Richard Hay

The role of financial market infrastructure for stablecoins

This Spotlight article outlines certain roles a financial market infrastructure (FMI) could play in the stablecoin ecosystem and how this may support policy objectives. In particular, we discuss:

• the significance and legal characteristics of stablecoins, focusing on their unique aspects versus other digital settlement assets;
• the role(s) that an FMI could play in supporting settlements in stablecoins among financial institutions and in managing systemic risks more broadly; and
• certain legal and regulatory considerations, including to illustrate stablecoin-related activities an FMI may be able to conduct within the scope of existing frameworks and authorisations.

Smart contracts: navigating a course between a consensus arrangement and a legal contract

In this Spotlight article, the authors propose a rebuttal to one of the conclusions in ‘Sailing into the rules of smart contracts’, an article co-authored by Akber Datoo and Jeffrey Golden and published in the June edition of this journal ((2021) 6 JIBFL 387).

Moving towards digital capital markets: the EIB’s public blockchain bond

In April 2021, the European Investment Bank (EIB) issued its first ever notes in digital form on the Ethereum public blockchain. This was a milestone transaction in several respects: as a true financing using a blockchain register rather than a proof of concept; through the use of Central Bank Digital Currency at issue; and through the development of documentation to address the new technology. This article summarises the key features of the issuance and its relevance to future digital bond issuances.