Risk-based approach to Supervision or Monitoring of VASPs (Virtual Asset Service Provider)
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Risk-based approach to Supervision or Monitoring of VASPs (Virtual Asset Service Provider)

Risk-based approach and what it entails When tack­ling AML/CFT (Anti-Mon­ey Laundering/Countering the Financ­ing of Ter­ror­ism), the risk-based approach aims to build those mea­sures to pre­vent or mit­i­gate that are equal to the ML/TF (Mon­ey Laundering/Terrorist Financ­ing) risks iden­ti­fied by the rel­e­vant coun­tries and oblig­ed enti­ties. When it comes to super­vi­sion, this approach applies to how...

Reasons why “Classic” Banks do not accept Fintech Companies
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Reasons why “Classic” Banks do not accept Fintech Companies

Introduction As many of you may know, a “Clas­sic” bank is the usu­al finan­cial ser­vices provider which offers a whole spec­trum of finan­cial ser­vices, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to Branch Ser­vices, ATMs, Inter­net Bank­ing, the Issu­ing of VISAs and Cheque Books, amongst oth­ers. The cur­rent sit­u­a­tion with such banks is that they seem like they...

Summary of the MFSA Circular to VFA Service Providers
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Summary of the MFSA Circular to VFA Service Providers

The MFSA issued a Cir­cu­lar on 6th Sep­tem­ber 2019 to the VFA Ser­vice Providers. The Cir­cu­lar is regard­ing the licens­ing require­ments. VFA Ser­vice Providers who are oper­at­ing in tran­si­to­ry would need to com­mence the license appli­ca­tion by not lat­er than the already stip­u­lat­ed dead­line, that being on the 31st of Octo­ber 2019. The Cir­cu­lar applies...

Malta as the ‘epicentre’ of security token financing
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Malta as the ‘epicentre’ of security token financing

Blockchain Island Mal­ta is known world­wide for the pio­neer­ing role of its gov­ern­ment in DLT tech­nol­o­gy, but also as the loca­tion of cryp­to exchanges such as Binance and OkEX. Now Mal­ta is prepar­ing to present itself as a suit­able domi­cile for secu­ri­ty token financ­ing. These efforts are being dri­ven pri­mar­i­ly by the Mal­ta Stock Exchange...

MDIA Certification
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MDIA Certification

Introduction Mal­ta Dig­i­tal Inno­va­tion Author­i­ty (MDIA)? Yes, it’s the go-to author­i­ty to an Inno­v­a­tive Tech­nol­o­gy Arrange­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. MDIA is the main author­i­ty that is respon­si­ble for the pro­mo­tion of Mal­ta as the hub of tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion. It ensures that Mal­ta is com­pli­ant with inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions whilst seek­ing to pro­tect users dur­ing the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of Inno­v­a­tive...

Bank Account for a Blockchain Company
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Bank Account for a Blockchain Company

Introduction Many of you might have heard about the cur­rent strug­gle that com­pa­nies deal­ing with blockchain and cryp­tocur­ren­cies are faced with when try­ing to open a Bank account. Most of our clients ask whether the process is still the same and what are the main require­ments to ulti­mate­ly have an oper­a­tive Bank account. If you...

Questions and Answers for the Application for Service Provider Licence
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Questions and Answers for the Application for Service Provider Licence

Mal­ta has devel­oped a pro­gres­sive approach towards dis­trib­uted ledger tech­nolo­gies and cryp­tocur­ren­cies, to the extent that we have now have a reg­u­lat­ed frame­work. The VFA Act is an inno­v­a­tive leg­is­la­tion which reg­u­lates Ini­tial Vir­tu­al Finan­cial Assets Offer­ings and out­lines their licens­ing require­ments, enti­tled The Vir­tu­al Finan­cial Assets Act, 2018. Now, if you are a Ser­vice...

DWP VFA Agent Ltd. fully accredited by the MFSA
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DWP VFA Agent Ltd. fully accredited by the MFSA

On the 13th of May 2019, DWP VFA Agent Ltd. was for­mal­ly grant­ed a license to pro­vide the ser­vices of a VFA Agent in terms of Arti­cles 7 and 14 of the Vir­tu­al Finan­cial Assets Act (Cap. 590 of the Laws of Mal­ta). The accred­i­ta­tion was a cul­mi­na­tion of months of hard work by Dr....

Regulation of crypto currencies and ICOs — International comparison
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Regulation of crypto currencies and ICOs — International comparison

Reg­u­la­tion of cryp­to cur­ren­cies and ICOs are high on the agen­da of gov­ern­ments and finan­cial super­vi­so­ry author­i­ties across Europe. Hard­ly any insti­tu­tion is cur­rent­ly not look­ing into how cryp­to cur­ren­cies and inno­v­a­tive forms of financ­ing such as ICOs and STOs should be legal­ly clas­si­fied or reg­u­lat­ed. How­ev­er, the approach­es and views dif­fer wide­ly. Pas­sive, active...