Description

Foreign Stablecoins in Domestic Payment Streams – Regulatory Approaches in Comparative Perspective

A new form of digital money is proliferating globally: stablecoins. As jurisdictions ramp up regulatory efforts, national laws are increasingly shaping—and fragmenting—the stablecoin business. This divergence threatens a core promise of stablecoins: facilitating low-cost cross-border payments. Growing regulatory divergence also opens the door to arbitrage. In a world of fragmented stablecoin regulation, one question becomes crucial: How can foreign-issued stablecoins legally enter domestic payment streams? The seminar examines how the laws of the EU, the US, and the UK address this question.

Syndicated Loans and Competition Law

While the issuance of loans to companies is a core functionality of modern banking, the size or risk, of a request can exceed the limits, or appetite, of a single bank giving ground for syndication where the funding comes from a collegium of lenders. While on one hand providing better risk management and inducing competition, syndication can also limit competition, if participants tacitly or explicitly coordinate prices or bids or (ab)use the situation to bundle services. Or at least this is the concern, as neither theory nor an EU study provides clear support for this. Nevertheless, competition law should be taken into consideration when loans are syndicated, as the topic has crossed the radar of several enforcers.