Recent years have seen growing scrutiny of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial services and a greater awareness of the potential of these technologies. It is no surprise that questions of AI fairness and bias are increasingly front of mind. Existing law is not keeping up with the rise and speed of new technology. With UK Finance, we have published a white paper, as a contribution to the debate on how to apply ethical principles in practice to the benefit of firms and customers. Our use of practical scenarios has helped refine our understanding of the fair use of AI and the practical challenges of building a high-level ethical framework. Read more

At the moment, the FCA's only powers over crypto businesses which do not carry on investment, payment services, e-money or other UK regulated business come from its role as their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervisor. This will change in due course in respect of stablecoin businesses (with HMT consulting on bringing these into scope) and in respect of financial promotions of certain cryptoassets (both HMT and FCA are consulting on this). Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills LLP have published an article in Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law on a recent cryptocurrency case, Wang v Darby [2021] EWHC 3054 (Comm), which applies established principles relating to trusts, proprietary injunctions and worldwide freezing orders to this new asset class. Read more

In light of the increased prominence and popularity of virtual asset-related products and services, Hong Kong regulators have considered it appropriate in recent years to introduce reforms and provide additional guidance on VA-related activities. Read more

In this blog post, we round-up key forthcoming developments in the UK and at EU and International levels in financial services regulation which are expected to happen in April and May 2022. Read more

This briefing looks at why the regulators care, and what firms can do to manage the risks and take all reasonable steps to preserve data where channels have been used outside policy. Read more

This year has seen significant developments in Hong Kong as detailed regulatory guidance has been issued to enable institutions to navigate the evolving crypto-asset landscape. Read more

Following the HKMA’s 21 April 2021 circular highlighting the additional guidance issued by the BCBS on 31 March 2021, namely the Principles for Operational Resilience and the Revised Principles for Sound Management of Operational Risk, the HKMA launched a consultation on 22 December 2021 on a new proposed Supervisory Policy Manual module OR-2 (Operational Resilience) and proposed amendments to existing SPM modules TM-G-2 (Business Continuity Planning) and OR-1 (Operational Risk Management) in order to align with the BCBS’s operational resilience guidance. Read more