Launch of the European Digital Finance Programme at the ILF
Press release, Frankfurt a. M., 10 June 2022
The Institute for Law and Finance (ILF) of the University of Frankfurt today launches the European Digital Finance Programme (EDFP).
Background
The European financial sector is rapidly changing, facilitated by digitisation and a rapidly evolving policy landscape. The developing regulatory framework includes the recently adopted Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and proposals for a Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA), pursuant to the European Commission’s Digital Finance Strategy. These new legislative measures are complemented by more general regulatory rules, including the proposed AI Act, the Digital Service Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This comprehensive framework responds to the rapidly changing market and aims at providing legal certainty to businesses and protecting consumer interests.
The final adoption of all relevant measures and their implementation will take several years. At the end of this process, the EU will have the most advanced regulatory framework for the digital economy, including for financial services, globally. However, practical challenges remain, and knowledge and skills gaps need to be urgently addressed.
Capacity building is now
Identifying the need to build the right capacities amongst market participants, practitioners, and supervisors, the ILF is launching today its programme to support relevant capacity-building efforts.
Dr Henrik Haag, Partner at law firm Hengeler Mueller (retired) and member of the ILF Executive Board said:
“Digital finance is rapidly transforming product choice, delivery mechanisms, and even the overall structure of the EU financial system. The regulatory and supervisory landscape is evolving in parallel. However, to be successful in leveraging the opportunities offered and mitigating the risks, this development needs to be matched by equally efficient capacity building. The European Digital Finance Programme at the ILF will be an important building block in this process of capacity building. It will provide a forum for dedicated executive education for market participants, practitioners and supervisors on cutting-edge regulatory and supervisory initiatives.”
What EDFP does
The EDFP is the first educational programme specifically dedicated to capacity building in the area of digital finance. The programme provides executive training to equip participants with
- analytical tools to grasp new market developments in digital finance,
- an exposition of the fundamental policy choices and trade-offs underpinning landmark legislative initiatives, and
- in-depth understanding of the upcoming (and pre-existing) regulatory framework governing digital finance, including all key areas of policy focus at the EU and international standard-setter level.
In its first training cycle, 2023, the EDFP will provide education focussing on four key pillars:
- Digital assets: Bespoke courses on (i) Crypto assets and the practitioner’s perspective on MiCA, (ii) decentralised finance (DeFi), and (iii) central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
- AI: A ground-breaking course on the use of AI in the EU financial sector, and the outlook for regulation and supervision.
- Operational resilience and the DORA, covering the new EU-level oversight of critical third-party providers (CTPPs) of information and communication technology (ICT) services, including the so-called BigTechs.
- Data and the structure of the EU financial system: Two complementary courses on (i) the confluence of data and technology, including the role of BigTechs, as drivers for change in the structure of the EU financial system, and (ii) the merger of the data economy and the financial sector, covering concepts such as PSD3, open banking and open data.
Dr Philipp Paech, Associate Professor of Financial Regulation at the London School of Economics and the new Director of the EDFP at the ILF said:
“We have designed a curriculum that responds to the needs of authorities and the private sector alike … When it comes to digital finance, its regulation and supervision, we all have a lot to learn – and quickly – if the EU is to remain ahead of the game on digital finance. This programme represents an exceptional opportunity to learn first-hand from leading policymakers, central bankers, supervisors and experts from the private sector. I am looking forward to welcoming the participants to our first course in September and expect to see a broad participation from across the public and private sectors, including legal practitioners and executive decision-makers from firms across the EU.”
Future training cycles are expected to be complemented with tailor-made executive training for individual institutions.
Info and contact
The European Digital Finance Programme at the ILF is set up in collaboration with navigatingfintech.com, a Berlin-based online education provider specialising in FinTech, Digital Finance and related themes.
Contact and enquiries:
HENDRIK HAAG
Partner Hengeler Mueller (retired), member ILF Executive Board
