Law Commons^™

New Tech, Old Problem: The Rise Of Virtual Rent-To-Own Agreements, Carrie Floyd

Fellow, Adjunct, Lecturer, and Research Scholar Works

This Article explores how fintech has disrupted the traditional rent-to-own (RTO) industry, giving rise to new, virtual RTO agreements (VirTOs). These VirTOs have enabled the RTO industry to expand into the service industry and to markets for products not traditionally associated with rentals, such as vehicle repairs, pet ownership, and medical devices. This Article analyzes this development.

RTO agreements purport to rent products to a consumer until the conclusion of a set number of renewable rental payments, at which point ownership transfers. The fundamental characteristic of these agreements – and why they are not regulated as loans – are that …

How To Understand China's Approach To Central Bank Digital Currency?, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

China's central bank digital currency (CBDC), digital yuan or e-CNY, is likely to profoundly affect the international financial system. China's CBDC is fast evolving. Understanding the influencing factors of China's CBDC will likely be crucial to explore its future direction. Major influencing factors include (i) China's perception and conception of regulation and technology, (ii) complementarity between China's preferences and CBDC development, (iii) domestic and international legitimacy, and (iv) institutional development. This paper argues that these influencing factors contribute to China's likely approach of selectively reshaping the international financial system. Given the potential wide-ranging implications of the introduction of CBDC globally, …

Regulatory Sandboxes Enable Pragmatic Blockchain Regulation, Joshua Durham

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Since blockchain technology supports digitally-native money, the centralized chokepoints that governments have traditionally targeted to regulate commerce no longer apply to our (digital) property. However, competent regulation furthers basic public policy goals and should enable responsible innovation of this promising technology. This Article discusses pragmatic policies that enable responsible innovation by cultivating regulatory expertise required to write enforceable rules. Responsible innovation is necessary because unlike the early internet, where programmers could manipulate simple colors and text on webpages, these same individuals can now create financial services applications that manipulate actual money—we are faced with an inescapable reality that more is …

The World Moved On Without Me: Redefining Contraband In A Technology-Driven World For Youth Detained In Washington State, Stephanie A. Lowry

Seattle University Law Review

If you ask a teenager in the United States to show you one of their favorite memories, they will likely show you a picture or video on their cell phone. This is because Americans, especially teenagers, love cell phones. Ninety-seven percent of all Americans own a cell phone according to a continuously updated survey by the Pew Research Center. For teenagers aged thirteen to seventeen, the number is roughly 95%. For eighteen to twenty-nine-year-olds, the number grows to 100%. On average, eight to twelve-year-old’s use roughly five and a half hours of screen media per day, in comparison to thirteen …

Fintech And Anti-Money Laundering Regulation: Implementing An International Regulatory Hierarchy Premised On Financial Innovation, Nicholas A Roide

Texas A&M Law Review

Innovations in financial technology (“fintech”) have rippling effects across global markets. Fintech firms utilizing virtual assets and disintermediating blockchain technology continue to rapidly grow in strength and number. As systemic risk mounts due to the inter-jurisdictional nature of fintech, antimony laundering (“AML”) regulators must search for an international answer to maintain global financial stability and protect consumers against illicit activities. A variety of solutions have appeared within local AML regulatory frameworks. These frameworks tend to function as a hierarchy with three ordered objectives: market integrity, rule clarity, and innovation. However, frameworks often place too much emphasis on market integrity and …

Covid-19 And Business Interruption Insurance: The Constitutionality Of Legislatively Mandated Coverage, William G. Arnold

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disruptive Technologies And Digital Transformation Of The Financial Services Industry In Singapore: Regulatory Framework And Challenges Ahead, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper seeks to provide a general overview of the impact of new technologies in the financial services industry in Singapore. For that purpose, it starts by emphasizing that technology has always played an important role in the financial industry. However, new disruptive technologies, as well as the increasing use of data in the financial services industry, have created new challenges and opportunities for the financial sector. While Singapore has managed to address these challenges by adopting one of the quickest and most innovative and comprehensive responses probably observed internationally, financial markets –and particularly the fintech industry– are constantly evolving. …

To Innovate Or Regulate: How To Regulate Cloud Service Providers Within Financial Institutions, Morgan Willard

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

The purpose of this article is to analyze whether cloud service providers should be considered Systemically Important Financial Market Utilities (SIFMU), subjecting them to increased oversight. It also considers the risks and benefits associated with the use of the technology by financial institutions, as well as potential alternatives. Overall, this article argues that cloud service providers do not fall under the current SIFMU framework, and any regulation of the technology should strive to strike a balance between innovation and safe regulation.

A General Defense Of Information Fiduciaries, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

Countless high-profile abuses of user data by leading technology companies have raised a basic question: should firms that traffic in user data be held legally responsible to their users as “information fiduciaries”? Privacy legislation to impose fiduciary-like duties of care, confidentiality, and loyalty on data collectors enjoys bipartisan support but faces strong opposition from scholars. First, critics argue that the information fiduciary concept flies in the face of fundamental corporate law principles that require firms to prioritize shareholder interests over those of users. Second, it is said that the overwhelming self-interest of digital companies makes fiduciary loyalty impossible as a …

Disabling Fascism: A Struggle For The Last Laugh In Trump’S America, Madeleine M. Plasencia

Articles

Six years before the start of the Second World War and seven months after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany, the German government instituted the “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases.” The moral depravity that started as a sterilization program targeting “useless eaters” and lives “unworthy of life” degenerated into a “euthanasia” program that murdered at least 250,000 people with mental and physical dis/abilities as an “open secret” until 1941, when the Bishop of Munster, Clemens August Count von Galen, delivered a sermon protesting the killing of “unproductive people.”2 Although the Trump Administration has not yet driven …

Foreign Direct Investments Into Fintech And Blockchain Technology Startups In Latin America, Y. Tatiana Clavijo, Hernán Pantaleón

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Technology is changing our everyday lives at a faster rate every minute from artificial intelligence and medical advances in robotics to the upcoming self-driving cars. Every sector of our lives is being impacted, disrupted, and constantly altered by innovations, including our finances. In the developed markets, fintech, or financial technology, is the new and exciting area of product innovation for financial services. The innovations rely on the internet, blockchain technology, and the new and highly controversial digital currencies. Consequently, new digital platforms and mobile applications create new possibilities while being accessible to more people at a lower cost across borders. …

Law School News: A Busy, Busy Time In Admiralty Law 10-18-2019, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

In Code(Rs) We Trust: Software Developers As Fiduciaries In Public Blockchains, Angela Walch

Faculty Articles

A decade into Bitcoin's existence, governance questions around it and other public blockchains abound. Do these 'decentralized' structures even have governance? If so, what does it look like? Who has power, and how is it channeled or constrained? Are power structures implicit or explicit? How can we improve upon the ad hoc governance structures of early blockchains? ls ‘on-chain governance,’ like that proposed by Tezos and others, the path forward?

In August 2016, in the aftermath of the DAO theft and resulting Ethereum hard fork, I argued in American Banker that the core developers and significant miners of public blockchains …

Bitcoin, Virtual Currencies, And The Struggle Of Law And Regulation To Keep Pace

Marquette Law Review

At less than a decade old, Bitcoin and other virtual currencies have had a major societal impact, and proven to be a unique payment systems challenge for law enforcement, financial regulatory authorities worldwide, and the investment community. Rapid introduction and diffusion of technological changes throughout society, such as the blockchain that serves as Bitcoin’s crypto-foundation, continue to exceed the ability of law and regulation to keep pace. During 2017 alone, the market price of Bitcoin rose 1,735%, from about $970 to $14,292, causing an investor feeding frenzy. As of September 11, 2018, a total of 1,935 cryptocurrencies are reported, having …

Regulating Fintech, William Magnuson

William J. Magnuson

The financial crisis of 2008 has led to dramatic changes in the way that finance is regulated: the Dodd-Frank Act imposed broad and systemic regulation on the industry on a level not seen since the New Deal. But the financial regulatory reforms enacted since the crisis have been premised on an outdated idea of what financial services look like and how they are provided. Regulation has failed to take into account the rise of financial technology (or “fintech”) firms and the fundamental changes they have ushered in on a variety of fronts, from the way that banking works, to the …

Technology Regulation By Default: Platforms, Privacy, And The Cfpb, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

In the absence of a technology-focused regulator, diverse administrative agencies have been forced to develop regulatory models for governing their sphere of the data economy. These largely uncoordinated efforts offer a laboratory of regulatory experimentation on governance architecture. This symposium essay explores what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has done in its first several years to regulate financial technology (“fintech”), in the context of broader technology-related concerns identified in the literature. It begins with a survey of what the CFPB has undertaken using more traditional administrative agency tools—enforcement and rulemaking—in areas such as privacy, consumer control over data, and …

Regulating Fintech, William Magnuson

Faculty Scholarship

The financial crisis of 2008 has led to dramatic changes in the way that finance is regulated: the Dodd-Frank Act imposed broad and systemic regulation on the industry on a level not seen since the New Deal. But the financial regulatory reforms enacted since the crisis have been premised on an outdated idea of what financial services look like and how they are provided. Regulation has failed to take into account the rise of financial technology (or “fintech”) firms and the fundamental changes they have ushered in on a variety of fronts, from the way that banking works, to the …

Fintech Industrial Banks And Beyond: How Banking Innovations Affect The Federal Safety Net, Cinar Oney

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The FinTech industry has been utilizing technological innovations to provide services traditionally offered by the banking and financial industry. Until now, many FinTech firms engaging in these activities had non-bank state licenses. The uncertainties surrounding their current business models and the desire to expand the operations led some of these firms to apply for industrial bank charters. An industrial bank charter is one of the few ways for a commercial firm to control a depository institution and allows FinTech firms to retain their technological investments that are not directly related to banking. However, access of these industrial banks to the …

The Future Is Mobile: Financial Inclusion And Technological Innovation In The Emerging World, Eleanor Lumsden

Publications

The digital revolution is in full bloom and technology is being used to solve the world’s most challenging problems, yet traditional banking excludes many of the world’s poorest from taking advantage of the full fruits of the financial system. Especially in developing countries, implementing mobile financial systems can speed financial inclusion and spur economic growth. There is space for regulatory reform that addresses concerns with data security and consumer privacy yet does not stifle innovation. Throughout history, resistance to innovation has generally proved futile, and countries that refuse to change risk missing opportunities.

The Commodification Of Cryptocurrency, Neil Tiwari

Michigan Law Review

Cryptocurrencies are digital tokens built on blockchain technology. This allows for a product that is fully decentralized, with no need for a third-party intermediary like a government or financial institution. Cryptocurrency creators use initial coin offerings (ICOs) to raise capital to build their tokens. Cryptocurrency ICOs are problematic because they do not fit neatly within either of two traditional categories—securities or commodities. Each of these categories has their own regulatory agency: the SEC for securities and the CFTC for commodities. At first blush, ICOs seem to be a sale of securities subject to regulation by the SEC, but this is …

Collection Of Cryptocurrency Customer-Information: Tax Enforcement Mechanism Or Invasion Of Privacy?, Austin Elliott

Duke Law & Technology Review

After granting permission to the Internal Revenue Service to serve a digital exchange company a summons for user information, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California created some uncertainty regarding the privacy of cryptocurrencies. The IRS views this information gathering as necessary for monitoring compliance with Notice 2014-21, which classifies cryptocurrencies as property for tax purposes. Cryptocurrency users, however, view the attempt for information as an infringement on their privacy rights and are seeking legal protection. This Issue Brief investigates the future tax implications of Notice 2014-21 and considers possible routes the cryptocurrency market can take to …

The Path Of The Blockchain Lexicon (And The Law), Angela Walch

Faculty Articles

The terminology around blockchain technology is notoriously confusing, with disputes over whether a blockchain is the same as a distributed ledger or whether an appcoin is the same as a protocol token. In this article, I examine the difficulties the rapidly shifting, contested vocabulary poses for regulators seeking to understand, govern, and potentially use blockchain technology, and I offer suggestions for how to fight through the haze of unclear language.

I provide examples of the fluctuating, contested language in the blockchain technology space and describe the forces at play in shaping the language. I then lay out the problems the …

Buying Teams, Andres Sawicki

Seattle University Law Review

The Sixth Annual Berle Symposium reflects on Margaret Blair and Lynn Stout’s classic article: A Team Production Theory of Corporate Law. Blair and Stout recast the modern law of public corporations through the lens of the team production theory of the firm. Here, I apply Blair and Stout’s insights—emphasizing the value of team production, independent monitors, and intellectual property rights—to a novel corporate transaction structure: the acqui-hire. In an acqui-hire, a publicly owned technology firm wants to add a start-up’s engineers. Instead of simply hiring them, though, it buys the start-up, discards most of its assets, and retains the start-up’s …

Copyright, Consumerism, And The Cloud: Proposing Standards-Essential Technology To Support First Sale In Digital Copyright, Marco Puccia

Seattle University Law Review

America’s entertainment industry, and the creative talent that drives it, is a national treasure. Equally valuable, however, is America’s drive and commitment toward technological innovation. These two sectors have been in tension since at least 1908, when the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to determine whether the makers of piano rolls for automatically playing pianos had to pay royalties to the composers. Since that time, the entertainment industry has continued to use copyright law to resist advances in technological innovation that it views as a threat to its existing business models. This Note seeks to provide the necessary context and …

Practice Lean! Implementing Technology-Driven Lean Six Sigma In A Law Firm, Frank A. Urbanic

frank a urbanic

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Conflicts: International Tender And Exchange Offers In The 1990s, John C. Maguire

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Quebec's Sales Recording Module (Srm): Fighting The Zapper, Phantomware, And Tax Fraud With Technology, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Zappers: Tax Fraud, Technology And Terrorist Funding, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

"Zappers," or automated sales suppression devices, have brought unheard of efficiencies and economies of scale to a very simple tax fraud - skimming cash sales at point of sale (POS) terminals (electronic cash registers). Until recently the largest tax fraud case in Connecticut, also the "largest computer driven tax-evasion case in the nation," was a zapper case. Stew Leonard's Dairy in Norwalk Connecticut skimmed $17 million in receipts and hid the cash in St. Martin (a Caribbean island). Talal Chahine and his wife, Elfat El Aouar, owners of the La Shish restaurant chain in Detroit Michigan have the dubious honor …

Information Society Challenges To Financial Regulation, Caroline Bradley

Articles

No abstract provided.

Risk Management For The Age Of Information – The New Financial Order: Risk In The 21st Century, Robert J. Shiller, Princeton University Press, 2003, Michael Pereira

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.