Blockchain and FELABAN agreement launch event

Blockchain Intelligence will be responsible for providing knowledge to lawyers and members of the association.
On November 11, an agreement was signed between Blockchain Intelligence, the first knowledge and training center specialized in blockchain, certified by the General Council of Spanish Lawyers, and FELABAN, the Latin American Banking Association, an institution that brings together more than 623 banks and financial institutions in Latin America through their respective associations in 19 countries to address the future of banking in the blockchain/crypto revolution.

Claudia Fernández, director of the federation, and Almudena de la Mata, Managing Partner of Blockchain Intelligence, presented the collaboration agreement for the development of Blockchain training in Latin America endorsed by the Blockchain Institute of Law and Blockchain Intelligence.

In the conference Almudena de la Mata addressed the impact of Blockchain in the financial and banking business, making a tour of the different business models that are affected by this technology and divided it into the following points:

• What are the most recent banking positions in relation to the cryptocurrency sector? Crypto investment has remained for many years on the sidelines of the banking supply. However, the rise in the prices of some benchmark cryptocurrencies has made the crypto market cap grow, increasingly attracting all types of investors who demand products from their banks in this environment. Thus, custody, investment, trading and payment products have emerged in response to the interest of clients (institutional, retail and commercial).
• Another area of impact is blockchain solutions within the framework of financial markets (Blockchain issuances, participation in STOs and UCOin). Merchant banking is not far behind with solutions to the financial needs of international trade.
• De la Mata also referred to the rapid evolution of digital currencies issued by central banks and their potential impact on payment systems, and on the role of banking in the transmission of monetary policy.
• The role of blockchain in internal management such as human resources, compliance (with special emphasis on Digital Identity projects for KYC), auditing and reporting was also highlighted. He put in relevance the role of regulatory compliance units and their relationship with supervisors.
• And what is the institutional position? De la Mata addressed the European institutional and political support for blockchain technology. This is manifested in three important pillars: regulatory activity, the creation of blockchain infrastructures (EBSI, ESSIF, eID) and EU-funded projects. This gives rise in frameworks such as H2020 with the objective of driving real use cases with blockchain technology. Let’s not forget that the global nature of the phenomenal, demands and makes especially relevant the work at international level in standardization bodies, FSB, G20, BIS, FATF.

Little by little, greater legal certainty is taking shape with new cryptocurrency regulations. For example, MiCAR, the 5th directive on the prevention of money laundering, the guidelines of the regulatory authorities and the activity within the framework of the Financial Sandbox. Also, in Latin America, recent regulatory proposals in Panama, El Salvador’s Bitcoin law, Colombia’s sandox, among other initiatives are shaping a novel framework for the new financial blockchain era.

Thanks to this agreement, Blockchain Intelligence, which was already in charge of providing training, will be able to bring its full range of resources to Latin America and to the lawyers and associates of FELABAN with courses such as the Expert in “Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Tokenization and Cryptoassets” in which the 20th edition was launched this September or the “Compliance, Blockchain and Cryptoassets” which started its 4th edition that same month. The aim of the legal institute is to be able to train the largest number of professionals in a subject such as #Blockchain that is growing so much.