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Swiss regulator offers assistance in navigating the regulatory framework.

By Andrew Moyle, Stuart Davis and Charlotte Collins

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has published a set of guidelines, setting out how it intends to apply its financial markets legislation in the context of initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Despite the growing trend for ICOs globally, FINMA is the first national regulator to provide such helpful clarity for ICO participants, who are typically left to work out for themselves whether and how their structure fits into existing regulatory frameworks. ICOs, in which investors receive blockchain-based coins or tokens in exchange for funds, were not envisaged when many existing frameworks were developed.

Driven by payments innovation and new regulation, 2018 is cited as the year for some of the most significant changes retail banking has seen.

By Stuart Davis and Brett Carr

At the Westminster Business Forum for Digital Payments, Adoption, Innovation and Policy Priorities, Graeme McLean (Head of Banking, Lending & Distribution at the FCA) appraised a panel and audience including legislators, innovators, and market infrastructure providers on the regulatory state of play heading into 2018.

With the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) set to apply from 13 January 2018 (see Latham’s Client Alert Understanding PSD2: Key Points to Know About the Upcoming Regime), the industry finds itself, according to McLean, just weeks away from an impending “diversification the retail banking sector has never seen before”.