Shaping finance digitalization is a key priority of the Consob authority (the Commission regulating the Italian securities market). The Italian public authority will identify opportunities in our digital financial world and will discuss and develop strategies for dealing with access to payment services (i.e. mobile payments), credit (i.e. peer-to-peer lending) or equity (i.e. crowd investing). Three professors of Sant’Anna School, Gaetana Morgante (Penal Law), Erica Palmerini (Private Law), and Alberto Pirni (Moral Philosophy), were invited to debate how the use of innovative technologies and digital tools can promote financial inclusion and affordability of financial services for consumers.
Consob is the competent authority for ensuring transparency and correct behavior by securities market participants, disclosure of complete and accurate information to the investing public. Invited speakers and renowned academics from different backgrounds will ensure that the meetings work is underpinned by expert knowledge. As new technologies and business models are developing at a rapid pace, and are very heterogeneous in nature, authorities face numerous challenges when assessing the appropriateness of their regulatory approach to innovations.
Gaetana Morgante will attend the meeting and make her contribution on the protection of digital identities, illegal bank activity, securities frauds and illegal activity in the stock market. Erica Palmerini will talk on protection of data and privacy in financial services regulations and Alberto Pirni will focus on financial inclusion and investor protection.
The results of the meeting will feed into a “discussion paper” expected to be published at the end of 2017. Financial inclusion that relies on digital financial services like mobile payments or peer-to-peer finance might be especially conducive to growth and to lowering inequality. The participants at the meeting will discuss successful examples of digital financial inclusion, establishing peer exchange with innovative digital media techniques.
Giuseppe Vegas, chairman of Consob, in his annual comments to the market on May 8, 2017, focused attention once again on the risks that current rules can still pose for Italian investors. He pointed out that the Faculty task force on the regulatory approach to innovations in digital finance plays an important role in the good functioning of the financial system and the safeguarding of the market.
