Clifford Chance

Welcome to this week's global fintech round-up, summarising fintech regulatory developments that have happened around the world along with our Clifford Chance fintech publications and upcoming events.

Details of these and previous developments can also be found on our Fintech Topic Guide on the Clifford Chance Financial Markets Toolkit.

SPOTLIGHT: EU AI Act: Overview of the key rules and requirements

After years of consultation, drafting and negotiation, the EU Artificial Intelligence Act was published in the EU's Official Journal on 12 July 2024. It entered into force on 1 August 2024 and has a staged application process, with the first set of obligations starting to apply and impacting businesses from 2 February 2025. We set out the 5 key things you need to know now.

CLIFFORD CHANCE BRIEFINGS AND MATERIALS

• (9 Sep 2024) Talking Tech article – Evolving the PE playbook through operational transformation

GLOBAL LEGAL AND REGULATORY UPDATES, INDUSTRY GUIDANCE AND PUBLICATIONS

Americas

Brazil:

• (4 Sep 2024) The Central Bank of Brazil has announced the list of selected projects, prepared in conjunction with the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), containing 13 themes for development in the second testing phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) project Drex. In the second testing phase, the infrastructure created for the Drex pilot platform will begin testing the implementation of financial services, made available through smart contracts created and managed by third parties participating in the pilot. | Press release (in Portuguese)

Europe

EU:

• (5 Sep 2024) The EU Commission has signed the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence (AI) on behalf of the EU. The Convention provides for a common approach intended to ensure that AI systems are compatible with human rights, democracy and the rule of law, while enabling innovation and trust. | Press release
• (5 Sep 2024) European Central Bank (ECB) progress report on the work of the digital euro scheme’s Rulebook Development Group. | Webpage

France:

• (5 Sep 2024) As part of the ongoing Eurosystem exploratory work on settlement in central bank money using new technologies, the Banque de France has announced that it has successfully completed two new experiments with its new functionality for automated wholesale payments. The Banque de France has so far completed 7 of the 19 trials and experiments planned on DL3S. | Press release

UK:

• (10 Sep 2024) The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched its first criminal prosecution relating to unregistered cryptoasset activity under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs), bringing its first charges against a person accused of running a network of crypto ATMs in the UK. The charges follow the FCA’s recent operation, working in partnership with law enforcement agencies, to tackle illegally operated crypto ATMs across the UK. | Press release
• (9 Sep 2024) FCA guidance consultation (GC24/5) on changes to its Payment Services and Electronic Money Approach Document to support new legislation to tackle authorised push payment (APP) fraud. Deadline for comments: 4 October 2024. | Webpage

EVENTS

• CryptoUK Autumn Networking hosted by Clifford Chance (London, 19 September 2024). The event will feature a panel session titled "A New Era? Exploring the Labour Government’s Influence on Digital Assets Growth, Adoption, and Regulation", with industry experts from Elliptic, Gemini, KR1 and Clifford Chance sharing invaluable perspectives on the current and future state of digital assets in the UK. | Places are limited, please register your interest here.
• Save the date: The Future of Digital Finance 2024 (Hybrid – London/online, 1 October 2024): Join Clifford Chance and GBBC to network, discuss, and hear from those shaping the future of digital finance. We will be joined by a diverse line up of international regulators and industry leaders to navigate topics including the evolving global regulatory landscape for digital assets, MiCA three months on, interoperability, tokenization of funds and assets and the UK's evolving digital ambitions. Attend in person in London or tune in via our global live stream.  | To register, please see the event registration form
• Global Financial Markets Perspectives Series: Financing digital infrastructure – data centre ABS and funding trends for data centres and digital infrastructure (online, 15 October 2024): With the rise of AI, demand for data continues to grow exponentially raising questions as to how the rapid roll-out and development of data centres will be financed over the next five to 10 years. Our European lawyers across infrastructure finance, project finance, real estate finance and asset backed finance will discuss the innovative financing structures we see for data centres including Europe’s first public data centre ABS and share views on financing trends in the digital infrastructure sector. | To register, please see the event series registration form