Author

Gavin Raftery

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Japan’s Financial Services Agency recently announced plans to cooperate respectively with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore for the purpose of promoting fintech innovation. The collaboration is intended to reduce regulatory uncertainty and time to market, remove barriers to entry in the respective jurisdictions and otherwise further encourage innovation. Press releases issued by the regulators detailing the frameworks can be found here: Japan & UK cooperation and Japan & Singapore…

1. Global contextAs noted in the IMF’s “Virtual Currencies and Beyond: Initial Considerations” report released in January 2016: “[Virtual currencies (VCs)] offer many potential benefits, including greater speed and efficiency in making payments and transfers – particularly across borders – and ultimately promoting financial inclusion… At the same time, VCs pose considerable risks as potential vehicles for money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and fraud.”Regulators around the world have begun to focus on this issue…