Updates

On 22 December 2021, the European Commission proposed a Directive on the introduction of a minimum effective corporate tax rate of 15% on large multinational enterprise (MNE) groups operating in the European Union (EU).  The draft Directive follows the publication by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of the Pillar II Model Rules (also referred to as the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) rules) designed to ensure that large MNEs pay a minimum level of tax on the income arising in each jurisdiction where they operate.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published a statement addressed to both financial institutions and supervisors to ensure they make every effort to provide access for Ukrainian refugees to at least basic financial products and services.

The economy of Cyprus is largely dependent on tourism, and this is evident from the fact that government revenues from tourism accounted for over 12% of Cyprus GDP in year 2019 (in accordance with publicly available statistics extracted pre Covid-19 pandemic).

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities ("ESAs") - European Banking Authority ("EBA"), European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority ("EIOPA") and European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) – published its 2021 Annual Report, providing a detailed account of its joint work completed over the past year.

Cyprus provides remarkable benefits and tax incentives for entrepreneurs, professionals and key personnel of multinational companies who relocate to Cyprus and choose the island as their base for doing business internationally.

The three European Supervisory Authorities (European Banking Authority - "EBA", European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority - "EIOPA" and European Securities and Markets Authority - "ESMA – “ESAs") issued their first joint risk assessment report for 2022.

Decentralized digital currency era began in 2008 by an unknown person named Satoshi Nakamoto which invented Bitcoin, the very first cryptocurrency.

The European Banking Authority (“EBA”), published an Opinion on the amendments proposed by the European Commission to the EBA final draft Regulatory Technical Standards ("RTS").

Reading the press release of the European Union on 9th March 2022 for the extension of the sanctions on Russia and Belarus, responding to Russia's acts of aggression on Ukraine's territorial integrity, we can identify an important point, clarifying that crypto assets fall in the definition of the “transferable securities” thus it is clearly mentioned that the sanctions must be implemented for crypto asset related transactions as well.

We would like to inform you that on 10 March 2022 the Cyprus Parliament voted for an extension of the tax incentives for investing in innovative enterprises until 30 June 2024.

Cryptocurrency is the “next big thing” in the evolving world as it represents a significant digital innovation in financial services with great potential in the blockchain technology.

The three European Supervisory Authorities (European Banking Authority (“EBA”), European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (“EIOPA”) and European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) – “ESAs”)  have updated their joint supervisory statement on the application of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation ("SFDR").

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published an updated list of institutions, which have a reporting obligation for the purpose of the 2022 EU supervisory benchmarking exercise.

2019 was a year of intense competition for talent and recruitment, where the market saw a significant growth in the number of open positions. 2020 and the world came to a hold, witnessing a pandemic like no other in the recent years.

From Bitcoin and Ethereum to Dogecoin and USDT, there are thousands of different cryptocurrencies, which can make it extremely tempting when you are first getting started trading in crypto world (as of March 2022, exist over 18K cryptocurrencies). Seems that we cannot stop hearing stories about cryptos in our workplace and media or via web searching how many people have become millionaires trading in cryptocurrencies.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published an Opinion following the notification by the National Bank of Belgium ("NBB") of its intention to activate a new systemic risk buffer ("SyRB").

Cryptocurrencies have taken the world by surprise in recent years, and transformed as the absolute trend in the virtual investing world. Countries were caught unprepared to fully understand the essence of cryptocurrencies and impose regulations on this type of digital assets.

Derivatives on virtual currencies / cryptocurrencies, such as contracts for differences (CFDs), options and futures, can qualify as financial instruments under MiFID II.

The European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA"), the EU’s securities markets regulator, is publishing its peer review report on the supervision of cross-border activities of investment firms.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published a report which analyses the recent developments and challenges of introducing sustainability in the EU securitisation market.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published its final Guidelines on the limited network exclusion under the Payment Service Directive ("PSD2").

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published an Opinion on the amendments proposed by the European Commission as regards the EBA final draft Regulatory Technical Standards ("RTS") specifying the methodology for calculating the fixed overheads requirements for investment firms in the context of the implementation of the Investment Firms Regulation ("IFR").

The three European Supervisory Authorities (European Banking Authority (“EBA”), European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (“EIOPA”) and ESMA – "ESAs") published a joint report in response to the European Commission’s February 2021 Call for Advice on Digital Finance.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards ("RTS") on the list of countries with an advanced economy for calculating the equity risk under the alternative standardised approach ("FRTB-SA").

The three European Supervisory Authorities (European Banking Authority (“EBA”), European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (“EIOPA”) and European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) – "ESAs") published a statement welcoming the European Systemic Risk Board’s ("ESRB") Recommendation on systemic cyber risk, which calls on the ESAs to prepare for the gradual development of a Pan-European systemic cyber incident coordination framework ("EU-SCICF").

The EBA published a Discussion Paper on its preliminary observations on selected payment fraud data under the Payment Services Directive ("PSD2"), as reported by the industry for the years 2019 and 2020.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published its final Guidelines for institutions and resolution authorities on improving banks’ resolvability.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published its Opinion on the scale and impact of de-risking in the EU and the steps competent authorities should take to tackle unwarranted de-risking.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published a package of two final draft regulatory technical standards ("RTS") regarding the reclassification of investment firms as credit institutions.

The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published its revised Guidelines on risk-based supervision of credit and financial institutions’ compliance with anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism ("AML/CFT") obligations.