A “down round” is when a company raises capital based on a valuation that is lower (often materially so) than the company’s valuation in one or more prior financing rounds. Depending on the severity of the situation, a “down...more
At a time marked by themes of “push” and “pull,” organizations across all sectors and jurisdictions are grappling with the pursuit of innovation within an increasingly complex regulatory framework. Over the next 12 months,...more
Financial services is perhaps the most regulated industry in the world, and the intersection between financial services, technology, and law remains a complicated and evolving space. A team of Morgan Lewis lawyers recently...more
Three months into 2023 and the fintech landscape looks wildly different than this time one year ago. Global economic uncertainty clouds the fintech industry, with it facing challenges from rising interest rates, significant...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend Regulation Z (the Proposal), which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), to better ensure that late fees charged...more
For the second time in a month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed a new rule that would require businesses to report already public information and thereby increase the burdens on, and risks to, the...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) has proposed a registry in which certain nonbank financial institutions must deposit copies of certain federal, state, and local orders. The proposed rule would also...more
The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee held a hearing, “Why Congress Needs to Act: Lessons Learned From the FTX Collapse,” on December 1, 2022, receiving testimony from Commodity Future Trading Commission...more
The House of Representatives and the Senate took the first steps in response to the collapse of FTX this week. The Senate Agriculture Committee has announced a hearing at which the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading...more
Fintech is having a meteoric rise among investors in the emerging tech space, accounting for the second-highest area of investment with $3.8 billion in 2021. Q4 2021 alone saw $824 million across 23 deals, indicating a strong...more
3/9/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Banking Sector ,
Blockchain ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Insurtech ,
Mergers ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs)
On January 5, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued a report detailing consumer complaint deficiencies by the national credit reporting agencies (NCRAs). Specifically, the CFPB found that, in 2021,...more
Three federal banking agencies (the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – collectively Agencies) issued proposed risk management guidance on July...more
The OCC granted preliminary conditional approval on April 23 to an application to charter Paxos National Trust (Paxos) as an uninsured national trust bank. Paxos, which currently operates as a New York state-charted limited...more
Recently proposed regulations could present significant compliance burdens for the banks and money service businesses that engage in cryptocurrency transactions with unhosted wallets or wallets held in jurisdictions specified...more
1/20/2021
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
BSA/AML ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Money Services Business ,
Peer-to-Peer ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Virtual Currency
In a series of recent interviews (including with the American Bankers Association and a podcast with the ABA Banking Journal), Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks discussed the Office of the Comptroller’s (OCC’s)...more
On June 18, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued a procedural rule to launch a new pilot advisory opinion (AO) program to publicly address regulatory uncertainty in the Bureau’s existing...more
The ADC has launched a public consultation on the fintech sector in France, in particular with regard to payment services. The consultation focuses on the two types of new players in the payments space: (1) the role of big...more
The virtual currency Bitcoin has been a hot topic in FinReg for some time, but in recent weeks mainstream interest in Bitcoin has grown in light of the approaching “halving” or “halvening.” So what is the “halvening” and why...more
The US Senate approved an additional $310 billion in funds for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) on April 20, and the House of Representatives is expected to approve these additional funds within days. As fintech...more
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic continue to monitor and address cryptoasset and distributed ledger technology activities. We recently posted on the guidance issued by the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on...more
8/16/2019
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Data Privacy ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Token Sales ,
UK
In its continued efforts to learn what broker-dealers and their employees are doing in the digital asset space, FINRA has effectively reissued a regulatory notice requesting that broker-dealers keep FINRA apprised of their...more
We are always looking to identify good forums for keeping abreast of global fintech developments and trends. One such interesting platform was Cross-Border Fintech: Regulation & the Law 2019, held in London on June 6, where...more
Practitioners, academics, and entrepreneurs joined SEC regulators at the 2019 FinTech Forum hosted by the SEC’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub) on May 31 in Washington, DC. Panelists discussed a...more
On February 15, 2017, the European Parliament (EP) made a significant step toward reforming the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) post-2020, adopting a draft proposal that seeks middle ground with a tight vote of 379 for/263...more
The reformed Renewable Energy Sources Act will create expanded market opportunities across the renewable energy sector and new investment opportunities in generation projects and smart grid operational technologies....more