An End in Sight to The Continuing Saga of the 2019 Copyright Directive’s Article 17?

In his Opinion, on the 15th of July, Advocate General Saugmandsgaard ØE authoritatively upheld the legal integrity of the highly contentious and vastly debated Article 17 of Directive (EU) 2019/790, more commonly referred to as ‘The 2019 Copyright Directive’ or ‘The Digital Single Market Directive’. The Polish Government filed proceedings against the European Parliament and…

SFDR: European Commission revises upcoming implementation deadlines

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (‘SFDR’) requires financial market participants and financial advisers to make pre-contractual disclosures to investors on how they integrate environmental, social and governance (‘ESG’) factors into their risk and decision-making processes. The SFDR also provides for the implementation of regulatory technical standards (‘RTSs’) to further specify certain aspects on the application…

The Revised Cross-Border Distribution of Funds Regime

The 2nd August 2021 marks the coming into force of the revisions to the Cross-Border Distribution of Funds (‘CBDF’)Regime in terms of Directive 2019/1160 and amendments to Regulation 2019/1156. The scope of the changes is to ensure a level playing field among AIFMs, self-managed AIFs, UCITS management companies, self-managed UCITS and EuVECA / EuSEF managers,…

Reminder: Existing CSPs to abide by new CSP Rules and Requirements by September 2021

On the 2nd July 2021, the MFSA issued a circular containing important information particularly addressed to Company Service Providers (CSP’s) who were already registered as CSP’s prior to the amendments effected by Act L of 2020 which came into force on 16 March 2021. A transitory period of 6 months from the 16 March 2021…

Commission puts forward new strategy for Sustainable Finance

On 8 July 2021, the MFSA issued a Circular regarding a number of measures adopted by the European Commission on Sustainable Finance on 6 July 2021. The measures adopted highlight the ever-increasing level of ambition with respect to sustainable finance and include: 1.The new Sustainable Finance Strategy for a more sustainable EU financial system. This…

FATF lists three key issues Malta should address following its grey listing

Having placed Malta under increased monitoring on the 23 June 2021, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has published three key issues Malta must address in order for it to be removed from the list. Whilst, the FATF noted that Malta has made progress on a number of recommended actions to improve its systems in…

MFSA to re-issue Investment Services Licence Certificates

Following the recent publication of the new Investment Firms Regulation and Investment Firms Directive (the ‘IFRD Package’), the MFSA shall be re-issuing the Licence Certificates of Maltese licence holders to reflect the licence classification system revised in terms of the IFRD Package. The new licences will be categorised as Class 1, Class 1 minus, Class…

New MFSA NAIF Rulebook Improves Efficiency of Malta Funds’ Regime.

The Malta Financial Services Authority (‘MFSA’) has published a new rulebook dedicated to Notified Alternative Investment Funds (‘NAIFs’) with effect from the 24th June 2021. In terms of the new rules, the MFSA has made a number of key changes to further enhance the effectiveness of the structure, in particular: Shorter processing timeframes. The MFSA…

EU Sustainable Finance: What’s Next?

In March 2018, the European Commission adopted an action plan setting out a comprehensive strategy to further connect finance with sustainability. Several manufacturers and distributors of financial products (including investment firms, insurance undertakings, banks and manufacturers of funds and pension schemes) have accordingly become subject to new or revised obligations in relation to sustainable finance….

Malta passes MONEYVAL test

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-ML/FT (MONEYVAL) has issued a follow-up report on Malta’s progress to its AML/CFT safeguards. The report received a favourable vote from MONEYVAL during a Plenary Session held on the 29th April 2021, and concludes that Malta has achieved ‘largely compliant’ and ‘compliant’ ratings across…