ECN Review of Crowdfunding Regulation 2014

The second edition of ECN Review of Crowdfunding Regulation 2014 was published in December 2014 by the European Crowdfunding Network. The Report covers the legal frameworks in 30 countries across Europe, the USA, Canada and Israel.
Details of how crowdfunding of all types is treated under national regulation across Europe and beyond can be found in the publication.

A PDF copy of the report can be downloaded here.

The report indicates that we are still far from a single European market for crowdfunding, and could even be further from it a single than last year due to what can only be described as uncoordinated regulatory actions on national levels. ECN believe that they are able to work with its network members and stakeholders to establish guidelines for best practices, but confirms that we need to be realistic about the effect of such guidelines in a highly fragmented European market. ECN therefore ask policy makers and regulators, both on national and European level, and especially the new President of the European Commission and his team and his Commissioners to engage into a constructive discourse. ECN believe that a framework and conditions for success has to be created that will ultimately help entrepreneurs, innovators and our private investors to build a growing economy. The creation of a pan-European capital market will contribute to a better allocation of private funds and, as a consequence, to the development of small and medium sized enterprises which in turn will again lead to increased job creation. Small and medium sized enterprises are the backbone of the European economy and they are the main source for employment and value creation across the continent. With this paper we can only give a small insight in the complexities of European legislation keeping back private capital allocation into entrepreneurship, innovation and job creation. http://www.eurocrowd.org/

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) has published a report that sets out the strengths of the UK’s fintech sector and the market opportunities for Fintech companies

The UKTI publication titled “Fintech: The UK’s Unique Environment for Growth” gives an overview of why the UK is a unique location for companies specialising in Fintech (Financial Technology).

UKTI publication suggests that the Fintech market in payments, platforms, software and data analytics is worth £20 billion to the UK annually. The research was commissioned by UKTI and carried out by EY (Ernst & Young). EY has for the first time mapped out the opportunities and strengths of the UK’s fintech sector by speaking to existing investors.  The UKTI report can be viewed / downloaded here.

The UKTI report was published to coincide with the launch of new UK Fintech industry trade body. 

Innovate Finance is a new UK industry organisation that aims to accelerate the UK’s leading position in the global financial services sector. It will support young or established technology-led financial services innovators.  

Fintech backdrop

Since 2008, the value of Fintech investment in the UK and Ireland region has increased almost 8 times to US$265 million in 2013. This makes the UK and Ireland the fastest growing regions for fintech investment globally. The UK’s strengths in fintech are due to:

• London’s position as a world leading centre for financial services 
• Edinburgh, Belfast, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff all have strong financial services sectors 
• good availability of business capital 
• a supportive regulatory structure

Fintech Investment Boom is an Opportunity for New York to Lead in Technology, According to Report by Accenture, Partnership Fund for New York City

A recent report, titled “The Rise of Fintech; New York’s opportunity for tech leadership,” was released for the FinTech Innovation Lab’s fourth annual “Demo Day” event in New York.  The report was made by Accenture in  partnership with the Partnership Fund for New York City.

The report  says that deals and investments in New York’s Fintech venture sector have been growing at twice the rate of Silicon Valley since 2008 and further the trend is accelerating innovation among New York’s global financial institutions.

Global fintech investment tripled between 2008 and 2013 from $928 million to $2.97 billion and is expected to double again to between $6 billion and $8 billion by 2018. The first quarter of 2014 was the most active on record, with $1.7 billion invested globally. Silicon Valley is still by far the world’s biggest recipient of fintech investment, but it is facing growing competition from New York. Banks, capital markets firms and insurers are increasingly aware of the benefit of having a fintech cluster close to home.

The Accenture study can be viewed or downloaded at the following link: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-rise-fintech-new-york.aspx

A Research Report on Crowdfunding regulation in Europe issued by European Crowdfunding Network

The European Crowdfunding Network’s report is titled “Review of Crowdfunding Regulation - Interpretations of existing regulation concerning crowdfunding in Europe, North America and Israel”

The report provides in depth cover of the current regulatory approaches to crowdfunding in 29 countries, considering the varying applications of the single market legislation to Crowdfunders across Europe both now and in the foreseeable future. The report also reviews Crowdfunding regulation in North America and Israel.

On 3 October 2013 the European Commission started a public consultation asking for opinions on a (possible) harmonised regulation of Crowdfunding until 31 December 2013.   Crowdfunding is already restricted by national regulatory provisions, but the continuing development of the European single market in financial services has and will continue to ensure that there is a small degree of conformity between those national regimes, even absent any Crowdfunding-specific European regulation. Further it can be anticipated that Crowdfunding could be even more restricted under the future AIFMD regime.  The report can be viewed / downloaded here

Source:  European Crowdfunding Network, Belgium (2013) http://crowdfundingnetwork.org