Description

This talk presents an overview of key regulatory implications for FinTech. It does not examine any particular area of FinTech in detail, but highlights key observed developments in financial products, intermediation services and markets, and suggests a framework for analysing the disruptive potential of FinTech and considering regulatory response. The talk is based on a forthcoming paper. In the paper, a framework of ‘disruptive innovation’ is proposed for understanding the regulatory implications of financial innovation. Financial innovation could be a flash in the pan or could introduce enduring change, so the first indicia for regulatory implications could be the ‘disruptive’ nature of the financial innovation concerned. The paper introduces a framework for regulatory thinking and evaluation of ‘disruptive finance’- in terms of the nature of the ‘change’ observed, its ‘substitutive potential’ and its ‘structural impact’.

About The Speaker

Iris CHIU
Professor
Faculty of Laws, University College London, UK

Iris H-Y Chiu is Professor of Corporate Law and Financial Regulation at the Faculty of Laws, University College London, specialising in corporate governance, company law, banking and investment regulation. Dr Chiu joined the UCL Faculty of Law in September 2009. 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.

Dr Chiu has published extensively on directors’ duties, shareholder stewardship and corporate governance, as well as regulatory theories and governance in the financial sector, in a number of books and in over 40 peer-reviewed journals in the UK and US. She is editor of The Law of Corporate Governance in Banks and Financial Institutions, one of the Elgar Law and Finance Series and the Research Handbook on Shadow Banking. She is Executive editor of the European Business Law Review and co-series editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Corporate and Financial Law Series.

Dr Chiu is co-Director of the UCL Centre for Ethics and Law, a research centre focused on thinking and development in topical issues of business and society, law, regulation and ethics, the professions and ethics, and ethical dimensions in medicine and technology

About The Panellists

Jo YEO

Jo is responsible for formulating regulatory policies, standards and strategies for safe and efficient use of technology in the financial sector at the FinTech & Innovation Group (FTIG) in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Prior to joining FTIG as Deputy Director, Jo was Assistant General Counsel at the MAS Legal Department. Her private practice experience at Allen & Gledhill and Amica Law was primarily in Intellectual Property law. At FTIG, Jo develops policies and frameworks for the development and regulation of FinTech, including the regulatory sandbox. In her previous role as legal counsel, she advised extensively on the legal and regulatory aspects of financial services, including the Banking Act, Insurance Act, Financial Advisers Act, and payments legislation. Her portfolio included advisory work, enforcement actions, as well as legislation development. Jo was a principal drafter of the recently introduced Credit Bureau Bill. She also regularly advised on the financial services chapters in international agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Jo graduated from the National University of Singapore with an LLB (Hons) Degree, and was called to the Singapore bar. She has a Master of Laws from University College London, and is a nonpracticing solicitor of England and Wales.

LAM Chee Kin

Chee Kin is the Group Head of Legal, Compliance and Secretariat and has upwards of 20 years’ experience in financial services. Prior to joining DBS, he held various roles in Standard Chartered Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Rajah & Tann and Allen & Gledhill. Chee Kin also serves on the Disciplinary Committee of SGX, the Advisory Panel to the NUS Centre for Banking and Finance Law, and the Data Protection Advisory Committee of Singapore. In 2015, Chee Kin was recognised as a Distinguished Fellow by the Institute of Banking and Finance in the field of compliance.

KOH Chia Ling

Chia Ling is the Managing Director of OC Queen Street LLC, a Singapore law practice associated with the international law practice Osborne Clarke. He is a digital business lawyer supporting digital innovation protection and commercialisation, investments and critical infrastructural transformation. He regularly advises companies and government bodies on both contentious and non-contentious matters, including cyber security issues, data protection, intellectual property, telecommunications and media regulations, competition, FinTech, artificial intelligence, payments and financial regulations. Chia Ling has also successfully represented clients in a number of high profile and landmark IP/IT cases, such as Novelty Pte Ltd v Amanresorts Ltd [2009] 3 SLR(R) 216 and RecordTV Pte Ltd v MediaCorp TV Singapore Pte Ltd [2011] 1 SLR 830. More recently, Chia Ling acted as lead counsel in Mainline Corporation v United Overseas Bank Ltd [2016] SGHC 285, a long-running case involving alleged infringement of an automatic Dynamic Currency Conversion patent, a financial technology product. Chia Ling is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and is a guest lecturer in IT law at the Institute of Systems Science, National University of Singapore. He regularly contributes to publications on technology-related topics, including the E-Commerce section of Halsbury’s Laws of Singapore.

About The Moderator

Christian HOFMANN

Christian Hofmann is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his first law degree from the University of Freiburg (ranked 6 out of 289 graduates). He continued his legal education at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and received a postgraduate degree in international business law and a doctorate degree in law (Dr. iur.) for his thesis on cashless payment instruments (both degrees summa cum laude). This was followed by a two-year clerkship for a German district court and the German bar exam (ranked 1 out of 89 candidates). He received his professorial qualification (Habilitation) from Humboldt-University Berlin for his thesis on the protection of minority shareholders and holds LL.M. degrees from NYU and NUS. Christian has held several faculty and research positions. He was a visiting professor at the University of Cologne (Germany) and GoetheUniversity Frankfurt (Germany), a visiting scholar and Humboldt Fellow at UC Berkeley and a Global Research Fellow at NYU School of Law. Prior to joining NUS law, he was a senior legal counsel for the German Central Bank (‘Bundesbank’) and a law professor at the Private University in the Principality of Liechtenstein. Christian specializes in banking law, financial regulation, sovereign debt restructuring and comparative corporate law.

About The Convenor

Dora NEO

Dora Neo is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Banking & Finance Law (CBFL) at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (NUS). She specialises in banking, secured transactions and contract law. She is co-author of Ellinger & Neo, The Law and Practice of Documentary Letters of Credit (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2010). She also researches on international economic law, particularly trade in services. A first class honours graduate from Oxford University, she also holds an LLM from Harvard Law School. She is a member of Gray’s Inn, England, and an Advocate and Solicitor in Singapore. She holds a Certificate in Private Banking from the Wealth Management Institute, Singapore, and a Certificate in Real Estate Finance from the Department of Real Estate, NUS. She is a member of the Injunction Proposals Review Panel under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act; the Accreditation Committee of the Singapore Institute of Legal Education’ and the Singapore Academy of Law’s law reform subcommittee on financial collateral