On August 1, Robinhood Crypto, LLC (RHC) entered a consent order with the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) requiring RHC to pay a $30 million fine for violating (1) New York’s virtual currency regulatory regime known as the BitLicense, (2) a Supervisory Agreement entered with DFS as a condition of its BitLicense,
Government and Regulation
OFAC Designates Tornado Cash in First Action Against a Decentralized Platform
On August 8, 2022, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the imposition of sanctions on the decentralized digital asset mixer Tornado Cash. The action marks the first time OFAC has targeted an on-chain decentralized protocol. To date, OFAC has not issued any guidance specific to decentralized finance (DeFi)…
You’ve Been Served… By NFT?
LCX AG, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Liechtenstein, recently lost nearly $8 million in digital assets from a cyberattack. The perpetrator’s identity was unknown. Through the public ledger, LCX found the blockchain address that received the stolen assets, and quickly filed a complaint in New York to freeze certain of those assets. Without any other…
COVID-19: FCA Delays Implementation of SCA Under PSRs 2017
By Rob Moulton and Anna Lewis-Martinez
On 30 April 2020, the FCA released a statement announcing a six-month extension to the deadline for firms’ implementation of strong customer authentication (SCA) for e-commerce under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs 2017). The FCA states that the extension is due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is set…
New PSR Industry Code Entitles Victims of Fraud to Reimbursement
The new code aims to avoid customers being penalised for fraudsters’ actions.
By Andrea Monks and Nell Perks
Estimates indicate that fraudsters stole £1.2 billion from UK bank accounts in 2018 — a 16% increase on the previous year. UK Finance has described fraud as a “major threat to the UK”, and has confirmed that…
Will Regulatory Reform Make Cryptoassets the Next Buyout Boom for Private Equity?
Regulatory guidance on cryptoassets and digital currency companies may lead to a legitimisation of crypto-businesses as an investable asset class.
By Stuart Davis, Sam Maxson, David Walker, Tom Evans, and Catherine Campbell
Recent and upcoming regulatory guidance on cryptoassets and the regulation of companies engaged in digital currency, such as issuers,…
GDPR & PSD2: Squaring the Circle
GDPR and PSD2 are two legal initialisms that have both generated a great deal of press coverage in recent months, but they are seldom considered together.
By Christian F. McDermott, Calum Docherty and Brett Carr
There were around 122 billion non-cash payments in the European Union (EU) in 2016, with card payments accounting for…
Distributed Ledger Technology in the Financial Market Infrastructure
By Andrew Moyle and Stuart Davis
The Project Stella report, a European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) joint venture, details the applicability of distributed ledger technology for financial market infrastructure. During a one-month research project, the central banks tested whether distributed ledger technology (DLT) could sustain the liquidity saving mechanisms — a…
Coining it in: ICOs as the New Fundraising Paradigm?
By Andrew Moyle, Wenchi Hu, Simon Hawkins and Stuart Davis
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) involve issuers offering virtual coins or tokens that are created and disseminated using distributed ledger or blockchain technology. The capital raised from the offer will fund the development of a digital platform, software, or any other project. Holders of…
Bank of England Opens Up Access to Payment Schemes for FinTech Firms
By Andrew Moyle, Stuart Davis, Fiona Maclean, Christian McDermott and Charlotte Collins
The Bank of England (BoE) announced on 19 July 2017 that it is extending direct access to its real-time gross settlement (RTGS) service to non-bank payment service providers (i.e., e-money institutions and payment service providers that do not have regulatory…