This innovative Commentary boasts contributions from internationally renowned experts with extensive and diverse backgrounds, providing a comprehensive, critical, article-by-article and thematic analysis of the EU Regulation No 1503/2020 on European Crowdfunding Service Providers for Business (ECSPR). Chapters analyse Member States’ adaptation of their legal frameworks to the ECSPR, underlying similarities, divergences, additional problematic issues and residual regulatory fragmentation.

Andrew A. Schwartz marries theory with on-the-ground research to give lawyers, students, scholars, and policymakers a one-stop shop for everything they need to know about investment crowdfunding, its regulation, and how to improve it. Investment Crowdfunding is an accessible and engaging introduction to a growing field.

Global finance is in the middle of a radical transformation fueled by innovative financial technologies. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digitization of retail financial services in Europe. Institutional interest and digital asset markets are also growing blurring the boundaries between the token economy and traditional finance. Blockchain, AI, quantum computing and decentralised finance (DeFI) are setting the stage for a global battle of business models and philosophies. The post-Brexit EU cannot afford to ignore the promise of digital finance. But the Union is struggling to keep pace with global innovation hubs, particularly when it comes to experimenting with new digital forms of capital raising. Calibrating the EU digital finance strategy is a balancing act that requires a deep understanding of the factors driving the transformation, be they legal, cultural, political or economic, as well as their many implications. The same FinTech inventions that use AI, machine learning and big data to facilitate access to credit may also establish invisible barriers that further social, racial and religious exclusion. The way digital finance actors source, use, and record information presents countless consumer protection concerns. The EU’s strategic response has been years in the making and, finally, in September 2020 the Commission released a Digital Finance Package. This special issue collects contributions from leading scholars who scrutinize the challenges digital finance presents for the EU internal market and financial market regulation from multiple public policy perspectives. Author contributions adopt a critical yet constructive and solutions-oriented approach. They aim to provide policy-relevant research and ideas shedding light on the complexities of the digital finance promise. They also offer solid proposals for reform of EU financial services law.

In late 2008, the world's financial system was teetering on the brink of systemic collapse. While the impacts of the global financial crisis would be felt immediately, at every level of the economy, it would also send years-long aftershocks through investment, banking and regulatory circles worldwide. More than a decade after the worst year of the global financial crisis, what has been learned from its harsh lessons? Are governments and regulators more prepared for another financial system failure that would significantly affect the real economy? What may be the potential triggers for such a collapse to occur in the future? Systemic Risk in the Financial Sector: Ten Years after the Great Crash draws on some of the world's leading experts on financial stability and regulation to examine and critique the progress made since 2008 in addressing systemic risk. The book covers topics such as central banks and macroprudential policies; fintech; regulators' perspectives from the United States and the European Union; the logistical and incentive challenges that impede standardization and collection; clearing houses and systemic risk; optimal resolution and bail-in tools; and bank leverage, welfare and regulation. Drawing on experts across disciplines — including Howell Jackson, John Geanakoplos, Charles Goodhart, Anat Admati, Roberta Romano and Martin Hellwig — Systemic Risk in the Financial Sector is the definitive guide to understanding the global financial crisis, the safeguards being put into place to try to avoid similar crises in the future, and the limitations of those safeguards.

This book questions the ability of crowdfunding (especially in the lending and equity-based models) to contribute to the development of European businesses, and therefore, to the relaunch of the European economy. Following a mainly micro (firm-based) approach, the study investigates the advantages of crowd investors’ increased role both in making financial resources available to the industrial base, thus reinvigorating economic growth across the European Union. The book reframes contemporary issues surrounding corporate finance and develops relevant knowledge to help companies succeed when it comes to securing the means to grow. It provides new and interesting insights into the alternative finance market, in light of the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The book describes the main alternative finance models which include not only lending and equity-based crowdfunding, but also marketplace lending, balance sheet lending, invoice trading, securities, real estate crowdfunding, and profit-sharing. It also analyses the due diligence process and other value-added services provided by platforms and backers. The book outlines a systematic understanding of crowdfunding as a substitute or complement to other forms of entrepreneurial finance and unpacks some of the misunderstandings surrounding the crowdfunding industry and its future evolution. The conclusions reached can be of help to entrepreneurs who have limited knowledge of the crowdfunding tool and the associated benefits. As such, this book is a valuable resource for students, researchers, professionals, and practitioners interested in discovering or better understanding the crowdfunding process, its characteristics, and the range of players in this market.

Corporate finance theory seeks to understand how incorporated firms address the financial constraints that affect their investment decisions. This is achieved by using varied financial instruments that seek to give holders different claims on the firm's assets. Recent scholarship in this area has highlighted the critical importance of the legal environment in explaining the choices that companies make about their capital structure. This book combines company law, capital markets law, and aspects of commercial and insolvency law to give readers a detailed understanding of the legal and regulatory issues relating to corporate finance. Informed by insights from theoretical and empirical work, the book examines from a legal perspective the key elements of corporate financing structures and capital markets in the UK. The authors' practical experience of transactions and regulatory issues ensures that thorough scholarly inquiry and critical reflection are complemented by an assured understanding of the interface between legal principles and rules as they are documented and in their actual operation. Key developments covered in this third edition include the post-Brexit adaptation of UK company law and capital market regulation, important new cases on parent company liability in tort, creditor-facing duties of directors, issuer and director liability for misleading statements to the market, alternatives to public market financing, and recent changes in the practice of debt finance.

This book offers a comparative perspective on 18 countries’ legal regulation of crowdfunding. In the wake of the financial crises of 2008, use of this alternative financing method has increased substantially, in various forms. Whereas some states have adopted tailor-made regimes in order to regulate but also encourage this way of financing projects, allowing loans to be made by non-banking institutions, others still haven’t specifically addressed the subject. An analysis of these diverse legislative stances offers readers a range of legal solutions for managing crowdfunding activities with regard to e.g. protecting investors, imposing limits on project owners, and finally the role and duties of intermediaries, i.e., companies operating crowdfunding platforms. In addition, the content presented here provides a legal basis for states and supranational organizations interested in regulating this phenomenon to achieve more legal certainty.

Mirroring the long-established structure of the financial industry, EU financial regulation as we know it today approaches banking, insurance and investment services separately and often divergently. In recent decades however, the clear separation between financial sectors has gradually evaporated, as business lines have converged across sectors and FinTech solutions have emerged which do not fit traditional sector boundaries. As the contours of the traditional tripartition in the financial industry have faded, the diverging regulatory and supervisory treatment of these sectors has become increasingly at odds with economic reality. This book brings together insights developed by distinguished researchers and industry professionals in a series of articles analysing the main areas of EU financial regulation from a cross-sectoral perspective. For each specific research theme – including prudential regulation, corporate governance and conduct of business rules – the similarities, as well as gaps, overlaps and unjustifiable differences between banking, securities and insurance regulation, are clearly presented and discussed. This innovative research approach is aimed at informing lawmakers and policymakers on potential improvements to EU financial regulation whilst also supporting legal and compliance professionals applying the current framework or looking to streamline compliance processes.

This book is an in-depth and timely analysis of the EU Crowdfunding Regulation. Striking a balance between academic scrutiny and practical context, and drawing upon various aspects of financial law, consumer law, and dispute resolution, it is invaluable for practitioners and academics seeking to understand an innovative alternative mode of funding.

EU Banking and Financial Regulation presents a comprehensive and systematic overview of the major directives and regulations which currently govern the EUÕs banking and finance industries. Offering a depiction of the main EU rules, this timely book not only addresses the various banking and financial legislations relating to EU supervisors, banks and financial markets, but also considers more peripheral issues such as anti-money laundering, whilst referring to important case law.