Courtesy of Marcelo M. Prates Not long ago, money was simple, central banks were all but invisible, and banks seemed like an inevitable nuisance. Money consisted of the coins and notes carried in wallets, or the checkbook in the desk drawer. Central banks were poorly understood institutions, entrusted with the mystical power to print money.… Read More »
Courtesy of Paul P. Momtaz Token Offerings or Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are a rapidly growing market, with more than 4,500 transactions in 2018 alone. However, there is also substantial fraudulent activity spurred by the absence of regulation. My new paper, Entrepreneurial Finance and Moral Hazard: Evidence from Token Offerings, explores a very subtle, hard-to-track… Read More »
Courtesy of Marissa Cantu and Lee Reiners Amidst last December’s stock market volatility, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin argued “high-frequency traders combined with the Volcker Rule” were to blame. Secretary Mnuchin then announced he intended to ask the Financial Stability Oversight Council to review how market structure, in conjunction with high-frequency trading, contributes to stock market… Read More »
Courtesy of Miguel de la Mano and Jorge Padilla The entry of Big Tech players, such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, into online banking will fundamentally alter retail banking’s competitive landscape. Big Tech platforms have large, installed customer bases, established reputations, powerful brands, considerable earnings and unfettered access to capital markets. They can leverage superior… Read More »
Courtesy of Barbara C. Matthews Regulators may be setting their sights on how to regulate Big Tech – as discussed in last month’s FinReg Blog post – but, as central banks and finance ministers prepare to convene in Washington in April for the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, the issue poised to generate the most interest… Read More »
In September 2017, the Mexican financial authorities, led by the Ministry of Finance, began drafting the Law to Regulate Financial Technology Institutions (Fintech Law). After several months of discussion, the Mexican congress enacted the Fintech Law in March 2018 by unanimous vote. Along with the Fintech Law, new secondary legislation was enforced, including the General… Read More »
Courtesy of Barbara C. Matthews This February could rightly be called “FinTech Month” in Basel, Switzerland, given the number of documents put out by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) that point to a shift in priorities for the international standard setting body. While little noticed by the financial press, this post will analyze the FSB… Read More »
Courtesy of Fernando Zunzunegui Technology has made financial services more accessible, faster, and cheaper. Payment services, in particular, are a testing ground for fintech innovation. Cryptocurrencies, payment initiation, and information management services associated with bank accounts have recently emerged as significant disruptions in the payments industry. As data has become essential to economic success, the… Read More »
Courtesy of Barbara C. Matthews It seems somehow ironic and fitting that the economic sector most hostile to centralized governments – cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings (ICOs) – faces renewed regulatory activity despite the UK Brexit and US shutdown chaos. On January 23, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom issued a new… Read More »
Courtesy of Oscar Borgogno* and Giuseppe Colangelo** In our paper ‘Data, Innovation and Transatlantic Competition in Finance: The Case of the Access to Account Rule’, we focus on the EU regulatory effort, enshrined in the Directive 2366/2015 on payment services in the internal market (PSD2), to enact a sector-specific portability regime (the access to account… Read More »
