- Posts by Rachel R. Friedman
PartnerAs a member of the Financial Services Litigation Practice Group, Rachel Friedman defends financial institutions from alleged violations of state and federal consumer protection laws at both the trial and appellate levels.
Rachel ...
As fintech and blockchain transactions continue to grow in popularity, they are receiving increased attention at the state level, whether through fintech sandboxes, crypto-friendly legislation, or other initiatives aimed to encourage fintech innovation and economic development. Below is a roundup of just some of the recent fintech activity at the state level:
- This week, New York entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Israel on fintech cooperation. The agreement is intended to encourage fintech innovation in both New York and Israel by providing support to fintech ...
On May 9, 2019, the House Financial Services Committee voted to establish two task forces dedicated to studying technological innovations that impact the financial services arena: a FinTech Task Force and an Artificial Intelligence Task Force. The FinTech Task Force is initially set to study various issues, including fintech regulation in the domestic and international spheres, alternative data for loan underwriting, and data privacy. The Task Force on Artificial Intelligence will study how artificial intelligence affects how consumers interact with and use financial ...
This term, Congress is set to consider several bills—each with bipartisan sponsorship—targeting the fields of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech. This spurt of legislative activity indicates an increased awareness by lawmakers of both the opportunities for innovation in these fields and the potential pitfalls and risks for illicit use posed by these new technologies. The following are several of the bills that have been introduced this term to date which aim to promote blockchain and cryptocurrency:
- The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (H.R. 528), introduced in ...
London is considered the European capital for fintech, and the third global tech start-up ecosystem, behind only Silicon Valley and New York. In the past two and a half years, fintech companies have brought more than $5 billion of investment to the city. Given that a third of London's tech company customers are based outside the UK and an estimated 54% of the city's fintech workforce comes from abroad, uncertainty over how Brexit will affect the ability of British companies to transact business and recruit talent internationally poses a threat to London's fintech prominence.
On March ...
On October 3, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Blockvest LLC and its founder Reginald Buddy Ringgold, III for falsely claiming that its initial coin offering had been approved by the SEC. The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, Case No. 18-CV-2287-GPC, sought a return of improperly obtained funds as well as a temporary restraining order to "halt the fraudulent offer and sale of unregistered securities" by Blockvest and to freeze the assets of both Blockvest and Ringgold.
The SEC's complaint alleges that ...
Last month, the Treasury Department issued a 222-page report to President Trump on Nonbank Financials, Fintech, and Innovation in which it recommends large-scale regulatory changes to promote innovation in the realm of fintech. The report makes clear the view of the Treasury Department that "innovation is critical to the success of the U.S. economy, particularly in the financial sector." To that end, the Treasury Department's report seeks to identify opportunities to "modernize regulation to embrace the use of data, encourage the adoption of advanced data processing and other ...