My research interests are FinTech, RegTech, central bank digital currencies and the Consumer Data Right and, more broadly, the full range of issues that the rise of data and its algorithmic analysis pose for society. My joint research with Professors Doug Arner of HKU and Dirk Zetzsche of the University of Luxembourg on FinTech is currently downloaded from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) more frequently than that of any other legal scholars in the world.
My Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, 2020 - 2027, is a $3.7 million project that explores how Australia might best regulate the rise of data and its analysis so as to seize the related benefits while managing the many risks. See the Laureate Project website for all of the Project's research outputs.
Before this, for six years, I led two major sequential projects on the delivery of financial services over mobile devices in developing countries. I led a team of three to four researchers on these projects, funded by a large ARC Linkage grant in conjunction with, and generously supported by, the United Nations Capital Development Fund.
I joined the Faculty in January 2007, and was appointed a Scientia Professor, and to the King & Wood Mallesons Chair in International Finance Law, in 2013. This research sponsorship was expanded with KPMG Law, from 2018 until 2023, and the Chair renamed as the KPMG Law - KWM Chair in Disruptive Innovation and Law.
Over the years I have consulted to government departments in over 12 countries, and to three government agencies in the US (the OCC, SEC, and Department of Justice). I began my career practising banking and finance law in Australia and Hong Kong and on Wall Street with Davis Polk, in total for some nine years.
Areas of expertise
FinTech, RegTech, cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies, digital assets generally, consumer data right, and digital financial services.
Professional Memberships and Affiliations
Member, Payments System Board, Reserve Bank of Australia.
Chair, Digital Finance Advisory Panel, Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC)
Member, Consultative Panel, ASIC.
Founding Series Editor, Global Trade Law Series, Kluwer Law International, The Hague.
Series Co-editor, Kluwer's International Banking and Finance Law Series.
Research Supervision
If you are interested in working with me, you should be fascinated by FinTech, RegTech, central bank digital currencies, or the challenges that the rise of data and its analysis brings.
I am seeking two doctoral candidates with outstanding academic results and legal backgrounds to work in these fields, starting any time in 2025, supported by relatively generous (and tax-free) scholarships under the Laureate Project.
I have previously supervised 13 doctoral candidates to successful completion.
Post-doctoral Fellowship Opportunities
I am also seeking two post-doctoral research fellows to commence on the Laureate Project any time in 2025. By international standards these roles are well remunerated. Fellows on my prior major research projects now serve as Professor at Durham, Associate Professor at Monash and UNSW, and on the faculty at Boston University, University of Hong Kong and UNSW.
My Grants
“The Financial Data Revolution: Seizing the Benefits, Controlling the Risks”, Australian Laureate Fellowship, FL200100007, sole CI, ($2,634,900), 2020-2025.
“Balancing the Opportunities and Risks of Financial Technology: FinTech Regulation and Policy”, Hong Kong Research Grants Council Research Impact Fund Grant, CI: DW Arner, PIs: RP Buckley, S Yiu, DA Zetzsche, (HK$ 4,200,000, about US$540,000), 2019-2023.
“Fintech and Regtech: Building a resilient, inclusive and competitive legal and regulatory framework for 21st century finance in Qatar”, Qatar National Research Fund National Priorities Research Program Grant, LPI: A Dahdal, PIs: RP Buckley, DW Arner, G Walker & J Truby, (US$579,794) 2019-2022
“A Comparative Analysis of Policy Approaches to Encourage FinTech”, CPA Global Research Perspectives Program grant, CIs: RP Buckley & A Didenko, ($57,770), 2019.
“When Regimes Clash on Capital Controls: Managing the Conflicting Norms and Standards of the IMF, WTO and International Investment Agreements’, Hong Kong Research Grants Council Grant, CI: B Mercurio, PIs: RP Buckley, J Seade & J Kurtz, (HK$ 605,824 /A$100,000), 2017-2018.
“Regulating a Revolution: A New Regulatory Model for Digital Finance”, Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant (LP150100269), lead CI with CB Picker and DW Arner, ($1,072,852 (including partner cash contribution)), 2015-19.
“The Regulation of Stored Value Payment and Remittance Systems in Australia”, Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR) grant (T025), lead CI with DW Arner, ($151,944), 2015.
ARC Linkage Infrastructure Grant (LE140100011) for the international law library for WorldLii, one of many co-CIs on a grant led by A Mowbray & G Greenleaf, ($284,000), 2014.
“The Regulation of Mobile Financial Services”, CIFR grant (E226), sole CI, ($445,000), 2013-2015.
“Systemic Responses to Global Financial Instability: New Thinking and Measures by Which Australia Can Address the Challenges of Globalised Capital”, Discovery Senior Outstanding Researcher Award (an ARC Professorial Fellowship) and ARC Discovery Grant, ($675,000), 2013-2015.
“Identifying, Monitoring and Managing Systemic Risks in Australia’s Superannuation System”, CIFR grant (E033), S Donald, H Bateman, RP Buckley and K Liu, ($200,800), 2013 –2015.
Hong Kong Research Grants Council Theme-based Research Scheme for “Enhancing Hong Kong’s Future as a Leading International Financial Centre”, Co-investigator in a 25-member team of which the lead investigator is DW Arner, (HK$ 15.36 million / US$ 1.95 million), 2012-2017.
“Innovative Initiatives for Regulating Global Capital”, CIFR grant (E135), lead CI with D Arner and E Avgouleas, ($77,340), 2012-2013.
“Regulatory Responses to the Global Financial Crisis: An Australian Perspective”, ARC Discovery Grant, lead CI, ($170,000), 2010-2012.
“Debt-for-Development Exchanges as a Means of Enhancing Regional Security”, ARC Discovery Grant, sole CI, ($165,000), 2008-2010.
My Awards
Fulbright Senior Scholarship (three months at the Global Capital Markets Centre at Duke University), 2011.
Bond University Oxford Scholarship, awarded to fund a Visiting Fellowship to the Summer Research Institute, Harris & Manchester College, Oxford.
Coral Sea Scholarship awarded by the Fulbright Commission, Yale Law School.
Australian Banking Law Association Research Competition, First Prize for the paper “The 1993 Revision of the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits”.
My Research Supervision
Areas of supervision
FinTech, RegTech, cryptocurrencies, and central bank digital currencies; and all of the issues associated with the rise of data and its algorithmic analysis.
Currently supervising
One candidate on India's digital identity system and another on the multi-lateral governance of central bank digital currencies.
My Engagement
I consult frequently to the Asian Development Bank and have consulted to diverse government departments, regulators and banks. In the U.S. to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Department of Justice; and elsewhere to government departments in Australia (including the ATO and ASIC), Indonesia, Malawi, Nepal, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Vietnam and to the West African Economic and Monetary Union and other nations.
My joint research on FinTech, RegTech and payments has had considerable impact. We have presented our findings to many leading regulatory agencies around the world, including AUSTRAC, ASIC, RBA and Treasury in Australia, the SEC, FDIC and Federal Reserve in the US, Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, the Financial Stability Board in Basel many times, Banque de France, Bank of Korea, European Securities and Markets Association, and the Monetary Authorities of Hong Kong and Singapore, among others.
My work, with my research team, on the enabling regulation of digital financial services in developing countries, has seen our findings reflected in the laws of a wide range of countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Our research has been used extensively by the World Bank and United Nations agencies in advising central banks and regulators in some of the world’s poorest nations; and we have presented training programs for these regulators in West Africa, Nepal, and in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste and Tonga. Our findings are now reflected in the laws of nations as diverse as Fiji and Peru, Taiwan and Timor Leste, among others.
Memberships
Member, Payment Systems Board, Reserve Bank of Australia.
Fellow, Academy of Social Sciences of Australia (FASSA).
Fellow, Australian Academy of Law (FAAL).
Chair, Digital Finance Advisory Panel, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Member, FinTech Research Centre Advisory Board, National Chengchi University, Taiwan.
Series Co-Editor, Global Trade Law Series, Wolters Kluwer, The Hague.
Series Co-editor, International Banking and Finance Law Series, Wolters Kluwer, The Hague.
Fellow & Advisory Board Member, Asian Institute of International Financial Law, University of Hong Kong.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4522-0210