Author Archives: Ross Buckley

Remaining Regulatory Challenges in Digital Finance and Crypto-Assets After MiCA

By | August 21, 2023

On April 20, 2023, the European Parliament adopted the new Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCA) and the revision of the Transfer Funds Regulation (TFR) to increase the transparency, disclosure, and supervision of crypto transactions. In particular, MiCA implements a bespoke regime for crypto-assets that do not qualify as “transferable securities” or “e-money” under existing definitions… Read More »

Enhancing Efficiency in Cross-Border Payments: Harmonization of Regional Payments Area Through a Single Rule Book 

By | July 1, 2022

Digitalization has significantly transformed the landscape of payment systems. With the advent of fintech and blockchain technology, domestic payment systems have become more inclusive, safe, and efficient. Despite the transformation at the national level, cross-border payments remain expensive, slow, and opaque and involve multi-dimensional challenges and complexities. With every cross-border payment, transactions must comply with… Read More »

Australia Leads the Way in Data-Sharing

By | March 29, 2022

The consumer data right (CDR) is being rolled out progressively across most of Australia’s economy. CDR puts people in charge of the data that businesses hold on them and does so in a way that is simple for consumers. Within five years, it should transform commerce, promote competition in many sectors, and simplify daily life.  … Read More »

Governing BigFintechs for Sustainable Development

By | February 7, 2022

The emergence of both BigTech digital platforms and BigFinTechs (BFTs) over the past 20 years reflects fundamental changes in economies and societies around the world. Driving this change is the impact of digitization and datafication, two processes that sit at the heart of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Digitization and datafication offer tremendous potential for network… Read More »

Australia’s Data Sharing Regime: Six Lessons for the World

By | November 29, 2021

Open banking is fast becoming a global phenomenon, promising to transform financial services by enabling the safe, swift sharing of personal data. The idea of open banking originated in Europe, and is gaining traction in the US, but Australia is well ahead of these countries and is now rolling out data sharing across other sectors… Read More »

Digital Finance Platforms: Toward a New Regulatory Paradigm

By | September 16, 2021

The computers upon which we work all have operating systems that we generally ignore. We mainly deal with the apps that run on these systems. Email, ubiquitous as it is, is merely an app. Nothing works without the system in the background, and because it works so well, we tend to neglect it. The same… Read More »

Digitalization of Finance, Covid19 and TechRisk

By | November 24, 2020

Over the past 50 years, technology has transformed finance. During the 2010s, FinTechs, typically small, agile start-ups, were the focus of much of the attention. In our view, the focus of attention across the 2020s will be something entirely different: digital finance platforms. Quietly, behind the scenes, digital financial platforms are increasingly serving as indispensable… Read More »

Fintech Toolkit: Smart Regulatory and Market Approaches to Fintech Innovation

By | July 6, 2020

Fintech is re-shaping the financial sector at an unprecedented pace and driving structural changes by digital transformation. Fintech can stimulate competition and product variety and generate positive outcomes for societies and economies. Capturing these upsides, however, requires adequate regulatory responses to Fintech innovation. An enabling FinTech ecosystem needs to support innovation balanced with financial inclusion,… Read More »

Building Fintech Ecosystems: Why Regulatory Sandboxes Tend to Get the Plaudits and Innovation Hubs Do the Work of Promoting Development, Innovation and Competition in Financial Services

By | October 8, 2019

Courtesy of Ross Buckley, Douglas Arner, Robin Veidt, and Dirk Zetzsche Regulatory sandboxes are the flavor of the month. Over 50 countries have now established or announced a “financial regulatory sandbox” since the UK Financial Conduct Authority established the first one in 2016. Sandboxes are safe spaces in which FinTech start-ups and other innovative enterprises… Read More »