Fintech 2021 A practical cross-border insight into fintech law Fifth Edition Featuring contributions from: A&L Goodbody DQ Advocates Limited McMillan LLP Advokatfirmaet BAHR AS Ellex PFR Attorneys at Law Afridi & Angell FINREG PARTNERS QUORUS GmbH Anderson Mōri & Tomotsune Furtună și Asociații RHTLaw Asia LLP Appleby Gilbert + Tobin RIAA Barker Gillette Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) Gorrissen Federspiel Shearman & Sterling LLP AZB & Partners Hammad & Al-Mehdar Shearn Delamore & Co. Bär & Karrer Janson Baugniet Slaughter and May BBA//Fjeldco Jonathan Cardenas, Chair, Financial Services Triay Lawyers Bird & Bird LLP Technology Joint Subcommittee Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie Bredin Prat KPMG Law Firm Uría Menéndez Carey Olsen Jersey LLP Lazcano Sámano, S.C. Uría Menéndez – Proença de Carvalho Chandler MHM Limited Lee & Ko VD Law Group Christiana Aristidou LLC Lloreda Camacho & Co. Walalangi & Partners (in association with DDPV Studio Legale LPS L@W Nishimura & Asahi) De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek Mannheimer Swartling DivinaLaw Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados Table of Contents Expert Analysis Chapters The Collapse of Cryptography? Considering the Quantum Threat to Blockchain 1 Ben Kingsley & Emily Bradley, Slaughter and May AIFC’s Initiatives for Emerging Venture Capital in Central Asia 4 Kairat Kaliyev, Arslan Kudiyar, Nazgul Baitemirova & Aigerim Omarbekova, Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) Fintech SPAC Transactions in Europe and the United States 8 Jonathan Cardenas, Chair, Financial Services Technology Joint Subcommittee Q&A Chapters Australia India 14 Gilbert + Tobin: Peter Reeves, Richard Francis & 119 AZB & Partners: Srinath Dasari, Vipul Jain & Emily Shen Rachana Rautray Austria Indonesia 22 PFR Attorneys at Law: Bernd Fletzberger 125 Walalangi & Partners (in association with Nishimura & Asahi): Sinta Dwi Cestakarani, Andhika Indrapraja & Belgium Indira Setyowati 29 Janson Baugniet: Muriel Baudoncq Ireland Brazil 131 A&L Goodbody: Kevin Allen, Peter Walker & Chris Martin 34 Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados: Pedro Eroles & Marina Procknor Isle of Man 143 DQ Advocates Limited: Adam Killip & Andrew Harding British Virgin Islands 41 Appleby: Rebecca Jack Italy 148 DDPV Studio Legale: Luciano Vasques & Chiara Sciarra Canada 47 McMillan LLP: Pat Forgione & Anthony Pallotta Japan 156 Anderson Mōri & Tomotsune: Ken Kawai, Kei Sasaki & Colombia Takeshi Nagase 55 Lloreda Camacho & Co.: Santiago Gutiérrez & Adriana Galeano Jersey 163 Carey Olsen Jersey LLP: Peter German, Chris Griffin Cyprus & Huw Thomas 61 Christiana Aristidou LLC: Christiana Aristidou & Evdokia Marcou Korea 172 Lee & Ko: Jongsoo Yoon & Hyun Koo Kang Czech Republic 69 FINREG PARTNERS: Ondřej Mikula & Jan Šovar Lithuania 178 Ellex: Ieva Dosinaitė & Julija Šlekonytė Denmark 74 Gorrissen Federspiel: Tue Goldschmieding & Malaysia 184 Morten Nybom Bethe Shearn Delamore & Co.: Christina Kow & Timothy Siaw France 80 Bredin Prat: Bena Mara & Ariel Axler Mexico 192 Lazcano Sámano, S.C.: Alfredo Lazcano & Germany Andrea Avedillo 88 Bird & Bird LLP: Dr. Michael Jünemann, Jörg-Alexander Paul & Dr. Barbara Geck Netherlands 197 De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek: Willem Röell & Gibraltar Christian Godlieb 94 Triay Lawyers: Javi Triay & Jay Gomez Nigeria Hong Kong 205 Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie: Yinka Edu, 101 Slaughter and May: Peter Lake & Mike Ringer Joseph Eimunjeze & Pamela Onah Iceland Norway 112 BBA//Fjeldco: Stefán Reykjalín 213 Advokatfirmaet BAHR AS: Markus Nilssen & Eirik Basmo Ellingsen Philippines Sweden 221 DivinaLaw: Danny E. Bunyi, Jay-R C. Ipac, 278 Mannheimer Swartling: Anders Bergsten & Emma Ruby J. Aguilar & Shiela Camile S. Esquivel Carl Johan Zimdahl Portugal Switzerland 227 Uría Menéndez – Proença de Carvalho: 285 Bär & Karrer: Dr. Daniel Flühmann & Dr. Peter Ch. Hsu Pedro Ferreira Malaquias & Hélder Frias Taiwan Romania 295 KPMG Law Firm: Kelvin Chung & Lawrence Ong 236 Furtună și Asociații / VD Law Group: Mihai Furtună & Sergiu-Traian Vasilescu Thailand 301 Chandler MHM Limited: Wongsakrit Khajangson & Russia Nuanporn Wechsuwanarux 242 QUORUS GmbH: Maxim Mezentsev & Nikita Iovenko United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia 307 Afridi & Angell: James Bowden, Zaid Mahomed & 250 Hammad & Al-Mehdar: Suhaib Adli Hammad Alex Vromans Senegal United Kingdom 257 LPS L@W: Léon Patrice Sarr 314 Slaughter and May: Rob Sumroy, Ben Kingsley, Natalie Donovan & Selmin Hakki Singapore 263 RHTLaw Asia LLP: Ch’ng Li-Ling & Aaron Lee USA 323 Shearman & Sterling LLP: Reena Agrawal Sahni Spain 269 Uría Menéndez: Leticia López-Lapuente, Isabel Aguilar Alonso & Carolina Albuerne González Digital Edition Chapter Pakistan 331 RIAA Barker Gillette: Mustafa Munir Ahmed & Saira Khalid Khan 242 Chapter 36 Russia Russia Maxim Mezentsev QUORUS GmbH Nikita Iovenko 1 The Fintech Landscape involving big data, information analysis, artificial intelligence, robotisation and distributed ledgers deserve primary attention. This document has not yet been updated for the following years; 1.1 Please describe the types of fintech businesses however, we are expecting a similar document to be released that are active in your jurisdiction and the state of the this year by the Central Bank or some other state authority. development of the market, including in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Are there any notable fintech It should be noted that due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) innovation trends of the past year within particular pandemic and the related restrictive measures taken by the sub-sectors (e.g. payments, asset management, peer- Russian Government, some of the ordinary offline services to-peer lending or investment, insurance and blockchain became less popular or were limited. For this reason, a great applications)? number of new online fintech opportunities became possible for Russian citizens (especially in larger cities). The largest Russian The representatives of the Russian business and Russian State bank, Sberbank, has even become not just a regular bank, but authorities have been recently paying a lot of attention to the also a platform providing a wide range of services (business, real stable and rapid development of the fintech sector. According estate, delivery, entertainment, education, cloud services, etc.). to the Ernst & Young report “Global FinTech Adoption Index More specifically and for illustrative purposes, thanks to a brand 2019”, Russia was ranked third with a score of 82%. According new Sberbank service, it is now possible to incorporate an LLC to another study performed in 2020 by Findexable, “The Global and open a bank account for it remotely, without visiting a bank Fintech Index 2020”, Russia was ranked 32nd in the list of the or the relevant state authorities. A person willing to incorporate world’s most developed countries in the fintech sphere, and a company may do it from his computer by completing online all Moscow was ranked 30th in a list of cities around the world with relevant forms and providing scanned documents. The registra- major fintech expansion and influence. tion form is finally signed by a special e-signature via the bank’s These ratings allow us to state that the level of adoption of mobile app and sent to the tax authority for registration. fintech services and products in the country is rather high and Additionally, Yandex, the leading and largest Russian IT this market is actively gaining volume. The leaders in this aspect company, has also significantly increased the amount and quality are of course the megalopolises like Moscow and St. Petersburg, of its online and fintech services. Yandex used to cooperate with but other regions are also making very significant and quick Sberbank on some fintech services like Yandex.Money (an online steps in the same direction. payment platform) and Yandex.Checkout (online-acquiring for One of the features of the Russian fintech industry is a high legal entities), but in September 2020 this cooperation ended concentration of technological competencies in the banking and the services were completely transferred to Sberbank (and is system. Banks that have enough resources and capital, actively now called Yoomoney). Yandex.Plus (another complex service implement fintech, acquire promising start-ups or enter into of the company) allows its clients to enter the stock exchange strategic partnerships, create and rule acceleration and incu- and invest in Russian and foreign companies, bonds and ETFs. bation programmes. For this particular reason, the segment This project is performed in cooperation with VTB (one of the of independent fintech projects is still not very developed in largest Russian state-owned banks). Furthermore, it is expected comparison to some other foreign markets. that Yandex will soon create its own payment system, Yandex According to the statistics provided by the Russian Central Pay, that will be able to compete with Apple Pay, Google Pay, Bank, the level of fintech involvement is the highest in the Samsung Pay and the Russian payment system Mir Pay. following fields: ■ payments and money transfers (online payments, online 1.2 Are there any types of fintech business that are at money transfers, P2P currency exchange, B2B payments present prohibited or restricted in your jurisdiction (for and transfers, cloud cash registers and smart terminals); example cryptocurrency-based businesses)? ■ financing (P2P consumer crediting, P2P business cred- iting, and crowdfunding); and Due to the fact that fintech development has accelerated in