Decentralised finance (DeFi) represents an extremely interesting and continuously growing area of the financial sector. The present paper analyses varied types of digital platforms, expression of different degrees of decentralisation/disintermediation, focusing on capital raising ones since...

Following the recent global financial crisis there is a growing interest in alternative finance – and microfinance in particular – as new instruments for providing financial services in a socially responsible way or as an alternative to traditional banking. Nonetheless, correspondingly there...

Microfinance institutions, in their efforts to improve outreach and expand the range of financial services offered to the poor, have recurred to more and more sophisticated financing instruments, including securitization. The paper explores the advantages offered by this form of funding as well...

Microfinance is a new, varied and intriguing sector for academics, practitioners and regulators. The current debate about financial sector reforms after the global financial crisis, the recent phenomenon of commercialization of microfinance and related criticism including scandals about...

Marketplace lending, enabled by technological innovation, represents a new opportunity for raising capital. It is regarded by the EU as having the potential to expand the financing options of SMEs and improve the integration of the Internal Capital Market. However, applying traditional legal...

The European Commission's Proposal for a Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers (ECSPs) for businesses, since its presentation, has faced difficult trilateral negotiations among the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The length of...

The European Commission's Proposal for a Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers (ECSPs) for businesses, since its presentation, has faced difficult trilateral negotiations among the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The length of...

Marketplace lending and investing have been recently attracting increasing regulatory attention. However, regulatory responses to such phenomenon have been extremely varied, even in Europe, characterized by maximum harmonization in the field of financial regulation, continuous efforts in...

The Fintech Action Plan (see now also Digital Finance Strategy) and the Sustainable Finance Strategy both represent important pillars of the current EU policy agenda. Nonetheless, the two areas have been treated as separate for a long time, while they present certain common features and great...