Clifford Chance

Welcome to this week's global fintech round-up, summarising fintech regulatory developments that have happened around the world along with our Clifford Chance fintech publications and upcoming events.

Details of these and previous developments can also be found on our Fintech Topic Guide on the Clifford Chance Financial Markets Toolkit.

CLIFFORD CHANCE BRIEFINGS AND MATERIALS

• (24 Jan 2025) Talking Tech – DOJ Final Rule on National-Security Risks Posed by Countries of Concern and Covered Persons’ Access to U.S. Sensitive Data
• (22 Jan 2025) Talking Tech – Singapore Launches Digital Bond Grant Scheme

GLOBAL LEGAL AND REGULATORY UPDATES, INDUSTRY GUIDANCE AND PUBLICATIONS

International

• (27 Jan 2025) Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) report on the use of consumer-facing artificial intelligence (AI) in global financial services.
• (23 Jan 2025) Financial Stability Board (FSB) work programme for 2025, addressing challenges including digitalisation, climate change, and macroeconomic shifts. The FSB's priority areas of work for 2025 include harnessing the benefits of digital innovation while containing its risks, and enhancing cross-border payments. | Webpage

Americas

US:

• (24 Jan 2025) The Senate Banking Committee has announced that it will hold a hearing focused on debanking on 5 February 2025. Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) stated that, under the Biden administration, financial regulators had 'forced financial institutions to cut off services to digital asset firms' and vowed to work with President Trump, industry leaders, and members of both parties to take a different approach. | Announcement
• (23 Jan 2025) President Trump has issued an Executive Order on strengthening American leadership in digital financial technology. The Executive Order establishes the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, which will be tasked with developing a Federal regulatory framework governing digital assets, including stablecoins, and evaluating the creation of a strategic national digital assets stockpile. The Executive Order prohibits agencies from undertaking any action to establish, issue, or promote central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It also revokes President Biden's Executive Order on digital assets and the Treasury Department’s Framework for International Engagement on Digital Assets. | Fact Sheet
• (23 Jan 2025) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 122, which rescinds the interpretive guidance included in Section FF of Topic 5 in the Staff Accounting Bulletin Series entitled Accounting for Obligations to Safeguard Cryptoassets an Entity Holds for its Platform Users.
• (20 Jan 2025) President Trump has rescinded President Biden's Executive Order 14110 of 30 October 2023 on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of AI. | Announcement

APAC

Hong Kong:

• (24 Jan 2025) The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has published the conclusions to its August 2024 public consultation on proposed amendments to cease permitting mixed media offers (MMOs). The consultation was intended to facilitate a fully electronic subscription process for public offerings. Under the consultation, the SFC proposed amendments to the Companies (Exemption of Companies and Prospectuses from Compliance with Provisions) Notice (Class Exemption Notice) to remove the exemption permitting MMOs under section 9A of the Class Exemption Notice, as well as consequential amendments to the revised draft guidelines for electronic public offers (ePO Guidelines). The SFC will gazette the notice to make the proposed amendments to the Class Exemption Notice and table it in the Legislative Council for negative vetting as soon as practicable. Once implemented, online channels will serve as the only means to subscribe to public offers of equity securities or interests in collective investment schemes listed or to be listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. Electronic prospectuses will be issued, and printed application forms will no longer be available. | Press release
• (20 Jan 2025) Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) circular setting out good industry practices for the implementation of operational resilience frameworks in accordance with supervisory policy manual (SPM) module OR-2 on operational resilience.

Europe

EU:

• (24 Jan 2025) European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) opinion setting out amended draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) specifying certain requirements in relation to conflicts of interest for cryptoasset service providers (CASPs) under the Markets in Cryptoassets Regulation (MiCA). The opinion sets out recommended changes to amendments proposed by the EU Commission in November 2024 to the original draft RTS ESMA submitted in May 2024. | Webpage
• (23 Jan 2025) The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published new Q&As on the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), in particular on: (i) what types of services should be considered ICT services based on the definition of DORA Article 3(21);  (ii) how to determine for group structures whether they are in scope of DORA; and (iii) whether ancillary insurance intermediaries falling under Article 1(3) of Directive EU 2016/97 on insurance distribution (IDD) are within the scope of Article 2(1)(o) DORA.

Italy:

• (23 Jan 2025) The Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (Consob) has informed ESMA of its intention to comply with the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) guidelines on the oversight cooperation and information exchange between the ESAs and the competent authorities under DORA. | Press release (in Italian)

UK:

• (27 Jan 2025) UK Finance paper which looks at how generative AI is being used by financial services firms to enhance operations, improve customer engagement, and drive innovation. | Webpage
• (23 Jan 2025) The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) have provided an update on the next steps for open banking, which will include a new independent company to drive forward variable recurring payments.
• (23 Jan 2025) TheCityUK report on the digitalisation of UK capital markets, which focuses on the opportunities that distributed ledger technology (DLT) and the tokenisation of securities present to the digitalisation of the UK’s financial market infrastructure (FMI) and the bond market. | Press release

EVENTS

• The New US Administration and the Impact on the DLT Sector and Regulatory Environment for Crypto (online, 29 January 2025): In this 30-minute webinar, Clifford Chance fintech experts in New York, Washington DC, and London - Jesse Overall, Steve Gatti, Cliff Cone and Paul Landless - will discuss the new US administration and the outlook for the DLT sector and the regulatory environment for crypto, together with potential opportunities. This webinar is particularly relevant to banks, asset managers, and professionals within the fintech space. | To register, please complete the online RSVP form.