Ms Kris Nathanail
Director of Standards Development

Kris has been with IOSCO since October 2018 and currently serves as the Director of Standards Development. In this role, she oversees the development of IOSCO’s policy-making agenda, including all aspects related to financial innovation. Before becoming Director, Kris was Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff, where she managed IOSCO’s priorities in areas such as sustainable finance, financial stability, and market infrastructure. She has played a key role in initiatives related to sustainability reporting, carbon markets, and ESG data and ratings, as well as financial stability issues like money market funds and leverage.

Before joining IOSCO, Kris spent four years at the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as a Senior Advisor to the Director of Policy and managed the Brexit Policy team. She also contributed to various domestic and international initiatives within the asset management and funds policy team, including work with the ESRB, FSB, and IOSCO C5.

Kris holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a master’s degree in North American and European Political Affairs from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. She also earned an MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology and is an associate member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments.

Balancing Innovation and Oversight: Rethinking Regulation in the Age of Blockchain and AI

In an era of rapid technological change, the regulatory community is confronted with the challenge of ensuring that innovation flourishes while maintaining robust protections for consumers, markets, and society at large. This is no small task, as innovations in financial markets – and technological advancements chief amongst them – often outpace the frameworks designed to oversee them.

The principle of “same activity, same risks, same regulation” has served as a foundational tenet of regulatory frameworks. Yet, as we stand at the crossroads of blockchain-based innovation and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), it is slowly becoming evident, perhaps, that not all technologies are created equal—and neither should their regulations be.

Blockchain is often heralded as transformative, but a closer look suggests that the technology largely serves as an innovative “wrapper” for existing financial processes; game changing but not necessarily era-breaking.

Tokenization based on distributed ledgers, for instance, could improve programmability and composability of traditional assets, potentially enhancing efficiency and accessibility. Yet the underlying risks—such as fraud, market abuse, and investor protection—remain comparable to those in traditional markets, with an additional touch of concerns around operational resilience and security. Here, existing financial regulations, with perhaps some adaptations, remain well-suited to address these challenges. In fact IOSCO’s crypto-asset and digital assets recommendations take that regulatory philosophical approach and focuses on areas such as the mitigation of conflicts of interest, the prevention of market abuse and appropriate custody arrangements. Blockchain may change the “how,” but it does not fundamentally appear to alter the “what.”

Artificial intelligence on the other hand has the potential to revolutionize not only markets but also the very fabric of our society—reshaping industries, labour markets, and governance systems.

Its capacity for autonomous decision-making and self-learning introduces risks that are unprecedented and poorly understood. From ethical dilemmas in algorithmic bias to the existential threats posed by unchecked AI development, the stakes are vastly higher.

AI is transformational and in being so, may require a more proactive and multidisciplinary regulatory approach.

This divergence underscores a critical need for regulatory frameworks that are as dynamic and diverse as the technologies they seek to govern. As we navigate this complex technological landscape, we must resist the temptation to apply one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, we need regulatory approaches that are nuanced and flexible, regulatory approaches that are designed to harness the potential of each technology while safeguarding society from its risks.

Recognising this challenge is the first step toward building a regulatory future that enables innovation while ensuring resilience, fairness, and trust. Regulators must therefore strike a delicate balance because the stakes have never been higher. The question is, will they be able to?