Every major investment begins with a commercial opportunity. Increasingly, however, the first question investors ask is not just commercial or technological, but also institutional. Before deciding whether to enter a market, they want to know which regulator they should approach, how regulators relate to one another, and whether meaningful engagement is possible before capital is committed.

That question is becoming more important as governments regulate emerging industries. Businesses often know precisely what they intend to build. Regulators may equally agree that oversight is necessary. Yet before licensing or compliance can begin, a more fundamental issue frequently arises: how should a new business model be legally classified, and which institution is responsible for answering that question?

I have earlier argued that Pakistan's remittance debate reflects the legal architecture of payment systems as much as the technology through which payments move. More recently, I suggested that investors studying........

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