Banking and Finance Law Commons^™

Dealing With Disruption: Emerging Approaches To Fintech Regulation, Saule T. Omarova

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

“Fintech” refers to a variety of digital assets, technologies, and infrastructure that deal with the operation of today’s financial markets. The regulation of this presents both legal and regulatory challenges. This article examines the regulatory responses to fintech disruption; specifically, the “experimentation” approach, the “incorporation” approach, and the “accommodation” approach. These approaches provide a baseline for further discussion and policy analysis in response to “Fintech.”

The Role Of Intent In The Rise Of Individual Accountability In Aml-Bsa Enforcement Actions, Tyler Halloran

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The statutory framework which prohibits individuals at financial institutions from engaging in money laundering attributes criminal or civil liability on the basis of an individual’s culpability with respect to the prohibited conduct. A recent Department of Justice policy shift has begun to place a greater focus on the prosecution of individuals within corporations. This shift has led to increased prosecutions of compliance personnel and bank officials in recent years.

Through analysis of recent cases, this Note seeks to explore how the requirement of intentional and/or willful conduct defines the potential for criminal and/or civil exposure for compliance personnel and bank …

The Layers Of Digital Financial Innovation: Charting A Regulatory Response, Teresa Rodriguez De Las Heras Ballell

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The increasing penetration of digital technologies in financial markets is evidenced by promising adoption rates among users, expanding presence of fintech firms and bigtech providing techfin services, and the growing use of fintech solutions by incumbents. The increasingly popular term "fintech" captures the accelerated transformation of contemporary financial markets driven and enabled by technology, and encapsulates its multifarious potential impact on services, market structures, and business models. This Article first aims to devise and propose an analytical framework to understand the digital challenges to financial regulation based on the "layers of digital financial innovation" theory. Accordingly, digital innovation (fintech) is …

Framing Regulation Around The Potential Liabilities Of Parties In The Blockchain & Smart Contract Industry, Jeceaca An

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Blockchains, which have been most significantly utilized by the technology, media, and telecommunication industry (TMT) and the financial sector, amassed global attention in the 2010s. This surging popularity may, however, cause the public to overlook the core characteristics of blockchain technology, and to consequently be unaware of the inherent risks at play when engaging with blockchains. Simply put, blockchain technology is an information storing technology that can be utilized in various ways, such as services to facilitate cryptocurrency exchanges and smart contracts. The recent widespread use of blockchain technology by unique parties has raised questions of how to deal with …

The Debt Collection Pandemic, Pamela Foohey, Dalie Jimenez, Chris Odinet

Articles by Maurer Faculty

To curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus set to overwhelm the United States' healthcare system, in mid-March 2020, the federal government declared a national emergency. Many states followed suit by implementing shelter-at-home orders and people began social distancing across America. As of this writing, the United States' reaction to the unique and alarming threat of COVID 19 has partially succeeded in slowing the virus's spread. Saving people's lives, however, has come at a severe economic cost. Economic activity plummeted. Unemployment numbers soured to figures not seen since the Great Depression and countless other people saw their income disappear.

Americans' …

Willfulness In A Post-Robare World: Evidence Of Subjective Intent, Not Negligence Conduct, Is Needed To Show Willful Violations Of Securities Laws, Kevin Aguirre

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The D.C. Circuit's holding in Robare Group, Ltd., v. SEC, potentially marks the end of at least twenty years of permissive judicial interpretation of the term "willful," as found in various provisions of securities laws-including the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Traditionally, willful violations of securities laws only required evidence that defendants were aware of their conduct, not that they knew that their conduct was unlawful. This low burden of proof operates in practice as a negligence standard. However, Robare makes a key distinction between evidence of negligent conduct and "subjectively intentional" violations under section 207 of the Advisers Act …

The Case For Accountability & Transparency: How Corporate Asset Forfeiture Creates A Conflict Of Interest, Tiffany J. Klinger

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Asset forfeiture is a tool used by law enforcement to seize property or profits related to criminal activity. Due to the public's growing distain of asset forfeiture, congressional and state reform has attempted to curtail the use of civil asset forfeiture over the past twenty years. However, little attention has been given where asset forfeiture is used against corporations. This Note sheds light as to how asset forfeiture is used against the organizational defendant and makes the following observations: First, asset forfeiture is a powerful tool in corporate criminal proceedings; however, forfeiture lacks the procedural restraints that are placed on …

Book Review, Roberto Rosas

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Electronic Payments: Guide On Legal And Regulatory Reforms And Best Practices For Developing Countries, Benjamin Geva

Articles & Book Chapters

Electronic payments (e-payments) occur whenever payment instructions, initiated by a device such as a computer or mobile phone, enter a payments system via the Internet or any other telecommunications network. E-payments can be assisted by non-banking channels. They enhance the speed, efficiency and safety of payments. However, to reap all such benefits, e-payments require new legal and regulatory solutions to accommodate both the promise and risks inherent in the quickening pace of development. This Guide sets out a general framework addressing e-payment systems in a broad international/cross-border context, as well as addresses regulatory principles, risk of legal uncertainty and e-payments …

Do Blockchain Technologies Make Us Safer? Do Cryptocurrencies Necessarily Make Us Less Safe?, Sarah Jane Hughes

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This essay is based on a presentation made on January 24, 2020 at the invitation of the Texas Journal of International Law and the Strauss Center for National Security at the University of Texas. That presentation focused on the two questions mentioned in the title of this essay – Do Blockchain Technologies Make Us Safer? And Do Cryptocurrencies Necessarily Make Us Less Safe? The essay presents answers to the two questions: “yes” and “probably yes.” This essay begins with some level-setting on different types of blockchain technologies and of cryptocurrencies, and gives some background materials on global and national responses …

Bayview Loan Servicing, Llc V. Providence Business Loan Fund, Inc., 200 A.3d 153 (R.I. 2019)., Ethan M. Armitano

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Payday, Yonathan A. Arbel

Articles

Legislation lags behind technology all too often. While trillions of dollars are exchanged in online transactions-safely, cheaply, and instantaneously-workers still must wait two weeks to a month to receive payments from their employers. In the modern economy, workers are effectively lending money to their employers, as they wait for earned wages to be paid.

The same worker who taps a credit card to pay for groceries in semiautomated checkout lines depends on dated payroll systems that only transfer payments on a "payday." Workers, especially those living paycheck-to-paycheck, are hard-pressed to meet their daily needs and turn to expensive, short-term credit …

ความเหมาะสมของการนำหลักการที่นำเสนอภายใต้มาตรการจัดเก็บภาษี ขั้นต่ำเพื่อป้องกันการหลีกเลี่ยงภาษีโดยการถ่ายโอนกำไร (Pillar Two) ของ Oecd มาปรับใช้กับกลุ่มประเทศกำลังพัฒนา, อุษา เขียวมณี

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

No abstract provided.

ปัญหาการนำหนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรแบบกลุ่ม (Class Ruling) มาปรับใช้กับการเก็บภาษีฝ่ายสรรพากร, อัษฎาวุธ ไกรสิทธิ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

เอกัตศึกษาฉบับนี้จัดทําขึ้นเพื่อมุ่งศึกษาเกี่ยวกับการนําหนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรแบบกลุ่ม(Class Rulings) ในกรณีที่มีกลุ่มผู้เสียภาษีเดียวกันเช่น กลุ่มผู้ถือหุ้นของบริษัท กลุ่มนายจ้างหรือกลุ่มลูกจ้างในธุรกิจเครือ เดียวกันที่มีความเกี่ยวข้องกับธุรกรรมทางภาษีเดียวกัน มีข้อเท็จจริงและข้อกฎหมายภาษีอากรแบบเดียวกัน ซึ่งใน ปัจจุบันฝ่ายสรรพากรไทยยังไม่มีการนําหนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรแบบกลุ่ม(Class Rulings) มาปรับใช้กับการ ให้คําแนะนําทางกฎหมายโดยการตอบหนังสือข้อหารือภาษีอากรทําให้ผู้เสียภาษีไม่สามารถรวมตัวกันเพื่อขอ หนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรไปในคราวเดียวกันได้ อีกทั้งปัจจุบันหนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรมีสถานะเป็น เพียงการให้บริการแก่ประชาชนหรือการให้ความเห็นในทางกฎหมายเท่านั้นไม่มีผลบังคับผูกพันฝ่ายสรรพากรและ ผู้เสียภาษีส่งผลกระทบแก่ผู้เสียภาษีที่เชื่อโดยสุจริตและได้ปฏิบัติตามหนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรนั้น ดังนั้นผู้ศึกษาจึงได้ศึกษาแนวความคิดและหลักเกณฑ์หนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรแบบกลุ่ม(Class Rulings) ของฝ่ายสรรพากรออสเตรเลียเพื่อหารูปแบบและแนวทางที่เหมาะสมในการนําหนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษี อากรแบบกลุ่ม(Class Rulings) มาปรับใช้กับการเก็บภาษีฝ่ายสรรพากร ผู้เขียนมีความเห็นว่าฝ่ายสรรพากรไทยสมควรนําระบบหนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรแบบกลุ่ม (Class Rulings) ของฝ่ายสรรพากรออสเตรเลียมาปรับใช้สำหรับการให้คำในเรื่องการส่งเสริมการส่งออกแนะนําทางกฎหมายโดยการตอบหนังสือข้อหารือภาษีอากรในกรณีที่มีกลุ่มผู้เสียภาษีเดียวกัน มีความเกี่ยวข้องกับธุรกรรมทางภาษีเดียวกัน มีข้อเท็จจริงและข้อกฎหมายภาษีอากรแบบเดียวกันเพื่อช่วยแก้ไขปัญหาการขัดแย้งกันของหนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรและแก้ไขปัญหาสถานะทางกฎหมายของหนังสือตอบข้อหารือภาษีอากรที่ไม่มีผลบังคับผูกพันฝ่ายสรรพากรและผู้เสียภาษีเพื่อให้เป็นประโยชน์ในการบริหารจัดเก็บภาษีอากรและเพื่อให้สอดคล้องกับการคุ้มครองสิทธิของผู้เสียภาษีต่อไป

Credit Rating Agencies: Regulation And Liability, Colin Bradshaw

Lewis & Clark Law Review

In 2007, the economy crashed because of credit rating agency misconduct. Through the early 2000s, credit raters’ reckless pursuit of profits facilitated the enormous real estate and structured finance bubble that eventually burst in 2007. This Article examines the ratings industry and its institutions, their role in the crash, the regulation that led to their dominance in the markets, how that regulation changed in the wake of the economic crisis, and how they can be held liable today for present and future misconduct.

Section I describes what credit rating agencies (CRAs) are and what they do. Understanding the function of …

Fintech And International Financial Regulation, Yesha Yadav

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article shows that Fintech exacerbates the difficulties of standard setting in international financial regulation. Earlier work introduced the "Innovation Trilemma" (the Trilemma). When seeking to balance the goals of achieving market integrity and innovation through clear and simple rulemaking, regulators can--at best--achieve only two out of these three objectives. Fintech's unique characteristics--a reliance on automation and artificial intelligence, novel types of big data, as well as the use of disintermediating financial supply chains comprising a mix of traditional firms as well as technology specialists and newcomers--complicates the application of the Trilemma. Rulemaking struggles to achieve needed clarity where innovative …

Failure To Capture: Why Business Does Not Control The Rulemaking Process, Gabriel Scheffler

Articles

Leading figures on both the political right and the political left have concluded that the agency rulemaking process is captured: that it serves to benefit businesses, at the expense of the general public. This perception appears to be supported by recent theoretical and empirical scholarship and has prompted lawmakers to introduce various proposals to reform the federal rulemaking process.

Yet as I will demonstrate in this Article, the view of the rulemaking process as captured is unwarranted. I will show that the academic literature actually provides little guidance as to the magnitude of business influence that is, the extent to …

(Un)Corporate Crypto-Governance, Carla L. Reyes

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Public blockchain protocols face a serious governance crisis. Thus far, blockchain protocols have followed the path of early Internet governance. If the architects of blockchain protocols are not careful, they may suffer a similar fate — increasing governmental control, greater centralization, and decreasing privacy. As blockchain architects begin to consider better governance structures, there is a legal movement underway to impose a fiduciary framework upon open source software developers. If the movement succeeds, the consequences for open source software development could be dire. If arbitrarily imposed upon blockchain communities without consideration of variances among communities or the reality of how …

Arbitrating With The Mafia: Why Civil Rico Statutes Are Improperly Used And How Class Action Arbitration May Provide Just Compensation For Forgotten Victims, Max Steinberg

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

From the nineteenth century onward, the United States has been overwhelmed by the rise of organized crime. For generations, criminal organizations have "infiltrated the social and economic fabric" of society and committed heinous crimes in almost every way imaginable. For decades, pop culture and Hollywood have been infatuated with criminal organizations. Movies, television shows, books, and podcasts have portrayed these organizations as interesting and complex entities. In most cinematic programs, the leaders of these mob organizations are the protagonists. Hollywood may portray fictional mob bosses as such, but in reality, their organizations often contain ruthless murderers. What seems to get …

Sovereign Debt, Private Wealth, And Market Failure, Odette Lienau

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article argues that the norms and legal practices of global finance in the arenas of sovereign debt and private wealth have led to a significant market failure, in particular the over-supply of sovereign borrowing and a related misallocation of global capital away from its most productive uses. It suggests that this deficiency rests on two related elements: First, a separation of the risks and benefits of sovereign state control, which has resulted from a failure to properly and coherently define the lines between ‘public’ and ‘private’ across the international financial arenas of sovereign borrowing and private client banking. And, …