UK’s Financial Conduct Authority calls for blockchain feedback
“We remain aware that exponents of new technologies, particularly vendors, will often hype or oversell new technologies”
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is calling for feedback on the potential for future development of distributed ledger technology (DLT) / blockchain in the markets it regulates.
It says it is “particularly interested to explore where the balance of risk and opportunities may lie” for DLT and wants to boost innovation that advances it objectives.
The FCA says it “generally takes a ‘technology neutral’ approach to regulating financial services” and is interested in considering whether there is “anything distinctive about DLT which would require us to take a different approach”.
In its 33-page discussion paper, the regulator says there has been a “broad range of reactions to DLT” and that “we remain aware that exponents of new technologies, particularly vendors, will often hype or oversell new technologies”.
The FCA adds: “Equally, detractors will remain sceptical about their capabilities.”
In a nutshell, it wants to know who isn’t lying.
Once it has received responses, the FCA will review these and decide on its next steps. This might take the form of a summary of responses, or if it wants to take a closer look at the requirements, or a consultation paper.
The FCA also says it will continue to learn from the use cases being tested in its regulatory sandbox, and its usual series of events, roundtables and bilateral discussions.
You can find the full report and give feedback here. The FCA wants comments by 17 July 2017.
