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On March 24, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued final interpretive guidance regarding retail commodity transactions that involve digital assets. The interpretive guidance is designed to clarify the CFTC’s views on the “actual delivery” exception to Section 2(c)(2)(D) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) for digital assets that serve as a medium of exchange (otherwise known as “virtual currencies”).…
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On March 18, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a Customer Advisory warning the public to watch for fraudulent schemes attempting to profit from recent market volatility stemming from the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. The CFTC identified common fraud tactics often used during major news events (such as the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic), including the following:…
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On March 12, the Bank of England (BoE) published a discussion paper on central bank digital currency (CBDC), focussing on its opportunities, challenges and design (the Paper). In conjunction with publishing this Paper, the BoE updated its CBDC webpage.…
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On February 26, Commissioner Hester Peirce of the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a dissent to the SEC’s decision to reject a proposed rule change from NYSE Arca that would have allowed it to list shares of an exchange-traded fund backed by bitcoin and US Treasury bills. In her dissent, Commissioner Peirce argued that the…

On February 12, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published its final report on “Issues, Risks and Regulatory Considerations Relating to Crypto-Asset Trading Platforms (CTPs)” (the Final Report). The Final Report follows a consultation paper IOSCO published in May 2019 (for more information, please see the June 14, 2019 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest).
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On February 4, the UK’s Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) announced proposed amendments to its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) guidance (the Guidance). The JMLSG is a UK-focused group of trade bodies which produces AML and CTF guidance to assist the financial services industry.…
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On January 10, the changes introduced by the European Union’s fifth Money Laundering Directive (MLD5) became operational. MLD5 came into force on July 9, 2018, but member states had until January 10 to transpose these changes into national law. MLD5 amends and builds on the fourth Money Laundering Directive (MLD4).  More information is available in the February 12, 2016 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest.
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On November 11, the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT) published a statement with two key findings on the legal status of cryptoassets and smart contracts under English law (the Statement). The UKJT is a taskforce of the LawTech Delivery Panel of the Law Society, which is the representative body for solicitors in England and Wales. The Statement was made following a public consultation, which closed in June 2019.…
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