Archive: December 2022

Every month we provide the Global Blockchain Business Council’s Post-Trade Distributed Ledger group with a global regulatory FinTech updater, the latest version of which can be found here.

On 16 December 2022, the FCA, Payment Systems Regulator, HM Treasury and the Competition and Markets Authority published a joint statement providing an update on their plans for the vision of the future of open banking and proposals for a new entity to succeed the Open Banking Implementation Entity. In the statement the regulators confirm their determination to ensure that the benefits of open banking are fully realised and momentum is sustained. They also set out their expectations as to what the entity’s key responsibilities will be and describe three fundamental components for the design of the entity.

In our latest edition of Regulation Around the World, our financial services partners from the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia cover the latest regulatory developments concerning buy now pay later.

On 15 December 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority published a final report containing guidelines on standard forms, formats and templates to apply for permission to operate a Distributed Ledger Technology market infrastructure (DLT MI).

On 13 December, the European Commission launched the process to adopt an adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (EU-US DPF).

On 17 November 2022, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published an update to its guidance on international transfers (Transfers Guidance). This included specific guidance about transfer risk assessments or TRAs and a tool for undertaking TRAs (the TRA Guidance and TRA Tool, respectively).

Norton Rose Fulbright Canada’s cyber litigation team recently obtained an order in favour of an insurer, granting it relief from forfeiture in respect of more than 11 bitcoins from the assets seized from a prolific ransomware gang. This case was the first of its kind and confirms an insurer’s ability to seek recovery for losses suffered when it reimburses its insureds for ransoms that are later recovered through law enforcement action.

In LMN v Bitflyer Holdings Inc and others [2022] EWHC 2954 (Comm), the High Court granted powerful ‘information orders’ under the court’s Norwich Pharmacal and Bankers Trust jurisdiction against cryptocurrency exchanges that are competitors to the claimant-applicant LMN. The court orders require these exchanges to provide LMN detailed customer information (including Know Your Client information), in aid of LMN’s efforts to recover $10.7 million worth of misappropriated cryptocurrency.

On 2 December 2022, the European Commission announced that it welcomed the provisional political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the proposed revised Consumer Credit Directive. The European Parliament and the Council now need to formally adopt the political agreement.

On 28 November 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).