Managing Director - Center for Innovative Finance, University of Basel
Fabian Schär is a Professor of Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchain) and Fintech at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Basel. In addition, he serves as the Managing Director of the University’s Center for Innovative Finance, a board member of the research network Responsible Digital Society and a Swiss Finance Institute Affiliate Professor. He has co-authored the bestselling book Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptoassets, published by MIT Press and has also published several well-cited articles in reputable scientific journals.
Professor Schär's research lies at the intersection of economics and computer science, with a particular focus on public blockchains, blockchain-based financial infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and financial privacy. His work has been featured in The Economist, the Financial Times, and Forbes, and he has been listed in the NZZ ranking of the most influential economists in Switzerland.
He serves as a technical advisor to the Bank for International Settlements' Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and has worked as a visiting lecturer at several central banks. In addition, he has been a member of World Economic Forum working groups and an invited expert to hearings by numerous central banks, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). He has spoken at over 200 events, including various G20, BIS, and IMF conferences.
Roundtable Room 4, Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Level 4
Invite-Only
In a roundtable "Shaping the Future of Cross-border Transaction Compliance" held during the Singapore FinTech Festival in 2023, a major challenge identified was the increasing intricacy of sanctions screening and compliance with capital flow management measures. Additionally, participants highlighted the importance of developing interoperable and modular technological solutions that can adapt to various regulatory environments. The discussion introduced the concept of programmable compliance. This concept envisions smart contracts with embedded policy and regulatory implementations for digital assets, as a potential direction for the future.
This roundtable will continue the dialogue on programable compliance with an emphasis on privacy-enhancing technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and multi-party computation in the compliance context. The roundtable will also focus on the key efficiency gains emanating from Project Mandala, a BIS Innovation Hub initiative, which aims to facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges of compliance requirements and data between financial institutions, utilising cryptographic proofs for verifiable compliance.
Key Discussion Points:
1. Enhancing Cross-Border Transaction Integrity: The roundtable will explore how programmable compliance can address challenges in ensuring consistent regulatory compliance across various jurisdictions, particularly in cross-border digital transactions.
2. Embedding Compliance into Digital Assets: A significant focus will be on the opportunities and challenges of incorporating compliance checks directly into digital assets through smart contracts, aiming to streamline and automate regulatory compliance processes.
3. Balancing Compliance and Data Privacy: Another key aspect will be the need to balance regulatory compliance with data privacy concerns, ensuring that programmable compliance mechanisms do not compromise sensitive information.
4. Overcoming Technological Barriers: The roundtable will delve into the technological hurdles of implementing programmable compliance in existing digital payment systems and how to design adaptable smart contracts that meet evolving regulatory requirements.
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