Recently, there has been a series of regulatory fines and public statements across Guernsey, Jersey and Malta primarily for shortcomings in respect of Corporate Governance, including the application of timely and effective compliance monitoring and appropriate AML/CFT controls

Aspida Group is pleased to be one of the sponsors of the first edition of the Malta Stock Exchange Governance, Risk and Compliance Summit which is going to be held on the 2nd February at the Westin Dragonara Conference Centre.

This Paper aims to provide an overview of the content of the Thematic Review carried out by the FIAU during the last quarter of 2020 on CSPs providing directorship services.

On 31 December 2021, the FIAU found that Southern Cross SICAV plc (‘the Company’), a collective investment scheme offered to professional investors, to be in gross breach of its AML/CFT obligations. The imposition of the administrative penalty was justified on breaches of the Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations (‘PMLFTR’) and related FIAU Implementing Procedures (‘IPs’) as follows:-

Following the publication by the Malta Financial Services Authority ( ‘MFSA’) in December 2020 of its Guidance on Technology Arrangements, ICT and Security Management, and Outsourcing Arrangements (the ‘MFSA ICT Guidance’), and the issuance of a number of related circulars (the ‘ICT Circulars’), more recently, the MFSA sent to all Maltese regulated firms a questionnaire (the ‘ICT Questionnaire).

Is your business compliant and are your policies in line with the new MFSA ICT guidance? We can help you.

Aspida Malta’s Compliance Services Executive, Aaron Brancaleone, sets out his take on Implementing Procedures targeting Company Services Providers (CSPs) and Proposed Amendments to the Implementing Procedures – Part I.

Compliance was once seen as the ‘business prevention unit’, however here at Aspida from our very origins we have seen compliance as a business enabler and our practical and pragmatic tagline has become even more prevalent in recent years.