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A. Overview

On 20 October 2020, Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 of 7 October 2020 on European crowdfunding service providers for business (“Crowdfunding Regulation”), which applies from 10 November 2021, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This is the first regulation of crowdfunding services on a European level. Up to now, crowdfunding has been governed under the various national laws of the Member States. A consequence of this is the fragmentation of applicable regulatory regimes which makes the provision of cross-border crowdfunding services almost impossible. The key aim of the Crowdfunding Regulation is to change this position by fostering cross-border crowdfunding services in the Union while at the same time to ensure a high level of investor protection. …
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 – Final Report of the High Level Forum on the Capital Markets Union –

I. Capital Markets Union

The Capital Markets Union seeks to remove regulatory and non-regulatory obstacles to the free movement of capital across borders, thus creating new opportunities across the Single Market for businesses, savers and investors and increasing the financial and…

In November 2018 the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (“Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht”, “BaFin”) and Deutsche Bundesbank published a guidance on outsourcing of services to cloud service providers (“Guidance on Cloud Services”). According to BaFin and Deutsche Bundesbank the Guidance on Cloud Services has not stipulated any new requirements, but has condensed the…

In a joint report (the “Report”) published on 7 January 2019, the EU’s three financial industry watchdogs considered the need for potential strategies to help coordinate and promote innovation in the EU fintech space.

The Report by the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”), European Banking Agency (“EBA”) and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority…

On July 9, 2018, the Economic Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (the “EP”) published a study identifying potential competition law concerns in the financial technology (“FinTech”) sector (the “Study”).

This Study follows the Consumer Financial Services Action Plan launched by the European Commission in March 2017, which aimed to promote greater choice and better…

In response to questions from a Member of the European Parliament, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has provided much needed clarification on the overlap between the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in an open letter.  As we identified in a previous blog post on this topic, the interaction between PSD2, aimed at increasing the seamless sharing of data, and the GDPR, aimed at regulating such sharing, raises complicated compliance concerns.  The EDPB’s letter aims to clarify some of these difficult compliance questions.
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Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionise many industries; it has been said that “blockchain will do to the financial system what the internet did to media”.  Its most famous use is its role as the architecture of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, however it has many other potential uses in the financial sector, for instance in trading, clearing and settlement, as well as various middle- and back-office functions.  Its transformative capability also extends far beyond the financial sector, including in smart contracts and the storage of health records to name just a few.

A blockchain is a shared immutable digital ledger that records transactions / documents / information in a block which is then added to a chain of other blocks on a de-centralised network.  Blockchain technology operates through a peer network, where transactions must be verified by participants before they can be added to the chain.

Notwithstanding its tremendous capabilities, in order for the technology to unfold its full potential there needs to be careful consideration as to how the technology can comply with new European privacy legislation, namely the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) which came into force on 25 May 2018.  This article explores some of the possible or “perceived” challenges blockchain technology faces when it comes to compliance with the GDPR.…

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