Inside FinTech blog

The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Regulation, commonly referred to as the AI Act, is expected to come into force during the summer of 2024 (the AI Act).

On Thursday 20 June we hosted the Future of Finance Conference with the Global Blockchain Business Council at our offices in London.

Artificial intelligence (AI) raises many intellectual property (IP) issues. While there are many AI models and use cases, this guide addresses key IP issues raised by generative AI systems, meaning systems such as ChatGPT, Bard and DALl-E with algorithms that generate new content (which, depending on the system may be text, audio, images, video code or other content).

While AI can help resolve data issues in sustainable investing, it can create problems such as information breaches and inherent bias in data.

Legal developments concerning blockchain and digital assets are not limited to the English-speaking world or to common-law jurisdictions. Earlier this year brought some thought-provoking developments on digital assets and related technologies from Spanish-speaking civil law jurisdictions. These include a ruling from a Barcelona court on the intersection of intellectual property rights with NFT and metaverse applications, and a new law in Mexico recognizing the use of online, smart-contract-based alternative dispute resolution systems.

In July 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized its rule requiring public companies to disclose material cybersecurity incidents under Item 1.05 of Form 8-K. Though materiality is not a new concept in SEC regulations, in the context of cybersecurity incidents, materiality assessments and disclosure practices are evolving areas with little practical precedent or guidance to draw upon. Fundamentally, an incident is considered material if “there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable shareholder would consider it important” in making an investment decision.1 This includes assessing all relevant qualitative and quantitative factors, such as reputation, customer and vendor relationships, and competitiveness, in addition to financial and operational impacts, as well as potential litigation and regulatory actions.

In this webinar, our global crypto regulation team will delve into the critical aspects of Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), a new landmark piece of European legislation that is due to become applicable at the end of 2024, and explain its importance to crypto-asset firms operating in Asia but looking to provide services to EU clients. Whether you’re a crypto-asset service provider, issuer, or investor, this session will provide valuable insights on navigating this broad-ranging regime. We will also use this session to flag key cross-border issues in the upcoming UK regime for crypto-assets.

It was a pleasure to attend the latest series of policy roundtables hosted by the Financial Conduct Authority as the industry looks to collaborate on the possible routes forward regarding the expansion of the UK regulatory regime to trading venues and other cryptoassets “intermediaries”.

In February 2024, the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) set out the government’s proposed approach to AI regulation. It published a response to its consultation on its 2023 white paper, ‘A pro innovation approach to AI regulation’ (the White Paper). DSIT confirmed that, for the time being, the UK will follow its proposed approach of setting cross-sectoral principles to be enforced by existing regulators rather than passing new legislation to regulate AI.

The insurance industry is founded on predicting, as accurately as possible, whether or not a risk will materialize in a fast-moving competitive environment. Such predictions are intensively focused on data.