Its national railway service may have already jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon, but Switzerland is taking a slower approach as it looks to regulate digital currencies and fintech.
Days after Swiss rail operator SBB made international headlines for the decision to sell bitcoin through its network of ticket kiosks, the country’s Federal Department of Finance (FDF) outlined its plans to regulate fintech with an eye to introduce legislation sometime next year.
Key elements include plans for a new kind of license geared specifically toward fintech companies and a so-called regulatory “sandbox” for experimental firms. Under the proposed regime, the Financial Market Supervisory Authority would become the primary regulator of fintech firms working in Switzerland.
Questions remain, however. In a statement, the FDF said that it will pursue additional research into bitcoin and other digital currencies, as well as broader applications of blockchain.
http://www.coindesk.com/switzerland-bitcoin-regulation/
