Category Archives: Voices

Lina Khan: The 32-year-old taking on Big Tech as new Chair of the US FTC

BBC | James Clayton | Jun 16, 2021

Lina KhanOn Tuesday, 32-year-old Lina Khan was sworn in as chair of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The role is a hugely powerful one, which protects consumers from bad business practices and companies from unfair competition. And when it comes to unfair competition, there is one sector that has been singled out by Democrats and Republicans alike: Big Tech.

Worryingly for technology giants, Ms Khan has been one of their most vocal critics. Ms Khan was born in the UK and moved to the US as a child. In an interview with BBC Hardtalk in January, she talked about how she started getting interested in competition law as a policy researcher after graduating.

"What became clear is there had been a systemic trend across the US... markets had come to be controlled by a very small number of companies," she said.

Gradually her focus began to shift to competition - or rather a perceived lack of competition - in Silicon Valley. Her general criticism is that Big Tech is simply too big - that a handful of large US tech firms dominate the sector, at the expense of competition. Some of her Democrat colleagues have even suggested that Facebook and Google could be split up. Facebook could be broken off from Instagram, for example, or YouTube cleaved away from Google.

See:  Canada’s payment system needs more competition

Anti-trust

The comparison she uses is from the late 19th Century, when a handful of companies, or "trusts", owned key parts of the infrastructure of the US - such as the railroads. "Anti-trust" legislation was passed to try to prevent companies holding monopoly power. However, critics like Ms Khan say current laws aren't fit for the competition challenges of today. "These firms essentially provide infrastructure to the digital age," she told the BBC in her previous interview.

"A small group of private executives are setting the rules of who gets to use the infrastructure and on what terms," she said.

In 2017, Ms Khan wrote a paper called "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox" for the Yale Law Journal. It argued that the traditional anti-trust focus on price was inadequate to identify potential harms done by Amazon. This is a much-repeated criticism of the laws around antitrust. Traditionally "monopolistic" behaviour would result in price increases for consumers. However, that doesn't often happen when it comes to Big Tech. In fact, when it comes to Facebook and Google, their services are mostly free to the consumer, while Amazon will often have lower prices than its competitors.

See:  Penrose Report: Power to the People: Stronger Consumer Choice and Competition

Instead, the argument is much more nuanced. For example, it's argued that these companies are so big, and control so much of the internet, that they can undercut their competitors. Current anti-trust laws don't necessarily reflect that reality, and once again this is something about which Ms Khan has talked.

"Even when services are good for consumers, they can hurt a whole set of other interests - be it workers, be it business formation, be it democracy at large." she told the BBC.

'Tremendous news'

Ms Khan's appointment has been hailed by anti-trust campaigners, and in particular by Democrats. Elizabeth Warren - who supported breaking up Big Tech in her 2020 presidential campaign - described the appointment as "tremendous news". And in the FTC, Ms Khan now has teeth to back up her ideas. She has gone from legal activist and academic to holding perhaps the most powerful consumer protection job in the country.

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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org

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Early bird gets the worm: Bitcoin and the wealthy

Financial Times | Eva Szalay | Jun 13, 2021

sandra ro

Quick on the draw: a decade on from first investing, Sandra Ro has made a substantial fortune from bitcoin © Pascal Perich

The very rich are adding fuel to the bitcoin boom but many are wary of a bubble

Ten years ago, Sandra Ro was working in finance in London when some currency-trading friends told her about bitcoin. The cryptocurrency had been released only a couple of years previously and was still far from a global phenomenon.

“Bitcoin was only really known in geeky tech circles and eventually currency traders in London found out about it around 2010,” says Ro. She invested in the cryptocurrency, made a substantial fortune and is now chief executive of the Global Blockchain Business Council, a Swiss non-profit organisation that promotes the technology behind cryptocurrencies.

With a background in markets at global banks such as Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, Ro was quick to grasp blockchain’s revolutionary potential. “What really piqued my interest was whether the tech could disintermediate financial markets. I thought, what the heck?” she recalls. “Bitcoin was trading at a couple of hundred bucks at the time and I bought a bunch thinking, what if it works? And guess what? It did!”

See:  El Salvador approves Bitcoin as legal tender – the first country to do so

Clearly, what makes the crypto field tempting are the stories of those who have struck gold. Ro is reluctant to say how much she is worth as a result of her bitcoin punt, as she has been targeted by scammers and has received death threats after talking about the subject. But she was able to leave full-time banking in 2017 — the year of bitcoin’s first significant rally, when prices rose from just above $800 to almost $20,000. Bitcoin’s surge to $63,000 earlier this year increased Ro’s fortune.

“Let’s just say, I have done very well. I have gone from being a banker to working at a non-profit,” says Ro, who studied at Yale and Columbia universities. “Getting in early because the tech seemed really cool also worked out as an investment, so that’s also pretty cool.” Being an early investor meant she has had to try a dozen exchanges, suffered hacks and been locked out of investments. Her friends have also done well from her foray, as she recalls giving them bitcoin “just to test out how it works”.

“I wasn’t surprised by bitcoin doing well, but there were always a lot of risks. There were hacks, regulatory risks and exchanges going bust,” she says. “Crypto used to be messy. Now there are multimillion-dollar companies being built.”

See:  What are all the proliferating Cryptocoins for?

Another early believer is Olivier Janssens, a Belgian-born entrepreneur who states his profession on LinkedIn as an investor in bitcoin since 2010. He is also proudly “self-educated” with an attraction to “libertarian and voluntarist” ideas and forged a career as a software entrepreneur. In 2014, when bitcoin was trading at around €600, he became the first person to pay for a flight by private jet with the cryptocurrency. He settled the bill for the trip from Brussels to Nice with, he estimates, 15 bitcoin — in hindsight, a pretty costly trip. “[That] would be worth about €400,000 today,” he says.

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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org

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It’s time to ditch Chrome which gives Google huge control over how the web works

Wired | | Jun 6 2021

google privacyAs well as collecting your data, Chrome also gives Google a huge amount of control over how the web works

Despite a poor reputation for privacy, Google’s Chrome browser continues to dominate. The web browser has around 65 per cent market share and two billion people are regularly using it. Its closest competitor, Apple’s Safari, lags far behind with under 20 per cent market share. That’s a lot of power, even before you consider Chrome’s data collection practices.

Is Google too big and powerful, and do you need to ditch Chrome for good? Privacy experts say yes. Chrome is tightly integrated with Google’s data gathering infrastructure, including services such as Google search and Gmail – and its market dominance gives it the power to help set new standards across the web. Chrome is one of Google’s most powerful data-gathering tools.

See:  Google Pay’s massive relaunch makes it an all-encompassing money app

Google is currently under fire from privacy campaigners including rival browser makers and regulators for changes in Chrome that will spell the end of third-party cookies, the trackers that follow you as you browse. Although there are no solid plans for Europe yet, Google is planning to replace cookies with its own ‘privacy preserving’ tracking tech called FLoC, which critics say will give the firm even more power at the expense of its competitors due to the sheer scale of Chrome’s user base.

Chrome’s hefty data collection practices are another reason to ditch the browser. According to Apple’s iOS privacy labels, Google’s Chrome app can collect data including your location, search and browsing history, user identifiers and product interaction data for “personalisation” purposes. Google says this gives you the ability to enable features such as the option to save your bookmarks and passwords to your Google Account. But unlike rivals Safari, Microsoft’s Edge and Firefox, Chrome links this data to devices and individuals.

Although Chrome legitimately needs to handle browsing data, it can siphon off a large amount of information about your activities and transmit it to Google, says Rowenna Fielding, founder and director of privacy consultancy Miss IG Geek.

“If you’re using Chrome to browse the internet, even in private mode, Google is watching everything you do online, all the time. This allows Google to build up a detailed and sophisticated picture about your personality, interests, vulnerabilities and triggers.”

When you sync your Google accounts to Chrome, the data slurping doesn’t stop there. Information from other Google-owned products including its email service Gmail and Google search can be combined to form a scarily accurate picture. Chrome data can be added to your geolocation history from Google Maps, the metadata from your Gmail usage, your social graph – who you interact with, both on and offline – the apps you use on your Android phone, and the products you buy with Google Pay. “That creates a very clear picture of who you are and how you live your life,” Fielding says.

See:  Privacy Reform: Back to the Drawing Board For C-11?

As well as gathering information about your online and offline purchases, data from Google Pay can be used “in the same way as data from other Google services,” says Fielding.

“This is not just what you buy, but also your location, device contacts and information, and the links those details provide so you can be identified and profiled across multiple datasets.”

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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org

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Stablecoins: What’s old is new again – speech by Christina Segal-Knowles

Bank of England | Christina Segal-Knowles | Jun 10, 2021

Christina Segal-KnowlesOverview

Christina Segal-Knowles, Executive Director for Financial Markets Infrastructure (FMI) at the Bank of England, talks about . She looks at how they could be regulated, if they are used as a form of payment.  She says, with the right regulation, digital money like stablecoins could have benefits - including cheaper payments with more functionality. And they could potentially have benefits for financial stability. But that requires regulation to hold new forms of money to the same standards we expect of the money we use today.

A regulatory framework

Earlier this week, the Bank of England published a Discussion Paper that examines the implications of stablecoins for its financial and monetary stability mandate. In it we present an illustrative scenario to examine the implications of the emergence of stablecoins and other new forms of digital money. The discussion paper models what would happen if a large number of households and businesses moved their deposits from banks and into a stablecoin or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Contrary to some press headlines, even such a dramatic shift does not inherently constitute a financial stability risk as long as it happens in an orderly manner. In fact findings show that the implications of this in the long term for the ability of households and businesses to get a loan are relatively modest – although there is considerable uncertainty around this result.

See:  Canadian researchers develop CBDC digital currency proposal for Bank of Canada

As such, while other risks may arise during a transitionary phase, the most significant risk arises from the potential for stablecoins in particular to undermine confidence in money and payments, and hence in the wider financial system.

As we discussed a few minutes ago, the risk of a loss of confidence in the credibility and stability of private money is not theoretical. Loss of confidence in private money can be a major threat to financial stability.

But it is equally true that private money can be made acceptable as a widespread means of payment – indeed, as I covered earlier, the vast majority of money held for transactions in the United Kingdom is already private. So, with the right regulation, a stablecoin could potentially be made safe for wide-scale use.

Our existing regulatory framework seeks to ensure that the public is able to trust the reliability and stability of the money it uses every day. Banks are subject to extensive rules and requirements to ensure that consumers can use privately-issued money with confidence and interchangeably with cash. These core rules and requirements were developed over time – in many cases via trial and error, with new rules introduced following financial crises.

Financial market infrastructure firms are also regulated to ensure that the assets they use for settlement – the underpinnings of our financial transactions, whether we’re buying milk or clearing a derivative – are public money issued by a central bank wherever possible. Where that’s not possible they are permitted to settle in money deemed to be a close substitute – commercial bank money.

FFCON21 On-demand Video:  Central Bank Digital Currencies CBDCs - The Future of Money

If stablecoins seek to be acceptable widespread substitutes for commercial bank deposits as a means of payment, it stands to reason that stablecoins will need to meet the core elements of our existing regulatory framework for private money which underpins confidence that it is interchangeable with cashfootnote [8]. These are:

  • A legal claim – to allow for prompt redemption at all times, for the amount initially deposited, and at no cost to the depositor; In other words – the little boy’s right in ‘Mary Poppins’ to demand that the bank ‘give him back his money.
  • Capital requirements – to lower the risk of insolvency, these are calculated based on the nature of the risks issuers undertake (credit, operational, market risks); they act as a cushion to absorb losses, reducing the chances that a firm fails.
  • Liquidity requirements – to ensure redemptions can be met in most circumstances – supported by eligibility for central bank facilities where relevant, to meet firms’ liquidity needs in extremis. This ensures that temporary liquidity issues arising from difficulties selling assets backing the value of stablecoins don’t result in firm failure; and
  • A backstop to compensate depositors – or in this case coinholders – such as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) (or in other countries deposit insurance), in case of failure. This ensures that, even if a firm fails, transactional deposits up to a certain amount remain exchangeable for central bank money. Notably – one of the key responses to the Northern Rock episode was to increase FSCS coverage in the United Kingdom.

This is not to say the regulatory model for stablecoins needs to be identical to banks. It could include different applications of the above features. For example, if stablecoin operators are restricted to backing themselves in high quality liquid assets they won’t need regulation to cover credit risk. If they only back themselves in central bank reserves, which are inherently liquid, they don’t need liquidity facilities. Ultimately, the specific requirements may well be different from those applicable to banks, but the outcome will be the same – that systemic stablecoins used as money will offer the same protection to coin holders as commercial bank money.

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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org

NCFA Financial Innovation MapNCFA Innovation Opportunity BriefsNCFA Fintech Insights
NCFA Fintech WhispererNCFA Fintech Fridays PodcastNCFA Weekly Newsletter

 

Aspects of Financial Literacy That Help in Life and Work

Guest Post | Jun 14, 2021

Financial literacy is critial

Financial literacy means obtaining the appropriate skills and knowledge required to make smart and informed decisions touching money. A person that is literate in finance should know the main definitions, feel confident when speaking of money services and possibilities. A correctly postured financial literacy allows using all instruments keeping their risks, advantages, and disadvantages in mind all the time. A person having these skills can evaluate the market situations correctly, plan budgets and expenses, make savings, and, of course, avoid debts when possible.

Why Financial Literacy is a Critical Skill

Financial literacy is necessary to keep oneself safe in emergencies and to improve your life quality. It is important for a person in particular and for financial institutions and states in general. People making wrong decisions about their finances cause credit debts making them refuse certain goods. Businesses failing to rule their budgets correctly result in profit losses and bankruptcies. State governments making mistakes in financial planning cause a significant reduction in their citizens' comfort and wellbeing, increase numbers of frauds and criminals, lose economic stability, and make people use unreliable instruments to keep their incomes at minimally acceptable levels.

See:  The Importance of Education in the Modern World

Here below, you will be able to read more about the most critical aspects of financial literacy. Staying aware of them will help you live a better life and build a career as a respected specialist at a time. Why so? It’s because the skills and qualities required to provide correct accounting can boost your effectiveness as a worker, manager, or business owner.

Finance and Budget Planning

A state or a business always has its budget monitored. A person or family should monitor and plan their incomes and expenses as well. This basic skill of financial literacy alone is able to boost your life quality, improve your self-discipline, confidence, mental and physical comfort, and stability. It’s logical because when you plan your finances, your expenses won’t exceed your incomes. And of course, you’ll have an “emergency bag” to use when necessary.

Additionally, the budget planning skill allows you to devote some part of your income to progress in reaching your big financial goals every month. That’s a necessary ability and knowledge to reach success in a contemporary world.

Keeping Control and Security

Thieves and frauds will always be there if you’ve got money in your bank account or in your pocket. So, it is critical to monitor all transactions thoroughly and to keep your personal data secured. A financially literate person is difficult to trick them with pyramid schemes and other money fraud concepts. Thieves come up with new ways to steal your money every day, so it is more than useful to know how to maintain the security of your funds and private info.

Attention to Avoid Risks and Maximize Benefits

Financial products and services became a part of one’s routine long ago. However, only some clients are attentive and careful enough to reveal the user agreement details. So, if you are financially literate, you know that reading those papers is far more important than even checking a writersperhour review.

Being attentive with the required payments allows you to save more, and monitoring profitable propositions by banks and services, like cashback and bonuses, is the way to improve your financial situations. Additionally, you’ll avoid unpleasant surprises and unexpected fees.

The same approach should work for all the financial products that are new to you. The habit of being pedant and thorough in making decisions is highly valued by most employers. Moreover, you’ll be glad to develop it as an owner of a startup or a growing business.

Knowledge about Credit Rating

In a modern world, it is vital to know as much as you can about credit ratings in general and to monitor your credit history in particular. A good credit rating is important for your financial health because it can play the main role when a crisis arises in your life or when you want to make a big purchase. A bad credit background makes it much more challenging to achieve your financial goals.

Taking Reasonable Loans

Borrowing someone else’s money is not always the best solution for your problems. However, life can put you in a situation where you won’t be able to cope with everything without taking that loan. This aspect of financial literacy becomes crucial when you take an education loan and remains among the most impactful things throughout your adulthood.

See:  Renewing the National Strategy for Financial Literacy

The key to taking a loan that won’t hit your finances more than you expect is studying the topic and picking the right kind of service. After that, it is wise to compare propositions from several banks before you make a final choice. Here again, discipline and attention will be your best allies helping to count things up and predict possible difficulties.

 


The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org

NCFA Financial Innovation MapNCFA Innovation Opportunity BriefsNCFA Fintech Insights
NCFA Fintech WhispererNCFA Fintech Fridays PodcastNCFA Weekly Newsletter

 

Should the State or the Market Provide Digital Currency?

Cato Institute | Lawrence H. White | Spring/Summer 2021

public vs privateThe fact that the historical development of payment systems has been driven by private initiative, not state action, is often overlooked.

The Myth of the Entrepreneurial State

Proposals for central bank expansion from wholesale into retail payments often appear to subscribe to what Dierdre McCloskey and Alberto Mingardi (2020) call “the myth of the entrepreneurial state.” McCloskey and Mingardi conclude from economic history that dynamic economic growth — during and since the Industrial Revolution — is disproportionately founded on bottom‐​up innovation and competition. Top‐​down direction and state‐​owned enterprises, because they need not make profits to continue, more often do harm than good. Even cherry‐​picked examples of state entrepreneurship can fall apart on inspection.

See:  Ripple Pilots a Private Ledger for Central Banks Launching CBDCs

It is a myth that Al Gore invented the internet. It is likewise a myth that DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) invented the internet: it funded data lines and packet‐​switching research, but it did not intend or anticipate that innovative users and private entrepreneurs would develop email, let alone e‐​commerce. It is a myth that the Pony Express is an example of technological innovation by the U.S. Post Office (it was a private firm, not under contract to the Post Office). The reason for the disproportionate success of private enterprise at finding gains from trade is the incentive provided by profit and loss. McCloskey and Mingardi (2020: 74) write:

“Political decision‐​making is less directly aimed at human welfare than is market decision‐​making” because “a market profit comes only when other humans find themselves better off when they purchase a product.”

Survival of a subsidized state‐​owned enterprise does not require a market profit.

It would not be necessary to make these elementary points if those who call for central bankers to provide retail payment services would address the elementary question posed by McCloskey and Mingardi (2020: 74):

“Why would someone with no skin in the game do better than people who have plenty of such skin?” Why would you expect good retail service from people who have no experience at providing it, and who have little to gain (or lose) by doing a good (or poor) job?

Ignoring this question leads to the error they call “vindicating bureaucracies over market forces.”

See:  Techlash continues to batter technology sector

In a recent paper, Markus K. Brunnermeier and Dirk Niepelt (2019: 27) ask, “When does a swap between private and public money leave the equilibrium allocation and price system unchanged?” They conclude: “Our results imply that CBDC coupled with central bank pass‐​through funding need not imply a credit crunch nor undermine financial stability” (p. 27). By “pass‐​through funding,” they mean that the central bank automatically lends to commercial banks all the funds it gains by the migration of commercial bank deposits into CBDC. Requiring that a CBDC incorporate such a mechanism can be motivated by recognizing that financial intermediation would be less efficient in the hands of a state monopoly than in a competitive private market. Accordingly, the authors write: “By funding the banks rather than purchasing bank assets, the central bank avoids interfering directly with the credit allocation mechanism — only banks screen and monitor investment projects” (p. 29). But leaving the volume of commercial bank intermediation unchanged is only one side of the balance sheet. The authors regrettably do not explicitly consider the inefficiency of a state‐​owned monopoly at providing retail payments.5

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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org

NCFA Financial Innovation MapNCFA Innovation Opportunity BriefsNCFA Fintech Insights
NCFA Fintech WhispererNCFA Fintech Fridays PodcastNCFA Weekly Newsletter

 

US financial regulator warns against strict cryptocurrency rules

Financial Post | Kiran Stacey | Jun 9, 2021

Hester Peirce_Commissioner says SEC should ‘gamify our communications with investors’

A senior US financial regulator has spoken out against attempts by her colleagues to regulate cryptocurrencies more strictly, warning that doing so runs the risk of discouraging investors. Hester Peirce, one of two Republicans among the five commissioners at the Securities and Exchange Commission, told the Financial Times she was worried about the push by several US regulators to play a more active role in the $1.5tn cryptocurrency market.

Her comments expose a split at the top of the SEC just as Gary Gensler, its chair, spearheads an effort to bring the fast-growing cryptocurrency market more in line with other types of financial assets.

“I am concerned that the initial reaction of a regulator is always to say ‘I want to grab hold of this and make it like the markets I already regulate’,” Peirce said in an interview. “  I am not sure that’s going to be great for innovation.”

Peirce previously researched financial regulation at the Mercatus Center, a free-market think-tank, and had worked as a lawyer on the SEC staff. She joined the SEC in 2018 after being appointed by former president Donald Trump.

See:  Series of Essays: Regulation in the Era of Fintech

Trump cast doubt on bitcoin in an interview on Monday. “My opinion is . . . the currency of this world should be the dollar,” he told Fox Business Network. “And I don’t think we should have all of the bitcoins of the world out there. I think they should regulate them very, very high.”

US regulators have become increasingly concerned about cryptocurrencies after wild swings in some of the world’s most commonly traded digital assets. This year bitcoin has soared from just under $30,000 to over $60,000, before crashing back to about $33,000, prompting senior government officials to call for greater investor protections.

The Treasury department announced last month it would require cryptocurrency transfers worth $10,000 or more to be reported to the US tax authorities. Officials from the country’s three leading federal bank regulators — the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — have begun discussing how best to regulate the market.

Members of the Senate banking committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the potential merits of a digital currency backed by the Fed, which some hope will provide more stability to the market.

See:  FFCON21 On-Demand VIDEO: Interview with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce

Gensler is pushing to update America’s rules on investing in cryptocurrencies. He told members of Congress last month there were “gaps” in the regulatory system and called for laws to clarify which regulator should oversee crypto exchanges in particular. He added that he wanted to provide crypto investors with similar protections to those they would have at the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.

Peirce’s comments suggest that Gensler will encounter pushback from inside his own agency as he pursues his agenda.

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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org

NCFA Financial Innovation MapNCFA Innovation Opportunity BriefsNCFA Fintech Insights
NCFA Fintech WhispererNCFA Fintech Fridays PodcastNCFA Weekly Newsletter