West University of Timișoara
Faculty of Law
Master in European Union Law
From E-Money to FinTech
Rainer Kulms
(Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg)
Internet-based transactions have been growing rapidly in recent years, ushering in new forms of payment. Single operator online platforms and innovative forms of transferring money ex-perience rising shares in the market for retail payments. In this context, innovations in digital and information technology have brought forth mobile, contactless and telephone payment devices, blockchains and virtual currencies and peer-to-peer lending schemes. As a corollary, services traditionally performed by banks have been taken over by payment service providers. The upshot of this development is a cashless society where digitisation plays an important role.
The class will first explore the European Union Law framework for electronic money and electronic payment systems. Electronic money will be understood as electronically stored value for making payments to entities other than the issuer. Case studies will be offered to demonstrate the variety of challenges arising from smartcard-based payment devices, smartphone payments on the basis of a bank account and mobile payment systems for the un-banked such as M-Pesa. The analysis will then address Bitcoin and its regulatory implications, from both, the virtual currency and the blockchain perspective. Blockchain technology is about to generate payment and clearing mechanisms requiring very little human intervention. To illustrate the dynamics of this development reference will be made to recent feasibility studies.
12-15 March, 2018 (Mon-Thu, 16-18)
Conference Room, West University of Timișoara, Faculty of Law