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

Lydia Danon Partner and solicitor advocate at Cooke, Young & Keidan LLP

NFTs: New asset on the block

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the new crypto asset on the block(chain) – are they all they are cracked up to be and should we be investing in them, or giving them a wide berth? The NFT market is younger than the COVID pandemic. Some say the market has boomed because of the virus. We have (a lot) more time on our hands to make frivolous memes an...

27 October 2021 /regulation

The fintech sentiment: BNPL regulation welcomed by fintech firms

Níamh Curran

The fintech sentiment: BNPL regulation welcomed by fintech firms

The UK government has announced its consultation for the regulation of buy now pay later (BNPL). This decision comes after the publication of the Woolard Review - a review of change and innovation in the unsecured credit market earlier this year, which highlighted some of the potential consumer risks of BNPL. The consultation notes that there has...

26 October 2021 /regulation

The globe is on the cusp of DLT regulation and industry input is essential

The Hon Albert Isola Minister for Digital and Financial Services at HM at Government of Gibraltar

The globe is on the cusp of DLT regulation and industry input is essential

Over the last two years, there has been an explosion of institutional and mainstream interest in DeFi and blockchain. The rise in Total Value Locked (TVL) across the crypto sphere, which hit $78B in August, and the ever multiplying projects involved in the space, have led regulators who have previously watched from the sidelines, to sit up and tak...

13 October 2021 /regulation

The Westminster Series: Crypto regulation in the UK

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

The Westminster Series: Crypto regulation in the UK

There is an unrivalled opportunity for the UK to lead in crypto in terms of rules, regulations, words and welcome. Crypto is not a silver bullet nor indeed the solution to all our ills, but it holds a real and sustainable opportunity for us all in the UK and we must consider carefully what we require from Government to make this possibility a purp...

12 October 2021 /regulation

Regulating the digital economy: the new European regulation for large digital platforms

Lucia Pacheco Digital Regulation Manager at BBVA

Regulating the digital economy: the new European regulation for large digital platforms

On December 15 2020, the European Commission published one of the key pieces of its digital strategy: the proposed text for the Digital Markets Act (DMA). As the digital economy evolves, a small number of companies has become the largest and most influential players. They have created large digital ecosystems that connect multiple platform business...

04 August 2021 /regulation

Why Pay.UK sees ISO 20022 as the ‘internet of payments’

Paige McNamee

Why Pay.UK sees ISO 20022 as the ‘internet of payments’

Following the publication of technical materials for organisations implementing ISO 20022, Finextra Research spoke with Pay.UK’s director of standards, James Whittle, to contextualise the need for this new financial messaging standard, and how it fits into the wider New Payments Architecture (NPA) picture. Pay.UK, the recognised operator and stand...

30 July 2021 /regulation

Why Biden’s Executive Order is a green light for US open banking

Paige McNamee

Why Biden’s Executive Order is a green light for US open banking

On July 9 2021, President Biden didn’t just throw a bone to US open banking, he underwrote the mortgage, laid the welcome mat, and set the table to officially welcome open banking to the neighbourhood. Yes, open banking is nothing new to the US. With numerous American unicorns storming out of the gates there is little doubt around the demand for o...

28 July 2021 /regulation

Money Lego: Banking-as-a-Service partnerships and the contractual challenges for banks

Paige McNamee

Money Lego: Banking-as-a-Service partnerships and the contractual challenges for banks

Given the relative youth of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), there remain fundamental questions around how banks should approach these arrangements in comparison to what may now be considered traditional fintech/banking partnerships. Speaking on a recent teleconference, legal representatives from Mayer Brown LLP worked through a handful of factors that...

20 July 2021 /regulation

Tech & Crime Series: Is it time for a bespoke UK crypto-regulation regime?

Thomas Cattee Solicitor at Gherson

Tech & Crime Series: Is it time for a bespoke UK crypto-regulation regime?

In the UK, cryptoasset related activities are rightly being increasingly regulated for anti-money laundering (“AML”) and financial crime reporting purposes. However, except where cryptoassets crossover into certain other regulated areas, there is currently no specific wider regulatory framework. As such it has been recognised that they may not be ...

15 July 2021 /regulation

How robust Ultimate Beneficial Ownership strategy positions regulated firms for success

Paige McNamee

How robust Ultimate Beneficial Ownership strategy positions regulated firms for success

It has never been more important for firms to maintain strong systems to appropriately assess customer risk, and yet, obtaining comprehensive ultimate beneficial ownership information presents a significant challenge for many regulated institutions. A lack of clear and consistent data and management of cross-jurisdictional inconsistencies unfortuna...

12 July 2021 /regulation

Emerging markets and the compliance challenge

Retired Member

Emerging markets and the compliance challenge

Following the global financial crisis in 2008, correspondent banks began reassessing their emerging market strategies. In recent years, both compliance costs and potential regulatory risks have grown sharply, making it more challenging to stay engaged. Many banks have already decided they would rather not take on the challenge – as the 22% global d...

06 July 2021 /regulation

Madhvi Sonia Head of Content at Finextra

The future of payments: Scheme juggling

Following the determination that SWIFT messaging standard MT was below the mark for today’s evolving payments industry, its requirement for frictionless services and secure movement of high-quality, expensive data, ISO 20022 was established. This is an excerpt from Finextra Research report 'The Future of Payments 2021', which is exclusively availab...

24 June 2021 /regulation

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