On the 11 th of April 2022, the Malta Financial Services Authority (the "MFSA" ) issued a circular entitled "The Introduction of Appendix 2E – A New Regulatory Return for Licence Holders Offering Depositary Services Solely to Collective Investment Schemes" . Through this circular, the MFSA remarked that along with the requirement to submit the annual report and audited financial statements, a new regulatory return, being Appendix 2E , is being introduced for depositaries of Collective Investment Schemes that are not allowed to offer any MiFID services and licensed...

Recently, the Malta Financial Services Authority ( "MFSA" ) issued two circulars related to updates on Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities ( "UCITS" ) Management Companies, and a clarification note on the disclosures in the financial return reporting and other essential regulatory clarifications. In this article, a brief overview of the salient features emanating from these two circulars shall be given to ensure that subject persons comply with the below updates and clarifications. The first circular dated the 6 th of April 2022 relat...

The Cross-Border Distribution of Funds (the "CBDF") Framework is composed of the CBDF Regulation and Directive, and is supplemented by the Commission Delegated Regulation 2021/955 and by the ESMA Guidelines on Marketing Communications under the Regulation on Cross-Border Distribution of Funds . The ESMA Guidelines on Marketing Communications and the Commission Delegated Regulation 2021/955 came into effect recently on the 2nd of February 2022. The CBDF Regulation establishes marketing requirements for collective investment undertakings and for marketing communicat...

The Investment Firms Regulation and Directive (the "IFR/D Package" ), became applicable on the 26 th of June 2021. The IFR/D Package introduced a new prudential framework that is applicable to Investment Firms. For further details on the coming into force of the IFR/D Package, kindly refer to our article of the 4 th of November 2021. On the 17 th of January 2022, the Malta Financial Services Authority (the "MFSA" ) issued a Circular titled "The Investment Firms Regulation and Directive – Data Collection" , which follows up on other circulars and briefings that wer...

In 2019, the Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") adopted a Guidance for Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets ("VAs") and Virtual Asset Service Providers ("VASPs"). The purpose behind the Guidance was to help national authorities to comprehend and develop regulatory and supervisory responses to VAs activities or operations and VASPs, and to help private sector entities seeking to engage in VAs activities in comprehending their obligations with respect to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism ("AML/CFT") and how they can successfully comp...