Sunday, November 3, 2021

The Malta Financial Services Authority Receives Letter of Intent From 21 Cryptocurrency Exchanges to Get VFA service License

According to a publication of Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) on November 1, the authority has receives letter of intent from 34 prospective VFA Service Providers, 21 of which are cryptocurrency exchanges, to obtain authorization under the VFA Act.

According to Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), these services provides were working under the transitory provisions set out in Article 62 of the Virtual Financial Assets Act. As this transitionary period has ended on October 31, 2019, VFA services providers who wants to continue their operations, in or from the country, are required to reapply for authorization with MFSA.

The Authority, about the authorization process, said:

The Letters are the first step of the authorization process for such applicants to obtain a VFA Services License. The Authority shall shortly be contacting the applicants in order to set up a preliminary meeting. Once this meeting is held, applicants will have 60 days to submit a full application pack to the MFSA.

According to the MFSA, the authority has received 30 applications for registration of VFA Agents, with 18 of them having been registered. The list of the registered agents is available on the MFSA website.

According to a report by Finance Magnates, the applicants to MFSA have to prove their capabilities in order to obtain VFA Services License. The Maltese financial watchdog is also planning to enforce administrative penalties for compliance violations. Also, the applicants will be classified at the discretion of the MFSA into one of the four categories which determine the requirements of license holders.

On July 4, 2018, the parliament of the country passed three bills into law that established a regulatory framework for blockchain technology. The Virtual Financial Asset (VFA) act is a part of that law alongside the Malta Digital Innovation Authority Act, and the Innovative Technological Arrangement and Services Act. The VFA act came into force in November 2018. The act provides a comprehensive framework to monitor and regulate the operators within the crypto-asset industry.

Malta is the first member of European Union (EU) and country in the world to have launched a solid legislative framework in the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency spaces. This Mediterranean island is also known as Blockchain Island as it is proving itself a heaven for Blockchain and crypto-related business. The country is also encouraging start-ups to test their products and systems in a sandbox environment.

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The Malta Financial Services Authority Receives Letter of Intent From 21 Cryptocurrency Exchanges to Get VFA service License

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