Please note that this course is designed for LLB & LLM students ONLY.
Certificates will be provided to participants who attend all four Sessions.
It is mandatory for all participants to present their valid LSE ID cards upon arrival at each masterclass. Failure to do so will regrettably result in denial of entry.
This certificate Master Class Series at LSE Law School is designed to provide students with a comprehensive introduction to regulatory and commercial law issues arising in the sphere of ‘FinTech’ and ‘Digital Finance’. Both terms are used interchangeably and refer to technology-enabled financial services and products that are either novel, or traditional and provided in structurally novel ways. FinTech and Digital Finance do not have an existence apart, rather, they are part of the continuously evolving financial market as it keeps developing.
Discussion on FinTech typically focusses on terms such as blockchain, stablecoin, CBDC, robo-advice, and mobile payment. However, to really understand these developments and identify key structural trends they are best discussed by reference to a number of – wider – central themes, notably regulatory arbitrage, the increasing use of technology, datafication, and the convergence of financial services with other markets, such as social media and e-commerce.
Our Convene Master Class Series will break down these developments and set them into their regulatory and legal context. It cuts across matters addressed in the curriculum at LSE Law School, such as financial regulation and financial law, commercial and corporate law, data regulation and competition law.
This course is open exclusively to LLM and LLB students at LSE Law School. It is designed to be co-curricular (i.e., not part of the LLM or LLB curricula) and complement other relevant courses.
Students will earn a certificate for attending 3 or more sessions, but the course will not count as credit, to put towards any degree, nor will it be examinable.
Course structure
Session 1: Advising in Digital Finance
Wednesday 11th October 2023
Philipp Paech, Elisabeth Noble
Digital finance is transforming the way in which financial products are distributed and financial services delivered. In some cases, technology is also facilitating the introduction of new products and services (notably, in the area of crypto-assets). In this session we will highlight trends and key issues of Digital Finance regulatory practitioners should be aware of.
Case studies will include Bitcoin, Coinbase, Amazon Web Services, Tencent and Apple Pay.
Session 2: Crypto assets and decentralised finance: the regulatory reach
Wednesday 25th October 2023
Philipp Paech, Elisabeth Noble
This session will enable participants to gain an understanding of the crypto asset ecosystem, including interconnections with the traditional financial system. It will allow participants to build an understanding of regulatory perimeter considerations, with comparisons between the EU’s recently adopted regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets (‘MiCA’) and the emerging UK approach.
Case studies will include Bitcoin, the (abandoned) proposals for Facebook’s Libra and the recent collapse of FTX.
Session 3: Operational resilience and the law
Wednesday 8th November 2023
Philipp Paech, Elisabeth Noble
The technological transformation of the financial sector is giving rise to new forms of interconnectedness, notably dependencies on large technology providers, including cloud service providers such as AWS, and digital platforms such Google Pay. With these interdependencies come new or elevated levels of risks, including risks of cyber attack, data loss and data corruption. In this session we will focus on efforts at the international and domestic regulatory levels to strengthen operational resilience so as to mitigate these risks.
Case studies include Multichain and Crypto.com; we will in particular consider the recent EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and similar UK initiatives.z
Session 4: Converging markets, BigTech and the Law
Wednesday 22nd November 2023
Philipp Paech, Elisabeth Noble
The direct and indirect presence of BigTechs in the financial market is growing, although their precise footprint differs between major financial centres. This raises various regulatory dilemmas, including in the areas of competition, data protection and financial stability. In this session we will explore the different roles that BigTechs are playing in the financial system, and emerging regulatory responses at the international level intended to balance both the opportunities and risks arising from the rise of BigTech in finance.
Case studies include Facebook and Ant Financial.
Please note that this course is designed for LLB & LLM students ONLY.