Speakers: Andrew Cunningham, Visiting Professor at The London Institute of Banking & Finance (LIBF) and Chair of the Editorial Board, Centre for Governance, Risk and Regulation
Paul Fisher, Visiting Professor at LIBF and former MPC member at the Bank of England
Paul Howard, ACIB, Former CRO and SMF4
Garrett Cassidy, Fintech Entrepreneur and Advisor and Managing Director, Abarta Consulting
The spectacular collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November 2022 led many to predict the demise of crypto finance. After all, FTX was only one (if the biggest) crypto failure last year: In March the 'stablecoin' UST lost 99% of its value, Crypto-lender Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy in July; Three Arrows Capital, one of the largest cryptocurrency hedge funds shut its doors.
In special report published last November, the Economist magazine questioned whether crypto finance was a cause worth fighting for. 'Why bother with any of this?' the magazine asked its readers, just days after FTX had filed for bankruptcy and its 30-year-old Founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, led away in handcuffs.
Yet amid the lows (and highs) of the crypto-industry, policy makers, standard setters, and financial regulators have been hard at work. They clearly believe that crypto-assets and the technology that underpins them, are not only here to stay, but are going to become increasingly significant in terms both of the financial stability of financial systems and the risk profiles of individual institutions.
This webinar will consider the lessons that traditional banks should learn from the failures of FTX and other crypto firms and will outline how standard setters and regulators are trying to shape the market for crypto-assets and the ways in which its underlying technology is used.
Specifically, the webinar will consider:
- What we have learned about the risk profile of firms that deal in crypto assets.
- The latest initiatives and statements by standard setters and regulators, including recent initiatives to create Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
- The involvement of large international and regional banks in crypto-assets and blockchain technology.