Just discovered this article in FinExtra.com about the UK's new rules for Electronic Currencies by David Birch from Consult Hyperion one the UK's leading consulting firms on advanced payment systems.
The UK is the first country to actually have rules regarding eCurrencies. These were created to promote the usage of private electronic currency schemes. They will be regulated by the Financial Services Authority who have quite a bit about The Regulation of Electronic Money Issuers on their site.
They key rules are that there has to be a minimum of 1 million Euro's or 2% paid up capital (whichever is lowest). The 2% level at first seems quite low, but I guess you wouldn't necessarily need more for things like Frequent Flyer miles etc.
Another issue is that there is a maximum purse size of 1000 Euro's, which can be extended with various safeguards.
When it comes to consumer safety there is the purse size mentioned above and the requirement of issuers to publicize all risks. There is no compensation scheme if the system goes under, but there will be an ombudsman scheme.
I'm not a big fan of legislation, but it does seem quite cool to actually have something like this on the books.