On 27^th April, 2020 the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has issued communication that it has ‘carried out a number of amendments to the Gaming Premises Directive (Directive 2 of 2019)’. These amendments relate to different aspects of the Directive for which further information may be found in the amended Directive linked.

Reference is made to the Transitory Period allowed in terms of Article 62 of the Virtual Financial Assets (VFA) Act ('The Act'), which came to an end on 31 October 2019, wherein entities were allowed to provide VFA services. Following the expiry of the transitory period, entities operating under the transitory provisions had the below options:

(i) If they wished to continue providing VFA services, they were required to submit to the Malta Financial Services Authority a Letter of Intent to initiate the application process for a VFA Services Licence; or

(ii) If they did not want to continue providing VFA services, they were required to submit a cessation of activities notification to the MFSA in terms of Section 3 of the Circular to Virtual Financial Asset Service Providers.

Following the expiry of the transitory period, the MFSA is aware of a number of entities which have availed themselves of the transitory provisions, thus were providing VFA services, but have failed to submit either the Letter of Intent to initiate the application process for a VFA Services Licence or a cessation of activities notification.

The Authority would like to inform the public in Malta and abroad, that the entities listed below are NOT licensed NOR authorised by the MFSA to provide any VFA services or or other financial services nor have they initiated the application process to obtain a VFA services licence:

A
A Bit More Limited

B
Babylon Services Limited
Basetrade Limited
Bayleaf Limited
Billions X Trading Limited
BitRoyal Limited
Bitstraq Exchange Limited
Botwallet Limited
BKX Exchange Limited
BKX Vault Limited
Blockchain Exchange Limited
BTSE Limited

C
Cbanx Limited
Chain Partners (Malta) Co. Ltd.
Coin Temple Trading Limited
Consensus Technology Malta Limited
Crypto2Finance Ltd

D
DAX Malta Ltd
DES CT Exchange Limited
Digital Terminal Limited
DQR-OTC Limited
DQR-X Limited

E
Etelaranta (Malta) Limited
Eunex M Ltd.
Exscudo OU

F
Foresight Technology Limited

G
GL4 Financial Technologies Limited
Globiance Exchange Limited
Graviex Limited
GSOC Limited

H
HPX Limited
Hybrid Trade Limited
Hyperwallet Limited

J
Jikji Capital Limited

K
Krypital Group (Malta) Limited
Kyon Limited

L
Laser Capital Limited

M
Mandala Exchange Limited
Manticore Ventures Limited
Muse Service Limited

O
Odin Capital Limited
OK.NET Limited
OneZero Binary Limited
OTC Desk Limited

P
Palladium Exchange

S
SP Outsourcing Sp. Z o. o.
S-Project
SRG Crypto Exchange Limited

T
Thex Trade Company Ltd
TimeX Limited
Trendntrade TNT Limited
Tsalgood Limited

V
VBX Limited
Venture Miles (Malta) Limited

W
WeX Blockchain Limited
Won Limited

Z
Zipmex Global Pte. Ltd.

The MFSA would like to remind consumers of financial services not to enter into any financial services transaction unless they have ascertained that the entity with whom the transaction is being made is authorised to provide such services by the MFSA or another reputable financial services regulator.

https://www.mfsa.mt/financial-services-register/Financial regulations oblige licensed entities to comply with strict legal requirements in the interest of investors and the integrity of the market. The activities of unlicensed entities are unregulated, making transactions with such entities risky for investors.

A list of MFSA licensed entities is available and can be viewed on the official website of the MFSA at https://www.mfsa.mt/financial-services-register/.

The Commissioner for Revenue (CFR) wants to notify that the April Provisional Tax submission deadline has been extended from 30^th April 2020 to 31^st May 2020 since submissions need to be done online. Hence, an e-ID login must be utilised to submit the relevant information to the CFR.
 
For more information on how to register for CFR online services, click on here.
 
Those individuals who do not have an e-ID login are requested to register for an e-ID Account here. Generally, Maltese citizens may request an e-ID by calling on 25904300 or by sending an email request on infoeid@gov.mt.  

Notice from the Commissioner for Revenue

Please note that:

Payments can only be made at Malta Post until 30/04/2020.

Payments including interests can continue to be made online after 30/04/2020 on the CfR website (TA22, TA24). Interests are calculated by the system when filling in details.

Payments by cheque (payable to CfR) after 30/04/2020 sent to the office of the CfR will only be accepted if they include the interest incurred.  Any cheques received after that date not including interests will be returned to taxpayers to adjust amounts of cheque to include interest.

In case of difficulty to know the amount of interest incurred, taxpayers are to call 153 for assistance.
Official Notice to be found here.

Kindly take note of the below Notice from the FIAU:

The FIAU would like to remind all Subject Persons who have not yet submitted the Risk Evaluation Questionnaire (REQ), to process their submissions without undue delay and by not later than the 4th May 2020 at 17.00pm.

By means of this notice, the FIAU is informing all Subject Persons that as from 5th May 2020, the REQ will only be available to be completed for information purposes. Subject Persons who fail to submit the REQ by 4th May 2020 deadline are still encouraged to complete the REQ but may still be subject to an imposition of an administrative penalty in terms of Regulation 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations (S.L 373.01).

Subject Persons who have already submitted the REQ are requested to ignore this notice. While, Subject Persons who would like to confirm that the REQ has been submitted may do so by logging into the CASPAR Portal and confirming that the REQ status for the year 2020 appears as ‘Completed’.

The Malta Financial Services Authoriity ("MFSA") has become aware of an entity operating under the name of ProuFx which has an internet presence at proufx.com. The entity presents itself as an online Forex Broker with a web-based trading platform where traders can have access to global financial markets and can chose from over 250 trading instruments including currency pairs, stocks and indices, with a leverage of up to 1:500.

The MFSA wishes to alert the public, in Malta and abroad, that ProuFx is NOT a Maltese registered Company NOR licensed or otherwise authorised by the MFSA to provide the service of an exchange or other financial services which are required to be licensed or otherwise authorised under Maltese law. Also, the MFSA would like to make reference to the warnings that have been issued against ProuFx and other affiliated companies by the Spanish Financial Regulatory Authority. The public should therefore refrain from undertaking any business or transactions with the above-mentioned entity.

The MFSA would therefore like to remind consumers of financial services not to enter into any financial services transaction unless they have ascertained that the entity with whom the transaction is being made is authorised to provide such services by the MFSA or another reputable financial services regulator.

Investors are advised to be extra cautious when being approached with offers of financial services via unconventional channels such as telephone calls or social media.

A list of entities licensed by the MFSA can be viewed on the official website of the MFSA.

The Malta Financial Services Authorities ("MFSA") has become aware of an entity operating under the name of BinaryFx Pro which has an internet presence at https://binaryfxpro.com/ and http://binaryfxtradepro.com/. The entity purports to be an online trading platform for forex, crypto currencies, commodities and investments, which has been in operation since 2001.

BinaryFx Pro claims to be a registered company in the EU, regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority and is also alleging to hold licence no. IS/70156, which licence number appertains to a legitimate, unrelated Maltese licensed firm.

The MFSA wishes to alert the public, in Malta and abroad, that BinaryFx Pro is NOT a Maltese registered Company NOR licenced or otherwise authorised by the MFSA to provide the service of an exchange or other financial services which are required to be licenced or otherwise authorised under Maltese law. The public should therefore refrain from undertaking any business or transactions with the above-mentioned entity.

The MFSA would like to remind consumers of financial services not to enter into any financial services transaction unless they have ascertained that the entity with whom the transaction is being made is authorised to provide such services by the MFSA or another reputable financial services regulator. Investors should also be extra cautious when being approached with offers of financial services via unconventional channels such as telephone calls or social media.

A list of entities licensed by the MFSA can be viewed on the official website of the MFSA.
If you are a victim of a scam or think you might be dealing with an unauthorised entity or any other type of financial scam, first of all stop all transactions with the company and contact the MFSA as soon as a suspicion arises.

The Malta Financial Services Authority ("MFSA" or "the Authority") has become aware of an entity operating under the name of Edjowa Ltd which has an internet presence at https://www.intercrone.com/.

The Authority would like to inform the public in Malta and abroad, that Edjowa Ltd is a Maltese registered Company, however, Edjowa Ltd is NOT licensed or otherwise authorised by the MFSA to provide any service under the Virtual Financial Assets Act or any other services which are required to be licensed or otherwise authorised under Maltese law.

The MFSA would like to remind consumers of financial services not to enter into any financial services transaction unless they have ascertained that the entity with whom the transaction is being made is authorised to provide such services by the MFSA or another reputable financial services regulator. Financial regulations oblige licensed businesses to comply with strict legal requirements in the interest of investors and the markets. The activities of unlicensed entities are unregulated, making transactions with such entities risky for consumers. A list of MFSA licensed entities is available and can be viewed on the official website of the MFSA.

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA)  has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with:

• the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU), as to further improving the sharing of information and co-operation between the two entities on the areas of supervision of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT). Press Release dated 15^th April, 2020 can be found here.

• the Malta Business Registry (MBR), on cooperation and exchange of information, which came into force as of 30^th March, 2020. Press Release can be found here.

Test Environment (For testing and training purposes only)
In preparation of the new STR submission system, the FIAU has published the test environment for the use of the recognised Maltese reporting entities. The reporting entities are encouraged to register to the new system for the purpose of testing the system and the training of internal staff. The testing of the new web forms and the XML file upload for automated reporting can be performed as well as the testing of the new functionality related to the message board and role management for the reporting entities' internal users. Please note that a user guide is available for further information on how to use this system. This registration to this system is optional for the time being  to the reporting entities, however it is highly recommended to ensure a smooth transition to the new system in June 2020. 

Production Environment (For registration purpose only)
By the 29th April 2020, the FIAU is also requesting all the reporting entities to register on the new production environment in preparation of the data migration of our system. This system should only be used for the purpose of generating the profile and user accounts of your organisation. No other operation will be allowed or accepted until the GoLive date. The existing STR submission system should be used until end of June 2020 and another FIAU communication will published to confirm the details for the Go Live date.

The FIAU has also updated the XSD schema, technical documentation and XML sample files to reflect the recent feedback provided by the reporting entities. Please ensure to refer to this schema to ensure that your XML files pass all validations. 

To view the updated XSD package click here.