December Features, Cryptocurrencies and Farewell: A Week in Review

December Features

The last batch of Waters features for 2017 are going live this week and kicked off with a profile of Mifid II architect and chair of Esma, Steven Maijoor, who spoke to Aggelos Andreou about the directive, Brexit, no-action letters, clearinghouses and the regulator’s future. Maijoor also dispelled the notion that Esma is already working on the next iteration of Mifid, particularly as the journey so far has been less than smooth sailing.

Staying with regulation, Anthony Malakian and James Rundle have compiled a thorough examination of the upcoming regulatory agenda, taking in Mifid II, GDPR, BMR and Brexit. Emilia David will also have a feature on the re-emergence of chat tools within banks after a number of historic scandals, so keep an eye out for that.

Cyrptocurrency Boom

Digital currencies have ended the year with a boom as exchanges such as CME prepare for bitcoin trading this month, while Nasdaq has also announced it will launch a one-month futures contract on bitcoin in mid- to late 2018.

Skepticism around cryptocurrencies is clearly beginning to fade away as bitcoin trading continues to grow, but the CFTC has warned of a lack of regulatory oversight—more specifically a “limited statutory authority”—on bitcoin cash markets.

Waters USA and the 2017 AFTAs

The annual double-header that is the Waters USA conference and the American Financial Technology Awards (AFTAs) took place in New York on Monday. A full list of all this year’s AFTAs winners is now online and there will be full write-ups for each category within the January issue of Waters magazine.

There will be reporting from the Waters USA 2017 conference to come soon as well. James Rundle has kicked things off with this piece on the rather muddled position banks are taking when calling themselves technology providers.

Moving On

And now it’s time to say goodbye. After nearly three years with Waters I am moving on and will be leaving the publication at the start of next week. I won’t drag this out for long, but it would be a wasted opportunity not to make a couple of quick remarks.

It’s been a great few years with Waters and I want to say thanks to the editorial team both here in London and New York for all their support and hard work during my time here. I know they’ll carry on just the same and continue to bring you quality journalism in 2018. And thanks to you, of course, for reading.