09:30 - 10:45 - Fintech 2019

Crypto-assets and crowdfunding: The Global perspective

The emergence of FinTech has opened up participation of investing, payment and lending activities to large sections of society. These participatory and distributed models of financial services are opening up new pools of capital. They are creating competition with traditional financial services but we are also seeing increasing collaboration in this space.

What are the opportunities and risks for investors? How should regulators and supervisors respond? Are these forms of investment still nascent or are they becoming mainstream? What impact has there been from the creation of ICO derivative markets, central banks experimenting with virtual currencies and asset managers exploring these new asset classes?

We have seen many different international responses, including regulation, industry codes and best practice exchange? What solutions are best? How do we ensure international consistency of rules and how can these rules be enforced at a global level?

Moderator: Jeffrey Brown

Senior Vice-President, Legislative and Regulatory affairs, Charles Schwab

Rupert Schaefer

Head of Strategic Services, FINMA

Patrick Armstrong

Senior Risk Analysis Officer, Innovation and Products Team, European Supervisory and Markets Authority

Yuko Kawai

General Manager for European and Chief Representative in London, Bank of Japan

Slavka Eley

Head of Unit Banking Markets, Innovation and Products, EBA

Levin Holle

Director, Financial Markets, Ministry of Finance, Germany

Dr. Christopher P. Buttigieg

Head of Securities and Markets Supervision, Malta Financial Services Authority

Peter Kerstens

Adviser, DG FISMA, European Commission and Co-Chair of the Fintech Task Force, European Commission

More about the speakers

Valdis Dombrovskis

Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission

Valdis Dombrovskis is the Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Euro and Social Dialogue, also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union. Prior to that, he served three consecutive terms as Prime Minister of Latvia, becoming the longest serving elected head of government in Latvia’s history. Before becoming European Commission Vice-President, Valdis Dombrovskis was elected for the second time as a Member of the European Parliament (first, 2004-2009) and Head of the Latvian Delegation in the EPP Group. He served as a Member of the Saeima (Parliament) of Latvia (March 2004 – June 2004; January 2014 – June 2014) and was Latvia’s Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2004.

Valdis Dombrovskis was born on 5 August 1971 in Riga, Latvia. He graduated with a degree in physics from the University of Latvia (1993) and economics from Riga University of Technology (1995). He received his master’s degree in physics in 1995 from the University of Latvia. In 1995 -1998, he worked as a research assistant at Mainz University, Germany, at the Institute of Solid-State Physics in Latvia and at the University of Maryland (USA).

Prior to joining politics, he worked as a senior economist and Chief Economist at the Bank of Latvia (1998-2002). Together with Anders Aslund, he co-authored the book “How Latvia came through the financial crisis”, which was published in 2011. In November 2014, Valdis Dombrovskis was awarded the Order of the Three Stars (Triju Zvaigžņu ordenis), the highest State Decoration of the Republic of Latvia.