Regulating technological driven finance: activities, subjects and supervision in the digital era

The project aims at investigating the financial innovation in the EU internal market due to the free movement of capitals and the new operational solutions introduced by the latest technologies, in order to provide an effective contribution for the benefit of the global networks (i.e. FSB, IMF), the regional regulatory authorities (i.e. EU bodies) and domestic institutions in their effort to set the laws and regulations in this field (with respect to the proposal of a ‘national plan for the recovery and resilience’ made by the Italian Government of 15 January 2021). Hence, the research will verify the thesis that the digitalization reduces the power of the State to regulating technological driven finance and an increasing number of operators may access the market for capital and financial services without being subject to the proper supervision.The Research Group aims at going further in a path started by the investigators and published in several journals and books that analysed the nexus between innovation, technology, economic fundamental rights, customers’ protection and State regulation (on ‘electronic money institutions’ (2000), ‘remote marketing of insurance services’ (2012), ‘shadow banking system’ (2016), ‘financial markets’ (2019), ‘big data’ (2019), ‘financial data aggregators’ (2019) and ‘fintech regulation’ (2020)).

This analysis will deliver a specific outcome to satisfy the general interest for this topic resulting from the economical relevance of innovative and technological driven forms of banking and finance: a quantitative analysis of the financial innovation will testify how the new techniques influence the economy of G20 Countries.

Then, the results would improve the public awareness in the scientific field of the multifaceted ways of digitalization in the market for capital and financial services, of the diverging approach towards such innovations by incumbent and new operators, of the relevant risks and opportunities and the subsequent need for public intervention to protect individual rights and financial stability. These results will also contribute to the search for an innovation-friendly environment that does not hinder capitals flows in the EU internal market while at the same time supports the real economy.