S.L. 590.1 Art. 2Interpretation. Cap. 590. Cap. 370. Cap. 370. Cap. 330. Cap. 371. Cap. 370. Cap. 370. Cap. 376.
(1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires –
"the Act" means the Virtual Financial Assets Act;
"assets" means movable and immovable property of any kind and excludes financial instruments as defined in the Second Schedule to the Investment Services Act, whether issued in Malta or not;
"collective investment scheme" shall have the same meaning assigned to it under the Investment Services Act; "competent authority" means the Malta Financial Services
Authority established by the Malta Financial Services Authority
Act;
"control of assets" means the holding or control of assets belonging to, or on behalf of a client, by a subject person acting in the course of rendering a VFA service under the Act, and includes custody of assets: Provided that, for the purposes of these regulations, the terms "hold", "control", " "place", "safeguard" and "deposit" shall be deemed to encompass custody services provided in relation to virtual financial assets, and shall extend to any physical or digital representation of such assets or to a right to transact such assets or any physical or electronic device, keys, codes or any other information which gives the custodian control or access to such virtual financial assets, including private cryptographic keys belonging to the client;
"client" means any natural or legal person to whom a VFA service is provided, and shall include any person whose assets are held under the control of a subject person; "credit institution" shall have the same meaning assigned to it under the Banking Act; "custodian" means a licence holder in possession of a Category
4a or 4b investment services licence, as the context requires, issued in terms of the Investment Services Act; "Directive 2013/36/EU" means Directive 2013/36/EU of the
*These Regulations have been repealed by Legal Notice 296 of 2024. European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on access to the activity of credit institutions and the prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms, as amended from time to time and includes any implementing measures that have been or may be issued thereunder; "electronic money institution" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it under the Financial Institutions Act;
"market maker" means a person who holds himself out, on a continuous basis, as being willing to deal on own account by buying and selling virtual financial assets against that person’s proprietary capital at prices defined by that person; "money market fund" means a money market fund authorised under Regulation (EU) 2017/1131; "payment institution" shall have the same meaning assigned to it under the Financial Institutions Act; "Regulation (EU) 2017/1131" means Regulation (EU) 2017/1131 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on money market funds;
"revenue" means the net revenue which shall be calculated in the following manner: the gross revenue indicated in the annual audited financial statements and that is derived from activities for which a licence was issued in terms of article 13 of the Act, less any commissions, where applicable, that are directly related to the acquisition of the said gross revenue, paid or payable to third parties; "subject person" means a person who is in possession of a licence under the Act or is acting under an exemption from the requirement of such a licence in terms of these regulations;
"third country" means a country which is not a Member State or an EEA State;
"written consent" means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous consent that is clearly evidenced in writing and affirmatively executed by signature or equivalent means of irrevocable and duly recorded, including by digital means, expression of consent.
(2) Words and expressions used in these regulations which are also used in the Act but which are not defined herein shall have the same meaning as in the Act.
Part II Exemptions