's 'The Future of Regulation 2022' report. At COP26 in Glasgow, the formation of a new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) was announced, with the intention of developing a comprehensive global baseline of high-quality sustainability disclosure standards to meet investors’ information needs. The anno...

09 May 2022 /regulation

The Future of Regulation: Building dynamic consumer protection schemes

Paige McNamee

The Future of Regulation: Building dynamic consumer protection schemes

Against the backdrop of fundamental, wide-reaching change into the digitisation of financial services, is the need to ensconce the consumer in regulatory protections so that they are not unduly exposed to risk that naturally accompanies the emergence and adoption of new technologies. We've seen the reinforcement of new and existing trends across f...

05 May 2022 /regulation

Stablecoin Regulation: different approaches in the EU, UK, USA

Peter Stewart Associate (Barrister) at Cooke Young & Keidan LLP

Stablecoin Regulation: different approaches in the EU, UK, USA

i. What are stablecoins? Stablecoins are a subset of crypto-asset, which vary considerably in design, but whose purpose is to maintain a stable value, by reference to other assets. There are two broad sub-sets of stablecoin, “Collateralised Stablecoins” and “Algorithmic Stablecoins”. Collateralised stablecoins are designed by pegging against reser...

28 April 2022 /regulation

The Future of Regulation: Navigating CBDC unknowns and crypto appeal

Paige McNamee

The Future of Regulation: Navigating CBDC unknowns and crypto appeal

This is an extract from Finextra's 'The Future of Regulation 2022' report. CBDCs: A love-hate saga While monetary authorities in many countries around the world are conducting studies on the feasibility and utility of adopting CBDCs, there are only a few nations to date that have actually rolled out their own CBDCs, states Arvin Abraham, partner an...

13 April 2022 /regulation

IFGS 2022: Klarna's Sebastian Siemiatkowski on post-Brexit regulation

Finextra Research Writer at Finextra

IFGS 2022: Klarna's Sebastian Siemiatkowski on post-Brexit regulation

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna, spoke at the Innovate Finance Global Summit – the flagship event of UK FinTech Week – where he discussed post-Brexit regulation, Klarna’s advertising methods and the future of innovation in Buy Now, Pay Later. Key points covered include: The opportunity Post-Brexit regulation presents: “What I...

05 April 2022 /regulation

Arvin Abraham Partner at Goodwin Procter

Law & Order in the Metaverse

The metaverse represents a paradigm shift in how people will experience the internet. However, it is still not well understood and significant topics relating to it have not been explored, including how legal concepts in the real world will operate when transitioned to a virtual world. This article aims to begin an exploration of those issues. It ...

04 April 2022 /regulation

Long reads