CySEC: Common weaknesses/ deficiencies and good practices identified during the onsite inspections

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued Circular C550, informing the regulated entities of the outcome of its onsite inspections conducted during 2021 and 2022. Findings from these inspections evidenced some examples of good practices, although CySEC also...

European Parliament: Final Approval to the EU MiCA Crypto Legislation

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...

CySEC: CIFs Risk Based Supervision Framework (the “RBS-F”) Submission for 2022

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,...

European Parliament: MiCA Crypto Assets Regulation to be discussed on 18 April 2023

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...

ESMA: Supervisory briefing – provisions of Copy Trading Services

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published last week, a supervisory briefing on firms offering copy trading services, in accordance with its objective of fostering investor protection and actively promoting supervisory convergence across the Union. This briefing...

CySEC – New guidelines on certain aspects of the compliance function requirements

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...

Recent changes to FATF grey list: South Africa and Nigeria added

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...