The legal and tax environment governing fintechs is in full flux. These start-ups active in financial technology face ever more regulatory stakes in meeting their compliance obligations. An overview.<\/p>\n
Fintech, a contraction of finance and technology, refers to companies active in financial technology. Fintechs use analytical tools, data management and digitalisation to improve financial operations and user engagement, offering simple, flexible and innovative solutions. They develop in many fields, including crowdfunding<\/a>, mobile payment, online banking, accounting, cost and invoicing management, and data analysis. Agile with technology, these new players are important drivers of disruption, propelling the digital transformation of finance.<\/p>\n The sector is booming: according to a KPMG study, Europe attracted USD 880 million of fintech investment in the first quarter of 2017 across 89 deals, a record for European start-ups. The Belgian ecosystem is dynamic, with 86 fintech companies in 2016 (against about 150 in France).<\/p>\n Like the collaborative platforms of the digital revolution such as Uber, BlaBlaCar or Airbnb, regulators face a major challenge: designing optimal legislation that encourages this innovative ecosystem while protecting consumer privacy and promoting fair competition. Compliance already applies through current and forthcoming rules, notably: on activities, the PSD2 payment services Directive and the AML V anti-money-laundering Directive; on the client relationship and consumer protection, MiFID II (with the MiFIR Regulation), the eIDAS Regulation on electronic identification and trust services, and the GDPR. Partnerships (APIs) between fintechs and unregulated companies also raise many legal questions, since those companies are not necessarily subject to the same rules as fintechs.<\/p>\n This new environment also has tax repercussions. Belgium previously offered a patent-income deduction based on gross patent income. This was recently modified and replaced by an innovation-income deduction: the scope of covered innovations is broader, and the exemption now applies to the net income from those innovations. In their research and development efforts, fintechs may well benefit from this regime.<\/p>\n This article is a translation. Only the French version is authoritative. It is provided for information purposes and does not constitute legal advice.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The legal and tax environment governing fintechs is in full flux. These start-ups active in financial technology face ever more regulatory stakes in meeting their compliance obligations. An overview. A revolution for financial services Fintech, a contraction of finance and technology, refers to companies active in financial technology. Fintechs use analytical tools, data management and… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185562167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"PSD2, AML V, MiFID II, eIDAS, GDPR: the compliance and tax framework Belgian fintechs must navigate in a fast-moving sector.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Regulation and Compliance: The Challenges Facing Fintechs","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11430073,11430069],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fintech","category-regulatory-compliance","clear"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbYDZD-2se","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/185562167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9818,"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9438\/revisions\/9818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A booming sector<\/h2>\n
The regulations to know<\/h2>\n
A tax incentive to support fintechs?<\/h2>\n
On the same topic<\/h3>\n
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