Abstract:
The conference on Fintech Law and Regulation aims to bring together practitioners from financial institutions, legal professionals and consultants as well as high-profile regulators and worldwide known academics in the FinTech and innovation field to jointly consider the impact of technology on financial institutions and their regulation.
Technology is transforming finance around the world at an unprecedented rate, offering new opportunities but also raising new risks. Financial regulators must develop new approaches to regulation, including through the use of technology. Prior to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, financial innovation was generally viewed very positively. Post-Crisis financial regulatory reforms have seen a reversal of this approach with the regulatory pendulum arguably swinging to the other extreme. Post-Crisis regulatory changes combined with increasingly rapid technological change have spurred the development of financial technology (“FinTech”). FinTech promises innovation and economic growth through disruption of traditional financial services businesses, yet it also poses a major challenge to the post-Crisis regulatory paradigm.
FinTech embraces new startups, established technological and e-commerce companies (which is referred to as “TechFins”) as well as incumbent financial firms. Financial regulators are increasingly seeking to balance the traditional regulatory objectives of financial stability and consumer protection with the objectives of growth and innovation, resulting in a process of regulatory innovation including the use of technology (“RegTech”) and changes to existing regulatory frameworks such as the establishment of regulatory sandboxes (safe havens in which firms test innovative technologies under regulatory exemptions).
The FinTech Law and Regulation conference organized by the ADA Chair in Financial Law / Inclusive Finance at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance in cooperation with Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) and the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHOFT) addresses these regulatory issues. Bringing together the most eminent FinTech regulators – including from institutions such as the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the European Securities & Markets Authority (ESMA) and the Luxembourg CSSF – with the most widely considered FinTech law and regulation scholars to date provides the background for a fruitful conference discussing the status quo of the law as well as the foreseeable regulatory developments in light of the enhanced tech dependency of financial institutions.
Topics discussed at the conference include: Big Data (in particular the regulatory challenges of data driven-finance, of centralized data management and the data protection laws), Blockchain & Distributed Ledgers (with its impact on fund administration and distribution, the clearing system as well as the liability exposure of firms employing distributed ledgers), RegTech, Regulatory Sandboxes and the Law (with a view on the impact of automatization on financial supervision, innovation as justification of regulatory leniency and conflicts of law), Payments, Digital Currencies and Digital Identity as well as Crowdfunding.
Programme
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08.30 – 09.00
Welcome
- Luc Frieden, Chairman of the board of directors, Banque Internationale a Luxembourg
- Katalin Ligeti, Dean of FDEF, Uni.lu
- Nasir Zubairi, CEO, LHoFT Foundation
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09.00 – 11.00
Big Data – with Q&A and Panel Discussion
Chair: Douglas W. Arner, University of Hong Kong
Discussants:
- Jean-Louis Schiltz, Uni.lu: Digital Identities and their Role in Financial Services and Payments
- Ross Buckley, UNSW Sydney: From Fin Tech to TechFin: The Regulatory Challenges of Data-Driven Finance
- Leon Perlman, Columbia Bus School: Money Laundering and CDD aspects of Digital Financial Services
- Mark Cole, Uni.lu:Fin Tech, Big Data and the GDPR
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11.00 – 11.15
Coffee break
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11.15 – 12.40
Blockchain & Distributed ledgers – with Q&A and Panel Discussion
Chair: Jean-Louis Schiltz, Uni.lu
Discussants:
- Patrick Armstrong, European Securities and Markets Authority: ESMA’s Distributed Ledger Initiative
- Dirk Zetzsche, Uni.lu: Blockchain & Liability
- Philipp Paech, London School of Economics: Legal and regulatory issues of blockchain and smart contracts.
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12.40 – 13.40
Lunch break
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13.40 – 14.10
Regtech – with Q&A
Chair: Ross Buckley, UNSW Sydney
Discussant: Douglas W. Arner, University of Hong Kong: Reg Tech and the Reconceptualisation of Financial Regulation
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14.10 – 15.45
Regulating innovation – with Q&A and Panel Discussion
Chair: Dirk Zetzsche, Uni.lu
Discussants:
- Jon Frost, Financial Stability Board: The FSB’s Fin Tech Approach and Projects
- Nadia Manzari, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, Luxembourg: The CSSF’s Approach to Supervising Fin Tech
- Matthias Lehmann, University of Bonn: Fin Tech and Jurisdiction
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15.45 – 16.00
Coffee break
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16.00 – 16.55
Payments & Digital Currencies – with Q&A
Chair: Mark Cole, Uni.lu
Discussants:
- Sandra Booysen, NU Singapore: The Cheque is in the Post – or is it? The Changing Payments Landscape in Singapore and the Common Law World
- Andre Prum, Uni.lu: Regulation of Digital Currencies
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16.55 – 17.50
Crowdfunding – with Q&A
Chair: Katalin Ligeti, Uni.lu
Discussants:
- Kieran J. Garvey, University of Cambridge: The Empirical Side of Crowdfunding in Europe
- Erik P. M. Vermeulen, University of TiIburg: Fin Tech and the Financing of Entrepreneurs: From Crowdfunding to Marketplace Lending
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17.50 – 18.15
Closing remarks: Funds & FinTech – Quo Vadis?
Dirk Zetzsche, Uni.lu
Presentations from the conference:
Partners:
