The Malta Financial Services Authority has issued a revised version of its Financial Institutions Rules regulating the authorisation of, and conduct of business by, non-banking financial institutions. These modifications have been made with a view to aligning the said Rules with recent amendments to the Financial Institutions Act (Chapter 376 of the laws of Malta) which were, in turn, effected in order to transpose Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on payment services in the internal market, amending Directives 2002/65/EC, 2009/110/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, and repealing Directive 2007/64/EC, otherwise more commonly known as PSD2. The revised Rules now take into consideration the introduction of payment initiation services and account information services as activities which require authorisation and regulatory supervision by the Malta Financial Services Authority. A new procedure has been introduced for the processing of applications for registration of account information service providers. The minimum criteria for registration of account information service providers do not include a minimum capital requirement. Having said that, applicants for a licence or a registration (as applicable) to provide payment initiation services and/or account information services must, as a condition for the granting of any such licence or registration, hold a professional indemnity insurance covering the territories in which they offer their services, or some other comparable guarantee against liability. Further information on the changes outlined above may be found on https://www.mfsa.mt/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/20191031_Circular-to-Financial-Institutions-on-the-Amendments-to-Financial-Institutions-Rules-FIR_01-FIR_02-and-FIR_03.pdf.
MFSA Amends Financial Institutions Rules
