The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) describes itself as the leading international policy forum for securities regulators, as being recognized as the global standard setter for securities regulation and as having a membership that regulates more than 95% of the world’s securities markets in more than 115 jurisdictions. It issued a media release today in which it warned that ICOs are highly speculative investments in which investors are putting their entire invested capital at…
Australia has introduced new laws to regulate digital currency exchange service providers in the same way as providers of traditional currency exchange services. Businesses providing digital currency exchange services (for example, services converting money into bitcoin and vice versa) will need to be registered with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and comply with anti-money laundering requirements, following the passage of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2017 last month. This follows…
As previously previewed, Yohap News Agency has reported that cryptocurrency investors in South Korea will be fined for refusing to convert their virtual accounts into real-name ones. The move comes as South Korea is scrambling to rein in the virtual currency, including preparations for a bill to ban cryptocurrency exchanges at home. According to the authorities, cryptocurrency traders will be allowed to convert their virtual accounts into real-name ones within this month, but those who…
Stockholm is a major hub for Fintech, attracting about one fifth of all European FinTech investments and can pride itself in being the home of successful FinTech companies such as Klarna and iZettle. In order to maintain its position as a European FinTech center, the Swedish Government has given the Financial Supervisory Authority an assignment to facilitate FinTech innovation. This has resulted in a FinTech Regulatory Sandbox where FinTech companies can bounce off their ideas and seek guidance directly with the regulators.
The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Sw: Finansinspektionen) (the “FSA”) received an assignment from the Swedish National Innovation Council (the “Council”) in May 2017 to investigate how the FSA could handle questions and needs of financial businesses offering new and innovative services. The Council is tasked with advancing Sweden as a country of innovation and strengthening Sweden’s competitiveness. The Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven chairs the Council, which consists of five ministers and ten advisory members from the business and research sectors.
Much of the attention around Bitcoin in 2017 understandably focused on its meteoric price rise and overall volatility. But all that attention overlooks the fact that Bitcoin was initially intended to be used as a currency for buying things. Thus, the oft-reported story of the developer (Laszlo Hanyecz) who bought two pizzas in May 2010 for 10,000 Bitcoin ($140 million value today) in what is reported as the first bitcoin transaction in which someone bought…
Today, the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) directed CopyCash Foundation to immediately cease and desist all its proposed activities, including a purported plan to launch an ICO on January 10, 2018 in Malaysia. This directive covers all activities as described in or incidental to CopyCash Foundation’s white paper related to the ICO, including any roadshows, seminars or promotional events related to the scheme. The directive was issued because the SC “found that there is a reasonable…
UBIA is a Hong Kong company that focuses on the research and application of blockchain technology, with a focus on the IOT. The U.S. SEC reported that it had temporarily suspended trading in UBIA’s tock through January 22, 2018. The reason for the suspension is because “of (i) questions regarding the accuracy of assertions, since at least September 2017, by UBIA in filings with the Commission regarding the company’s business operations; and (ii) concerns about…
In April 2017, England’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a Discussion Paper (“DP”) on DLT which sought views on the regulatory implications of DLT developments in financial markets and considered the potential risks and benefits of DLT applications. The FCA received 47 responses to the DP from a range of market participants and on 15 December 2017 the FCA published its Feedback Statement. No need to change rules In its Feedback Statement, the FCA points…
The Texas State Securities Board said yesterday that it entered an Emergency Cease and Desist Order to halt the multiple investment programs operated by BitConnect, an overseas company that claims a market share of $4.1 billion for its cryptocurrency coins. BitConnect’s investor solicitations promise returns of over 100 percent, the TSSB said, for BitConnect’s own proprietary cryptocurrency, called BitConnect Coins, or BCC. The enforcement action follows BitConnect’s recent announcement that it would hold an ICO…
Any distributed ledger used by an enterprise or industry needs to conform to data requirements in the countries in which it operates. Existing blockchains based on Bitcoin and Ethereum codebases can indiscriminately broadcast private data to all participants of a network, and therefore may not always be suitable for use in financial services. Distributed ledgers have been developed that share certain data only with participants who need to see it, most notably R3’s Corda. These…