Regulação da inovação no sistema financeiro: mecanismos regulatórios frente à revolução tecnológica

Abstract

This study aims to identify the key features that financial system regulation must adopt to respond effectively to innovation while maintaining systemic stability. It focuses specifically on the sector that collects financial resources from one client and transfers them to another – commonly known as the credit market – where monetary and credit intermediation backed by currency takes place. The analysis starts from the theoretical premise that law, as a social system, stabilizes normative expectations. Regulation, as a legal subsystem or regulatory regime, addresses the needs and particularities of the economic subsystem but does so without surrendering its autonomy. Alongside this primary goal, the research seeks to consolidate the conceptual understanding of financial system regulation and innovation. It explores and defines the main activities and central actors in this market and evaluates how well current regulatory mechanisms align with their intended objectives. After reviewing a range of existing regulatory tools – at distinct stages of maturity – the study advances to its core question: What are the six essential characteristics that regulators must adopt to manage the relentless, disruptive evolution of their regulatory object? The thesis argues that effective regulation of financial innovation depends on adhering to the following guidelines. First, regulators need a deep understanding of the regulated object, which involves identifying the problem, exploring alternatives, implementing solutions, and continuously monitoring and reassessing them. Second, regulation must co-evolve with the regulated object, using mechanisms that allow innovative solutions to operate without jeopardizing the overall stability of the system. Third, regulators should advance the very form of normativity itself, incorporating tools and mechanisms capable of engaging with technological innovations, particularly at the level of code and algorithms. Fourth, regulation must remain proportionate, carefully considering both the activities and actors involved, as well as their relevance and risk level to the system. Fifth, regulators must promote systemic integration to counteract the centrifugal and fragmentary pressures that innovation places on the financial sector. Finally, regulators need to engage directly with market participants – not as service providers, but as active counterparts who collect data and insights while creating the necessary conditions for regulated activities to thrive. Although these guidelines could inspire regulatory approaches in other economic sectors, this study tailors them to the specificities of the financial market, especially regarding the collection and transfer of financial resources. Financial and payment institutions, as central players in this segment, hold the bulk of the population’s and the State’s financial assets. Innovation in this sector, if mishandled, risks undermining monetary stability and, by extension, the economic and financial balance of other segments of the economy – threatening popular savings through the well-known risks of liquidity and credit crises. At the same time, innovation can deliver significant benefits to users of financial services. These guidelines, therefore, aim to equip regulators with tools that strike a balance between necessary control and the freedom for innovation to flourish within the financial market. Future research should monitor how regulators apply these guidelines, evaluating whether they achieve the intended regulatory objectives and identifying any positive externalities. Such benefits might include, for example, greater price stability or lower costs for financial services at the individual user level.