Below is a summary of some of the significant legal and regulatory actions that occurred over the past weeks. This alert is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all such developments, but rather a selection of publicly-reported news that may be of particular interest. These are the Fintech updates that ties to the post Blockchain in Review – Weeks of April 21st through May 4th, 2018 from our sister blog, VirtualCurrencyReport.
CFTC Issues Request for Input on LabCFTC Prize Competitions
LabCFTC of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), tasked with leading the Commission’s FinTech initiative, issued a Request for Input in which it solicited the general public for ideas and topics for innovation competitions Under the Science Prize Competition Act, which became law in 2017, government agencies may hold competitions and award prizes, which the CFTC seeks to do in the areas of FinTech and RegTech, to promoting market-enhancing development. LabCFTC is seeking input specifically on (i) areas/topics of focus for potential innovation competitions; and (ii) how best to structure competitions to maximize their impact in financial markets. The Request for Information mentions possible competition topics including automated trading, “big data” analysis and interpretation (developing data visualization tools), the use of AI in trade execution, smart contracts that calculate payments in real-time, behavioral biometrics to detect and combat online fraud, and blockchain/DLTs. All comments must be received by July 24, 2018 in the Federal Register on the CFTC’s website.