The European Union (EU) has voted in favor of the MiCA crypto legislation, making it the first major jurisdiction to introduce a comprehensive crypto law.

The legislation aims to protect consumers, safeguard financial stability and market integrity, and provide regulatory clarity for the crypto-asset industry.

In addition, the Transfer of Funds regulation was also approved, requiring crypto operators to identify their customers to prevent money laundering.

Finally, the EU’s actions will come into effect next year.

Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission (the ‘CySEC’) has issued Circular C563 regarding the Risk Based Supervision Framework (the ‘RBS-F’) – Electronic submission of information for the year 2022 (Form RBSF-CIF) related to the Cyprus Investment Firms.

In this respect, CySEC has developed Form RBSF-CIF (the ‘Form’), Version 7, which is due to be submitted on the 26th of May 2023.

It shall be noted that the RBSF Form must be completed and successfully submitted to CySEC, by all CIFs that were authorised by December 31, 2022.

The European Union’s (EU) proposed Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) is on the EU parliament agenda to be discussed on the 18th of April. If everything goes smoothly, MiCA regulation will be officially approved by the EU parliament on April 19th.

The MiCA regulatory package is pending for approval for some time now and faced multiple delays due to different opinions among the members of the EU parliament about the final legal text.

The legislation offers crypto companies such as wallets and exchanges a license for operating across the bloc in exchange for meeting governance and consumer-protection norms, and also introduces reserve requirements for stablecoins.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) on 14th of March released new guidelines on certain aspects of the compliance function requirements. These guidelines aim to ensure common, uniform, and consistent application of legal requirements related to compliance matters according to article 17(2) of the Investments Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law (“the Law”) and Article 22 of the MiFID II Delegated Regulation 2017/565.

Check out the most recent details, provided in the official announcement of CySEC via the link below:
https://lnkd.in/eJQGnPbf

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a global anti-money laundering watchdog that monitors and assesses countries’ efforts in combating money laundering and terrorism financing. Recently, on 24 February 2023, FATF added, among others, South Africa and Nigeria to its “grey list” of countries that do not meet the standards set by the organization. This development is significant, as South Africa and Nigeria are Africa’s two largest economies, and their inclusion in the grey list could have far-reaching implications for their financial systems.

Additionally, FATF removed Cambodia and Morocco from its grey list, citing significant progress in their efforts to improve their AML/CFT regimes. This demonstrates that countries can take concrete steps to address the issues identified by FATF. It also highlights the importance of collaboration between governments, financial institutions, and other stakeholders in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.

In conclusion, the inclusion of South Africa and Nigeria in FATF’s grey list highlights the need for these countries to strengthen their AML/CFT regimes to address the identified deficiencies. Lastly, find below the latest table with all the Jurisdictions that are on the “grey list” and the “black list”.

Please find below the relevant FATF link:

https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/publications/High-risk-and-other-monitored-jurisdictions/Increased-monitoring-february-2023.html

On February 14, 2023, the European Council added Russia, the BVIs (British Virgin Islands), Costa Rica, and the Marshall Islands to its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.

This move reflects concerns over these countries’ tax transparency and anti-money laundering practices, and it’s essential for businesses to review their portfolios and assess any exposure.

This development emphasizes the need to stay informed of regulatory changes and comply with anti-money laundering measures.

In continuation of Circular C537, CySEC issued Circular C539 which indicates that the CIFs that do not reach the materiality threshold of 50 retail clients (including clients treated as professionals on request), in each EEA country should inform the Commission accordingly. More specifically, the CIFs that do not reach the materiality threshold should submit by Friday, 27th of January 2023, the latest the Appendix included in Circular C539 by sending an email to riskstatistics.cifs@cysec.gov.cy.

A formal notice was published last Friday, January 6, by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG) regarding a new set of requirements for Business Companies (BCs) and Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) engaging in FOREX business activities. The said notice provides for the following with immediate effect:

• Companies that wish to engage in FOREX activity need to provide a certified copy of the requisite licenses from the jurisdiction(s) where their business activities will be performed.
• Companies that are already registered in SVG and engage in FOREX activity will be provided 45 days (until March 10, 2023) to provide the FSA with a certified copy of the requisite licenses from the jurisdiction(s) where their business activities will be performed.

  The FSA notes that failure to follow these requirements will lead to sanctions against the mentioned type of companies.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published their latest newsletter for November 2022, #ESMA “Spotlight on Markets”, in which there is a reference on the opening statement of Steffen Kern (ESMA Head of Risk Analysis and Chief Economist), who described the implications of FTX collapse within the European Union (EU).

The analysis and observations within the opening statement have been conducted based on public information about the matter, as FTX was neither regulated nor supervised by ESMA and the latter do not have access to any particular information beyond what is publicly available.

While briefly summarizing the FTX case from a regulatory perspective, ESMA concluded in the following considerations:

1. Segregation of client assets is a crucial safeguard not only in traditional finance but in crypto markets as well. Back in 2018 and also the current year, ESMA issued relevant warnings about the risks involved in crypto-assets.
2. Crypto-assets experience huge volatility in prices due the risks involved in holding them such as market, liquidity and operation risks; ESMA explains that crypto-assets have raised concerns around the potential of ML/FT criminal activities, and market manipulation.
3. Lastly, the widespread and often aggressive marketing of crypto-assets to the mass market without disclosing the extreme risks involved may affect consumers’ judgement.

ESMA notes that FTX’s collapse amplify evidence that the crypto-assets market might have very weak corporate governance and controls.

Taking into consideration all the mentioned fundamental risks involved in crypto-assets markets, ESMA pointed out that its concerns around those risks were the basis of the rationale for the implementation of MiCA Regulation. The utmost matter of urgency for ESMA is the implementation of protections and rules around crypto-assets market so to achieve the protection of investors and market participants.

Our dedicated team at FiveComply is constantly updating in the matter to offer to you the latest updates in the legal framework. We can assist you with your queries; contact us for more information!