Description

About the Seminar

Introducing regulatory frameworks for crypto assets would allow crypto assets to be offered to retail purchasers, and bring crypto asset intermediaries within a perimeter of legitimacy. Although leading financial jurisdictions took time in making this policy choice, the leading jurisdictions of the EU, UK and US are on track to provide bespoke crypto asset regulations. The UK in particular has, observing the EU’s Markets in Crypto assets Regulation and minding its critics, decided to chart some different regulatory paths in respect of investor protection. The talk appraises these differences in relation to the broader context of investor protection, promoting innovation, and regulatory proportionality. The talk is based on the speaker’s forthcoming book, Regulating the Crypto Economy 2nd edition, to be published by Bloomsbury Hart in late 2026.

About the Speaker

Iris H-Y Chiu is a Professor of Corporate Law and Financial Regulation at the Faculty of Laws, University College London. She joined the Faculty in 2009. She is an academic member of the Centre for Ethics and Law and advances public and stakeholder engagement under the Centre’s umbrella in relation to the law and regulation of the banking, financial and fintech sectors, the crypto economy and governance of business generally. She has published extensively in the areas of corporate governance and financial regulation, including The Foundations and Anatomy of Shareholder Activism (2010), Investment Management and Corporate Governance (2017), The Legal Framework for Internal Control in Banks and Financial Institutions (2015), Banking Law and Regulation (2019) and Regulating the Crypto-economy (2023). She has interests in financial regulation and governance, law and technology, corporate law and governance and the law and policy for business and finance generally. She is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute, and in 2020, a Senior Scholar at the European Central Bank’s Legal Research Programme. She previously taught at the School of Law, King’s College London and the University of Leicester. She was a legislative draftsman and State Counsel at the Attorney-General’s Chambers in Singapore prior to joining academia. She read law at the National University of Singapore and the University of Cambridge. She completed her doctorate at the University of Leicester.