Insights

Legal Notice 430 of 2018 Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism (Amendment) Regulations, 2018 has just been published and is available to download by clicking here.

The Legal Notice, apart from other amendments, includes updates relevant to the blockchain sphere. In brief, the main changes include:

1. the definition “occasional transaction” shall also include: “(e) a transaction, independently of the amount involved, carried out by a subject person whose activities are those referred to in paragraphs (m) and (n) of the definition “relevant financial business”; and (f) the provision of VFA agent services to a person or institution required to be licensed to provide VFA services under the provisions of the Virtual Financial Assets Act;”; and
2. the definition “relevant financial business” shall also include: “(l) any activity of a VFA agent carried out by a person or institution registered or required to be registered under the provisions of the Virtual Financial Assets Act; (m) VFA services carried out by a person or institution licensed or required to be licensed under the provisions of the Virtual Financial Assets Act; and (n) the issue of virtual financial assets for offer to the public in or from Malta in terms of the Virtual Financial Assets Act; and (o) any activity under paragraphs (a) to (n) carried out by branches established in Malta and whose head offices are situated outside Malta”.