The FinHub portal will allow sharing information about events related to technological development in finance, including bets with cryptoactive technology.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States (SEC) launched an initiative called “Strategic Center for innovation and financial technology” (FinHub). Its main objective is to advise new ventures that use cryptoactive technology, digital financing or artificial intelligence.
This financial regulator seeks to attend startups staff. SEC’s intention is to guide entrepreneurs before the launch of their projects, make those projects become true faster and avoid issues or problems that may arise “under federal securities laws”.
Jay Clayton, SEC’s Chairperson, explained that the commission will “work with investors and market participants on new approaches to capital formation, market structure, and financial services, with a view to improving, and in no way reducing, the protection to investors”.
About FinHub, Clayton pointed out: “FinHub provides a central point of focus to monitor and engage in innovación, in securities markets that are promising, but that also requires a flexible and rapid regulatory response to executing our mission”.
Clayton affirms the center will be composed of experienced SEC staff in financial technology. In addition, said center replaces several internal work groups that deal with similar issues. The FinHub portal will allow sharing information of its own, or entrepreneurs’ information about events related to technological development in finance, including bets with cryptoactive technology.
SEC announced, without offering details, that it will hold a forum next year focused on distributed accounting technology and cryptoactives.
The area of finance, in general, is one of the most regulated in the United States. Some examples are SEC and the Commission on Trade in Futures on Goods (CFTC), which keep an eye on any aspect that may disturb investors’ interests and the stability of the system.
With the expansion of cryptocurrencies and the price increase of bitcoin, different authorities and North American entities have put the magnifying glass on the ecosystem in order to understand its nature and see what extent they can intervene for its regulation; something that has been increasing last year. Since then, the CFCT has warned about the appearance of fraudulent schemes which involve cryptocurrencies, market manipulations and capital raising that leads to fraud. Even cryptoactives generated conflicts between different regulatory agencies because of the legal gaps that exist in this country. This is because each state has a particular legislation.
Where it does not exist or is insufficient, SEC’s decisions have a greater incidence. With this new decision, SEC recognizes, even more clearly, that there is a sector of the digital economy that is expanding; thus, they consider it appropriate to establish a higher level of supervision, control and, if it is necessary, restriction of actions.
By María Rodríguez
