DLT and Fintech

Overview

Our DLT & FinTech practice is a part of our market leading practice in Hong Kong financial services regulation, for which we have been consistently recognized by independent editorial publications, including the International Financial Law Review 1000 (ILFR1000), the Legal 500, Chambers and Partners and Asialaw Profiles, and for which our lawyers have been consistently recognized as “leading”, “highly regarded”, “well regarded” and “market-leading” lawyers.

Our corporate and regulatory lawyers have extensive experience advising a wide range of clients, from start-ups to Fortune Global 1000 companies, including banks, insurance companies, asset managers, brokers and dealers, securities and derivatives trading platforms and clearing systems, cryptocurrency exchanges, distributed-ledger technology (“DLT”) platforms, financial technology (“FinTech”) based operations and technology business incubators.

We have advised on novel and complex issues involving the following:

• DLT trading & virtual assets, including initial coin offerings (“ICOs”), investments in bitcoin ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, investments in digital assets including security tokens, utility tokens and other virtual assets, and DLT based transactions using blockchain technology and other decentralised data structures

• FinTech companies & operations, including electronic trading and mobile technology platforms for the trading and clearing of securities, futures and derivatives, the provision of goods and services to facilitate transactions and settle payment, the sale of investment products, the provision of investment advice and the support of investment product sales teams

• Compliance with statutory requirements, including compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including the Securities and Futures Ordinance (“SFO”), the Banking Ordinance (“BO”), the Payment Systems and Stored Value Facilities Ordinance (“PSSVFO”), the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (“AMLO”),the United Nations Sanctions Ordinance (“UNSO”), the Money Lenders Ordinance (“MLO”) and the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (“PDPO”)

• Risk management, including risk management and other standards and expectations set out by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”) and the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) and other Hong Kong regulators, including, including in respect of managing money laundering (“ML”) risks and risks associated with virtual asset trading and the operation of relevant platforms and exchanges

As the nature of Fintech raises a wide range of novel legal and regulatory uncertainties, and there are few or no judicial or market precedents to guide the application of existing laws and regulations to the new methods of doing business, by leveraging our broad and deep understanding of financial regulatory issues and Fintech trends and our extensive experience working with financial market infrastructure players with cutting-edge technology, we are well positioned to help clients navigate the increasingly complicated landscape at the intersection of technology and regulation.