First published by International Comparative Legal Guides, May 2018

1. The Fintech Landscape

1.1 Please describe the types of fintech businesses that are active in your jurisdiction and any notable fintech innovation trends of the past year within particular sub-sectors (e.g. payments, asset management, peer-to-peer lending or investment, insurance and blockchain applications).

The Isle of Man Government has shown great enthusiasm for the development of Fintech products. Whilst Fintech companies have not displaced traditional financial service providers, the Fintech market is continuously developing in the Isle of Man.

The Fintech sector in the Isle of Man consists of, among other things, e-gaming, payment services and crypto-currencies.

Local success stories in the Fintech sector in the Isle of Man include:

  • ChainPay: payments processor.
  • CoinCorner: bitcoin exchange and web wallet provider.
  • Credits: blockchain platform provider.
  • Global Processing Services: transaction processing and programme management environments for payment card programmes.
  • Paysafe: online payment processing.
  • Riva Financial Systems: administrative solutions to the Asset Management Industry.

In the past year the Isle of Man has seen a number of initial coin offerings (ICO) which is where a "coin", "virtual currency" or "token" is sold in exchange for money, a crypto-currency or a good or service. Although there have only been a small number of ICO's on the Island in the past year, this can be attributed to the Island's focus on the probity of those involved and ensuring that those ICO businesses are subject to AML/CFT legislation.

Amendments were also made in January 2017 to the Online Gambling (Registration and Account) Regulations 2008 which allowed online gambling operators to accept deposits in money or money's worth, including virtual currencies and non-convertible currencies.

1.2 Are there any types of fintech business that are at present prohibited or restricted in your jurisdiction (for example cryptocurrency-based businesses)?

We are not aware of any prohibitions or restrictions specific to Fintech business in the Isle of Man.

Unless providing online gambling services, Fintech businesses will be regulated by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority (IOMFSA), as set out in section 3.

2. Funding for Fintech

3. Fintech Regulation

4. Other Regulatory Regimes / Non-Financial Regulation

5. Accessing Talent

6. Technology

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