Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, is moving closer to regulating cryptocurrencies with its own version of a Bitcoin law.
A new report by NextGen Crowdfunding documents increasing use of Reg. A+ as the regulatory umbrella for real estate crowdfunding and other financial offerings; Reg. A+ was finalized in June 2015 as a means for non-accredited investors to access private offerings; companies can raise up to $50 million per year under Reg. A+; across all sectors, 131 companies to date have filed under Reg. A+, with 38% of these filings being by real estate and financial services platforms and many others being IT startups; roughly half of the filers are using "Tier 1" rules for Reg. A+, meaning they will continue to register in individual states as well as at the federal level, and half are filing "Tier 2", seeking national fundraising scope while avoiding the added prudence of vetting against state rules. Source
Indonesia's Financial Services Authority has issued regulations for alternative lenders; the regulations are slightly less strict than expected; they require fintech companies to have capital of 1 billion rupiah ($74,239) when registering their business and capital of 2.5 billion rupiah ($187,210) when applying for a business license; the regulations do not set any limits on interest rates. Source
After the FTX crash rocked the crypto world, Brazil was one of the fastest nations to adapt to the new scenario. Now what's next?
An investigation regarding fraudulent fundraising from Chinese peer-to-peer lender, Ezubao, has been underway since February 2016; regulators have reported all of the fundraising projects on the site were fraudulent and that the firm collected $7.6 billion from approximately 900,000 investors; Chinese regulators have recovered $1.5 billion in assets which include real estate, jewelry, stocks, cars and helicopters bought for company executives of the parent company Yucheng Group. Source
The Federal Reserve has announced it will hold an industry conference on financial innovation, titled, "Financial Innovation: Online Lending to Households and Small Businesses"; the event will take place on December 2 and will involve academics, industry participants and policymakers; discussions will focus on academic research and the evolving online lending industry. Source
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has announced it will create an Innovation Office with staff in Washington, New York and San Francisco; the new Innovation Office is part of a broader framework for responsible innovation also released this week; the Innovation Office will provide a dedicated staff of government officials focused on innovation affecting federally chartered banks and the banking system; it will also seek to manage the OCC's framework for responsible innovation for banks and nonbanks. Source
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released a report on financial innovation; the report entitled “Project Catalyst Report: Promoting Consumer Friendly Innovation” is an effort from the CFPB to expand its knowledge and inform consumers on the benefits of financial innovation. One specific approaches reflected upon is the CFPB's "Trial Disclosure Waiver Policy" to test and revise disclosure statements in a controlled environment, and no-action letters. Source
In September, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry discussed his proposal for fintech regulation which he said would likely include a fintech charter; on Friday, Thomas Curry is expected to announce his plans for the fintech charter; potential provisions to be included with the fintech charter announcement include receivership powers which would provide support from the government if capital funding fails. Source
It was the 19th century German leader Otto von Bismarck who said, “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to...