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Concealed Risks of FinTech and Goal-Oriented Responsive Regulation: China’s Background and Global Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2020

Donggen XU  and
Dawei XU
Donggen XU
Affiliation:
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Dawei XU
Affiliation:
Shanghai Stock Exchange
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Abstract

This article provides critical and analytical views on legal regulation to achieve a balance between FinTech innovation, risk prevention, and financial stability, by focusing on the trend of FinTech firms entering the financial-services industry and the associated regulatory and legal challenges that are already arising in China. It adopts a balanced approach as a theoretical-analysis perspective, weighing various considerations, and proposes the policy option of FinTech regulation under the principle of interest balance. The analysis aims to contribute new insights to an ongoing debate in China on the relationship between legal and regulatory reform, FinTech innovation, and risk prevention. This article argues that legal challenges, rather than technical problems, remain the key obstacles to effective FinTech regulation. Our proposed hypothesis seeks to explain how a legal regulation achieves balancing the competing interests between FinTech innovation, risk prevention, and financial stability in the booming of China’s FinTech. Finally, this article proposes the implementation of goal-oriented responsive regulation by improving the legal framework of FinTech regulatory regimes through policy option.

Keywords

ChinaFinTechrisk preventionregulationlegal framework
Type
Legal Risk Society in East Asia
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 305 - 324
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2020

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Footnotes

•

The authors wish to express their gratitude to the anonymous referees for their helpful comments on an earlier draft. We are grateful for the financial support from Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science for the research project entitled RegTech: Legal Issues in Financial Regulatory Innovation and Practice in Shanghai (FXB2018004).

*

Professor, Koguan School of Law, Shanghai Jiaotong University; Director of Center for Financial Law and Policy, SJTU. Correspondence to Donggen Xu, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China. E-mail address: xudonggen@sjtu.edu.cn.

**

Economist, Shanghai Stock Exchange.

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