Last week was incredibly busy in terms of AI governance developments, on both sides of the Atlantic and globally. While countries are racing to demonstrate their leadership on AI governance on the global stage, common themes continue to emerge. Policymakers recognise the need to strike a balance between the opportunities and potential that this technology can bring, on the one hand, and the risks and challenges posed by AI, on the other hand. There is…
On 28 June 2023, the Law Commission of England and Wales published its recommendations for reform and development of the law relating to digital assets. The final report stemmed from a UK Government request to “make recommendations for reform to ensure that the law is capable of accommodating both crypto-tokens and other digital assets in a way which allows the possibilities of this type of technology to flourish.” In response, the Law Commission found that…
Last month, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) launched a consultation package on the first batch of certain draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) and draft implementing technical standards (ITS) on certain aspects of the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act, DORA. You can find more detail in our alert here. The draft technical standards cover: the risk management framework that financial institutions (FIs) are required to introduce classification of ICT related incidents, and the test for classifying…
Social media has become an increasingly vital part of firms’ marketing strategies across industries, and the financial sector – including its growing number of financial influencers or “finfluencers” – is no exception. In light of this trend the UK financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has published a consultation to update its guidance on social media financial promotions. With this new guidance, the FCA wants to ensure its expectations of financial promotions on…
Our new episode of FInsight: Global Financial Institutions Industry Podcast focuses the regulatory development f cryptoassets, following our recent publication Crypto around the World. The speakers for this episode are Sue McLean, partner and global tech lead for fintech from our London office; Iris Barsan, counsel from our Paris office; Julian Hui, senior associate from our London office, and Chris Murrer, a US attorney based in our Switzerland office. In this second part, we cover market abuse, sustainability, decentralized finance, and future developments.…
Taking off from the guide Crypto Around the World, the first of two episodes takes a broader look at general aspects of cryptoassets.
In this special edition, Sue McLean, partner and global tech lead for fintech and blockchain, talks to David Hart, a partner in our London office, and Lawrence C. Lee, a partner in our Palo Alto office, to discuss recent trends and developments around fintech. In this episode, they share their observations on recent innovations and take a closer look at various strategies behind the increase in investment and M&A activity. Fintech players, once seen as…
In December we hosted a session as Part of Tech Week 2020 that focused on “The Importance of Diversity in Tech”. Don’t worry if you missed it, we’ve summarized below some of the key take away points from the session and you can watch the full recording from this and all the other sessions here. Diversity in Tech – Challenge Faced Despite an increased focus on diversity, the tech sector still has a lot of…
On 18 December 2020, the UK House of Lords Liaison Committee on AI published a new report, AI in the UK: No Room for Complacency. The report considers the UK government’s progress against the recommendations made by the Select Committee on AI in their 2018 report, AI in the UK: ready, willing and able? The report contains a series of new recommendations covering public understanding of AI, use of data, ethics, public trust and regulation, jobs and…
The need for businesses to be agile, innovative and data savvy to compete and thrive emerges loud and clear, but so, too, do concerns around privacy, security and integration with legacy IT systems. In its sixth year, Baker McKenzie’s 2020 Digital Transformation & Cloud Survey: The Future of Enterprise Data captures major trends and attitudes toward the use of data through a global lens of respondents in legal, technology and procurement roles, across a large cross-section of…