Insights

On the 15th of January, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) issued a circular to issuers of VFAs that serves as an extension to the circular to issuers of VFAs dated 24 December 2018. Yesterday’s circular includes the next steps that persons undertaking an activity in terms of Article 3 of the Virtual Financial Assets Act need to undertake and is particularly relevant to those:

1. availing themselves of the transitory period under Article 62(1)(a) of the Act; or
2. falling within scope of the exemption under Regulation 3 of the Virtual Financial Assets Regulations but will continue their offering after the 31 January 2019.

Such applicants are to proceed to complete and submit Stage One of the Whitepaper Registration Form by 31 January 2019.

In this respect, a guidance note on the Whitepaper Registration Form to assist VFA Agents and applicants in the preparation of their submissions will be issued by the MFSA shortly.

In the meantime the MFSA has issued:

• the final version of the Financial Instrument Test available through the VFA Framework Page (an updated Guidance Note to the Financial Instrument Test will be issued by the Authority soon); and
• an updated version of the Glossary of Terms of the VFA Framework to include further definitions, particularly those for the admission to trading on a DLT exchange, the offer of VFAs to the public, and that of a systems auditor, due to their relevance to the online Whitepaper Registration Form.

The circular also includes a short note on systems auditors for issuers having innovative technology arrangement/s in place.