Regulatory Blog

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) issued a Notice on 2 May 2022 providing an update to the FAQs relating to the Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration process to assist industry with improving the completeness and quality of VASPs applications submitted to CIMA.

On 22 March 2022, the OECD released a public consultation document concerning a new global tax transparency framework to provide for the reporting and exchange of information with respect to crypto-assets, as well as amendments to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the automatic exchange of financial account information between countries.

On 15 February 2022, BVI Finance published an announcement that the Fusang Exchange, a fully regulated end-to-end digital securities exchange in Asia has been included to the list of BVI recognised exchanges.

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) has published guidance to assist with application under the VASP regime.

On 21 January 2022, Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) published a non-binding document, a “white paper”, aiming to guide interested professionals in the conduct of their due diligence process related to the Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and its use in the provision of services in the Luxembourg financial sector.

On 13 January 2022, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (MONEYVAL) published its first follow-up report on the progress made by Cyprus since its prior 2019 initial report, which placed the jurisdiction under an enhanced follow-up programme. The follow-up report examines progress made in implementing new requirements relating to the Financial Action Task Force’s globally renowned 40 Recommendations since the prior review.

On 13 December 2021, the Cyprus Ministry of Finance announced that the Report on National Risk Assessment (NRA) with respect to virtual assets (VA) and virtual asset service providers (VASPs) commissioned by the Advisory Authority for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing has been finalised.

On 24 November 2021, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued Circular 476 informing the Regulated Entities of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) updated Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers.

The snappily titled “European Crowdfunding Service Providers for Business” regulation (EU) 2020/1503 (ECSP Regulation) was published on 20 October 2020 seeks to provide a harmonised regime across the EU/EEA for the provision of investment-based and lending-based crowdfunding services related to business financing. The key measures of the regulation, as outlined below, will enter into practical effect from 10 November 2022 following expiry of a one-year grace period from the official coming into force date of 10 November 2021.

On 11 November 2021, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued Circular 475 reminding firms of the practical implications of the latest sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the United States. CySEC also expressly referred to OFAC’s new Cyber related Designations and Designations Updates.