Archive: May 2022

On 4 April 2022, HM Treasury published a response to its earlier consultation and call for evidence on the UK regulatory approach to cryptoassets, stablecoins and distributed ledger technology (DLT) in financial markets.

On 1 April 2022, the PRA published its Regulatory digest for March 2022. The digest summarises PRA publications and speeches that have occurred in March. The top news and publications in this month’s edition includes:

On 1 April 2022, the International Regulatory Strategy Group (IRSG) issued its response to the final phase of the Government’s consultation on the UK’s future regulatory framework. The IRSG response to this phase of the consultation builds on points from that report and a follow-up report produced in 2020. In addition to responding to the specific questions the IRSG make a number of points including that the process of transferring onshored legislation to regulators’ rulebooks need to observe the same objectives of ensuring continuity and certainty unless there is an intention to change policy. It also makes the point that the way EU law has been onshored means there are no consolidated versions of the rules available, which makes them very difficult for market participants to read. The IRSG therefore recommends that HM Treasury’s proposals for changes to legislation should be carried out with sufficient consultation and time to allow industry participants to adapt accordingly. Changes to legislation should include (as an annex) full marked up text, in the way the FCA typically present clear mark-ups to their Handbook text. This would improve accessibility, make reviews of proposed changes much more focused and efficient, enhance clarity and certainty around what is proposed, enable industry to better focus its energy, and could streamline the overall process.

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.

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 12 May 2022, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) issued a final report on extending and aligning payment system operating hours for cross-border payments.

On 10 May 2022, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published a summary report produced by its Panel on the Digital Payments Initiative (Initiative).

The Law Commission’s Report and draft Bill on Electronic Trade Documents is the first piece of proposed legislation arising out of their recent focus on new technologies and gives a significant hint as to the outcome of other consultations, particularly that on cryptoassets. The Law Commission proposes a single far-reaching change – decreeing that several types of electronic trade document may be ‘possessed’ – and accompanies this with a number of subtle accommodations that demonstrate their understanding of the power of the English common law to assimilate new concepts. If this influences other jurisdictions to adopt a consistent approach, it could transform international trade finance documentation. Norton Rose Fulbright LLP was one of only three law firms that submitted a complete response to the consultation that led to this proposal.

Norton Rose Fulbright has joined the Blockchain + Legal Industry Group, an organization aimed at promoting a better understanding of how blockchain impacts the legal technology landscape, as a founding member along with fellow legal professionals, academics and technologists.

The European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority (EIOPA) has published its feedback statement on its 2021 discussion paper on blockchain and smart contracts in insurance. EIOPA received a number of responses to its earlier paper and has summarised these in the statement. Stakeholders were able to identify a number of use cases for blockchain. The paper also looks at crypto-asset use cases in insurance and considers risks and benefits.