The Financial University will Perform Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Analysis at the State Duma Request
The State Duma has announced the results of the competition among blockchain technology and cryptocurrency analysts. The work title is Legal Regulation of the Introduction and Application of Modern Financial Technologies and Analysis of International Best Practices and Ways to Adapt them to the Russian Practice. Despite the fact that the initial price of the contract is 2.5 million rubles, which is an extremely small amount by the government standards, 18 organizations applied to take part in the competition.
Among the competitors were the following organizations: the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics; IT Invest investment company; O2 Consulting, the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation; KPMG Taxes and Consulting; RTS Financial Market Development Nonprofit Partnership; Andrei Kashtanov, a sole proprietor; MISIS National University of Science and Technology; the Most Production Company; a Debevoise & Plimpton LLP company branch (USA), and the Fintech Lab Center for Financial and Technological Innovations.
Regional institutions also took part in the competition. They are: Ternovtsov and Partners Bar Association (Kursk); the Innopolis University (Tatarstan); Yediny Resurs company (Ulyanovsk); High Technologies Training and Methodology Center (Penza), Center for Advanced Economic Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan; International Banking Institute (St. Petersburg). Fintech Lab and Ternovtsov and Partners were ready to perform the work and accept the remuneration of one ruble. However, when the applications were assessed, not only the cost criteria were taken into account. Moreover, the applications of those companies and seven more companies were rejected by the examiners' committee at the initial analysis stage.
The Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation was the winner of the competition. The contract amount is 1.88 million rubles. The deadline for the work performance is December 10, 2017. The finalized report should contain not less than 280 thousand characters. This is roughly an equivalent of 160 pages (size A4) of printed text (font size: 12, interval: 1.5).
Why is it necessary for the State Duma to obtain the report?
Judging by the Work Specification, according to the State Duma experts, the reason for conducting the research is the emergence of and wide use of the new financial technology in the global financial sector. Therefore, the need arises to enhance the government role in building the framework for the legal regulation of the technology use and its introduction into the Russian economy.
According to the Work Specification, it is therefore necessary to constantly monitor the latest financial technologies and develop the solutions for their adaptation to the Russian practice in order to preserve the promising financial technologies, on the one hand, and foster their distribution in the presence of strict regulatory policies, to avoid the financial bubbles capable of undermine their image, to smoothly integrate the most promising technologies while taking the consequences that the market participants might face into account, and, on the other hand, to protect the financial market from the threats to sustainability that are inherent to the new financial technologies that are associated with anonymous users, terrorism financing, obtaining of criminal proceeds, to protect the financial services consumers' interests; and to avoid regulatory arbitrage in the financial market. The State Duma is going to use the work results when developing the relevant draft laws.
How exactly did the work specification look like?
Under the agreement with the State Duma, the contractors will have to examine the most advanced financial technologies (including those based on the blockchain technology and cryptocurrency use), identify the prerequisites for their emergence, assess the prospects for their use in the Russian market and the opportunities for the further integration of the Russian and the global financial markets despite the difference in the approaches to the sectoral regulation.
It will also be necessary to examine the ICO (initial coin offering) as yet another channel for attracting investment resources, develop proposals for countering threats and risks by using the government regulation tools, prepare a survey and perform a comparative analysis of the pros and cons of various approaches to regulatory practices.
In the course of the work, it is planned to take into account the best practices gained in the UK, Canada, USA, France, Germany, Sweden, Japan, and the Eurasian Economic Union member states (i. e. Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan).
Source: CNEWS
