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: TradFi Meets Blockchain Policy Summit – New York

On Thursday 10 October, we are delighted to be hosting the 2024 TradFi Meets Blockchain Policy Summit on behalf of Capitol Asset Strategies at our office in New York. Join us for thoughtful panel conversations focused on traditional capital markets use of distributed ledger technology to sell and distribute regulated "tokenized" financial products and the real business and regulatory challenges to wider adoption. You will hear from expert business leaders, legal professionals and policy leaders with panelists and attendees spanning traditional finance and crypto-native, all together in one room for insights on this growing market.

See the full agenda and speaker line up or register here.

CLIFFORD CHANCE BRIEFINGS AND MATERIALS

• (17 Sep 2024) Clifford Chance briefing – UK Government enacts Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act

GLOBAL LEGAL AND REGULATORY UPDATES, INDUSTRY GUIDANCE AND PUBLICATIONS

International

• (18 Sep 2024) A new industry group, the Decentralized AI Society (DAIS), has been launched with the stated aim of fostering the development of an open, decentralised, censorship-resistant and secure internet in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
• (16 Sep 2024) The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has announced that over 40 private sector financial firms, convened by the Institute of International Finance, will join the BIS and a group of leading central banks in Project Agorá to explore how tokenisation can enhance wholesale cross-border payments. Project Agorá will now begin the design phase of the project. | Press release

APAC

Australia:

• (18 Sep 2024) Speech by Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Assistant Governor Brad Jones, in which he confirmed that the RBA is making a strategic commitment to prioritise its work agenda on wholesale digital money and infrastructure – including wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) – rather than retail CBDC, because it has assessed the benefits to the economy as more promising, and the challenges less problematic, for a wholesale CBDC compared to a retail version. Jones also stated that the RBA is committing to a three-year applied research programme on the future of digital money in Australia.

Europe

EU:

• (13 Sep 2024) The EU Commission's targeted consultation on the use of AI in finance has now closed. Publicly available responses to date include those from: ALFI | CCIA Europe | FIA and FIA EPTA | ICMA | IIF | US Chamber of Commerce

Russia:

• (12 Sep 2024) The Bank of Russia has announced that, from 1 July 2025, the largest Russian banks will have to provide their clients with the ability to conduct transactions in digital rubles, including opening and topping up digital ruble accounts, making transfers, and accepting digital rubles in their infrastructure. The remaining banks with a universal license will be given until 1 July 2026 to finalise their systems, and other credit institutions until 1 July 2027. | Press release (in Russian)

UK:

• (17 Sep 2024) UK Finance has announced the successful outcome of the Regulated Liability Network Experimentation Phase. This is a new type of financial market infrastructure intended to deliver new capabilities for payments and settlement, including tokenisation and programmability. | Press release
• (17 Sep 2024) UK Finance blog post on Next Gen financial services operations
• (12 Sep 2024) Judgment in D'Aloia v Persons Unknown [2024] EWHC 2342 (Ch), in which a High Court Judge found, amongst other things, that the stablecoin Tether (USDT) attracts property rights under English law. The Judge found that USDT is neither a chose in action nor a chose in possession, but rather a distinct form of property not premised on an underlying legal right, and can be the subject of tracing and can constitute trust property in the same way as other property.
• (11 Sep 2024) The Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill, which has been introduced as a Government bill in the House of Lords. The Bill is intended to give effect to the recommendations of the Law Commission to confirm in statute the common law position that certain digital assets can constitute property. The Law Commission recommended statutory confirmation that a thing will not be deprived of legal status as an object of personal property rights merely by reason of the fact that it is neither a thing in possession nor a thing in action. The second reading of the Bill is yet to be scheduled. | Explanatory notes | Written Ministerial Statement | Bill webpage | Law Commission press release

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