Live stream | The Value of Regulation versus the Value of Licensing

UCL Centre for Ethics and Law Live Stream Webinar
Examining Malta’s Crypto-asset Regulation in view of Implementing the EU Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation

About this event

The crypto-asset industry has become increasingly regulated over the past few years, with regulation coming in various shapes and sizes. The implementation of FATF’s Recommendations in relation to the crypto-asset sector have resulted in regulation intended to curb potential abuses related to money laundering and funding of terrorism, but to date, few countries have regulated the crypto-asset space from a different angle, being one that covers governance, conduct of business and prudential regulation together with regulation for market integrity (market abuse). This represents a critically different level of regulation.

Most crypto-assets represent a novel class altogether along with a new transactional settlement layer, sufficiently distinguishing it from other assets to the point that the EU legislators deemed it fit to introduce a novel framework rather than amend existing ones to cater for this novelty, hence the advent of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

Malta, as the first EU Member State to introduce a bespoke & comprehensive regulatory framework covering crypto-assets, enjoys more than five years’ worth of experience in regulating, and working with, the crypto-assets industry, with the Malta Financial Services Authority being the lead regulatory authority. This talk, led by two Maltese academics and experts in the legal and regulatory sector, will explore how Malta navigates the objectives of creating an enabling regulatory regime within the harmonised European regulatory agenda.

Speakers:

Prof Christopher P Buttigieg, Malta Financial Services Authority & University of Malta
Title of talk: The Malta Framework for the Regulation of Crypto Assets and the Implementation of MiCA – A Historical Outline From 2017 to 2024

Dr Jonathan Galea, CEO, BCAS & Visiting Lecturer University of Malta
Title of talk: ‘Same Activity, Same Risk, Same Regulation’ – can it be applied indiscriminately to a brave new world? A private practitioner’s perspective on the regulation of the crypto-asset industry under the pioneering VFA framework supervised by the MFSA

About the Speakers

Professor Christopher Buttgieg has twenty-three years of experience in financial regulation and supervision.  He is the Chief Officer responsible for the Malta Financial Services Authority’s (MFSA) Supervision Directorate, the Chair of the MFSA’s Regulatory Committee and the AMLCFT Committee and a member of the Authority’s Executive Committee and Risk Committee. Between October 2020 and September 2021, Prof. Buttigieg fulfilled the role Interim Chief Executive Officer of the MFSA. He is a member of the Board of Supervisors of the European Securities and Markets Authority and European Banking Authority.  He was the Chair of the ESMA Data Standing Committee (until December 2022) and is now the Chair of the ESMA Proportionality and Coordination Committee. Prof. Buttigieg is an Associate Professor in the Banking and Finance Department of the University of Malta. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of European Law (ERA) in Trier, Germany, a visiting lecturer at the same institution and the Strategic Director of the MFSA’s Financial Supervisors Academy.

Dr Jonathan Galea is a lawyer with involvement in the crypto industry since 2013, and currently occupies the role of CEO/Founder at BCAS, a crypto regulatory consultancy firm with clients ranging from crypto exchanges to layer-1 blockchains and prominent DeFi protocols. Jonathan has consulted numerous regulatory entities across multiple jurisdictions on crypto-related matters, including the European Banking Authority as part of the crypto AML/CFT technical expert group in relation to the Transfer of Funds Regulation. Furthermore, he has also taken an active interest in MiCA since its earliest days and is seen as one of the leading experts on this Regulation. He also chairs the VFA Business Unit within Malta’s Chamber of Commerce, and is a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta.

About the Chair

 Iris H-Y Chiu is Professor of Corporate Law and Financial Regulation at the Faculty of Laws, University College London. She joined the Faculty in 2009. She is Director of the UCL Centre of Ethics and Law and advances the public and stakeholder engagement of the Centre’s agenda in relation to a wide range of issues in relation to law, regulation, governance and ethics in business and finance. She has published extensively in the areas of corporate governance and financial regulation, including The Foundations and Anatomy of Shareholder Activism (2010), Investment Management and Corporate Governance (2017), The Legal Framework for Internal Control in Banks and Financial Institutions (2015) and Banking Law and Regulation (2019). She has interests in financial regulation and governance, law and technology, corporate law and governance and the law and policy for business and finance generally. She is a Research Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute, and most recently, a Senior Scholar at the European Central Bank’s Legal Research Programme. She previously taught at the School of Law, King's College London and the University of Leicester. She was a legislative draftsman and State Counsel at the Attorney-General's Chambers in Singapore prior to joining academia. She read law at the National University of Singapore and the University of Cambridge. She completed her doctorate at the University of Leicester.

About the Centre

UCL's Centre for Ethics and Law promotes and enhances collaboration between corporates, practitioners, civil servants, academics and others around the broad themes of professional ethics and the ethics of risk. Subscribe to receive updates on the centre and similar events.

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