On March 23, the United Kingdom’s House of Commons Treasury Committee published the Bank of England’s (BoE) ‘written evidence’/responses to a UK Government inquiry into the post-Brexit future of financial services in the United Kingdom (the Response).
Continue Reading Post-Brexit Financial Services in United Kingdom — Bank of England Commentary Published

On August 20, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission opened registration and released the agenda for LabCFTC’s first Empower Innovation 2020 session, “The Power of Innovation: Where Tech & Crisis Collide.” Empower Innovation 2020 is a three-part virtual series hosted by LabCFTC to facilitate a dialogue on fintech innovation among innovators, regulators, market participants and the

On April 24, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced the formation of the Office of Financial Innovation, which will serve as a central point of coordination for issues related to significant financial innovations by FINRA member firms, particularly new uses of financial technology. The establishment of the Office of Financial Innovation is designed to enhance FINRA’s ability to identify, understand and foster financial innovation in the markets to strengthen investor protection and market integrity.
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On November 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s LabCFTC released “A CFTC Primer on Smart Contracts” to provide information on a variety of financial technology (FinTech) topics. LabCFTC is a hub designed for the CFTC to engage with the FinTech community.

The primer defines a “smart contract” as “a set of coded computer functions” that

On October 29, the UK “Cryptoasset Taskforce,” consisting of HM Treasury, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England, published its final report setting out the United Kingdom’s policy and regulatory approach to cryptoassets and distributed ledger technology (DLT) in financial services. The Cryptoassets Taskforce was established in March 2018 as part of the United Kingdom’s strategy on the financial technology (FinTech) sector (for further details see the March 23edition of the Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest).
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On October 19, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a webpage announcing the launch of its “Green FinTech Challenge”, an initiative to support firms developing innovative products and services in the green, financial technology (FinTech) sector.

The Challenge is open to start-ups, incumbents and technology providers. Firms developing broader ethical, environmental, social or governance products and services also may apply, so long as there is a link with or associated benefit to the green finance agenda (for further details on the FCA’s discussion paper on green finance, see the October 19 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest). The Challenge encourages firms to apply to participate if they require specific regulatory support. Applications are assessed according to the following criteria:
Continue Reading FCA Announces Launch of Green FinTech Challenge