• taxbit

As somebody who's deeply involved in crypto tax compliance and reporting, do you think that the regulatory approach of different jurisdictions such as the EU, the US and Asia are converging or diverging when it comes to crypto assets and digital assets? And do you see a path towards greater alignment, or will we continue to have a fragmented regulatory environment?

• Clifford Chance

This article was first published on www.cliffordchance.com/ on 8 May 2025.

On 29 April 2025, HM Treasury (HMT) published a draft statutory
instrument which will create a new UK regulatory regime for
cryptoassets, including stablecoins. An accompanying policy
note has also been published. Technical comments can be
submitted by 23 May 2025, with the legislation due to be finalised
by the end of the year.

Qatar Financial Centre

In this article, Yousuf Mohamed Al-Jaida, Chief Executive Officer, QFC, highlights Qatar’s strategic focus on digital innovation, particularly in the realm of financial services, and elaborates upon QFC’s pioneering ‘Digital Assets Lab’ initiative that paves the way for the development of a digital assets sector in Qatar, accelerating the nation’s transformation into a centre of excellence for financial services and innovation.

Copper

Settlement failures are already in the trillions of dollars annually at T+2. And the US is poised to move to T+1 in a week increasing the chances of cascading risk.

Ready for T+1?

Part one of our in-depth report series, delves into the post-trade financial cycle, highlighting the potential risks associated with the US market transitioning to shorter settlement cycles.

Schroders / Slaughter and May / The Alan Turing Institute

Today’s episode is a little different to normal. It is a recording of a recent panel discussion from City Week’s AI in Financial Services Leaders Summit which took place in London last week.

I was invited to moderate a panel on the transformative potential of generative AI and we discussed interesting use cases for genAI in the financial services space, how boards and senior managers can best manage the risks relating to the new technology, how regulators could help market participants embrace the opportunities presented by GenAI responsibly and plenty more in between.

I hope you enjoy it.

London Stock Exchange plc

If you look at our context, we're the sixth largest economy in the world. But as of the beginning of May, we were the third largest capital market by capital raised year to date so we're actually punching considerably above our weight. And the only two economies above us were the US and India. And so, I think that we need to recognise and level set that. But the Capital Markets Industry Task Force was created in part because I think over many years we have built up a series of different pieces of regulation that have operated in isolation, rather than working together

Travers Smith

In February 2024, the Law Commission published – by way of a short consultation – its draft Property
(Digital Assets etc) Bill (the Bill).
The Bill is the product of important and extensive work undertaken by the Law Commission on the status
and nature of digital assets as "property", including its final report on digital assets (published in June
2023). Clause 1 of the Bill is the central provision, and is set out below. Establishing legal certainty around
the treatment of digital assets as "property" will pave the way for the increased issuance, trading,
clearing and settlement of such assets in the financial market and support their use as collateral.

Travers Smith

On 22 April 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (including the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), together the Bank) published updates on their approach to artificial intelligence (AI). The FCA's update is available here and the Bank's update is available here.

Travers Smith

Data is often described as AI's "lifeblood" but there's widespread concern about personal data being unlawfully exploited or processed using AI tools. While the future approach to regulation of AI is still being heavily debated, existing data protection legislation, such as the GDPR and its UK equivalent, is likely to play an influential role – not least because regulators already have powers which they can use to oversee the new technology.  In this briefing, we look at how big a role data protection can play in regulating AI and what lessons it may have for other areas. We also discuss how regulators in the UK and EU are responding and what businesses need to do to comply if they are considering the use of AI tools to handle personal data.

Travers Smith

Cross-border payments actually is one of the big focus areas at the moment in fintech and for good reason. If we actually take a step back, I think there are probably several factors at play here. So firstly, obviously the inefficiencies, or frictions as they like to be called, in the existing cross-border payments infrastructure are well known.

Investopia

In January, City Week’s CEO, Maurice Button, was delighted to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Investopia the UAE Government’s think tank and global investment platform, in order to explore how the two can work together to their mutual benefit.

Given the complementary nature of the two platforms, there is significant opportunity to support each other’s activities. We are honoured to have entered into this MoU with Investopia.

Watershed

Watershed's mission is to accelerate the climate economy. We build software to help companies measure and report and reduce their carbon emissions both for companies, for financial institutions, and we think that if we do that right we can help businesses be a lot more successful. And we can put a big dent in solving climate change because they're the ones with the leverage on how much carbon ends up in the atmosphere every day.

LGIM

Today’s episode has been produced in partnership with City Week, an annual agenda-setting international financial services forum which brings together more than 1,000 senior decision-makers from UK and overseas financial institutions for a comprehensive programme of cutting-edge presentations, panel discussions, social events and networking.

Deutsche Bank

It's a really exciting time actually to be working in this space because there's a whole host of things happening, probably way too much to talk about in this short interview, but I would probably turn the attention to two big areas. Firstly, developments in asset tokenisation. It's something that's been talked about a lot for a number of years, but it's really something that's gaining more and more momentum, and we're seeing more and more corporate bonds, for example, being tokenised and issued, so we're seeing corporates very much embrace the technology, but we're also seeing sovereigns also look at asset tokenisation as a really interesting topic.

Lloyd’s of London

At Lloyds we feel that we're already fully invested in the impacts of climate, because 25% of our capital at Lloyds supports natural catastrophe insurance risks around the world. And so, as frequency and severity increase over time, so it has an impact clearly on our claims, it has an impact on the availability and affordability of insurance. So it's something we believe we have skin in the game for already and something we watch very closely.

London Stock Exchange

I think the first phase very much as you're describing is certainly to do with efficiencies and I think because of some of the work that has happened in the past with NLP, I think there's a degree of comfort in terms of the role that generative AI can play from an efficiency standpoint. And I think for many organisations they have programs of work that are kind of well underway to be able to address some of that.

CMS

Prior to the Covid-19 crisis the UK was already seeing an uptick in claims brought by shareholders against companies and directors.

In particular, there have been a number of high-profile class actions brought by shareholders in UK publicly listed companies based on claims that the company and its directors made false and misleading statements to shareholders to induce them to invest in the company or to approve substantial transactions which did not bring the returns that were anticipated. The UK courts have accommodated the bringing of class actions (whether pursuant to a Group Litigation Order or otherwise) and there are now well-established

GFO-X

In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, as markets worldwide teetered on the edge of collapse, one pillar stood remarkably resilient: central clearing. Amid this storm, when Lehman Brothers neared its dramatic fall, LCH, together with other central counterparty clearing houses (CCPs), showcased the critical importance of central clearing. By securing sufficient margin days before Lehman's bankruptcy, the CCPs safeguarded the interests of trading counterparts, ensuring their positions and hedges were maintained. This pivotal moment highlights the essential role of financial market infrastructure (FMI) in preserving stability during even the most catastrophic financial events

Goldman Sachs

To what extent do you think that the slowdown in net equity issuance, not just in the UK but in other international markets, is due to the growth in private equity as a viable alternative in terms of providing growth capital to technology and other high growth businesses? Is there simply less pressure to go public or less incentive perhaps?

Ripple

Ripple is a leader in enterprise blockchain, and crypto solutions and I think that's also what it's mostly known for and we are transforming how the world moves, manages, tokenises and stores value. And since the beginning we always focused on how enterprises can take advantage of blockchain and crypto in general, and we started off with cross-border payments.

Rothschild & Co

Hello everybody, welcome to the latest edition of C ‘n’ F Talks in which we interview speakers at some of our upcoming events, and today we have with us Claire Sudden-Spears who's the Co-Head of Equity Market Solutions at Rothschild & Co and also Chair of TheCityUK's Capital Markets Group. Claire is going to be speaking at our International Capital Markets Leaders’ Summit which is taking place as part of City Week at the Guildhall London on the 20th of May. Claire, welcome.

Euroclear

In a bid to enhance London’s position as a premier centre for capital raising, an ambitious digitisation agenda has been proposed, including the dematerialisation of paper share certificates, discontinuation of dividend payments by cheques as well as improvements in shareholder rights and communications.

Citi UK

CEO Tiina Lee, Nationwide CEO Debbie Crosbie and Howden CAP’s executive chair Mary O’Connor outline how finance companies can best set, monitor and promote their purpose as an organisation.

Today’s episode is a little different to normal. It is a recording of a recent panel discussion from City & Financial Global’s ninth annual 'Culture and Conduct Forum for the Financial Services Industry'. I was invited to moderate a panel on moral capitalism and we discussed how financial services can best link their profits with their purpose, how the newest intake of graduates is influencing firms decisions as they define and promote their purpose internally and externally, the transition to net zero and plenty more in between. I hope you enjoy it.

KPMG

On 20 March, the IPCC concluded its Sixth Assessment Reporting cycle (AR6), which kicked off after the Paris Agreement, by publishing its final Synthesis Report. AR6 will very likely be the last comprehensive IPCC report before 2030, after which time limiting warming to 1.5°C may be impossible. It is therefore imperative that all stakeholders take action based on the content of this report.

KPMG

In December, representatives from many governments around the world gathered in Montreal to agree a new Global Biodiversity Framework. This landmark agreement sets out the actions that all countries now need to take to reverse the loss of biodiversity, and was remarkable not only for its ambition, but also for the level of engagement from businesses—the largest in the Convention’s history.

KPMG

ESG data and ratings provider may face increasing regulation in the near future, with regulatory initiatives proposed in the UK, EU and elsewhere in the world.

KPMG

Under the headline of 'Mobilising Green Investment', the UK Government has published a revised Green Finance Strategy (PDF 26.9 MB), aimed at supporting the delivery of the transition to net zero. The strategy has been developed by HM Treasury (HMT), the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It refreshes the original (PDF 12.2 MB) strategy, set out in 2019, and moves forward some of the initiatives announced in the 2021 Roadmap to Sustainable Investing (PDF 2.03 MB) (see our article here).

Finance Malta

In a recent speaking engagement, the Maltese Minister for the Environment, Energy and Enterprise, the Honourable Dr. Miriam Dalli, discussed the crucial role of the financial services sector in Malta’s ongoing transition to a ‘green economy’. Dr. Dalli focused on a staggering EUR 24 billion reportedly laying idle in the form of local bank deposits and stressed that Maltese investors should be encouraged to direct this capital towards sustainable business ventures – such as, for instance, renewable energy projects.  

Shearman & Sterling

Presently, cryptoassets are treated as an unregulated product class, and a cryptoasset product will only be regulated to the extent it can be characterised as an existing regulated product class (e.g., a share or bond). However, certain regulated firms, when acting in, or from,
the U.K., are prohibited from marketing, selling or distributing to retail clients derivatives and exchange-traded notes referencing certain types of unregulated, transferable cryptoassets. The only targeted regulatory requirement for operators in this sector is a limited purposes AML registration requirement with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), similar to the AML registration regimes in place for non-financial firms in some other sectors, such as estate agents and law firms.

Shearman & Sterling

Digitisation is changing the way we own, trade and think about traditional financial assets. Resolving the legal and regulatory concerns that digital assets raise for financial services will open up tremendous commercial and economic opportunities. While international coordination of regulation and supervision might be desirable, this is, at best, likely to be slow and not comprehensive. Fortunately, a single legal and regulatory system, serving as a “home” jurisdiction for core businesses, can provide the solution to most, if not all, of the problems. The U.K. system, which looks to combine proper regulation and supervision in a business sensitive environment, makes an attractive proposition.

Consolidation will be an important foundation for the continued digital transformation of the financial services industry. The FinTech sector is maturing in profound ways, and the search for greater scale and diversification will be a critical driver for firms in the near term. In many cases, consolidation will be driven by a “flight to quality,” as potential investors and buyers, and even consumers, place a greater emphasis on FinTechs with strong legal and regulatory compliance records, including with respect to licensing, consumer data and operational resiliency. Consolidation will take various forms, from traditional M&A to strategic partnerships and investments. While transactions will vary in ways that are reflective of the diversity of the FinTech sector itself, here are 10 things that should be considered.

ADGM

Sustainable finance has been well and truly gaining momentum in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Despite the challenging global economic environment, countries in the MENA region are making significant strides in sustainable finance initiatives, such as the growth in green bond issuance in the region surpassing the global trend. So, as the MENA region forges ahead in its green transition, there are clear indications of the increasing dedication of governments, regulators, investors, and businesses in the region to take substantive action to invest in this transition to make net zero a reality.