SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Robert Karlsson, Helena Rönqvist, Caroline Landerfors and Vilma Slättegård, Magnusson Law
9. Regtech 9.1 Regulation of Regtech Providers Sweden currently lacks regulations that explic - itly target regtech. Depending on the nature of the services offered, regtech providers may have to adhere to various financial regulations. Addi - tionally, some general regulatory frameworks for technology may apply. For instance, the AI Act may be applicable if the regtech application incorporates AI. 9.2 Contractual Terms to Assure Performance and Accuracy When a financial service firm outsources ser - vices to a regtech provider, it must comply with the outsourcing rules that apply to its opera - tions. These regulations must be considered and incorporated into contractual terms to ensure the provider’s performance and accuracy. See 2.8 Outsourcing of Regulated Functions for more details. 10. Blockchain 10.1 Use of Blockchain in the Financial Services Industry The SFSA has expressed that blockchain and distributed database technology has potential and that such techniques could be used within a number of sectors, for example to increase efficiency in share trading and to increase resil - ience against cyber-attacks. At the same time, the SFSA has been clear that it sees a number of challenges with crypto-assets, not only related to investor protection but also to fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing. In 2017, the Swedish Central Bank decided to investigate whether issuing a central bank digital currency (e-krona) would be feasible. The pro -
portion of the Swedish public using cash as pay - ment has been steadily decreasing over the last few years. The Swedish central bank has stated that the e-krona could be a potential option to ensure that the general public has secure access to state-guaranteed money. The e-krona is not a cryptocurrency. Some traditional players on the financial mar - ket still have a slightly sceptical attitude toward cryptocurrency due to the fact that it can be linked to many common forms of investment fraud. 10.2 Local Regulators’ Approach to Blockchain Sweden currently lacks explicit regulation gov - erning blockchain technology. However, aligning with the EU digital finance package, two new EU regulations have been integrated into the legal framework and are applicable in Sweden: • Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA); and • Regulation (EU) 2022/858, establishing a pilot regime for market infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology (the “DLT Regulation” ). In conjunction with the EU regulations, the Swedish government has adopted a comple - mentary Act with additional provisions to MiCA and introduced a proposal with supplementary provisions to the DLT Regulation. 10.3 Classification of Blockchain Assets MiCA divides crypto-assets into three catego - ries: e-money tokens, asset-referenced tokens and other crypto-assets. While crypto-assets would not normally be considered financial instruments, the evaluation of whether a crypto-asset or blockchain asset
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