FinTech Weekly - GG: The National Disgrace - Issue #419

UK Labour Party’s Lucy Powell said that artificial intelligence (AI) should be regulated as pharmaceutical and nuclear industries. Concerns related to the risks that AI poses for human beings arise, and the sentiment becomes constantly more negative. Matt Clifford even assessed that in two years AI could become so powerful that humans won’t be able to control it.

The UK wants to regulate cryptocurrencies because they’re here to stay. Prime Minister Sunak wants to bring cryptos into the regulatory framework already existing for other financial services, the Crypto and Digital Assets All Parliamentary Group (APPG) published a report that asks for immediate regulation, and UK lawmakers call for the introduction of a dedicated governmental role to manage the process.

The SEC sued Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, for allegedly selling unregistered securities to US people, through an unregistered securities exchange, by attracting investors with misleading information.

JPMorgan Chase launched a pilot program to settle transactions with six Indian banks by using Onyx, the blockchain created by the company. The project will be tested for a few months, also to understand the experience of banks.

Tether, the company behind USDT, is starting a new Bitcoin mining project in Uruguay — especially because of the large production of energy thanks to renewable resources in the country. In the meantime, Brazilian president Lula proposed to abandon US dollar in bilateral settlements, and also Argentina continues with de-dollarization efforts – also by expanding a credit line with China.

The Fed launches a new initiative, FedNow, that will allow instant payments. The initiative is aimed at favoring small businesses, banks and consumers.

In the meantime, CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) are still one of the most discussed topics. At Consensus 2023, participants talked about the way governments want to build them — and privacy concerns arise, since they think that governments can’t be trusted in this case.

Another letter from tech personalities. Among the tech experts that signed this new statement, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (the company that created ChatGPT), warned about the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI) to the survival of humanity.

FinTech Weekly. Here are the five steps to regulate fintech without threatening innovation and avoiding gray areas in regulatory frameworks for this industry.