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CMU Has Approved the Concept and Action Plan for Development of Digital Economy in Ukraine until 2020

Published: Olena Kamenetska | 18.01.2018 | news

Yesterday, on January 17, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved an order “On the approval of the development concept of the digital economy and society of Ukraine for 2018-2020 and approval of a plan of action for its implementation”. This is reported by the IA “RBC-Ukraine”. The project is mainly aimed at implementing the initiatives of the “Digital Agenda of Ukraine-2020” in order to remove the barriers for the digital transformation of Ukraine in the most promising fields by stimulating the economy and attracting investments, as well as overcoming the digital inequality, deepening cooperation with the EU in the digital sphere and developing innovative infrastructure of the country and digital transformations. The Prime Minister of Ukraine Vladimir Groysman wrote about it on his Facebook page: “The adopted Action Plan is very ambitious and innovative - it provides for the development of Industry 4.0, smart factory, digital jobs, STEM-education and digital educational services, digital infrastructures for the Internet things, blockchain, eHealth and e-security, etc. Ukraine is obliged today to launch a large-scale digitization of all branches of the economy...

Concept of Cryptocurrency Has Been Introduced in the Legislation of the European Union

Published: Dmitriy Batrakov | 29.12.2017 |

Over the past few years, the development of Bitcoin has been increased, which is actively discussed by the governments of different countries. In this regard, the European Union raised some concerns about funding of terrorism, money laundering and tax evasion, which might be related to cryptocurrencies. This is the reason why the European legislator has introduced the concept of cryptocurrency into the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, where Bitcoin is defined as a “monetary instrument”. As the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici notes, to date Bitcoin is not considered as an alternative currency along with dollar or euro due to volatility and much speculation. It is noteworthy that the differences between the definitions of Bitcoins in the EU Directive and in the US legislation are not significant. Details of the political discussions regarding the cryptocurrency in the European Parliament and the further legislative prospects for electronic money are still...

The Isle of Man Toughens Measures against Crimes in the Financial Sphere

Published: Dmitriy Batrakov | 22.12.2017 | news

Recently, the government of the Isle of Man has made public the draft law on Anti-Money Laundering and Other Financial Crime of 2017 (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2017). The proposed legal act is based on the recommendations of the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Measures to Combat Money-Laundering and Funding of Terrorism - MONEYVAL - and it assumes the improvement of mechanisms for compliance with international standards in this field. The draft law offers new measures aimed at regulating the activities of trustees operating for personal reasons and foreign trustees, including the requirements for record keeping. In addition, the document introduces additional requirements for accounting for the funds and changes clarifying the powers of the Registrar of Companies on examination of the documents filed with the Register and conduction of relevant investigations. The introductions proposed by the bill also concern raising the level of financial sanctions for the untimely provision of access to information to law enforcement agencies. The legislative act also specifies that a number of crimes (theft, forgery, etc.) identified in accordance with the...

European Regulatory Authorities Publish ICO Hazard Notifications

Published: Olena Vydysh | 29.11.2017 |

ICO (Initial coin offering) is a form of attracting investments in the form of selling a fixed number of new units of cryptocurrency, received with a single or accelerated emission. In the middle of November, the European financial regulators, including ESMA (the European Securities and Markets Authority), the Belgian FSMA (the Financial Services and Markets Authority) and the Dutch AFM (the Authority for the Financial Markets), issued warnings about risks for the investors and rules applicable to the companies participating in the ICO. The market of so-called cryptocurrencies has heated up. The approximate total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has increased from $ 18 billion in early 2017 to staggering $ 200 billion by the time of writing this article. Needless to say, some people were worried about this hype, and not only the European financial regulators. ICO is the key concept of cryptocurrency as a type of “crowdsale” (“crowd” and “sale”) where the project developers offer a new type of cryptocurrency (also called “token” or “coin”) using the distributed ledger technology. Cryptocurrency can acquire various characteristics based on the...

New EU Directive to Resolve Double Taxation Disputes Has Been Adopted

Published: Olena Vydysh | 09.11.2017 | blog

The existing European mechanisms for arbitration resolution of tax disputes on double taxation, prescribed in tax agreements and in accordance with the EU Arbitration Convention, do not always result in effective resolution of tax disputes. The recent monitoring carried out by the Council of the European Union revealed certain shortcomings, especially in relation to accessibility of dispute resolution mechanisms, as well as the length and effective conclusion of the procedure. According to the European Commission, the estimated figure of tax disputes on double taxation in the EU is about 900, with approximately 10.5 billion euros at stake. In this regard, on October 10 this year, the EU Council approved the Directive to resolve tax disputes (hereinafter - the Directive). The directive is aimed at changing the current situation, when the scope for mandatory arbitration in dispute resolution is limited to the issues of transfer pricing adjustments and the profit distribution of related persons. Thus, legal persons and natural persons will be able to resolve all disputes related to the interpretation and application of agreements that provide for the elimination of double taxation...

Legal Regulation of Blockchain

Published: Olena Kamenetska | 07.11.2017 | blog

Legal regulation of blockchain. Latest changes and prospects for the development of legislation Blockchain Technology is a developing technology on which basis new applications in the field of finance appear daily. Regulators of some countries have already reported their intentions to study the use of blockchain technology, which is also called distributed ledger technology (DLT). The new technology is potentially attractive to the regulators because of the increased level of transaction security and risk reduction of manipulation, but, at the same time, it creates complex legal problems that regulators are trying to understand and resolve. In this article, we will try to make a brief analysis of the approach of regulatory authorities to blockchain technology. Regulation in the USA The regulators in the USA are seriously monitoring the development of blockchain and other DLT (as well as cryptocurrency, in circulation on the basis of such registers). Some express concern about their impact on financial stability and market integrity. At the same time, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is actively exploring the potential possibilities of the use of blockchain and...

Gambling Reform in Malta

Published: Olena Vydysh | 27.10.2017 |

After conducting a series of consultations with the public and interested persons, technical studies and assessments of the financial and economic consequences, the Government of Malta intends to carry out a full reform of the current legislative framework regulating gaming activities. The proposed reform implies the abolition of all current legislation regulating gaming, and the introduction of a single law - the Gaming Act. The law will enable the competent minister to publish the rules and also give authority to the relevant regulatory body (Malta Gaming Authority - hereinafter “MGA”) to publish the Directives and other regulations if necessary, thereby ensuring timely and flexible interventions, especially with regard to technical specifications and processes. Within the framework of optimizing the supervision and modernization of the existing gaming infrastructure, the main state priority in the gambling sphere will be the flexibility of the regulator in the decision-making process and the reduction of the unnecessary regulatory burden, as well as the simultaneous strengthening of supervision in the spheres of the highest risk. One of the main changes in the course...

Disclosure of beneficial owners as obligatory requirement becomes norm

Published: Olena Vydysh | 05.10.2017 |

In recent years, the world community has realized the importance of the corporate transparency. The Panama Papers, high scandals with corruption and tax evasion have caused a radical shift in the attitude towards anonymous companies. The creation of the registers of beneficial owners (hereinafter referred to as "the UBO registers") is considered as the main instrument for increasing transparency. This idea underlies the EU legislation, FATF recommendations, G20 initiatives, the OECD project to combat on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. For the EU Member States, the obligation to establish the UBO registers, stipulated by the fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD IV), entered into force on June 26, 2017. However, there are still many questions about how the UBO registers will work in practice. The European states independently define in the national legislation such terms as "legal entity", "legal structure" and "UBO". The concern about data confidentiality is also increasingly growing in Europe, as the countries are discussing who should be allowed access to the registers and for what purpose. Will they provide information only to law enforcement and regulatory...

New european legislation on regulation of financial services markets will soon come into effect

Published: Olena Vydysh | 29.09.2017 |

On January 3, 2018, a new MiFIDII will come into force, significantly changing the existing requirements on regulating the financial markets in the EU. We will consider in today's blog what exactly is MiFIDII and how the regulation of the European financial markets will change. The MiFIDII (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) is the common name for a complex network of legislation, which includes two Directives and three EU Regulations, supported by a number of technical standards and guidelines of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). The measures provided for in the Regulations are directly applied in the EU member states. For the implementation of other standards and harmonization of the national legislation, the updated requirements are established by the competent authorities in each Member State. The current MiFID was adopted in 2004 and it operates with small updates of the end of 2007. Thus, the MiFID not only preceded the financial crisis, but it also did not consider many business models and technologies, which today became a common phenomenon. Consequently, there was an extreme need for such an update. When developing the new provisions, the EU...

Amendments to federal law on gambling are likely to be adopted at next parliamentary session of Australia

Published: Olena Vydysh | 18.09.2017 |

Recently in Australia, the reform of the regulatory environment concerning online gambling has been started. The proposed amendments to the basic federal law on gambling (Interactive Gambling Act - IGA) are at the final stage of consideration by the Australian parliament and are likely to be adopted at the next parliamentary session. The purpose of the bill on amending the IGA (hereinafter - the Bill) is the combat with illegal offshore gambling and provision of additional enforcement powers to the federal regulator - the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). 1. Requirement for licensing in Australia The draft law defines the concepts "regulated interactive gambling services" and "prohibited interactive gambling services". The main difference between these two categories of services is that it is not allowed to provide prohibited interactive gambling services to the individuals in Australia, while regulated online gambling services may be provided, but only by the operators licensed by the Australian regulator and authorized to provide data services in accordance with the terms of their license. Previously, the certain services classified according to the Bill were...

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