Article by
Nikiforos Mathews
J. Christopher Giancarlo, the acting chairman of the CFTC, has
diverged from other U.S. federal regulators, signaling he favors
"regulatory sandboxes" in which fintech companies may
experiment with new ideas. Unlike the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve, Mr.
Giancarlo's approach is to "do no harm" to
early-stage technology such as blockchain, and is in line with
proposals by regulators in the U.K. and Singapore, among other
fintech hubs.
In a recent
Bloomberg BNA article, Nikiforos Mathews, partner and global
co-head of Derivatives at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, gives
his take on the acting chairman's position, noting that "I
see a focus on trying to understand the technology and its
potential benefits and fostering the advancement of the fintech
sector in a way that it's under the watchful eye of the
regulators," and suggesting that the agency may designate
technology focused specialists to work
