Since the 2016 Paris Agreement, the 2018 EU Sustainable Finance Action Plan and the 2019 EU Green Deal, the EU has worked to transform the real economy by redirecting financial flows towards sustainable development. We argue in our recently published article that generating, aggregating, and disclosing sustainability data are core to the EU Sustainable Finance… Read More »
Technological advancements affecting the financial system through various channels have led to changes in the functioning of activities conducted through centralized systems. The use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), which enables the operation and use of distributed ledgers -information repositories where records of transactions are kept by all parties in a distributed manner rather than… Read More »
After Republicans regained control of Congress and the White House in the last election, the crypto industry—having contributed substantial sums to campaign efforts—moved aggressively to advance its legislative agenda. Its first win came with the GENIUS Act, which established a federal framework for issuing stablecoins. But the real prize is market structure legislation, which would… Read More »
When the United States housing bubble burst in 2007, it triggered a chain reaction that soon morphed into a global financial crisis (Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission [FCIC], 2011). Problems initially concentrated in U.S. subprime mortgages quickly spread to multiple regions through cross-border investments, complex derivatives, and strained interbank lending. As credit markets seized, banks around… Read More »
The passage of the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, 2025) represents a watershed moment in American cryptocurrency regulation, establishing the first comprehensive federal framework for payment stablecoins while conspicuously omitting Bitcoin from its regulatory purview. This selective regulatory approach has profound implications for the digital asset ecosystem, fundamentally altering… Read More »
Last November, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) issued an illuminating report on the financial stability implications of AI. It identified four primary ways that AI may put financial stability at risk, which are outlined in the next four sections. Specifically, AI can give rise to third-party dependencies, increased market correlations, amplified cyber risks, and weak… Read More »
This week, the House of Representatives is set to vote on the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act), which passed in the Senate last month. If signed into law, GENIUS will create the first comprehensive federal framework for payment stablecoins. Advocates in Congress and the crypto industry offer a range… Read More »
Following an initial focus on the development of a regulatory framework for stablecoins—culminating in Senate approval of the GENIUS Act, which is expected to be considered on the House floor next week—Congress is shifting its attention to the more complex issue of crypto market structure. On June 10, 2025, both the House Committee on Agriculture… Read More »
In the last few years, investors have poured billions of dollars into a diverse array of digital innovations. One area is “the metaverse” – virtual worlds that users can interact with through “avatars”. Another area is cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi), which aim to build new forms of money and financial services based on distributed… Read More »
Recently, as I reviewed my pension plan, I wanted to allocate funds to sustainable products, such as mutual funds with ESG characteristics (Environmental, Social, and Governance). However, navigating the world of sustainable finance is a complex and challenging task as sustainability declarations are lengthy and filled with jargon. In such a complex environment, investors’ knowledge… Read More »
